School Breakfast

Sometime last year I discovered that Paul didn't know that public schools serve breakfast. He was stunned. It cracked me up because this program has been around for a few decades. Since we homeschool our kids, I never anticipated they would ever eat a school breakfast. Several weeks ago during the lockdown I had seen that the school was providing meals to take home for kids twice a week, but I assumed those were just for the kids enrolled in the school district. One of our neighbors sends their kids to the Christian school at our church, and she mentioned to me last Wednesday that they have been picking up the free meals. I admit that I wrestled with my decision a little bit because part of me doesn't want to take any handouts from the government. I don't think so many people should have received a stimulus check. Some people haven't lost their jobs or had their income reduced at all and others (like me) are already accustomed to not receiving any income. Just giving it to almost everyone doesn't make any sense to me considering our government already has an astronomically huge amount of debt, but we accepted our check as refusing our one check isn't going to change things. I had the same internal struggle over accepting free meals, but then I reminded myself that we do pay the school district thousands of dollars every year via property taxes, and we don't use any of their services. We pay for our children's textbooks, classes, and such ourselves. 

When I saw they were advertising a "hot dog cookout and ice cream" for Memorial Day, I decided to try it out. Now before you think we attended a picnic or something, what it entailed was that we drove up to the side of the school building, rolled down the window on the passenger front door, and food was deposited on that empty seat. I sincerely hope this will not continue to be the "new normal" for picnics! The principal who was passing out the food was a former student of mine so I didn't need to tell her how many kids I had as we've been friends for about 16 years. She did ask me if I was going to send the kids to the school. Um no. We love homeschooling, and frankly if schools actually implement the CDC guidelines, I think many others will choose homeschooling as what they are describing sounds perfectly awful for kids (no recess, no specials, stay in one room the whole day with one teacher including for lunch, desks 6 feet apart, etc.). We were given three hotdogs in a Styrofoam container, three ice cream treats, and several bags filled with a variety of things such as orange juice, chocolate milk, white milk, Goldfish crackers, apple slices, broccoli, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chicken nuggets, cereal, etc. On Mondays they give you food for two breakfasts and two lunches. On Wednesday they give you food for three breakfast and three lunches plus a box of food for the family. There are ten more dates when they will be distributing meals, and I assume we'll show up all ten times. The kids were thrilled with some of the things in their bags as I don't often buy chocolate milk or Goldfish crackers for example. The school is only about one mile from our house so it was a very quick errand. I actually entered into the calendar because well the calendar from the middle of March through early July is almost completely empty. If the Good News Club cancels their camps then our calendar will be empty through the end of July. 

I took one photo of my three wearing their patriotic shirts today. I saw Camden and Karyss (two other kids in the neighborhood) also sporting patriotic outfits today.  Camden also had a flag attached to his bicycle as he was riding around the development today. We've never done anything to celebrate Memorial Day aside from wearing red, white and blue, so this holiday isn't different for our family because of COVID-19. Memorial Day isn't a holiday for Paul; he's at work. The kids have been playing outside. We're thankful for the nicer weather. A lockdown during the winter would be much harder considering we'd rarely leave our home. At least we are able to spend time outside in our neighborhood!

Giving Thanks

1. For the men and women who have given their lives serving in our military over the past 244 years

2. Nadia has had at least one friend over for a sleepover the past two Friday nights and is planning to have another friend come over this Friday for her third sleepover this month. This was something that was forbidden in the red phase. We're thankful we've been in the yellow phase for a little over two weeks.

3. Tab, Micah, and Isaiah came over to our house for a few hours last Tuesday afternoon.

4. We were able to take advantage of the curbside service at our tiny local library as it reopened four days ago after being closed for more than two months. I'm hoping the bigger library we usually use will reopen in the near future.

5. Paul's mom was discharged from the hospital on Friday. We are continuing to pray for Paul's nephew who is still hospitalized due to infection from having his appendix removed three weeks ago.

6. The kids have been playing with other kids in the neighborhood every day that the weather permits. Oliver and Ian have gone swimming in the neighbor's heated swimming pool multiple times recently. The boys have also been enjoying a dirt bike road that has recently been developed in our neighborhood.

7. We have enjoyed watching five episodes of The Chosen so far on YouTube. We have three left to watch. I hope they are able to make season two!

8. The kids have made progress with their jigsaw puzzle skills lately. Oliver can do about 150 pieces on his own, Ian has been doing 300 piece puzzles on his own, and Nadia has been doing 500 piece puzzles on her own. I started a 750 piece puzzle today that I'm hoping either Nadia or Ian will finish tomorrow.

9. We've been spending quite a few hours listening to audio books. Last week we listened to two books by Katherine Applegate and three by Jennifer Bertman. Today we started one in the Mysterious Benedict Society series. The books we listened to last week were each around 5-6 hours long, but the ones in this series are each 11-14 hours long, which means we won't finish five audiobooks this week!

10. I went to CVS today and bought six 2 liters of Pepsi for Paul, eight boxes of cereal for the kids, and two candy bars for Paul, and I paid less than $2 total for those sixteen items! Even though it means wearing the mask, I'm grateful to be grocery shopping again after not doing so for about six weeks. 

11. Although the lockdowns have been devastating to our economy and created economic hardships for many individuals and many businesses, we haven't suffered in any way financially as a result of the government's response to COVID-19. In fact, quite the opposite has happened due to the stimulus check we received from the government (evidently they believe money grows on trees), a small rebate from our car insurance company, refunds for activities I had signed the kids up to do this summer that have been cancelled, and the fact that I have now gone more than two months without buying any gasoline for the minivan. If Paul hadn't used 1/4 of a tank when he drove the van to work one day last month (because he thought he'd be buying a freezer but that proved impossible), I could have gone several more weeks without buying gas. The price of some food items has gone up, but the price of gasoline has dropped significantly. Although I've missed attending church, going on field trips, etc. I have to say I have enjoyed driving far, far less than normal.

12. Seventeen counties are moving to the green phase this Friday. I had said that only one county in our area was going to green, but that was incorrect. Another county a little farther away that we sometimes spend time in is going green, but I don't think we'll be headed to that county this summer. Right now I have hope that our county will enter the green phase in June, possibly as early as June 5. I hope that most counties move to green by the end of June so that we can visit some national parks, museums, Reptiland, etc. Movie theatres and bowling alleys and such will be permissible in green as long as they don't allow the capacity to exceed 50%. I'm hoping that we will also be able to return to church, use playgrounds, and visit Knoebels in the green phase. Hoping to learn more about that this week.

Going Green

Today our Governor announced that 17 of the 24 counties that moved from red to yellow on May 8 will move to green on May 29. Sadly our county and all but one of the counties in our area that moved to yellow on May 8 are not in that group. The smallest county in our state (by land area), which is about 30 minutes from our home, is moving to green on May 8. If the churches in that county resume in-person services on May 31, I think our family will make that drive so we can attend in-person services. I am very, very relieved as I'm guessing that moving to green is likely to happen in the first half of June for our county. Some counties will move to yellow on May 29, and the rest will move to yellow on June 5. All businesses can reopen in the green phase - even in the entertainment category as long as social distancing can be maintained. However when someone asked if a high school graduation could be held in a county once they were in the green phase, he said that they hadn't yet determined what the limitations would be on the number of people that could be at a gathering in the green phase. Unfortunately there aren't any museums, zoos, etc. in the county near us that is going on green on May 31 so that change won't lead to any field trips, but I am hopeful that we might be able to go on some field trips in June if more counties move to green sometime next month. This is SUCH a relief! The library we usually use hasn't begun offering curbside service yet, but we've been able to get some books and DVDs at our much smaller local library while we wait for the bigger one to reopen. I am very, very glad to know that in the next week we will find out what the restrictions will be in the green phase as I'm wanting to know if amusement parks will be allowed to open this summer, if the size of our church is going to be a problem or not, etc. If we're going to go on field trips we are going to have to get used to wearing those icky masks. I assume that playgrounds will also be permissible in the green phase, which will mean we can walk to playgrounds instead of just walking for the sake of getting exercise. It is SO encouraging to realize that the green phase is likely just around the corner for our county and some other counties in our area. It feels like there is light at the end of the tunnel.... presuming whatever restrictions they announce for the green phase aren't going to make it impossible to go to church and other venues that attract a larger crowd. Previously they had said that things like festivals and concerts couldn't take place in the green phase. I'm looking forward to hearing more specifics. What number is "large" in their minds?  Green won't be totally normal but hopefully a lot closer to normal than yellow or red.

Our church draws people from a fairly wide radius. The IT director at our church crunched the numbers and if you combine the data from all the zip codes where our church family (2,000+ people) live, our area has had 1.4 cases of COVID-19 per 1,000 where the national average is 4.8 per 1,000, which means we are 70% lower than the national norms. Considering 84% of the cases are mild and 80% of the cases are in individuals over 65 (primarily those in care facilities), it seems reasonable for life to be allowed to move much closer to normal for those who are under the age of 65 and don't have other health conditions that put them at greater risk. I know that Trump today said that churches are "essential" and that in-person religious services should be allowed to resume. It will be interesting to see what churches decide to do - follow the Governor or the President? I'm assuming churches will still continue to provide on-line services for those who are not comfortable attending in person or are at greater risk and need to stay in quarantine for a longer period of time. 

MSN ranked the states plus DC  in terms of their coronavirus restrictions. Pennsylvania was in the top five of having the most restrictions. The five most restrictive were Hawaii, Rhode Island, DC, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. I hadn't heard anything about Hawaii so that one surprised me. I was expecting to see Washington (state) and Michigan higher on the list given what I've read. Considering New York has definitely been hit the hardest, you would think they'd be higher on the list. They were ranked at #7. The five with the fewest restrictions were South Dakota #51, Utah, North Dakota, Missouri, and Idaho. Florida was #43, Indiana was #36, Minnesota was tied with Alaska for #30, Virginia was #25, and Maryland was #12. I mentioned those five states as I know some of the people who read my blog live in those states. Well if life looks a lot closer to normal sometime next month, it will mean we were under the most rigid phase of restrictions for about 3 months. Why did they say NO sports (except for golf and tennis) in Pennsylvania this summer? It also makes me wonder if the camps were jumping the gun to cancel summer camp? Or maybe the social distancing requirements will still make those impossible even in the green phase? Camp Good News said they would make a decision in May regarding their day camp and overnight camps that are scheduled to take place in July. They haven't announced a decision yet. It would be so, so wonderful if they still held the camps. I had almost no hope of them doing that prior to today, but now I have a little bit of hope. Time will tell. Many places have already announced that they will be doing virtual camps instead of in-person camps, and we have zero interest in any virtual camps. I realize it's very probable we will experience a second wave of the virus in the fall and/or winter, but I have a bit more hope at the moment that we might be able to go on the vacations we planned for August and October. It's too far away to be certain, but maybe, just maybe it will be possible. I'm going to wait until next week when I hear what the green phase restrictions will be to decide whether to reschedule our Esther tickets for fall 2020 or spring 2021. Here's to hoping that the restrictions will also be eased next month in Maryland so we can go to Six Flags with Yvonne and her family in June or July.

Nadia's friend, Evanna, came over again today to spend about 24 hours at our house. Nadia's friend, Grace, is planning to come over next weekend for a sleepover. We are thankful that it is again permissible to have friends over to our house. It's a rainy day today so Ian has been inside all day. Oliver did spend some time outside this morning before it started raining. The boys swam for about 90 minutes in the neighbor's heated pool yesterday. Nadia has done three 500 piece puzzles and four 300 piece puzzles over the past 6 days. Way to go, Nadia!! The kids have done eight of the ten new puzzles at least once, and several have been done twice already. They've avoided the two 750 piece puzzles thus far. We listened to The One and Only Ivan while they did their puzzles yesterday, and today they listened to The One and Only Bob. I'm very thankful for audiobooks! We had listened to the Ivan book in 2016. I chose to have us listen again since the movie based on the book is supposed to be in the theatres in August.. I got E.T. at the library today so the kids can see that classic movie for the first time this weekend. Nadia doesn't like reading on the Kindle; she is very thankful that I got her three "real" books from the library this week. I enjoyed watching the movie Stargirl on Disney+ earlier this spring. She is reading the book now as she wants to read it before watching the movie. Ian doesn't mind reading on the Kindle. He's been reading Tumtum and Nutmeg books on the Kindle via Overdrive, so I didn't get him any "real" books from the library.

3,300 pieces

Our ten new puzzles arrived on Saturday. Since Nadia had two friends here all day that day, we didn't do any puzzles on Saturday. The boxes were opened after breakfast on Sunday (before "online" church). Oliver did a Spiderman puzzle on Sunday that wasn't one of the ten new puzzles. Nadia and Ian have done seven of the ten puzzles so far; the seventh is on the dining room table and thus not included in this picture. If the kids want my help, they know to do them on the dining room table as sitting on the floor is far too painful for me. One of those seven has been done twice already. Ian and I did the 500 piece Monsters University puzzle together on Monday, and then it was taken part. Nadia did it today. Nadia, Ian, and I have done puzzles that totaled 3,200 pieces plus Oliver did the 100 piece Spiderman puzzle.  Oliver helped a little with a couple of the other puzzles. I helped Ian with two puzzles - Monsters University and Cars. Nadia did hers all by herself. We have listened to Code Breakers, The Unbreakable Code, and The Alcatraz Escape while doing puzzles the last few days. 

I think 3,300 pieces is a fair amount to accomplish in four days especially given how many hours they've been playing outside in the afternoons and evenings every day. Oliver has swum in the neighbor's heated pool on three different days. It's in the high 60's outside, but the water temperature is in the low 80's. He wants to swim EVERY day, but I keep reminding him it's not our pool, and he needs to be invited. I hope he doesn't pester them!!! Not all the kids in the neighborhood come in our backyard, but often times there are other kids jumping on our trampoline. The neighbors who face our backyard have two boys and one girl, and the family with the swimming pool has three boys (plus one male cousin who often is with them). The kids also regularly play with the neighbors (one boy and one girl) who face our front yard albeit they don't come in our backyard very often. In light of everything being cancelled from the middle of March through the end of June (and most things in July have already been cancelled as well), it's refreshing to see the neighborhood kids playing together again. Two boys and their mom came to our house for a play date yesterday afternoon, and one of Nadia's friends is coming over again this Friday for another sleepover. The kids might be either at home or outside in our neighborhood all the time, but at least they are interacting with other kids again.

Today we finally experienced one second benefit of being in the yellow phase. I went to a library! I have library cards from four libraries in the state. I only use the one for the Free Library in Philadelphia to access things online. The Milton library reopened on Monday, but they had so many restrictions (no DVDs and you could only check out a very small number of books) plus all the books we wanted aren't in their collection. Our local library reopened today. I placed my requests yesterday and picked up some books and 2 DVDs today. They always only allow patrons to check out 2 DVDs at a time so the limits weren't any different than usual. Ironically even though this library is much smaller than the Milton one, they had the books Nadia really wanted. That library is only an 8 minute drive from our house. The library that is our "usual" library hasn't reopened yet. Once they reopen I presume we'll use that one more than our local one because they have a MUCH bigger collection of books and DVDs. I think that being able to have a few people over to our house, being able to do a curbside pickup at the library, and the kids will be able to keep a dentist appointment next month are the only three ways that life is different for us in the yellow phase compared to the red phase. Their dentist appointment on June 22 is literally the only thing on our calendar at this point for the entire month of June. Although the green phase will NOT mean life is totally back to normal, that phase will be a BIG improvement over red or yellow as I believe then we can go to museums, historical sites, zoos, amusement parks, church, etc. In addition to being able to go to the library today, one other praise was that Walmart delivered toilet paper to our house today. Yahoo! I never thought that would produce a big sense of relief, but never before in my life has it been very hard to buy toilet paper for two straight months. Now if the price of ground beef could come back to normal, we'll probably only be eating chicken or tuna until it does.

Paul's mom was hospitalized yesterday due to fluid around her heart. Also, 17 days ago Paul's nephew had his appendix removed. He was in the hospital for 14 days due to infection and gangrene. He was discharged on Sunday, but today Millie drove him to the Lehigh Valley Hospital (bigger hospital) because the infection still hasn't cleared up. Prayers for Paul's mom and for Shawn would be greatly appreciated. We're also praying that they will not get COVID-19 while they are in the hospital.

Great Day!

Aside from my trip to the hardware store today, it seemed like a perfectly normal day. The only time I was reminded of the pandemic was at the hardware store given all the new rules for shopping. I feel badly for employees who have to wear masks for hours on end. I couldn't wait to rip mine off the minute I exited the store. It has been music to my ears to hear the sounds of kids laughing today. The three girls had a great time together. We picked Evanna up at her house around 1:30 yesterday, and Abby's mom dropped Abby off at our house around 2pm yesterday. I'm driving them home around 8:00 tonight. They have really enjoyed spending about 30 hours together. They slept from about 1:30-8:30am. Yesterday it actually got up into the 80's. Today it was in the low 70's, which is perfect in my opinion! Today I mowed the lawn, weed whacked, stained the front door, mulched the flower beds, and put down some top soil, grass seed, and straw on the two stripes in the lawn that Paul accidently created when he drove his Dad's truck in our lawn. The truck was stuck and had to be pulled out by another vehicle a year ago. The five kids have played a little inside, but they spent most of the day outside - riding bikes, jumping on the trampoline while being sprayed by a garden hose, using the spinning seesaw, playing with bags of water, on the swing, using scooters, etc. Oliver and Ian played with boys in the neighborhood - most of the time with Camden who is nine years old. Oliver and Ian threw some water balloons at Camden's house with Camden and his two older brothers. Ian and Oliver also went swimming in their pool today! I'm very thankful for a day that felt almost completely normal. Tomorrow won't feel normal because we can't go to church, but I'm very grateful that after two months of isolation, at least the kids are playing with other kids. Since the community pools won't be opening and the kids can't swim at camp, I am also very, very grateful that Camden's family had an inground pool installed in their backyard last summer! Earlier Camden had said that because of the coronavirus only their family would be swimming in the pool this summer, but thankfully they have started letting some other kids join them. Staying at home all (or most of the) summer will be far more bearable if the kids can play and swim with kids in the neighborhood. 

I took the picture at the top of the post. The girls have been wearing some of Nadia's dresses yesterday and today. The bottom two pictures were from Evanna's or Abby's cell phone. Evanna has two gerbils. The girls have enjoyed Nadia's guinea pigs. I gave the kids a choice between taco salad or French toast for dinner tonight. They picked French toast. I made scrambled eggs, sausage, and French toast with strawberries and blueberries on top. I haven't had French toast with fresh fruit on top in a long time, and it's something I really enjoy. Evanna and Abby are on the same Bible Bowl team with Nadia. They're both in seventh grade at Meadowbrook Christian School. Ava, who is the other member of their team, wasn't able to come. Ava, Evanna, and Abby are all the youngest in their families. Abby is the youngest of six children, and Evanna is the youngest of seven children. Abby is an aunt of two, and Evanna already has thirteen nieces and nephews! Ava has two brothers like Nadia does, but her brothers are in high school. I'm grateful they were able to spend some time at our house this weekend! It's nice to have people over and act normal - meaning no wearing masks or following any other "social distancing" protocol. I didn't go for a walk today, but between mowing and lugging around 40 pound bags of top soil and bags of mulch, I feel like I got plenty of exercise!

Quarantine Essentials

I try not to talk about politics on my blog, but it's really hard not to when our lives are being so drastically changed by the government. If you want to avoid reading my political musings, skip to the part after the photo of Oliver throwing a water balloon. There are many moments when I'm scanning the news online, and I feel like I must be having a bad dream. It's just hard for my brain to wrap itself around what has been going on in our country over the past two months. The constitution was primarily written to protect the rights of people and limit the power of government. Thankfully there are some, such as the Supreme Court in Wisconsin, that seem to understand that their state's stay-at-home order was unconstitutional. The Governor of Florida said that some other Governors are acting like dictators right now. That is exactly the word I would use. Laws are passed by the legislative branch. One person doesn't get to make the rules all by himself. The Governor of the state of Washington seems to fit that description. If you don't participate in contact tracing or agree to be tested for COVID-19, you can't leave your house at all. Seriously!?!?!? Our Governor has said that churches can't even have drive-in services. I think a vehicle is very effective protection against catching germs from someone. Thankfully, we still do have freedom of the press in our country, and thankfully police officers and local government officials are for the most part not enforcing many of the new rules. I haven't heard of any of the churches getting into trouble for having a drive-in service in our state, for example. Although I haven't attended a drive-in service, I think it's a creative solution. The Governor never said people can't park in the parking lot of a grocery store, Walmart, or Lowe's, so I have no idea what the basis would be for saying they can't gather to worship in their separate vehicles in a parking lot or drive-in movie theatre. Also, why is it unsafe to shop in a small shop but safe to shop in the big box stores? Asking employees to have their temperature taken or wear masks is one thing, but making arbitrary decisions about which businesses are "essential" and "non-essential" is completely wrong in my opinion when the "non-essential" ones are not allowed to stay open. People keep saying life will never go totally back to normal. I hope that the overreach of government ends as soon as possible. I will spare you my thoughts on the insane amount of money our government is spending. That's another huge can of worms.

If the coronavirus was anywhere near as deadly as Ebola, it would be a different story. People disagree on what the mortality rate is of COVID-19 because we don't really know how many people have it due to the fact some people are asymptomatic or have such mild symptoms that they never are tested. I've seen estimates that are as low as less than 1%. If the government truly felt the need to do massive interventions to save lives, there are many other things claiming more lives in 2020 than COVID-19. I don't know how accurate the data on Worldometer is, but according to that site as of today, 307,258 people around the world have died of COVID-19 this year. It sound like an awful number, but thus far in 2020 there have been more suicides, more road traffic fatalities, more deaths by malaria, more deaths from HIV/AIDS, more deaths caused by alcohol, more deaths caused by smoking, and far, far more abortions. About 500,000 people die in the US per year from smoking cigarettes. That is probably five times more than will die from COVID-19 this year in the US. If they banned the production and sale of cigarettes in the US, it would harm part of the economy and send some people into unemployment, but it wouldn't cause anywhere near as many to become unemployed as the economic shutdown has caused. Some people would still smoke because people still die from drug overdoses even though drugs are illegal, but some people who smoke cigarettes in the US now who wouldn't do so if it were illegal and they had to buy them on the black market. They could ban automobiles and alcohol and save more than 100,000 more lives in the US each year. I don't actually think we should ban automobiles. Closing all of the schools, churches, and a majority of businesses for months seems just as ludicrous to me. In our state, more than 2/3 of the COVID-19 deaths have been in nursing homes. Obviously certain populations need to be quarantined, but quarantining everyone?!? I feel they could have invested far more of their efforts on protecting those populations. They purposefully put people who had been released from the hospital with COVID-19 into nursing homes. Why?!? I would feel perfectly safe taking my kids to a playground. Even though I feel the Governor's state-wide ban on using playground equipment is unconstitutional, I am following the rule and hoping and praying the restrictions will be eased as soon as possible. I read today that DelGrosso's amusement park isn't going to open in 2020 because of government restrictions. I would never have guessed when we celebrated Oliver's birthday there last August that it wouldn't be possible to go there in 2020 because of government regulations. The park has been around for 101 years. Time will tell if any of the amusement parks open at some point this summer. Our field trip to Hershey that was rescheduled from the end of March to June 4 has now been moved to September. Here's to hoping and praying we will be allowed to visit museums in September.

I have been trying very hard not to dwell on what we thought we would be doing on a particular day whether that was a trip to Chicago or something closer to home. There are many things I am thankful that we still are able to do as they have become our "temporary normal." I'm trying to keep my mind fixed on all the blessings rather than all the things we miss (church, library, field trips, etc.). I also think it will be helpful if I deactivate my FB account again as ignorance might be bliss when it comes to dwelling on what is going on in the world these days.

• Board games
• Audiobooks via RBdigital, Hoopla, Overdrive, and Audible - right now we are really enjoying the Book Scavenger on RBdigital. 
• Books - that we own plus eBooks we've borrowed through Overdrive, Hoopla, and Kindle Unlimited - We've had a free trial of Kindle Unlimited for several months, and when I went to cancel it this week, they extended our free trial by another month. Thank you, Amazon! I've also gone a bit crazy with using Bonus Borrows through Hoopla this month. Thanks, Hoopla!
• Adventures in Odyssey - Nadia has been listening to episodes for many hours a week thanks to the subscription that my Dad got her.
• Zoom/Skype/FaceTime/Instagram - Nadia has been using all of the above to stay in contact with her Bible bowl teammates, cousin Rachel, and the two youth groups.
• Puzzles - The kids, especially Nadia, have spent SO many hours doing puzzles over the past month. Two boxes that each contain 5 puzzles are supposed to be arriving at our house tomorrow.
• Piano - Nadia has practiced a little bit, but Ian has been spending a lot of time on the piano. A new book of Disney piano solos is to be delivered to our house with the puzzles tomorrow!
• Spending time outside - rollerblading, bike riding, jumping on the trampoline, using Nadia's big swing, going for walks, playing with neighbors, walking on stilts, and using scooters are the main things the kids have been doing outside. The guinea pigs also enjoy eating grass outside when the weather is warm enough for them. Since it was in the 80's today (from snow to 80's in seven days!), I filled a bunch of water balloons for five kids to enjoy (my three plus Nadia's two friends).
• Mad libs
• Internet - we are very, very thankful for the Internet. It means we can stream what we watch on Disney+, Amazon Prime, YouTube, and a church service on Sunday morning, etc. We also enjoy using our Echo dots to listen to Amazon Music or a streaming radio station. Ian used games on the Seterra website to learn the location of every country in the world over the last few weeks! He mastered the islands around Australia yesterday (Oceania) and all the countries of Africa today.
• Nintendo Switch, laptop, and iPad - Nadia uses the iPad and my iPhone every day. Ian uses the Nintendo Switch for one hour a day. Nadia uses my laptop some, but I am the one who uses it the most for things like lesson planning and blogging.
• Friends - After going two full months without seeing any of her friends, two of Nadia's friends came over to our house today. They've jumped on the trampoline, gone for a walk, thrown water balloons, played a game of Clue, baked chocolate chip cookies, and much more. The sound of their laughter is music to my ears. They aren't wearing masks or worrying about staying 6 feet apart. Next Tuesday two boys are coming over for a play date. Now that we are allowed to have small gatherings, hopefully we can continue to schedule sleepovers and play dates since youth group meetings, church services, and such are still forbidden. I'm also very thankful that the kids in the neighborhood are playing together again after staying apart for about six weeks. One neighbor has an inground pool. I'm hoping Ian and Oliver will be allowed to swim there from time to time this summer like they were last summer. My friend Cheri, who lives about 45 minutes from us, says we can swim in her pool this summer. I won't make that drive on a regular basis, but it's nice to know the kids will be able to swim at least a few times this summer.
• DVDs - Usually we get our DVDs from the library. Since the libraries have been closed for two months, we've used Redbox a couple of times and also signed up for a free 30 day trial of Netflix's DVD service. The boys and I enjoyed watching Ride Like a Girl this evening that I got for free from Redbox.

I don't think a quarantine is ever going to feel like any kind of normal, but hopefully these "essentials" will help us through the next at least two more months at home. I asked my neighbor when she thought we'd be able to go back to church. They go to the same church we go to. Her answer was January. I hope she's wrong, but I think it's definitely possible that we will have to wait until 2021 given the size of our church.

Sunshine

I know I've already said it, but the quarantine is much easier to handle when the weather is nice. The weather over the past week has been all over the map. Some days it has rained ALL day. Some days it's been in the 60's, and other days it has actually snowed. Of the first thirteen days of May, I went for a walk on nine of those days. Oliver and I typically go for about 3 miles, but some days we've gone as little as one mile and other days (like today) as many as 6 miles. Nadia and Ian almost always choose a shorter route. The kids are always on wheels of some kind. The families in the neighborhood still do not feel comfortable with kids going into each other's homes as they did before COVID-19, but they are fine with the kids playing together outside without masks as long as they don't touch each other. They are no longer trying to stay at least six feet apart. Oliver rarely wants to earn a turn on the Wii, iPad, or Switch, but watching 44 minutes of TV a day is usually a high priority to him. In fact he almost always mentions it in his list of things he's thankful for when he prays, BUT playing outside with friends trumps TV for Oliver. He didn't have any screen time of any kind yesterday or today because he just wanted to play outside with the neighbors - jumping on the trampoline, playing capture the flag, riding bikes, etc. One of the neighbors has built ramps and such for dirt bikes, and Oliver really enjoys doing that with them. I'm thankful #1 for sunny days and #2 that the kids in the neighborhood are playing together again. It means Oliver isn't spending as much time reading to me, doing math flashcards, doing puzzles, etc., but I'm fine with that. We are still doing Mad Libs every day. Nadia and Ian have already learned to identify parts of speech, but doing Mad Libs over the past week has been Oliver's first introduction to adjectives, nouns, and such. We are also still doing games. We've played more than 60 different games in less than 2 months. Yesterday the game Oliver and I played together was Money Bags, which was a great review of adding the value of coins. Today the kids played two games we had already played (Jenga and Suspend) while I got my shower this morning, and then the boys and I played one we hadn't played in the past two months - Life.

When I found out about the stimulus checks, I had thought of giving the kids each some money to spend as they pleased, but then I decided that after I tithed, I'd put the other 90% in a savings account. I've been trying to save up a certain amount of money to cover some big expenses I think we will be encountering in the next couple of years (replacing the roof, Ian's braces, replacing the van, replacing the stove, etc.). We have now saved a little more than half of what I think we'll need for the items on the list. When I found out Nadia wouldn't be going to Camp Susque, the kids wouldn't be going to PA Wilds Child, etc. I decided that I could spend some money on the kids in light of the refunds we'll be receiving plus the money we won't be spending that I had assumed we would be spending. Nadia has been doing a puzzle just about every day, and she was wanting some new ones. Usually I get them at yard sales. If it weren't for COVID-19, I would have been yard sale shopping the first weekend in May, but they cancelled that community yard sale this year. Puzzles have been a hot commodity like toilet paper and freezers, but I was able to get some on Amazon that hopefully the kids will enjoy. Let me say it is MUCH cheaper to buy them at yard sales. I also ordered Ian another piano solo book - this time of Disney music. Then I ordered Beast Academy 5 for Ian.  I had been trying to find used copies for a couple of months, but I gave up and just bought a new set. At least two kids will use it eventually. I also bought an earth science text. The boys will be doing astronomy in the fall. It will be Ian's second time to go through the book, but he was only in first grade when he did it previously. This series doesn't have an elementary earth science text, so I picked one from another company to supplement the astronomy text. Nadia and Ian have done science together the last few years, but this coming school year she will be doing science more independently than she has in the past. I also contemplated buying a box from Talkbox.mom, but for now I'm just going to try to utilize their phrasebook. I haven't written out any lesson plans for Spanish for next year yet. I'm trying to decide whether or not to finish the Excelerate Spanish curriculum that we started a few months ago. I wasn't crazy about it, but we already own it. I am putting zero time into planning any field trips at this point due to the uncertainty of knowing what will be open, but I can keep writing lesson plans for next year as homeschooling won't be cancelled! I might not be able to use all the library books and videos that I have included in my lesson plans, but most of what I have been planning can be accomplished even if we are under another quarantine at some point during the 2020-21 school year. 

The Tunnel

I have been searching online daily to see if summer camps would be allowed in the yellow phase. This morning we received word from Camp Susque that they have cancelled the camps and wilderness trips scheduled in June and July. The only things they *might* still have this summer are two wilderness trips scheduled in August and two weeks of family camp in August. One of the two wilderness trips is for middle schoolers, but it's full with a waiting list. So I emailed the camp director and said we would take option #1, which means the $100 I already paid will be credited toward when Nadia hopefully goes to camp in 2021. The other options were to consider what you paid a donation or request a refund. We haven't heard yet about Camp Good News, but after hearing from Camp Susque, I'm fairly certain that the Good News Club will likely make a similar announcement in the near future. I had registered the boys for a week of day camp AND a week of overnight camp. If given the option, I will request a refund from them because I paid a lot more than $100 when I submitted those registrations. In the middle of March when things began to close, I assumed that everything would be closed for at least two months, and I was at that point hoping that *maybe* we could still go to Maryland/DC in May. We had planned to drive down on May 18. I remember thinking it was dubious, but still we held out some hope for a little while. Then I became certain that we would still be at home in May, but I was hoping that by sometime in June we would be able to resume at least some of our typical activities. The kids were scheduled to attend camp the last week of July. Now that many things are being deleted from our calendar in July, I admit it's beginning to feel like we can't even see the "light at the end of the tunnel." When I was all alone in the hospital and missing Paul, Nadia, and Ian during Oliver's pregnancy, I kept reminding myself that a pregnancy doesn't last forever. My bedrest began in May, and I was due in early October, but I knew I'd never make it to my due date. I figured the longest I would be separated from my children would be until September. Knowing it would come to an end helped me, although I still certainly shed tears and desperately wanted to be reunited with my children. Oliver was born 10 weeks early so my bedrest only lasted until August 7 although his NICU stay meant I wasn't immediately reunited with Nadia and Ian. It seems like it's supposed to be a good thing that we have moved to the yellow phase, but this phase is far more restrictive than I thought it would be. When the kids were younger (before they started participating in summer camps and things like that), a typical summer day included a walk to a playground in our town in the morning followed by a trip to a swimming pool in the afternoon. At this point it seems like this summer will be totally different  - no church, no swimming, no playgrounds, no camp, no VBS, no amusement parks, no libraries, no fireworks, no parades, no museums or national parks, no zoos, no trips to the movie theatre, and the list goes on. We've been at home for almost exactly two months, and we will end up being at home for 4.5 months if we can't start going places again until August. That would mean we haven't even reached the half-way point yet in this quarantine. At this point we are hoping and praying that all our plans for August aren't cancelled  - a trip to visit Aunt Janet on Long Island in early August and our family vacation the end of August. 

So far the only difference between red and yellow for our family is that we are allowed to get together with a few other people. Technically that's assuming face masks are worn and people stay at least 6 feet apart. Nadia has invited two friends over to our house this Friday night. That will be our first instance of taking advantage of being in the yellow phase. A few other things haven't been officially cancelled yet such as the Wild Childs event at a state park in June, a homeschool day at the Hershey Museum in June, or the Youtheatre workshop that I signed Ian and Nadia up for in July, but I'll be stunned if any of those actually take place. Our church's Bible quizzing teams planned to go on a cabin trip this coming weekend, but thankfully that has only been postponed to July instead of totally cancelled. Nadia has at least one special thing to look forward to in July. Camp Susque is usually Nadia's favorite week of the entire year so it is a disappointment to have to forgo that in 2020, but I know we still have so much to be thankful for. We are all healthy. None of our extended family members or friends have the coronavirus. Paul's business has been deemed "essential" (frankly I despise that term - I think MOST jobs are essential). Although we cannot always buy everything we are hoping to get each week at the grocery store, we have plenty of food. And I am not alone in a hospital room. I am spending these months with three of my most favorite people on the planet. 

Mother's Day 2020

I picked this picture from June 2008 for my Mother's Day post because it's a picture of my mom and my firstborn. I have technically been a mom since 2005, but I didn't really feel like a mom until I was carrying Nadia. I think Mother's Day will always be bittersweet for me. I absolutely LOVE being a mom. I will be eternally grateful for the three miracles who call me mom. The coronavirus has cancelled many things such as field trips, church, and trips to the library over the past two months, but I've still been able to hug my boys every day (Nadia is not a fan of hugs), read to my kids, play games with my kids, homeschool my kids, and much more. Ian and I very recently started playing piano duets for four hands on the piano. It brings back fond memories of when I played piano duets with my sisters decades ago. My parents had a Steinway piano back to back with a keyboard so sometimes we girls played duets that were for two pianos. My mom was our biggest fan. She took great delight in listening to us practice our musical instruments (violin, flute, clarinet, piano, etc.). Ian recently moved to Alfred level 5, but I also bought him a book of Star Wars piano solos and a book of worship song piano duets. He hasn't mastered any of them yet, but I recorded three videos while he practiced yesterday. I need to help him correct a few things - mostly related to timing and keeping a steady rhythm, but I am so pleased at how much progress he has made over the past year with his piano playing skills. I haven't helped him with the Star Wars songs at all thus far. Here's part of Rey's Theme, part of The Imperial March, and all of Cantina Band. I asked him to play a duet with me, and he picked Cornerstone. These worship songs are much easier than the Star Wars ones, but considering his biggest weakness is keeping a steady rhythm, playing duets is a great exercise for him as it will hopefully teach him that he has to keep a steady beat. He's accustomed to correcting an error even if that means he adds a beat to the measure. We've only played this duet a few times together so he definitely hasn't mastered it yet, but let me tell you playing this song with him made me so happy I felt like crying happy tears. Even today he did a much better job on it than yesterday, but I didn't want to record it again. You get the idea anyhow! I've had the utmost privilege to care for at least one child for almost twelve years now, and, Lord willing, we will likely have at least one child in our home for at least ten more years. One of the youth groups Nadia is a part of had a lip sync contest recently. She and Ian made a video for the song "You've got a friend in me" from Toy Story. I love the fact that Ian and Nadia are indeed very good friends. I hope that all three of my kids will be great friends for the rest of their lives. That will bring this mom great joy. 

On Mother's Day I naturally also think of my mom. The kids made Paul's mom things for Mother's Day last week, but they haven't made my mom anything since 2016. This is my fourth time experiencing Mother's Day when my mom is in heaven. I still miss her very much, but I've gotten accustomed to the new normal of not being able to talk with her, hug her, let my kids play the piano for her, etc. The changes brought about by the coronavirus are hopefully temporary, but as long as I'm still here on earth, I won't be able to see or speak with my mom. It's been awhile since I've cried in grief regarding my mom, in part because more time has passed and also because the pain of losing my brother is fresher. However, Friday night I watched the movie "I still believe" about Jeremy Camp losing his first wife to ovarian cancer when they were in their 20's. I usually cry during sad movies. Nadia couldn't believe how the tears flowed when I watched My Girl with her for the first time considering I had seen the movie many times years ago, but my tears on Friday night were partially because I was thinking about all my mom went through during her battle with ovarian cancer. I take comfort knowing that Maurice and my mom are together. Mother's Day is also the time each year when I am most apt to think about and pray for women currently facing infertility or single women who long to be married and become mothers as I can never forget how hard this holiday was for me for many years before I became a mother.  I also remember the babies I lost along the way every Mother's Day. Nadia has wanted a sister for many years, and she feels confident that at least one of the babies we lost was a girl. She looks forward to meeting her sister in Heaven some day. Considering I am 48 and Paul is 50, I know our childbearing years are over, but when I'm asleep I still sometimes dream about giving birth again. Although I would be thrilled to have another baby, I will say for the record I don't miss those night time feedings! The dream I had along those lines last week involved me giving birth to twin boys. So much for a sister for Nadia, LOL!

From March 21 to May 7 I was in a vehicle a whopping TWO times. What strange a year this has been! As a side note, we had SNOW yesterday. In MAY!!! It's not uncommon for us to get snow one time in April, but it is uncommon in May. 2020 is a crazy year. I was in the car for a couple of minutes on Friday as I drove about 1 mile from our house to get the lock put back in the driver's door of the van. Oliver and I never got out of the vehicle so I didn't really need to put my mask on. When I placed a grocery order for Saturday, I wasn't sure if Paul would be picking it up or not. I've typically placed the orders for Sunday afternoon because he usually works on Saturday, but I wanted to make the appointment at a time when Goodwill would be accepting donations. He wasn't home by 3pm so the kids and I headed out, which means I was in our van two days in a row for the first time since March 12! Sometimes Paul has had to wait a long time for the Walmart grocery order, but they brought our order out almost immediately after I parked in the spot. I also ran in to return the DVD in the Redbox kiosk. I wore my mask for that as well as when I went into Venarri's to pick up our pizza. I am not a fan of wearing a mask. My glasses fog up for one thing. I really hope we aren't required to wear masks for the next year. Because it was Mother's Day, I got dressed up for "church" this morning. I even wore a necklace with my dress. Honestly though it still feels really strange to get dressed up when we're not even leaving the house. I mowed the lawn after lunch, and then after Oliver read to me, the kids and I went for a walk. I took some pictures of them at that time as well. Because it was Mother's Day, I got to pick what game the kids and I played (Scrabble) and what movie all five of us watched (Miracle on Disney+). The boys enjoyed the movie. From February 1 through Mother's Day there are several emotional landmines for me in terms of when I feel the loss of my brother and my mom more deeply as their birthdays were in February and March, my brother passed away in March, and I feel their absence more keenly on my birthday and then again on Mother's Day. So I feel a bit of a sense of relief knowing we have passed those dates for this year. My mom passed away in July, but for whatever reason that isn't as challenging for me emotionally as her birthday, my birthday, Mother's Day, and Christmas are. We called Paul's mom today to wish her a happy Mother's Day and also called Aunt Millie to wish her a happy 60th birthday. Paul's parents will be celebrating their anniversary on Wednesday. I forget exactly how many years they have been married, but I know it's more than 50! We haven't seen them since 12/25/19, and due to the coronavirus, we might not be seeing them again until 12/25/20 even though they only live one hour away from us. We haven't heard anything yet about whether camps will be allowed in PA this summer, but since we are in the "yellow" phase, two of Nadia's friends are coming over this Friday for a sleepover. By then it will have been a full two months since she has seen any of her friends. Other than that life in "yellow" feels the same as "red," but thankfully the social distancing rules don't apply to the people you are quarantined with as I am still receiving plenty of hugs from my boys. Thank you Lord for giving me three precious children. It is such a privilege to be their mom and their homeschool teacher. Priceless!!!

 

600th Book!

Yesterday we finished our 600th chapter book. I should say at least our 600th book because there have been times along the way I've realized I had forgotten to include one on the list. I started reading chapter books at the very end of 2012 which means we've been enjoying chapter books together for almost 7.5 years. In the beginning I read all of the books to the kids, and then we also began listening to some audiobooks on CD from the library. About 3 years ago I started obtaining audiobooks from Audible now and then. One year ago we began listening to audiobooks through Hoopla, Overdrive, and RB digital through the Free Library in Philadelphia. I still occasionally read a chapter book aloud to the kids, but now the vast majority of the time we listen to audiobooks together. Usually we listen to audiobooks at meal times and when we are in the van for multiple hours. The kids and I have only been in a vehicle two times from March 21 to today because of COVID-19 so we definitely haven't been listening to audiobooks in a vehicle lately, but the kids have been doing jigsaw puzzles almost every day over the past few weeks, and we often listen to an audiobook while they are working on jigsaw puzzles. We primarily listen to novels, but our 600th book was a biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Some of the other biographies we've enjoyed thus far in 2020 have included Eric Liddell, Alan Shephard, Brother Andrew, Douglas MacArthur, Ronald Reagan, Milton Hershey, and Theodore Roosevelt. 31 of the 45 chapter books we've listened to so far in 2020 have been novels by Richard Peck, Christopher Paul Curtis, Jonathan Auxier, Kirby Larson, and Gary Schmidt. Book #601 is Ember's End by S.D. Smith which we finished today. If I were to select five of our favorites from the ones we've listened to in 2020, I'd pick A Night Divided by Jennifer Nielsen, Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan, Sweep, the story of a girl and her monster by Jonathan Auxier, Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era by Sterling North, and Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt. This evening we started listening to Mary Poppins Comes Back. Ian can't wait until we start Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard by Johnathan Auxier as he really enjoyed Peter Nimble and his fantastic eyes.

Yesterday was a very rainy day, so I decided to watch one episode of The Chosen with the kids as various people had recommended it to me (including Paul's brother). I think we will save the other seven episodes for rainy days. Today I was able to walk for 3 miles while Oliver was riding his bike. We have certain activities we do every day - play a game, listen to audiobooks, read picture books, etc. Nadia and Ian have been doing jigsaw puzzles every day. Ian did a 300 piece Pinocchio puzzle today, and Nadia did part of a 500 piece Winnie the Pooh puzzle. Nadia sometimes does one or two math lessons on Teaching Textbooks. Oliver usually reads to me. Ian and Nadia read every day. Nadia is currently reading the Princess Academy series by Shannon Hale, and Ian is reading an Olga da Polga book by Michael Bond. Ian practices the piano every day, and Nadia practices a few days a week. Yesterday we decided to start doing at least one Mad Lib together every day. The kids really enjoy them, and it's a fun way to review some parts of speech. We did several yesterday and several more today. We own quite a few Mad Lib books. Might as well put them to good use! The game Oliver played today with me was Monster Math, which was a great way to have him practice subtraction. Ian beat Nadia in chess while Oliver and I played Monster Math. I have warned the kids never to tell me they are bored. I can very easily come up with school work or chores for them to do!

Today was our last day in the red phase, presuming we're never put back in that phase. We still haven't heard if summer camps will be allowed in the yellow phase. Hopefully we'll find that out tomorrow. Nadia has invited two seventh grade girls over for a sleepover. It has been almost two months since she's seen any of her friends face-to-face. Hopefully her friends' parents will agree to let the girls come to our house.