Clamping Down

Our governor has tightened the COVID restrictions some more starting tomorrow. Two things we did on Tuesday - saw Queen Esther and ate inside a Cracker Barrel are no longer possible starting tomorrow. Sight and Sound is hoping to reopen in February. In the spring, the maximum indoor gathering of 10 included churches, synagogues, and mosques. This time around the Governor said that those organizations are excluded from the guidelines, but of course he is hoping that churches will return to only offering online services due to the rising number of COVID cases. I'm thankful that more respect for the freedom of religion is being shown this time around. I imagine some churches will choose to return to only offering online services, but I'm thankful that it's a decision that churches and individuals can make. Nadia is in two youth groups. FBC has returned to only offering their youth group via Zoom for the month of December. Nadia has a Zoom meeting with them tonight. Our church cancelled a Christmas program that was to take place this evening because some members of the worship team (including the Worship Arts pastor) have COVID right now. Our church's youth group only has one more Wednesday night meeting planned for this month. The church is still planning to offer in person worship and online services on Sundays and also on Christmas Eve. I am aware of at least one business that is planning to defy the governor's orders this time around. I know of a roller skating rink which is going to stay open even though all indoor entertainment venues are banned starting tomorrow. We had been signed up for a homeschool Christmas party at the roller skating rink for next Wednesday. Even before the governor tightened the restrictions, I had decided not to attend. I was very surprised to see today that the owner is still allowing the group to have their party there. There are 150 people signed up for the party! I imagine some will cancel their plans as I did, but I am a bit in shock that some would  be okay with being indoors with 150 people who aren't wearing masks. A few months ago it wouldn't have bothered me because there were very few cases in our area, but it's a different story right now. No roller skating party is worth contracting COVID-19 in my opinion. We rarely eat in a sit down restaurant so it's not a hardship to us that eating inside a restaurant has been banned again, but I feel badly for the restaurants. This has been a very tough year for restaurants. Although I won't take the kids roller skating right now, the three places I will still enter are the library, grocery store, and church. In the spring we weren't able to go to the library or church. I am thankful that those places haven't been required to close.

We did give a restaurant some business yesterday as I bought pizza (carryout). Ian had two boys (brothers) over since his birthday is tomorrow. They were here for about 8.5 hours. The kids played outside and inside and watched a Home Alone movie together. Micah beat Ian in chess, and Nadia beat Micah. They had made two piñatas on Wednesday, and they brought one of them to our house yesterday.  In the picture above they are each holding the candy they got from the piñata. They also brought a bag of SunChips which is a highly prized item in our house (and one I very rarely purchase). Aunt Millie had made a Pokémon cake for his birthday; it was our first Aunt Millie birthday cake this year because Nadia didn't want cake in June and Oliver was in New York in August. It's birthday week in our extended family as Aunt Janet turned 78 on Wednesday, my Dad turned 77 yesterday, and Ian will turn 11 tomorrow. Aunt Janet is in Tahoe as two of her kids live there. She didn't want to spend more holidays alone in 2020 so she went out there before Thanksgiving so she could spend Thanksgiving, her birthday, and Christmas with family. My dad celebrated his birthday by having cataract surgery. We're praying for Margie because the doctors are strongly encouraging her to have chemo based on the results of her MammaPrint. They had thought she'd only need surgery plus radiation. Margie and my Dad are trying to decide whether or not she'll pursue the chemo or not.

During the first nine days of December I took a grand total of one picture with my camera. Oops! I also hadn't recorded any videos in four months. I have been scanning more artwork than I usually do. As I was listening to Ian practice the piano today, I decided to record him playing one of his songs. Lately he's enjoying playing through a book of Christmas music. From the picture below you can see that the kids did an art project today that involved using Bombay ink and Tombow pens. 

Queen Esther

Ian did this with pastels. He's not a fan of pastels. Today we did the northern lights pastel project.

During the summer in 2019 I purchased 7 tickets to see Queen Esther at Sight and Sound on April 21, 2020. Paul's parents planned to join us. We planned to tour Wheatland (home of Buchanan - the only President from PA) and eat at the Shady Maple Smorgasbord (kids and Paul have never been there). Of course all those plans were cancelled. This summer I called to reschedule, but due to Paul's mom's health (couple with the pandemic) I asked my Dad and Margie if they'd like to use the other two tickets that originally were for Paul's parents. They thought they'd be traveling a lot in the fall (actually all those trips were cancelled), so we made reservations to see the show on December 8 since my Dad's birthday is December 10 and Ian's is the 12th. Then Margie was diagnosed with cancer and PA now requires a negative COVID test to enter the state. Paul's parents considered going, but then Nadia was with someone on November 30 who later tested positive for COVID, so they don't want to risk being around Nadia nine days after she was potentially exposed to the virus. Thankfully, Sight and Sound is going to give me a gift card for the value of the two tickets we won't be using - basically I have a credit that can used in the future. I assume we will use the credit in 2022 as they are showing Queen Esther again in 2021. I never would have guessed that two tickets I paid for in 2019 wouldn't be used until 2022! Wheatland has remained closed since March. I thought of taking the kids to visit the replica of the Tabernacle again since they were very young when we went the first time and we've been reading through the Old Testament this fall (we've read Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus and almost finished Numbers), but in December it's only open certain days of the week, and Tuesday isn't one of them. So I think the only thing we're doing to do in Lancaster tomorrow is see the show, and then we're planning to stop at Cracker Barrel on the way home to have dinner since we didn't use our Cracker Barrel gift cards when we were on vacation two months ago. I thought there was a good chance Sight and Sound would be required to close again this fall, but it hasn't happened thus far. For the last several months they've been operating with only seating 15% of the occupancy whereas normally their 2,000 seat auditorium would be filled to capacity. The last time we were there was in 2018 to see their production of Jesus. It's hard to imagine they can top that one, but I've heard this one is also outstanding. We're looking forward to it! Since Ian's birthday falls on a Saturday this year, he's thankful that we're taking the day off of school work tomorrow for this field trip as normally they get a day off of school on his birthday.

There are currently 152 recipes on my list of new recipes to try. We've tried 70 of those recipes so far plus we also tried bacon wrapped chicken at Rachel's recommendation. Of those, I'm planning to make 31 of the recipes again. Paul and I both liked the chicken piccata, but none of the kids did so I'm not including that in the make again list, and the same goes for the double layer pumpkin cheesecake and French onion soup. I thought they were scrumptious, but not enough people shared my opinion for me to want to make it again. In some cases, we liked a recipe we've used in the past far more than the new one we tried. This would be the case for the Sopa Paraguaya that I made today, which is a Paraguayan cornbread. We prefer our usual cornbread which also happens to be easier and cheaper to make than the Paraguayan one was. The same goes for the Eplekake, which is a Norwegian apple cake. We prefer the German apple cake recipe I've used for many years. Some of the recipes were more challenging for me than others. The recipe for chicken Kiev said it was challenging, but I succeeded with that one. I don't know where I went wrong yesterday with the ham croquettes, but I decided to scratch bunuelitos de jamon off the list as they seemed rather similar to the ham croquettes. Sometimes I have to improvise because I don't have all the ingredients, and sometimes I have to improvise because I don't have the kitchen equipment. For example, when I made tiramisu today, I had to improvise as it called for using a double boiler, and I don't have one. Where there's a will, there's a way! I will say I've purchased cream FAR more than usual the past few months and gone through far more eggs than usual. I'm going to list the fifteen foods we loved the most so far:

1. Croque monsieur  - I've already made it again!
2. Quiche Lorraine
3. Mousse - both dark chocolate and strawberry (even though only Nadia and I liked them - we loved both of them enough to warrant making them again just for the two of us)
4. Swedish meatballs
5. Jerk chicken
6. Hasselback potatoes
7. Key lime pie
8. Pepperoni and mozzarella panini 
9. Peach kuchen
10. Jam thumbprint cookies
11. Fettucine alfredo
12. Bacon cheese frittata
13. Tagliatelle with prosciutto 
14. Tiramisu
15. Honey Garlic Chicken

O Christmas Tree!

 The day after Thanksgiving we put out a little bit of Christmas decorations such as Christmas tablecloths on both tables at Oliver's request. We had a toilet sitting in a box in our living room for 16 days. I told the kids that we wouldn't put up the tree and the rest of the decorations until the new toilet was installed because the guinea pig cage is usually located where we usually put the tree, and the toilet was sitting where I planned to put the guinea pig cage while the tree is upstairs. Ken came yesterday afternoon and installed our new toilet. The old one got clogged many times each week. I'm hoping that won't be the case with the new one. The old one also had a crack in the tank. If the new toilet works out well, we'll probably replace the upstairs toilets at some point in the future.  In 2016 I really, really, really didn't want to decorate for Christmas in our house because I associated it so strongly with my mom. Each year since then I would have strong feelings of grief when putting up the tree and such, but each year it was less difficult for me emotionally to decorate for Christmas. Although I still miss my mom, I'm happy to say that I didn't feel any sadness when the kids and I put up the Christmas tree this year! Although I never took a year off from putting up a tree and decorating, last year I took the year off in terms of mailing out Christmas cards due to how I was feeling emotionally following the loss of my brother and then my job. Today was the first day we received Christmas cards in the mail, and I'm planning on putting our cards in the mail on Monday. I put the Christmas gifts under the tree this morning as all three kids said they had the self-control to not touch the gifts until we say it's time to open them. 

Although many of our usual Christmas traditions can't happen this year, we did something new this year that I might continue in the future. Growing up we never had anything in a stocking. We've had stockings up each December for the past 20 years, but the stockings that Paul's Gram made are not strong and can't actually hold anything - for decoration only. So my kids aren't accustomed to getting things in a stocking on Christmas Day. Tomorrow is St. Nicholas Day, and one of the traditions is to put one shoe out the night before and the next morning the child will find fruit, candy, coins, or small toys in their shoe. I had fun shopping for a few little things to put in their shoes tonight - chewing gum, Christmas socks at the Dollar Tree (where everything truly is $1), and fingernail polish for Nadia. Most of the extra holidays we're celebrating this year in connection with our study of other countries and cultures I don't plan to celebrate again in the future, but since we don't do Christmas stockings I'm thinking maybe we'll keep doing the shoe tradition on the even of St. Nicholas Day in the future. 

I have purchased quite a few ingredients over the past three months that I had never purchased before in my life. For example, we had tagliatelle with prosciutto for dinner today. I had never purchased either of those ingredients before. Today some of my purchases included ladyfingers, mascarpone cheese, golden syrup, gruyere cheese, and risotto, which were all first time purchases. Some ingredients I doubt I'll ever buy again such as capers, which I used when making chicken piccata a few days ago. According to Wegman's website, they had rose water and potato starch in stock, but I failed in my attempt to locate those two ingredients. I'm planning to substitute vanilla extract and corn starch respectively. I did end up placing an order for saffron threads through Amazon as it was cheaper there than at Wegman's or Walmart. I hope we LOVE the saffron buns next week as they will definitely be the most expensive bread I've ever made, lol. I will say that making SO many new recipes over the last 3 months (64 new recipes in the past three months) has led to the kids doing a better job with eating new foods, and we've found some that we like and want to eat again in the future.

Thankful Thursday

Nadia did this with pastels.

 1. Al, Millie, and Paul's dad were able to join us for Thanksgiving Day. 

2. I got quite a few things for free at CVS last week, and I got some good Black Friday online bargains at Walmart, Target, Shutterfly, and Chewy. I also made a lot of progress with my Christmas shopping on Amazon. I think I just need to buy Christmas gifts for three more people at this point. I have our Christmas cards. I just need to address and mail them. One of my bargains was that I paid less than $2 total for a Shutterfly order that contained 23 thank you cards. 

3. I bought a pair of pants at a thrift store for myself in September and really liked them. I was hoping to get a couple more pairs-different colors but the same manufacturer and style. They were on sale on Black Friday, and I used credit card points to pay for them so they didn't really cost any money. I don't buy myself clothes very often. I wore one of the new pants yesterday. It does feel nice to have something new to wear every now and then. 

4. Nadia's skills with puzzles have really improved this year! She's put together more than 7,000 pieces in about 2.5 weeks.

5. We're thankful for audiobooks! Some favorites recently have included Small Acts of Amazing Courage by Gloria Whelan, Paint the Wind by Pam Munoz Ryan, Alice's Farm: A rabbit's tale by Maryrose Wood, Small Steps: The year I got polio by Peg Kehret, Riding Freedom by Pam Munoz Ryan, and A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. We listened to 71 books over the past five months!

6. I ordered a collage frame for each of the kids. Nadia's is up on her wall with 4 of the 5 openings filled with some of her recent art work. Two of Ian's openings are filled. I envision we will switch out what is in the frame from time to time over the years to come. 

7. The library system I've been using the past couple of months is still fully open. I had still been using the Union County system some, but last week I decided to cancel all my requests because #1 the "new" library is much closer to our home and #2 it's very complicated to figure out when to request books due to the way they are doing things during the pandemic. I'm not saying I will never use that library again, but I think my trips there will be very few and far between. To me getting books at the library is in the essential category along with getting food at the grocery store. As long as the library stays open I'll be going there. 

8. The Steelers are 11-0! 

9. We're continuing to enjoy (especially Nadia) our membership with Creating a Masterpiece.

10. We've enjoyed watching a few movies together as a family including Gifted Hands (about Ben Carson), Around the World in 80 Days, and Swiss Family Robinson. The boys wanted to see Home Alone again. Nadia opted to watch something else. We were shocked to learn that it was the first time Paul had seen any Home Alone movie! Next up will be Night at the Museum. 

11. I had a lengthy conversation with my friend, Cheri, on Monday and my friend, Carol, on Tuesday. I was thankful to hear that her husband's brothers helped her out with some projects around the house after her husband passed away. 

12. The church isn't allowing small groups to meet on campus right now due to COVID. Thankfully Bible Bowl can meet at someone's home, and one of the parents drove Nadia and two other kids from the home to the church for youth group, as the youth group is still meeting at church on Wednesday nights from 6:30-8:00. I realize they might stop the youth group from meeting again at some point due to COVID, but I'm thankful that for now Nadia can still attend youth group on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. 

13. The kids and I enjoyed having 5 days off of school. 

14. I'm very thankful that the pain in my arm has gone away and I've regained my full range of  motion. I'm also thankful I had extra bucks that Paul could use to pay for the Aleve and sling. I had planned to use those for cereal for the kids, soda for Paul, etc., but it was nice to get what I needed for free at CVS through extra bucks. We take so much for granted - our sight, hearing, ability to walk, etc. I am very, very thankful to have regained the use of two arms and hands. Cooking and getting dressed were particularly challenging and painful. 

15. Target accidentally included four pairs of little girls' pants in a package that was sent to our house. I called Target, and they said that they didn't want them back. I gave two two a neighbor who has a kindergartener and the other two to a neighbor who has a preschooler. It was nice to be able bless others with free, brand new clothes. 

16. I told Nadia she had to finish the level of piano music that she had been in for what seemed like forever before her voice lessons were over. She accomplished it in the nick of time yesterday as her last lesson was today. Ian had asked me to get him a book of Christmas music. Nadia actually was playing the piano today - the new Christmas book as well as a book of Disney music. So maybe she isn't totally done playing the piano? At the moment I only have one piano student - Ian. Thankfully he really enjoys playing the piano.

17. I placed an online grocery order with Walmart because they were having a great sale on boneless skinless chicken breast (75 cents a pound!!!!). Unfortunately shortly before I left to go to Walmart on Tuesday I received an email saying they were out of chicken. I had ordered two different types (the other was $1/ pound which is also an unheard of price). I was disappointed because the whole reason I placed an order was to get the chicken. To add insult to injury, Oliver and I had to wait for 45 minutes in the parking lot for them to bring out our order. In texting my neighbor I found out she has had to wait many times - sometimes as long as 2 hours!!! I'm thankful that usually I've had almost no wait when I've gotten our groceries there, and I'm thankful there are other places I can get my groceries as I don't plan on returning there any time in the near future. 

18.I'm thankful that thus far Nadia doesn't have any symptoms of COVID-19. She was in close contact with a girl in the youth group on Sunday night as they decorated the sanctuary for Christmas, and that girl tested positive this week. The youth pastor at that church (not our church) called me today to tell me that Nadia needs to quarantine. The current CDC guidelines are to quarantine for 7 days if you have a negative test or 10 days if you aren't tested and don't have any symptoms. Since we didn't find out until four days after they had contact, she will only be quarantining for six more days. She's bummed that she won't be allowed to attend church this coming Sunday morning. This other church cancelled the youth group for next Sunday night because of this positive test. 

19.  I probably won't make it again because Ian and I were the only ones who liked it, but I really, really loved the German Apple Pancake I made for dinner tonight. Yum! I am thankful that I inherited a cast iron skillet from Maurice. I had never owned one prior to his passing, and I'm amazed at how many times I've used it.

20. Ken called us tonight. When he was here two weeks ago he was forgetting that last week was Thanksgiving. He's planning to install our new toilet tomorrow afternoon and work on the shower and other projects next week. 

21. Ian has really enjoyed reading the Calvin and Hobbes book I got him from the library. The next one will be Garfield. Our kids don't have experience with reading comic strips as we've never subscribed to a newspaper during the 12+ years we've lived in this house. 

22. Even though it's been cold, Oliver has still been playing outside. I never used to allow them to play outside after dark, but I've been letting Oliver (and sometimes Ian) play manhunt outside with them from time to time lately partially because it gets dark so early. I'm thankful he has friends to play with!

Safer at Home

Ian chose to do his art project yesterday with Peppa while sitting in a box.

Last Spring when the COVID restrictions were the harshest in PA, our area wasn't hit very hard. The COVID restrictions at the moment aren't nearly as strict, although they are stricter in Philadelphia, but the numbers are far worse in our area than they were in the spring. I still am of the opinion that if the kids or I were to contract COVID-19, it wouldn't involve a hospitalization, but if we are going to have contact with people who are in a higher risk category (such as Paul's dad who will be turning 79 this month), I think we need to be more careful than we have been since we entered the green phase in June. I had planned to take the boys roller skating tonight, but I told them today that we're going to avoid optional activities until the COVID numbers improve in our area. No one wears masks at that rink. I also planned to take them to the laser tag/ trampoline/ arcade meet-up on Thursday. I had rescheduled Nadia's voice lesson so that we could attend the meet-up, but I've decided we won't attend that event either. Masks or face shields are required there, but I don't think they sanitize the surfaces frequently enough. Camp Susque cancelled the Christmas in Tanzania program that we planned to attend next week. At the moment my thinking is that aside from attending church, picking up books at the library, and going to the grocery store, the kids and I are going to stay at home until the COVID-19 situation improves. One exception would be seeing Esther at Sight and Sound next week. I don't think that will be risky because we'll be wearing masks/shields, and I know they are sanitizing, keeping groups separated, etc. I am fine with the kids playing outside with kids in the neighborhood without masks on, but if our local school district resumes to meet in person next week, I've asked the boys to avoid having physical contact with the kids in the neighborhood. I'm hoping and praying that the vaccine distribution will take place as quickly as possible and that the COVID numbers will start going down as soon as possible!

6,600 pieces in 2 weeks!

We did a LOT of puzzles earlier this year, and then had taken a break. Nadia started doing puzzles again two weeks ago, and in the past fourteen days she did two 750 piece puzzles, seven 300 piece puzzles, and six 500 piece puzzles all by herself. She's come a long way during this pandemic with her skills at doing puzzles! Several months ago she didn't even want to do a 750 piece puzzle WITH help, and now she is doing that size without help. I ordered a few new puzzles for the kids for Christmas so she'll have some new ones to do in a few weeks. A day "off" from school for Nadia meant hours of listening to audiobooks while doing puzzles (today she listened to A Long Walk to Water and Riding Freedom) as well as finishing one art project (monarch) and doing a second one from start to finish (owl). The rain didn't stop Oliver from playing outside today, although he didn't last as long as he usually does primarily because he was the only child playing outside in the neighborhood today. Yesterday we received a delivery of the bedding for the guinea pigs, and the kids had fun playing with those boxes today. 

Paul wanted me to go to the doctor on Saturday morning. I talked to Yvonne and decided to follow her recommendations, and if I didn't see improvement I'd see a doctor on Monday.  The pain peaked at 2am on Sunday morning and my fever returned. If it hadn't been the middle of the night, I'd have gone to see a doctor at that point. It was an hour before I could take another Aleve so I took two Tylenol and prayed for God to intervene. I believe He did because when I woke up at 6am my pain had greatly diminished and my range of motion had greatly increased. I didn't wear the sling yesterday but continued to take Aleve every 8 hours and use ice. This morning when I got up I discovered my full range of motion had returned and the pain was very minimal. The swelling in my hand and fingers and the fever have completely gone away. I am very, very thankful! I discovered on Friday and Saturday how challenging it is to do things like cook and get dressed without being able to move one's left arm. Ian had a very, very hard time remembering not to hug me or snuggle on my left side. Ouch!!! 

We are praying for comfort for our friends as their beloved long-haired dachshund, Ruby, passed away today. Nadia was very fond of Ruby. The doctors hadn't quite figured out how to properly adjust Paul's mom's medication because the medication that lowers her heart rate (which has been too high) causes her blood pressure to be too low, but she was discharged from the hospital today because of COVID. First the hospital wants to discharge as many patients as they possibly can to have more beds available for COVID patients and also they were concerned about her risk of contracting COVID considering how many COVID patients are in the hospital right now. We're continuing to pray for Grandma. 

Ouch!

Thursday night I went to bed without any unusual aches or pains. Friday morning I woke up with a throbbing left arm and a very limited range of motion. The pain level didn't decrease over the course of the day. I kept wondering why I was so cold. I kept putting on more layers, and then it struck me I probably had a fever. The thermometer confirmed I did. Since I had no other symptoms, I assumed the fever was just due to the pain I had been enduring all day. Although it's not my dominant arm, I discovered yesterday that MANY activities are very challenging to do with only one hand. I was so exhausted from the pain that I took ibuprofen and went to bed shortly after Paul got home from work at 7pm. He had to help me change into my pajamas. I slept for about 11 hours on either my back or my right side. Usually I alternate between my right and left sides throughout the night. I am not sure why I didn't take any ibuprofen yesterday until Paul came home from work. I have dealt with back pain many times over the years, but I can't ever recall having arm pain before. My hands frequently go numb due to carpal tunnel, but that has never been extremely painful. Paul was planning to go to work today, but when he saw that I was still in pain and could only move my arm a little bit, he thought he should take me to the doctor this morning. He didn't think I could drive. I called my sister instead. She was an occupational therapist so this type of thing is up her alley so to speak. She suggested buying Aleve and a sling and using ice. I used a heating pad last night. The CVS didn't open until 9:00, and by the time Paul got home from going there, he didn't think it was worth driving to work as he usually comes home about 5 hours earlier on Saturdays than he does M-F. The ice + Aleve + sling has helped me in that I'm no longer in a constant state of pain. However most tasks that involve using both hands are still excruciating such as cutting two apples into slices at lunch today. The swelling in my hand and fingers in that hand is also going down some although not enough for me to get my wedding band on yet. I should add that we never got my wedding band sized. It's usually loose on me, but since we did get the engagement ring sized I've never worried that I might lose the wedding band. So my finger has to be fairly swollen if I can't even put my wedding band on. Usually in the winter when I'm cold all my rings a little big on me, but not my left hand right now. Yvonne advised that if I don't see improvement by Monday to go to a doctor at that point. I'm hoping that the Aleve plus sling plus ice will do the trick. I am assuming I injured myself while sleeping on Thursday night. I hope I never do that again!!!!

Thankfully, shopping online on Black Friday doesn't require me to my left arm. I have 37 people on my list as far as whom I am buy Christmas gifts for - that includes our five kids we sponsor through Compassion and the five shoe boxes we filled for kids through Samaritan's Purse. In the case of the Compassion kids, we send each of them money. The other 27 people are family members and some of them (such as Paul, Paul's dad, my dad, and Ian) I'm also buying them birthday gifts as their birthdays are between December 10-January 3. I had already purchased and wrapped some gifts, but I did a lot more shopping online over the last two days. I have finished the birthday shopping, and I only have four people left to buy Christmas gifts for. The end is in sight! I really cut back how much we spent on gifts from August 2019 to October 2020 because we were back to living on one income, but even though 2020 was a tough year for some people financially, it wasn't for our family so just in the last two weeks I've spent almost as much on gifts as I did in the previous twelve months put together because I decided to put the gift budget back to closer to what it had been in the past. Although most of my "Black Friday" purchases were for Christmas gifts, I did also buy six bags of bedding for the guinea pigs because the pet stores were having good sales, and I bought quite a few books because both Target and Amazon are having a buy two books get one free sale. Some of the books will be Christmas gifts for Paul, Nadia, and Julianna. I got myself one book, and I bought nine books that I plan to use with the kids for our family devotions together. Lately we've been using books from the Inductive Bible Studies for Kids series by Kay Arthur and Janna Arndt. We finished one on prayer and have almost finished one on the names of God. A few years ago I bought five of them at a book sale at the Lewisburg library.

Speaking of the budget, I've started working on our budget for 2021. Some categories are very easy to predict such as what we spend for my phone, car insurance, life insurance, the internet, garbage collection, water, sewer, and clothes. Of the categories I just listed, the one that has varied more than the others would be clothing, but the difference is still rather small. The past four years we spent between $502-642 per year on clothes; we spent a bit less than normal this year ($474). Personal (things Paul and I buy that don't fit anywhere else in the budget) is also a fairly stable category aside from the year I bought my new camera body, but again we still spent less than usual in that category this year. The cost for internet goes up every spring, but they didn't raise the price this year! I am guessing that due to COVID they decided it wasn't the time for the annual price hike. Other categories are rather hard to predict. How much we've spent on medical expenses has ranged from as high as $14K in 2011 to as little as $306 last year. This year we spent about $1,500. Car repairs is another unpredictable category (from as little as $179 to as much as $1,773 over the past 5 years). We've typically spent between $2K-4K on gas each year. Since it was close to $4K last year and this year, that's what I'm budgeting for next year. Although Paul's vehicle gets better gas mileage than the van, he drives at least 600 miles a week, which means he buys gas far more often than I do. How much we've spent on the house has also varied greatly from as little as $231 in 2014 to almost $12K last year because we replaced the deck, furnace, and A/C. We spent far less on the house this year as the garage doors cost a lot less than last year's projects did. I'm not sure when we will replace the 22 year old roof, but I'm guessing we'll be replacing the oven next year. One of the four burners gave up the ghost already. 

This year we spent less than I expected in several categories. We used to have cable year round, but from 2013-2019 we only had cable for a few months each year so our total expenditure for tv (which includes our Amazon Prime subscription), was generally less than $400 per year. This year we spent less than $200 because we didn't turn the cable on this fall as we usually do. I'm thinking our only "tv" expenditures for next year will be our Amazon Prime membership plus our Disney+ membership. I honestly never thought Paul would lose interest in watching the Giants, but 2020 has been a very unique year. Although the cost of most things tends to rise over time (ex. from 2008 to the present our monthly internet bill went from $33 to $76), natural gas is one that has gone down over the years - from a high of $1,112 in 2009 to a low of $450 this year. Our electric bills have also declined over the years - from a high of $2,126 in 2011 to a low of $1,186 in 2017. I'm going to estimate $1,400 for next year's budget. I had planned to try to spend less on the kids, entertainment, and gifts this year in light of living off of one income. We spent far more on the kids in 2018 and 2019 than we had any other year (homeschool materials, summer camps, purchases for the guinea pigs, athletics, and other classes are what primarily constitute that category). COVID-19 made it easier than expected to cut back in that category in 2020. We spent about $3K less this year on the kids than we did last year. COVID also meant we spent less on vacations. Our vacation budget this year was 1/2 of what we typically spend and 1/4 of what we spent in 2018. In 2018 we spent far more on entertainment than we usually do. We cut back a lot last year, and I had planned to cut back more this year, and again COVID made that a piece of cake. I'd have to go back to 2010 to find a year we spent less on entertainment than we did this year. One category we spent more in this year was food. From 2016-2018 we spent around $4600 per year on food. Last year we spent a little over $5K on food. I had set a goal to try to get back to $4,600 but we actually spent a little more this year than last year. However considering we spent far less on entertainment and took far fewer vacations, I think we did well. Three weeks of vacations were cancelled this year which means I bought groceries for three more weeks of the year than I would have if there wasn't a pandemic. Plus the kids' appetites are growing so it might prove impossible to get back to $4600, but I will start 2021 with more meat in the freezer than usual so who knows. Maybe it will be possible to get back to $4,600? Time will tell, but I'm setting the food budget at $5,000 for 2021 to err on the safe side. One of the unexpected financial bonuses was the "stimulus" check we received. Since the government already has an insanely large deficit, I hope there won't be another check coming our way from the government.  At some point we'll need to replace my 7 year old phone and my almost 5 year old laptop, for example. Because we already have money set aside for replacing the roof, Ian's braces, and replacing my vehicle, it will be easier for us to afford other "unexpected" type of expenses that will inevitably come up from time to time. I'm grateful to be entering 2021 without the financial stress I had in 2019 once I realized I was returning to being a stay-at-home mom.

Ian made quite the procession to visit Baby Jesus!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 We always have SO much to be thankful for, and yet it's unfortunately all too easy for us to complain. I think the verse I quote the most frequently in our house is one that is short but can be challenging to follow - "Do everything without arguing or complaining." For the past 8 months life hasn't exactly gone smoothly. When I reflect on 2020 it's easy to focus on everything that was cancelled rather than the blessings. I'm grateful that we have a day set aside to focus on giving thanks, but truly every single day of the year should be a "thanksgiving" day, even when we are in the midst of a pandemic and might not be very happy with the outcome of an election. Probably some people got together with the same people they always do on Thanksgiving even if that meant what is currently defined as too large of a gathering, and other families chose to just celebrate Thanksgiving with their immediate family due to the pandemic. Last Easter I think far more people just celebrated with those who live in their house, but this time around it seems like people aren't quite as willing to jump on board with the "safer at home" mandates. In my opinion the "mandates" are contradictory because on the one hand it says on the governor's website we should stay at home and on the other hand it says whenever you are with people you don't live with - whether outside or inside your home -wear masks even if you are staying at least 6 feet apart from each other. If we're technically not "allowed' to go into anyone else's house, why is their a "rule" about wearing a mask inside a home? In our case there were eight people gathered around our dining room table as Paul's dad, brother, and sister-in-law joined us. We didn't wear masks, but we each wore a personal air purifier and also had three air purifiers running in the kitchen, dining room, and half bathroom. Years ago the guest list also would have included Shawn, Brandi, and Great Gram. Great Gram has gone to Glory, Brandi lives in Florida, and Shawn doesn't join us very often even though he still lives with Al and Millie. Grandma would have loved to join us, but she's still in the hospital. 

Pop Pop joined us around 12:00, and Al and Millie came a couple of hours later. Pop Pop played chess with Ian, Spot it with Oliver, and Suspend and Blokus with Nadia, Ian, and myself. Al and Millie played Suspend with Nadia and Ian and Jenga with Nadia. Pop Pop also played the Wii with the kids. Because it was a holiday I let the kids play the Wii longer than usual and didn't require them to earn the privilege of using the Wii or watching tv. We watched part of the movie Swiss Family Robinson as a family after Pop Pop, Al, and Millie left. The kids had never seen the movie (or listened to the book). It was nice to have Paul at home all day with us. We listened to part of the book Small Steps today, which is about how a woman overcame polio in 1949. Paul hung a collage picture frame that Fed Ex had delivered earlier this week. It has one 8x10 opening and four 5x7 openings. He hung the frame in Nadia's room so that she can display five piece of her artwork in it. The kids like to see their artwork on display in our home. 

Black Friday shopping is different this year for some people, but it's not different for me because I've never been tempted to join hordes or people shopping in the middle of the night. I went to CVS this morning and bought 18 items (boxes of cereal, toothpaste, nail polish, Doritos, etc.) for a grand total of 74 cents total. I also bought some Nintendo Switch games online from Walmart as they had some that Ian wanted marked down 50%. He has a lot of Lego sets on his wish lists, but I just can't bring myself to buy him any big Lego sets this year because we already own what feels like five zillion Legos. So this year he'll be getting several Switch games from us for his birthday and Christmas instead of lots of Legos. If I do any other Black Friday shopping over the next few days, it will be online shopping. The last time I saw Maurice in person was on Black Friday two years ago. I felt very prone to crying today on several occasions because I really miss him, but I'm very grateful he didn't have to deal with COVID-19. The isolation would have been hard for him emotionally, and wearing a mask would have been a nightmare for him physically as he already had trouble breathing. I know he's in a much better place, but I miss him very much.

Meet a Geologist

Field trips have been a rare commodity in 2020, but we have managed to have two this month! My friend, Cheri, and I took the kids to Hawk Mountain for a hike earlier in the month, and today the kids participated in a program put on by geology professors at Bucknell. I had placed a request for 30 library books on Monday and planned to pick them up this afternoon in conjunction with the field trip. Yesterday afternoon I got an email stating that #1 that library system would be returning to pick-up service only (no browsing, making copies, etc.) and #2 the Lewisburg Library was closed indefinitely starting immediately due to plumbing issues. It's just impossible to make plans in 2020! My stack of 30 books was sitting there in the library with my name on it while I returned books outside the library today, but I'll have to make a separate trip if I want to get those 30 books as the library sent an email out this afternoon stating the plumbing problem was resolved, and the lobby will be reopening on Friday. I did go to the Montgomery Library yesterday. That librarian said she hasn't heard yet of any changes in their system yet. I'm hoping against hope that the libraries won't totally shut down this time around. I have no problem with a pick-up only service. I would like to stop using the Lewisburg library and just use the Montgomery Library as it's much closer to our home. Maybe I'll cancel all my requests and not retrieve that stack of 30 books after all. 

It was sprinkling as we were driving to the geology program so I decided to leave my camera in the van, but it never rained while we were walking around the site. I did take a few pictures with my cell phone. I know some people get great photos with their phone, but I vastly prefer my camera. However a cell phone picture is better than nothing! My phone is seven years old. I imagine whenever we replace my phone I'll notice an improvement in the quality of cell phone pictures. 

Because of today's field trip, we did a little bit of extra schoolwork the past two days so that we could have a light day today. Yesterday ended up being a VERY long school day for me. Aside from one quick trip to run a few errands (about 45 minutes), I literally was doing schoolwork with at least one child for almost exactly 12 hours straight. Usually we're done by 2pm and sometimes as early as 1pm. Ian and I didn't finish math until 7pm last night. I had a headache by that point. Today we were done by 1pm although Oliver hasn't quite finished his math yet. We went on our field trip, and as soon as we got home Oliver went outside to play with kids in the neighborhood. Aside from coming in for just a very few minutes to wolf down a slice of pizza, Oliver was outside for four hours straight because I let him stay out and play flashlight games in the dark with some kids in the neighborhood. The local school district lengthened the Thanksgiving break to a full seven days off and then December 2-4 they will only be offering distance learning. They *might* return in person on December 7. I had planned to resume our schoolwork on December 1. Unless it's raining that day, it's going to be a bit of a challenge as today several kids in the neighborhood were knocking on our door and asking Oliver to come up multiple times this morning because their Thanksgiving break started today, and we did schoolwork this morning. I was pleased though that aside from a few math problems (Oliver) we were done by 1pm. The kids and I are looking forward to having the next five days off! I am planning on working with the boys on a few spelling words, we will still listen to audiobooks, and if they want to use electronics or watch TV they'll still need to earn that privilege through reading, doing a puzzle, or practicing the piano, etc., but that will be it as far as "school work" for the next five days. 

Today I'm giving thanks:

1. That Margie got a good pathology report on Tuesday. The surgeon got all the cancer the second time around! Now we're praying for good results from the MammaPrint because that will mean she'll only need radiation rather than chemo and radiation. 

2. That it *seems* like the COVID type regulations won't be as drastic this second time around as they were in the spring. It seems like local school districts are making decisions rather than ALL of the schools being shut down simultaneously, which never made sense to me because the virus was much worse in some parts of the state and very minimal in other parts. Although many businesses are limited as to capacity, at least they aren't being totally shut down as they were in the spring. I'm hoping this means the libraries and churches won't be totally shut down again. To be honest I haven't seen many people actually changing their behavior even though the regulations have changed. In some businesses (ex. the grocery store) almost everyone wears a mask or face shield. In other places, no one is wearing them. I go by the philosophy of "when in Rome." If others are wearing a mask, I wear mine. If I walk into a place and realize I'm the only one wearing a mask, I take mine off. We are supposed to be wearing masks ANY time we are with other people who don't live in our house even if we are staying more than 6 feet apart. This rule now applies to ANY time you are inside or outside no matter where you are, but the kids aren't wearing masks when they're playing together in our neighborhood., and even though they are now asking those in grades 6-12 to keep their masks or shields on at church, I was surprised this past Sunday that the policy in the worship service didn't change. We were allowed to take it off once we we found our seats. The one thing that is stricter this time around is crossing state borders, but we didn't have plans to leave the state. 

3. That we were able to attend the geology program today. It only cost $10 per family. They said they are planning to offer a program there once a month in the spring on a variety of topics - art, poetry, etc. 

4. I read and discussed the book Good Pictures Bad Pictures with the kids today. It's not a topic I was exactly wanting to discuss with them, but in this day and age one that must be addressed, and I was very thankful to have that book to guide our discussion! 

5. The boys  have been sleeping in! This is part of the reason why we didn't finish our schoolwork by 2pm on Monday or Tuesday, but it will be fine if they sleep in the next five days! I'm grateful they have fully adjusted to the time change. I also moved Ian's bedtime to 9:30, and maybe that is part of the reason he hasn't been getting up too early. Nadia likes to start her math at 7:00am, but I know she'll choose to sleep in over the next five days.

6. Paul got his tires rotated, oil changed, and a had one tire patched on Sunday while the kids and I were at church. It's a challenge for him to get his car serviced since he typically works six days a week. During the first 11 years of our marriage I took care of getting both vehicles serviced. Over the last 8 years I've only taken care of the minivan. I faithfully take vehicles for the maintenance at the recommended mileage, but Paul drives his car far longer than the recommended mileage before taking it for service. He actually was able to take the vehicle to Walmart Auto Center. They finally reopened! The last time I tried to get an appointment there was in July, and they were still closed. We shall see if they will be open the next time the minivan is due for an oil change and tire rotation. Paul racks up the miles much faster than I do on the van. 

7. Paul's mom is still in the hospital, but Paul's dad, brother, and sister-in-law are planning to come up and have Thanksgiving dinner with us. It seems our Thanksgiving traditions don't need to change. Tomorrow morning the kids and I will write our annual gratitude lists in the Thanksgiving Day journal I started several years ago. Yes, three people who don't live in our house will be spending time with us in our home tomorrow which goes against "safer at home" policy in effect right now, but that's not exactly a large gathering of people. I made Canadian butter tarts this evening for one of our desserts for tomorrow, and I'm planning to make apple crisp in the morning. Although I've been trying many new recipes (such as the butter tarts), it's also nice to make some recipes we already know we like!

Different names

As I've been looking through many books that include recipes from around the world, I've noticed that there are so many dishes that a very similar (or even identical) but have different names in different countries. In France they call it hachis Parmetier, but in other places it's called shepherd's pie. Macaroni Bechamel is the French version of pastistio, which is a Greek/Egyptian dish. It seems most countries have a small stuffed pocket of dough whether it's called a brik, pupusa, empanada, pastie, calzone, boureka, etc. Flatbreads also have a wide variety of names around the globe: tortillas, crepes, injera, chapati, blini, damper, etc.  In contrast, sometimes two foods have the same name but actually are very different. I made Johnny cakes a few years ago since that was a very common food during the Revolutionary War. The kids and I gave them two thumbs DOWN, but I am planning to try a recipe called Johnny cakes that is frequently served in Belize and the Caribbean. It looks very different. Hopefully we will have a more favorable opinion of this version of Johnny cakes! We've tried 54 new recipes over the past 3 months, which means we're about 1/3 of the way through the list I've made of new recipes to try this school year.

I don't know for sure that Ian is allergic to almonds, but since he's allergic to at least three other tree nuts (pecans, walnuts, and cashews), I'm trying to have him avoid ALL tree nuts. Looking online I've read that some kids are allergic to ALL tree nuts, but some are allergic to only certain tree nuts. Evidently there are smaller groups within the tree nuts based on the similarity of their protein structures. Pecans and walnuts are in the same group. Pistachios are in the same group as cashews, so I think he should definitely avoid pistachios. The third group includes almonds and hazelnut. When he was first diagnosed with an allergy to milk, soy, eggs, and more when he was a toddler, he drank almond milk and coconut milk. I believe he's eaten Almond Joy candy bars without any issues, but his tree nut allergy has been getting worse as he's gotten older so I haven't been letting him eat Almond Joy as it seems better to air on the side of caution in this instance, but I had NO idea how may recipes include almonds. It seems to me that almonds are the most frequently used nut in recipes around the globe. I was thinking of making La Galette des Rois for Three Kings Day on January 6, but I'm going to need to pick another recipe for that day as you can't really make that recipe without almonds. 

Before I share my gratitude list, I'd ask for prayer for Paul's mom. She was admitted to the hospital on Sunday, which is the fourth time in 13 months that she's been hospitalized. 

1. Evanna was able to spend the night at our house last Friday night. 

2. I'm thankful for libraries. I just finished reading the book Let Them Be Kids by Jessica Smartt that I got from the library; I liked it so much that I'm wanting to read her other book, Memory-Making Mom.. I was at both libraries on Friday, and I am planning to pickup some more books from the Montgomery library tomorrow and the Lewisburg library on Wednesday. As more school districts are switching back to only offering distance learning, my fear that the public libraries might shut down again is growing, but I'm trying to take advantage of the resources while I can.

3. Nadia and Evanna enjoyed the social at the church on Friday night. 

4. Paul bought a toilet last week at Lowe's. Hopefully Ken will be able to install it this week!

5. I went to CVS on Sunday as the week of Black Friday is always the best week to shop at CVS. I plan to return there again sometime between Thursday-Saturday for some of their other specials. That will be the extent of my Black Friday shopping unless I do a little online. 

6. The kids are really, really enjoying Alice's Farm. The boys also really enjoyed Peter Pan. 

7. We were able to donate 6 blankets and 25 baggies of baked goods for a Thanksgiving outreach this week in Sunbury.

8. We were able to spend 2 hours with my sister and 7 of her kids on Thursday afternoon! Time with extended family is definitely a rare treat in 2020.

9. The weather was unseasonably warm for a couple of days last week. 

10. I'm very thankful for the privilege to stay home as a homeschooling mom. I'm also very thankful that life has slowed down to a more manageable pace which means I can do things like read books and spend more time with meal planning and cooking than I have in the past. 

11. The Steelers are 10-0. Wow! This is a first!

12. Margie's second surgery went well on Thursday. Hopefully the pathology report this week will show that he got ALL the cancer the second time around. We're also praying her infection that the surgeon discovered will clear up ASAP.