P.S. I actually was yellow and won the Connect Four game. Nadia wanted it to seem like she had won, so she held a yellow checker when I got out my camera, ha ha! On the other hand, although we didn't finish the game, Ian was beating me at "billiards."
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| A very large "operation" type game |
Almost every year I've taken the kids to a pumpkin patch and/or corn maze; some years Paul and my parents or his parents joined us. Most of the years we've gone to Ard's Farm. Today we went with a homeschool group to Kohl's; it was our second time at this location as we also went there in 2017. Last year was their favorite trip to Ard's because four of their cousins were with us when we went. For many years I've had a tradition of having the kids wear pumpkin shirts for this outing. I didn't buy any pumpkin shirts this year. The size 10/12 shirt that Nadia had worn was not one I could pass on to Ian because even though the shirt was orange, the pumpkin was definitely feminine. Nadia has decided she has outgrown wearing shirts like that. We had two shirts in size 8 so both boys wore them today even though it was warm enough out to wear a short sleeve shirt. Thank you, boys!! This was definitely our warmest trip to a pumpkin patch. Thankfully it wasn't as hot as it was yesterday. It got into the low 80's yesterday. I wouldn't have asked the boys to wear a long sleeve shirt today if it was as warm as yesterday. I'll have to remember to buy the boys new pumpkin shirts next fall. I can usually get them for less than $5 each on the Children's Place website. The hay ride at Ard's is very short but includes a free pumpkin of your choosing. The hay ride at Kohl's was more than 30 minutes long, but the $$ we paid for the corn maze, games, and hay ride didn't include a pumpkin. We spent almost 3 hours playing the games/ going through the corn maze. The kids asked me a few minutes before we were about to leave if they could do the 2.5 mile corn maze. We had done the 1 mile one earlier. I would have been willing to do it, but not at that time. It was a beautiful day, and due to COVID we hadn't seen people from this homeschool group since February. Although the kids missed the slide they have at Ard's, they did really enjoy the wide variety of games that Kohl's has.
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| Ian in the small corn maze |
Paul's typical schedule is that he leaves for work sometime between 5-6am and gets home between 7-8pm (M-F). On Saturdays he usually gets home between 2-3pm. I say typical because sometimes he leaves for work earlier than 5am and gets home from work after 8pm. He usually doesn't work at the plant on Sundays. If he does, he's only there in the morning. His time at the plant plus his commute to and from work add up to around 80 hours in a typical week. So far this year he took off one day of work to go skiing with us, one day off to go to Six Flags, and seven days off for our family vacation. This year he's taken far more days off for medical appointments than he usually does. He went back to his PCP as a follow-up earlier this month to discuss the results of the upper and lower EMG tests and stress test. All those results were normal except he has carpal tunnel. At the follow-up appointment the PCP advised him to see the eye doctor because he thought Paul had a cataract. Paul went into work later than usual this morning because he had an eye appointment at 7:40am. Nope. He doesn't have a cataract. Paul has known for 20+ years that he has keratoconus, and the eye doctor guessed that's probably what the PCP misdiagnosed as a cataract. He also wanted to remove another one of Paul's moles. Personally, I can't picture ever having a PCP do any kind of surgery on me. This PCP removed a mole from Paul in 2017. It became infected, and at that point I strongly urged Paul to see a dermatologist rather than to return to the PCP, which is what he did. I reminded him of this when he told me earlier this month that the PCP had scheduled him for a procedure to remove another mole. I think he's going to reschedule the appointment with a dermatologist instead. I wonder sometimes if doctors take the cost of procedures and blood work into account when they order them. It seems like good news to get the report that the results of a test are normal (if truly you don't have a medical problem that needs to be addressed), but it also feels like we wasted money when we are spending $500+ per test and all the results are negative. Hopefully the mole removal will go smoothly this time around, and hopefully Paul can stay away from the doctors, ER, hospital, etc. next year. At least he knows he can wait 10 years until his next colonoscopy! Thankfully aside from one trip to the eye doctor for Ian because his glasses were broken and annual well child appointments, the kids and I haven't needed to see any doctors this year.
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| The boys spent a TON of time in these! |
Of all the subjects that I've taught my kids, the two that are definitely NOT my forte are art and Spanish. I generally earned all A's on my report cards. If I had less than an "A" in a subject, it was almost always art or PE. If the PE teacher graded me on effort and sportsmanship, then I'd get an A. If the PE teacher graded my on ability, I'd usually get either an A-, B+, or B. Although I did teach Oliver how to ride his bike without training wheels and taught Nadia how to ski, for the most part I have delegated physical education instruction to others by signing the kids up for tennis lessons, swimming lessons, ice skating lessons, gymnastics classes, homeschool gym classes, and having them play on basketball teams, soccer teams, a softball team, and a flag football team. I took Spanish, German, and ASL when I was in middle school and high school. I did fine in those classes, but I forgot most of what I learned in Spanish and German and never was fluent in either language. I wish I had stuck with one language when I was in high school. Sometimes when I'm trying to speak in Spanish the first words that pop into my brain are in German. Trying to have the kids learn Spanish independently wasn't a successful approach. We've been using Talkbox.mom for a little less than two months, but I already feel much more confident that this approach will be far more successful, primarily because I am working on improving my ability to speak the language.
We started our school year towards the end of August, but we didn't resume every subject right from the start. We didn't resume writing or typing until after we returned from our vacation earlier this month. The kids have been doing some very quick drawing exercises using Draw Write Now books, but that has been it thus far for art. I had included some multicultural crafts in my lesson plans, but thus far hadn't actually done any of them. In addition to not feeling very talented when it comes to arts/crafts, I also have an aversion to messes, and art or crafts can be messy! Ian spends a lot of time drawing each week of his own volition. He put a lot of time into his science assignment yesterday, which was to create a comic strip about Venus. Nadia and Ian had taken art at MCS the last three years, but due to COVID-19, I decided not to enroll them this fall since we didn't receive a refund for all the classes we paid for but didn't receive from March-May. I told Nadia that I am not going to sign her up for classes at MCS again until the pandemic is behind us.
Over the last few weeks both Nadia and Oliver asked me when we were going to start doing art. Earlier this week I received an email that the organization where the kids have taken gymnastics classes in the past has begun to offer art classes. I considered signing the kids up until I saw the cost involved. A once a week one hour class would be $225 per month for three kids or a two hour class would be $360 a month for three kids. Yikes!!! Then I saw that a two hour class on a Saturday at a local art studio would cost $81 for three kids. I decided I'd prefer to find an online class, even though that means I have to deal with the mess and will be more involved in teaching the art lessons than I would be if they took art elsewhere. Several years ago we had a membership to art classes through Creating a Masterpiece. I decided to go that route again. There are SO many online art classes, I was having a hard time knowing which one to choose, so I went with one we were already familiar with. Sharon has added many projects since the last time we paid to access her site. Instead of paying for an annual membership, I opted to pay for one month at a time as we might only use it for six months. Going this route only costs $30 per month plus whatever supplies are needed, which is far more affordable than the other options. The 160 lessons vary greatly in difficulty and involve the use of a variety of media. Today we did two simple and quick drawing lessons. Using a pencil doesn't involve making a mess, which I appreciated. We will do some painting later in the year, but we're starting with projects that require the use of pencil, charcoal, or colored pencils. The last time Nadia and Ian completed some of Sharon's projects, I framed some of them, and they are still hanging on our walls. Hopefully we'll end up with some more masterpieces this year - this time by all three kids!
Today I took the van for its annual inspection plus a tire rotation. They found a screw in one tire and patched the tire. Nadia stayed at home, and the boys played in the children's museum across the street for an hour while the van was serviced. I prefer to have our schoolwork done before we leave the house, but that wasn't possible since we had to leave around 12:30pm. The work on the van was done a little after 2pm, but since we also stopped at the library and picked up a few things at a grocery store on the way home, it was a little after 3pm by the time we got home. We had to eat dinner before Nadia's theatre rehearsal via Zoom (5-7pm), which meant it was a little after 6:00pm before Oliver finished his school work for the day - much later than usual! The four of us watched the 2020 Secret Garden movie after Nadia's rehearsal was done. It's been awhile since I saw the 1993 version of the movie; I used to own a VHS of that movie, ha ha! I want to see that one again with the kids, and then we four can decide which of the two movies we like better. I read them the book in 2013. I think we also need to listen to the book again, or maybe Nadia will read the book for the first time. Right now we're listening to Nory Ryan's Song and The Kite Fighters.
Today Ian and I met another orthodontist, and we received our second estimate. We've seen Dr. S once or twice a year for the past few years, but we don't have an estimate from him as it would cost $250. We met with Dr. W on September 29. We decided not to select his office because Ian would have to wear a headgear for 22 hours a day, the doctor rubbed us the wrong way, and it's farther away from our home. As it was with science museums in OH/KY, I find there is little consistency between orthodontists in how they are handling COVID. Dr. W's office took Ian's temperature and had me sign a form saying he hadn't been exposed to someone who has tested positive and doesn't have any symptoms. Dr. S's office also took his temperature, but their form was even lengthier and included "have you traveled outside the state within the last 14 days." Because I answered yes, to this our appointment last Monday was cancelled. At Dr. L's office today no temperatures were taken, no COVID forms were filled out, one of the receptionists wasn't wearing a mask, and they didn't have the plexiglass at the front desk that seems to be pretty standard these days. Dr. L said that phase one (the expander phase) will cost $2,655. I also asked for a ballpark estimate on phase two, and I was it would likely be around $3,300. This orthodontist doesn't use facemasks. He didn't do any x-rays today. Dr. S and Dr. W took x-rays, but he did call our dentist, and the dentist emailed Ian's last panoramic x-ray from December 2017. He would like a new x-ray. I'm assuming they would have planned to do that this December since it will have been three years since the last one. He also mentioned that one tooth needs to be extracted, which I was already expecting once I saw one had erupted in his palate. His bad bite has already caused some chipping on one of his permanent teeth. :( A friend said she paid a little over $7K for both phases at Dr. S's. We can't know for certain since we didn't get an estimate from Dr. S, but if Ian's cost the same amount, then we're saving about $1K by picking Dr. L. Dr. L's office is about 5 minutes farther from our home than Dr. S's, but one upside is that it's very close to an ALDI. Dr. W's office is very close to another ALDI; Dr. S's isn't near an ALDI, but that is not a factor we're using in our decision, ha ha. I need to talk to Paul, but my thinking at the moment is to cancel the appointment for November 2nd which would have involved meeting a fourth orthodontist. I'm also not planning to call Dr. S's office to reschedule the appointment that was cancelled last Monday. I'm thinking at the moment that we'll start phase 1 for Ian with Dr. L in January. I had budgeted $5K, and it seems like my estimate will only be off by $1K if we go with Dr. L.
We have several credit cards that we use. We have repeatedly had trouble with one of those regarding the number being stolen and people trying to use it to make purchases. Earlier this year we were told that the person also supposedly made a fake of my driver's license. I was required to file a police report that time, which was the first time I had ever filed a police report of any kind. They gave us a new credit card, and would you believe less than one year later it happened again. This time someone tried to charge a LARGE amount for an online grocery order with Walmart. I don't know if it was the location of where the Walmart was located or the fact that the total was much, much larger than any grocery order I've ever paid for in person or on-line, but the credit card company had the wisdom to immediately decline the charges. I don't think I'll have to file a police report this time. I cut up the card once I knew they were closing that account, and I forgot to put one of our other cards in my wallet on Saturday. I don't usually carry much cash in my wallet, but thankfully I did have some because I needed to get some gasoline. It was the first time I paid cash for gas in more than 20 years. It reminded me of when I moved to Pennsylvania in 1996, and the first time I went to pay for my gas I literally didn't know what to do because the *only* way I had paid for gas from 1988-1996 was with a credit card at the pump. I was stunned to learn that "Pay the pump" hadn't been introduced in that area yet. Back then gas was around 99 cents a gallon so I could fill the tank of my car with $10! I gave the cashier $40 before I filled the van's tank on Saturday. Do the credit card companies just absorb the charges when they don't proactively decline them, or do they actually try to track the criminals down and have THEM pay? I'm thankful that we aren't liable for fraudulent activity. I also wish it wasn't such a prevalent problem!
Every year when there is an election I am always looking forward to when it is over. I don't like seeing all the signs everywhere, or the suspense of wondering what the outcome will be. This year I have an additional reason for looking forward to getting past the election - receiving SO, SO, SO many texts and mailers asking me to request an absentee ballot. For Pete's sake, I'm planning to vote IN PERSON. I am really looking forward to the end of that type of text and junk mail. Now when it comes to telemarketer phone calls, I haven't received any regarding the elections. Almost every single phone call from a telemarketer is about the warranty on the van, which is eight years old. I usually don't answer my phone if I don't recognize the caller. We don't want to buy an extended warranty!!!
The weather is typically the most volatile here in Pennsylvania in the fall and spring. On Thursday it got up into the mid 70's, which is warmer than usual for October. Yesterday the high was in the 50's. This morning we actually wore our winter coats when we left the house because it was only in the 30's. Brr! Although in general I'm not a fan of colder weather, there are some perks such as no more mosquito bites, no more flies in the house, and a decrease in the sneezing in our house. As someone who has had allergies my whole life, I am always thankful for a good hard frost as it spells allergy relief.
The reason we left our house this morning was because we thought the kids were going to participate in an owl pellet dissection at the Children's Museum at 10:00. We had made plans to meet the director of the play Nadia is in at the museum so she could give Nadia some costumes for their play next week. Prior to COVID, you didn't need to register ahead of time to attend the museum, but since they reopened in late July, that has been a requirement. I had registered for the 10:00-12:00 slot because the activity was listed as being from 10:00-11:30. However when we got there we discovered that the activity was being held outside the museum and you had to complete a separate registration for the activity. The kids have done an owl pellet dissection before and skipping the activity meant we didn't have to stay outside in 30 degree weather for 90 minutes, but still I was disappointed. We went into the museum for a few minutes, but due to COVID they've removed many things and also Nadia is getting to the age where she feels she has outgrown that type of museum. I had received a 3 year membership when the museum first opened because I gave a donation toward the opening of the museum in 2016. Our membership was supposed to expire in September, but they extended it a few months because it was closed for 4 months due to COVID. If I see another free program that interests me, I'll be sure to register for the program. I'm not planning on renewing our membership when it expires. I'm planning to take Oliver there next Wednesday while the van is having its annual inspection and also a tire rotation, but that might be our last visit to the museum.
One of the items I tried to buy at Walmart was apple butter. They were out of stock of that item. On our way home we stopped at the grocery store in our town, and they were also out of stock of apple butter. Seriously?!? So I stopped at an Amish stand near our home and bought a small jar of homemade apple butter. Back when we had two apple trees that produced a lot of apples, I used to make homemade apples, but we cut one tree down and the last couple of years the second tree has produced very, very little fruit. The animals have eaten what the tree has produced. I had made cornbread earlier this week, and the kids and I really like to have apple butter on our corn bread, and we had polished off a jar earlier this week, but we still have some corn bread left so we really wanted to get some apple butter. I fully realize that having trouble buying apple butter is an extremely trivial issue, but I'm just amazed that seven months later the stores are still having trouble keeping things in stock. Apple butter is by no means the only thing out of stock. I never would have guessed in March what life would be like in October. I do grasp it now though that life might not be back to normal for another year or more. And we are SO blessed. The kids and I have been listening to Kisses from Katie which is about a young woman who traveled to Uganda right after she graduated from high school and at this point she is the mother of 14 as she adopted 13 girls and give birth to one boy. She also oversees a program that provides daily meals for almost 1,000 kids in Uganda and also pays for the school fees and school supplies so all of those kids can live with their parents and also be able to go to school - something their parents couldn't afford to provide for their children. We haven't finished the book yet, but I highly recommend it. I'm also planning on reading her second book that came out more recently. Reading a book like this reminds us of how many around the world suffer from malnutrition and starvation.
I received a letter in the mail from one of the orthodontists, and it turns out that the first appointment is free, but in order to receive an estimate for the treatment plan, you have to pay $200. So of the six orthodontists whom I called, only two of them give you an estimate for free. I wasn't keen on the first doctor, so I'm hoping we like the guy we are seeing this coming Monday. Of the ones that charge a fee to receive an estimate, the fees range from $200, $250, $335, to $400+. If we don't choose to go with the doctor we are scheduled to see on Monday, I will still likely cancel the appointment currently scheduled for November 2nd even though that one charges $50 less for the estimate than the doctor we have been seeing the last few years. When Tab was here yesterday she texted her aunt and asked how much she had paid for her daughter's braces because she has been going to the same doctor we had been going to (the one who wouldn't see Ian on Monday because we had visited Kentucky less than 2 weeks ago). She said her daughter had a pretty difficult case (as will be the case for Ian) and it cost about $7K for both phases of the treatment put together. That gives me a frame of reference for when we get the next estimate on Monday. Either way it seems my $5K estimate was probably on the low side. Oliver's teeth used to be straight when he just had baby teeth. Here's to hoping his permanent teeth straighten out on their own so that Ian will be the only child who requires orthodontic care. Nadia is relieved that we've decided not to pursue braces for her at this point anyhow. I know Ian will breathe much better after phase one is completed.
I am not minimizing the number of people who have died from COVID-19 in the US this year; it's certainly more than a typical flu. I don't know if we'll ever know the exact number because if someone dies in a car accident but previously tested positive for COVID, their death is included in the number of COVID fatalities. The percentage of people who died of COVID in the US without any co-morbidities is less than 10%. But even if EVERY COVID death was truly from COVID, it still won't be the leading cause of death in the US in 2020. Heart disease and cancer are the top two killers in our country. I don't personally know anyone who has died from COVID, but every year people I know die from cancer. My brother's cause of death was heart disease, and my mother's was cancer. In the last two months two friends have died of cancer. In August Jill died at the age of 50. She was married to Reid, who was one of my closest friends in college. Earlier this month Kim died at the age of 63. We taught at the same school in Annapolis and attended the same Bible study when I lived there. She had been Wendy's French teacher. Her positive attitude during her battle with cancer was very inspirational. My friend Carol's husband is battling pancreatic cancer right now. The number of fatalities is going down for some forms of cancer, but pancreatic cancer is on the rise unfortunately. I am thankful that sometimes, such as in Margie's case, cancer is caught early. Even though I don't have the BRCA mutation, ever since my mom died of ovarian cancer in 2016 I've been very faithful with having my annual mammogram. So right now even though COVID is what it seems most people are thinking about, cancer is on my mind in light of some recent deaths. My dad has had prostate and skin cancer, which thankfully generally have a good prognosis. It would be wonderful if they could come up with a cure for cancer. There seems to have been TONS of money dumped into cancer research - especially breast cancer. Hopefully they will come up with better ways to treat cancer as chemotherapy is far, far, far from ideal! If you would say a prayer for my friend Carol and her husband Denis as he battles pancreatic cancer, for my friend Reid and his two children as they grieve the loss of wife and mom, and for Kim's family and friends that would be appreciated! Kim was never married, but she leaves behind two brothers and other family and friends who will greatly miss her presence in their lives.
1. Although I don't invest a lot of time into couponing these days, I still enjoy the thrill of a good bargain. Children's Place sent me a $5 coupon earlier this month. I used it yesterday to buy a long sleeve t-shirt for Ian that was on sale for $5.25, which meant after the coupon I paid 25 cents for the shirt. That store always offers free shipping. That's better than a yard sale price for a brand new shirt! Earlier this week I went to CVS and bought 3 boxes of cereal and 4 two liters of soda for a grand total of $0.77.
2. We attended the third gym class on September 25. We missed the fourth one because it took place while we were on vacation. I'm very grateful Desmond taught the class and hoping they offer more sessions sometime during the school year.
3. We enjoyed shopping at yard sales in our community on September 24-25 and managed to find most of the things on my list. The weather was perfect, and it was very nice to do something that came close to resembling "normal."
4. Nadia had two friends over for a sleepover on Sept 26-27. I'm grateful for the friends she has made at church.
6. The kids had a blast at Refreshing Mountain on September 28. They love that place, but it was even better than usual because six of their cousins were also there! The weather was ideal, which wasn't the case the last time we were there. And it was the first time that Ian really enjoyed the rock wall. Way to go, Ian!!
7. We got the first estimate for phase one of Ian's orthodontic treatment plan on September 29. I'm hoping we do NOT pick that particular orthodontist, but I'm thankful I was able to set up appointments with two others who also will give the estimate for free.
9. Margie got the great news that the cancer was caught before it spread! PTL!! She also recently had successful cataract surgeries.
11. I'm very happy we are making progress with speaking Spanish. Yesterday it hit me that I left one word off the list that I wrote earlier this week - "Salud". That is probably the Spanish word I use the MOST because Nadia sneezes a lot all year long. Yesterday I gave the kids commands in Spanish that involved a verb (ex. "brinquen" which means hop or skip) and a location in the house in Spanish. The kids would then hop to that location. This Spanish curriculum is definitely enjoyable. I took Spanish in middle school and also in 9th grade. I studied German in 10th-11th grade. I never thought that in my late 40's I might actually become fluent in Spanish. I'll turn 50 in 18 months. We shall see if I can speak Spanish fairly fluently before I turn 50. I've always wanted to take the kids on a short term mission trip before they graduate from high school. It will be very helpful if we go to Guatemala already knowing a decent amount of Spanish.
12. Paul's mom was discharged from the hospital after having two heart catheterizations.
13. Our pastor started a new sermon series on I, II, and III John. This past Sunday the sermon was on I John chapter 1. We had been working through Core 52 for more than a year (a topical study based on a book). I prefer a more exegetical approach so I'm thankful we'll continue to study these three letters over the next 6 weeks. I also have to say our memorization of Matthew 5 is going well. Oliver has only learned some of the verses, but Nadia, Ian, and I have learned Matthew 5:1-9 so far.
Over the years I have attempted to include Spanish instruction through a variety of methods including Rosetta Stone that we installed on the laptop computer and the Duolingo app on the iPad. At the beginning of 2020 I purchased a video based curriculum called Excelerate Spanish. I had been very hands-off when the kids had used the computer or iPad to learn Spanish, but I was very involved with the video lessons. We only made it about half-way through the first level of Excelerate Spanish, but I decided to try something else this fall. Jen, a friend from a local homeschool group, spoke positively about Talkbox.mom. I hadn't tried it previously because of how much it cost, but since many things were cancelled in 2020, I decided we could afford to buy the first four boxes. To be honest, I still think the price tag is a steep for what is included in the boxes, but we are actually speaking in Spanish at various times throughout the day. Success! My goal is that we will eventually be truly bilingual. Yvonne's kids are also learning Spanish so my kids could even use their Spanish with their cousins and Tia Yvonne and Tio Joe! They are planning to move to Ecuador sometime in 2021. Some of their kids might be fluent in four languages - Turkish, English, Spanish, and Farsi. Wow. I'll just be happy if my kids can speak English and Spanish before they graduate from high school. This past Sunday I taught the 1st/2nd grade boys class during the second service at church, and it was the first time I caught myself about to say something in Spanish and had to remind myself to only use English. I was thrilled about that. I hadn't told Nadia that story, and she told me that she had the same experience at youth group on Sunday night. Yahoo! Ian has prayed entire prayers in Spanish. Ian uses Spanish at home more than his siblings.
The first box focused on foods and other words related to eating. We didn't learn all of the foods on the chart they gave us because we don't eat a lot of the foods on the chart, but we've been learning the words and phrases that are useful for our family. This week we've started on the second box which focuses on a variety of verbs and also rooms around the house. One person closes their eyes and waits for the other three people to go somewhere in the house. The person whose eyes were closed then asks each person, "Donde estas?," and each of us answers in Spanish (ex. "Estoy en el cuorto familiar.") and the person who asked the question is supposed to identify where that is. Today we did a version of "Simon says" where one person would give commands in Spanish (ex. "Levanten las manos"), and everyone else is supposed to do that action. We might play a game for a few minutes, but primarily the way we are learning Spanish is by attempting to use Spanish instead of English as much as possible all day long. There are nine boxes in the program, and after you purchase all of them you gain access to their "academy" online which covers more vocabulary and grammar. If you visit our house, you will see lots of little laminated cards taped all over the place to help us learn more words in Spanish. So far my kids have no idea what is meant by the expression "conjugating verbs", but they are learning they use a different verb if they are speaking to one person versus more than one person, and they know "tengo" means "I have" whereas "tienes" means "do you have". The program is meant to mimic how we learned to speak our native language. Here are some of the phrases we have been using the most often:
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| William Howard Taft's house |
