Five Months Old

Since Milo was born on September 30 and there aren't 30 days in February, this is as close as we can get to the day he turns 5 months old. We've had Milo for 2.5 months, and he's changed a lot in that time! When we got him he weighed only four pounds; he currently weighs seven pounds. I would say he is officially done with housetraining. He wears a belly band because he wants to mark his territory in our house. I have no idea how many months he'll be wearing a belly band, but I'm very grateful for them at the moment. He's attempted to lift his leg and spray in a variety of places such as the clothes hamper or a bed post, but the vast majority of the time if he lifts his leg inside the house he's attempting to spray the drapes in front of the sliding glass door in the kitchen or the kids' coats or snow pants in the foyer. Over the past month he's improved with getting his nails trimmed. Prior to him going to the groomer, he used to like being brushed. It's been a lot more challenging to brush him over the last few weeks. Sometime in March I'm going to use the clippers on him for the first time. He's getting used to our broom, mop, and vacuum, but when he saw a picture of himself on my laptop monitor, he started growling and then barking at his photo. Ha ha! He absolutely loves going on long walks outside. He loves to run! I think this puppy is going to get me into shape! He occasionally goes to the door to let us know when he has to poop. We can go longer amounts of time in between trips outdoors to go to the bathroom.  We still sometimes have to tell him not chew something he shouldn't be chewing, but it doesn't happen nearly as often as it did at first. Whew. 

He absolutely hates being left alone. He cries when we leave for church on Sunday morning. That's usually the only time each week that he's left alone in the house, but there are other times when he's in his crate and we are somewhere else in the house. He doesn't like that At All. He wants to be able to see one of us at all times. Much to Nadia's chagrin, I am his favorite person. She gets really perturbed at Milo when she picks him up and he leaves her arms and comes over to me, and she takes him back again and he again leaves her and goes back to me. Milo does love Nadia very much. His little tail wags like crazy when she comes in the room, but when I've been gone - whether I've gone to the grocery store or just been shoveling the driveway, Milo looks like he's about to jump out of his skin he's so excited to see me. It cracks me up since I never had any desire to have a dog, but he does spend more time with me than he does with anyone else. I do love holding him because he warms me up!

Prior to taking Milo on walks recently, I was still thinking that cats are better pets in my opinion because they require far less maintenance and keep themselves a lot cleaner. You don't have to give cats a bath, for example. Cats are not as exuberant in showing their affection, but they do show affection by rubbing your legs when you're standing or purring while on your lap. Wednesday through Friday Milo and I walked (and jogged part of the time) for a total of ten miles! Now that is not something I have ever done with a cat. 

I've started the videography course, and I think my first cinematic home video will be of Milo! I plan on doing a MUCH, MUCH nicer video of the kids around the time of their birthdays than I have in the past, but the next birthday won't be until June so I think my first project will be to make a video featuring Milo.

One year later

It has almost been a full year since life became very abnormal. Although we were aware of COVID-19 earlier in 2020, our life continued on as normal until March 12, 2020. If I had known they would be closed for months, I'd have gone to the library on March 13 (the last day they were open) and checked out a massive amount of books. We quickly learned that we are not fans of online church services. In our case, our church was only closed for three months. I say "only" because some people have been limited to online services for a full year at this point. So many things have happened over the last year that I never would have thought possible. Our church even being forced to be closed for even two weeks would have seem unthinkable prior to COVID. I fully realize that life has changed more drastically over the past year for many people that for our family. We already homeschooled our kids whereas it's been an unexpected shock for many families to experience virtual learning at home. None of us came down with COVID, none of our friends or

family have passed away from COVID, and Paul's business actually had its best year ever in 2020. But the past 12 months have still felt very abnormal. Spending more time at home than usual has had some positive outcomes such as the kids doing FAR more puzzles than ever before and we played more board games than we'd ever played before, and we've been very healthy!

In the very beginning I don't think I could have handled the knowledge of how long this was going to last. I kept thinking life would be back to normal in maybe 2-3 months. As the spring and then summer progressed I began to realize that normal could be more than a year away. At this point, I'm hoping but not 100% confident that life will be close enough to normal that we will go on vacation in September. The pace of life has definitely slowed down, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Time will tell exactly how much will truly return to normal at some point. Will we ever ditch the facemasks and shields? Will we ever

shake hands with people again? At this point the change I'm looking forward to the most is everything be fully open again - museums, historic sites, national parks, etc. I'm hoping that will happen sometime in 2021, but I realize it might not happen until 2022. Here are some of the main ways life has been different for our family over the past 12 months due to COVID-19.

1. We typically go to several concerts over the course of a year. From January 2020 to the present, Nadia, Ian, and I only attended one concert - the Compassion Roadshow in Wilkes Barre in early March right before everything shut down. Paul and Oliver haven't been to a concert since 2019. Since the middle of March concerts have either been virtual or drive-in events. We watched a little of some free virtual ones in the beginning of the pandemic and discovered that we vastly prefer in person concerts. We haven't experienced a drive-in concert. Some friends and

family attended a drive-in concert by For King and Country in our area, and I heard positive feedback about that. At this point I have no idea how long our concert hiatus will end up lasting. 

2. We also typically attend several dramatic productions each year. I took the kids to see Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom in February 2020, and Nadia and I saw MCS's production of Annie in early March right before everything ground to a halt, but since then, we've only attended one production - Queen Esther at Sight and Sound in Lancaster in December. It was very strange to be in such a large theatre with such a very small audience (capacity greatly limited). We don't have any plans at the moment for attending anything in 2021. We shall see when that returns to "normal." If life is a lot closer to normal by December, I'd like us to go to NYC in December and see a show as part of that trip.

3. The last time we flew in an airplane was May 2018, but we actually hadn't planned to fly anywhere

in 2020. However, of the five one week trips I had planned for 2020, three of them were cancelled due to COVID. The kids and I did spend a week with Aunt Janet in August, and all five of us spent a week in Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, and western Pennsylvania in October. As for 2021, I'm planning to take the kids and Milo to visit Aunt Janet for a week in July, and the five of us are hoping to go out west in September/October. Due to COVID, I've changed that vacation itinerary so it doesn't involve any flights. I'm thinking we probably won't step onto an airplane until 2022. Hopefully COVID-19 won't be a factor by then!

4. Even though we "only" were away from church for three months, life at church still hasn't returned to normal. We wear masks or shields. Temperatures are taken for those 18 and under. There aren't any choirs. I haven't attended an adult Sunday School class in a

year. Usually there is a time for people to come forward to the altar for prayer each Sunday morning. That hasn't happened in a year. Usually we shake hands and hug people. Now we just wave from a distance.  We used to pass an attendance pad. Now we sign in online even if we are attending church in person. The attendance has been drastically lower in person as many have chosen to participate only in the online services. Communion is also handled differently. The boys haven't been to AWANA in a full year. This means Ian's time in AWANA ended in early March 2020 as he'll be entering 6th grade this fall. Similarly, his time in the kids' choir at church ended in March 2020 because again he'll be too old for it if the kids' choir resumes at some point in the future. Although there were months when the youth groups were only meeting online, Nadia's experience at church has been closer to normal as she has been attending the youth group at our church on Sunday morning and Wednesday night and at another church on Sunday night. 

5. The libraries were totally closed for a few months, and then they reopened just for picking up books you had already requested. That is still the status of the library we had used for several years, but in September I got a card for a different library system, and that other library system is totally open. Discovering there is a library closer to our house through which I can request books from several libraries has been one of the blessings in disguise of COVID-19 for our family. 

6. I redeemed some credit card points last January for an AMC gift card. We planned to see at least three movies in the theatre in 2020. We never entered an AMC theatre in 2020. The only movie we saw outside of our home from January 2020 to the present was one IMAX movie at a science museum in Cincinnati in October. Will we use the gift card in 2021 or 2022, or is seeing movies at a theatre a thing of the past?

7. At least one of our kids has gone to camp at Camp Susque every year since 2014, but the kids ended up going to PMBC because Camp Susque cancelled their camps due to COVID. We haven't been to Camp Susque in 18 months because the other events we had registered for were also cancelled over the last few months. We are scheduled for a field trip there in April. We shall see if that actually takes place. At this point the plan is for Nadia to go to Camp Susque this summer and the boys to go to PMBC. I don't think we ever would have learned about PMBC if COVID-19 hadn't closed many other camps last summer.

8. Not counting our one week vacation in October, we have only been on five field trips over the last twelve months - Reptiland, hike at Hawk Mountain, Dale's Ridge Trail, Refreshing Mountain, and a trip to Hershey/ Indian Echo Caverns; most of these field trips were outdoor events. We went on three field trips between February 21 - March 8 so that means our grand total of field trips from January 2020 to the present would be eight, which is far, far less than usual. We haven't gone on any yet in 2021. I have three field trips scheduled for March and April. We shall see if those actually take place or not. I'm not holding my breath! Since we are studying various countries and cultures this school year, prior to the pandemic I had planned out a variety of cultural festivals for us to attend from June 2020- May 2021 in Camp Hill, Philadelphia, DC, Doylestown, etc. So far every single one has been cancelled, and I'm expecting that trend will continue for the next three months. I do miss our field trips and look forward to the day when I can plan them again without such a high risk of cancellation being present all the time. The upside is that I put a lot less mileage on the van over the last year than I typically do in a year.

9. I never would have dreamt I'd be wearing face masks or shields. I definitely prefer the shield. Although I'm hoping they aren't here to stay for years on end, ditching them is not as important to me as other aspects of "returning to normal." We've also become accustomed to staying six feet apart during the rare times we're in a public place.

10. Nadia has benefitted financially because you can't bring an extra person with you to a doctor appointment, the dentist, etc. This has meant I've needed to pay Nadia for babysitting Oliver more than I would have normally.

11. Although I've homeschooled the kids for the past eight years, I have outsourced for many of the extracurricular subjects as the kids have been in choirs at church and other places, taken art class at MCS, theatre classes/camps, soccer teams, ice skating lessons, swimming lessons, basketball teams, gym class at CWC, etc. Ice skating and basketball ended right around March 12 last year, and since then the kids haven't been in a choir, played on a team, etc. Nadia really misses ice skating. Nadia has been participating in voice lessons over Zoom and theatre productions over Zoom. We've been taking online art classes together. We hadn't planned to join a swimming pool in 2020, but I did join one due to COVID. Paul took the kids skiing once in January, but basically their "physical education" for this school year has been whatever exercise they get while playing inside and outside.

12. When this first started last March, I wasn't feeling the need to be very cautious because the numbers were very low in our area, and since we don't have any risk factors, I figured it wouldn't be very horrible if we came down with it. Once things reopened, we started going to church, the library, etc. In the beginning, Paul was more cautious than me. I didn't even drive the car for awhile because he even took over picking up the online grocery orders as he figured since he was already going to work the rest of us should just stay at home. However in November my attitude changed as the cases began to rise in our area. I began to choose to stay home and avoid indoor activities that didn't seem worth the risk to me such as roller skating. Now it feels hard for me to know when to return to those activities. Thankfully the numbers have begun to decline. Hopefully at some point it will be clear to me that we can resume indoor activities (aside from church). 

13. Although I had placed a few online grocery orders prior to COVID, I certainly have done it more than usual over the past year. During the months when many businesses were forced to stay closed, it didn't affect us that much because the places I usually shop in person were still open. We definitely dealt with shortages on various items more in the past year than any other time in the previous 48 years of my life. It's not as hard to locate items as it was in the first few months, but there are still limits on buying some things such as facial tissues. Aside from food, paper products, and cleaning products some other things that were hard to find were bikes and freezers. The lockdown is the reason I bought far more puzzles than usual as well as two pairs of roller blades for the kids.

14. In the very beginning even the kids in the neighborhood stopped playing together. After several weeks they resumed playing together outside. The kids haven't been inside any other houses in our neighborhood over the last year. Most of the year none of the neighborhood kids were in our house either, but three kids in the neighborhood have been in our house a few times. We also saw far less of our extended family over the past year. I haven't seen my sister Wendy and her kids since August 2019, which is the longest I've ever gone without seeing her. Paul's mom hasn't been in our house since December 2019, and we were only in Paul's parents' house one time since December 25, 2019. Since Paul's family only live an hour away from us, we usually see them far more often than that. We saw my Dad and Margie in August when they were on their way to the Poconos. We saw the Towfighis a few times between June and November. We spent time with Paul's brother, Dad, and sister-in-law two times since December 25, 2019. The boys and I have only been in two other homes aside from ours over the past 14 months - one time at Paul's parents' house and a few times at my friend Tab's house.

15. Holidays were also very different in 2020. The only holiday we celebrated with other people in 2020 was Thanksgiving when we had three guests at our house (Paul's dad, brother, and SIL). The only birthday we celebrated with other people was Paul's mom's birthday in early November which was again a big change. There weren't any egg hunts for Easter last year. We didn't see any fireworks or attend any parades during the summer. Halloween was different in some ways but wasn't as different as the other holidays. I'm not certain what the holidays will be like in 2021, but I do think there will be some egg hunts this spring albeit they will probably be different (masks required, etc.). I still have Christmas gifts to give some of Yvonne's kids because to enter or re-enter the state of Pennsylvania has required either quarantining or a COVID test since the middle of November. We don't know when that restriction will be removed. I hope it's still not in place in July when we hope to visit my aunt on Long Island! Because we weren't going to Great Wolf Lodge for Ian's birthday, we weren't going to see any relatives at Christmas, and we've been home more than usual, those were three of the reasons I bought Milo on December 12. So one upside of COVID-19 was the addition of a puppy to our family.

Life definitely is closer to normal right now than it was in the spring of 2020, but I'm hoping that by March 2022 it's completely or at least almost totally back to normal. Time will tell. The last twelve months were unusual in other ways as well as I think back through what has happened in our country, but since I try to think about politics as little as possible, I'm just focusing on how our lives were different because of COVID-19. 

Goal Check-up

In four days we'll be entering the third month of the year so I thought I'd take the time to reflect on how we're doing with the 21 goals I set for 2021.

1. Paul took Oliver on a date this month. I told Oliver recently that when he learns all his times tables, he will earn an extra date with the parent of his choosing. Nadia and Ian are eagerly anticipating their dates.

2. We haven't been making much progress with increasing our use of Spanish. We need to get in gear!

3. The kids each earned one Junior Ranger badge in January, and they've earned four so far this month.

4. We memorized Matthew 6 over the last two months!

5. Nadia and Ian have each been cooking one dinner per week. For example, Nadia made beef noodle bake yesterday, and Ian will be making ham and cheese Stromboli on Saturday. 

6. Oliver did finish his cursive handwriting book. 

7. Nadia and Ian learned the location and capitals of all the countries in Europe and Oceania. They are working on Asia now. 

8. Milo has learned to obey a few commands (sit, down, leash, and come). If he wears a belly band, he only goes to the bathroom outside. He still tries to eat things he shouldn't (facial tissues are one of his favorites), but in general he's doing better with only chewing his toys. He's also doing better with not biting/nipping us as much, and in general he's doing better with not begging during meals.

9.  I haven't been completely regular with exercise, but I'm going in the right direction. Yesterday it got up to the low 50's!!! I took Milo on a 2.7 mile walk, and he actually had me running part of the time! I think he's going to be an excellent exercise buddy for me once the weather gets warmer. 

10. The kids have been doing art with Creating a Masterpiece three times a week lately. This week the kids did a pastel project (of hydrangeas) on Tuesday and started a colored pencil project (of a lion cub) today that they will finish tomorrow.

11. The kids and I finished Numbers, read all of Deuteronomy, more of Psalms, and we're nearing the end of Joshua. In our family devotions we've been studying Daniel for two months. We're about to start chapter 10 today. It's been the kids' first introduction to future prophecies. 

12. We've tried 33 new recipes so far in 2021. Over the next few days I'm planning on making Serbian potato moussaka, Hamantaschen, and phyllo meat pie for the first time.

We haven't made any progress toward the other nine goals yet. This week I decided to add another goal to the list even though that means I have 22 goals for 2021, ha ha. I have started a course to learn how to create cinematic home videos! Just as I have improved with my photography skills over the years, now I'm going to learn how to make MUCH nicer videos. I'm very excited about tackling this challenge after seeing what others have created! Hopefully I can create some videos that our family will treasure for years to come. 

Thankful Tuesday

 

1. The belly bands are a huge blessing. Most of Milo's attempts to mark the territory inside our home are thwarted. The only time we've had to clean up a puddle over the last nine days has been when he hasn't been wearing a diaper. The kids are learning the hard way that they need to carry Milo inside the house otherwise he'll lift his leg the very moment his feet hit the kitchen floor. It's been more than a week since he pooped in the house, and that has nothing to do with his belly band.

2. Nadia's weekly voice lessons resumed via Zoom on February 9. None of us can sing in a choir due to COVID, but Ian is making great progress on the piano (he's almost ready to move to Alfred Level 6), and Nadia is taking voice lessons and practicing at least four times a week.

3. Nadia also is participating in a play with other middle schoolers via Zoom called Nancy Blue (a spin off of Nancy Drew). One perk of voice lessons and play practices being conducted on Zoom is I do a lot less driving. In a typical week I drive to church on Sunday morning and Wednesday night and also make one trip to the library + grocery store. Aside from church, in all of February we only had three other things on the calendar that took place outside of our house - Milo at the groomer once, Ian at the orthodontist once, and I had one doctor appointment. Two of those appointments took place about 1 mile from our house, and Paul took Ian to the orthodontist because it had snowed some that day. The price of gas has gone up 50% over the last year, but I'm not buying as much gas as I used to before COVID. 

4. Nadia is also enjoying a bi-weekly ASL class on Zoom through one of the libraries in our area.

5. Everyone in Yvonne's family came down with COVID recently (they have 8 kids), but thankfully they only had a mild case of the virus. Andrew was the first one to catch it, and his only symptom was a headache.

6. Paul finished repairing a hole in the drywall behind the refrigerator that had been there for years, and he also got the glass back in the door in our entertainment center. Next up is to finish the master bathroom project so we can resume using that shower. 

7. Paul has been at home more lately because of the snow. We've gotten more snow than usual this year. We got at least 4 inches yesterday morning. He had a VERY short work day yesterday as he sent the crew home very early because of the snow. He had a very, very hard time making it home in his Mazda. We are very thankful he made it home without getting in an accident.

8. Margie and my dad are having a good time in Cancun. She's receiving alternative treatments for her cancer.

9. Although we couldn't even make ourselves finish the acai bowls or pao de queijo that I had prepared, we have found some "winners" this month including Belgian waffles, challah, and strawberry crepes. Oliver really loved the pan de coco. Today is the Emperor's Birthday holiday in Japan. I bought the kids cotton candy (wata-ame). I can't remember the last time I did that. Look up cotton candy in Japan and you will see images of how BIG their rainbow cotton candy is. Oliver wants to go to Japan just for the cotton candy, ha ha! We're also having jaga bata (a Japanese buttered potato recipe) and kasutera (a Japanese sponge cake) tonight. We shall see if either of those are "winners." On Friday we'll be celebrating Purim by eating Serbian potato moussaka and Hamantaschen cookies. I ordered chopsticks today because Oliver said he wanted to try eating with chopsticks. Now I need to figure out where I'm going to buy color powder for when we celebrate Holi next month. 

10. When Nadia came home from youth group on Valentine's Day she came with a bag filled with many lovely gifts. Our friend, Tab, had organized the project that several ladies in the church had worked together to gather the goodies for each of the girls in the youth group. Her bag contained socks, a mug, hot chocolate bombs, candy, jewelry, etc. What a sweet surprise!

11. The kids and I enjoyed eating our brownie batter donuts. We only get them once a year, and they're our favorite kind of donut. Yum! 

12. Over the last couple of months I had my annual mammogram and also the less frequent pap smear. I'm thankful for negative results on both.

13. Sometime last month I bought a charging stand that holds and charges our 5 electronic devices (two phones, one Kindle, and two iPads). It now sits on the fireplace mantle. The cords are SUPER short. It's a small thing but let me tell you I really appreciate that the devices and all their longer cords are no longer on the kitchen counter. Woohoo! 

14. We had taken a bit of a break from doing Junior Ranger badges, but now the kids have resumed earning them. As of today, each child has earned 76 badges! We received some badges in the mail today from New Orleans, and I have some packets I need to take the Post Office to mail to some national parks.

Expander and belly bands

 Milo's belly bands arrived on Saturday afternoon, and we couldn't wait to put one on him because as every day passed he was marking the territory more and more in our house. For example, on Saturday morning he attempted to spray Paul's work jacket that was hanging on a chair in the dining room. Thankfully Ian scooped him up as soon as he lifted his leg, but there were plenty of other times we had to clean up a mess. Since we started using the belly bands on Saturday, we've only had to clean two accidents in the house. He pooped in Ian's room once on Saturday. Thankfully it's very rare for him to poop in the house because the belly bands won't help with that one iota. On Sunday morning after he came inside the house he walked right over to the hamper as I was throwing in a load of laundry and lifted his leg and sprayed. He had been in the house less than 5 seconds so we hadn't put his diaper back on yet. Thankfully since Sunday morning he hasn't had any accidents in the house - at least none that escaped his "diaper" anyhow. We take off his diaper when he's in the crate or sitting on the couch as he is prone to trying to chew the diaper. He doesn't have accidents on the couch, in our arms, or in his crate so we primarily use the belly bands for when he's walking around the house. I hope that when he's neutered that will bring an end to this behavior and we can discontinue the belly bands, but for now they are a blessing. We have three of them, and I can launder them. 

Ian finally got his expander for his top jaw on Monday. I turned the key once yesterday. It brought back memories of the years (starting when I was in 4th grade) when I would put the key in my expander on a daily basis. Now there are things that Ian can't eat, and he's relearning how to enunciate words with that metal device in his mouth. I know he will adjust. It's a bit hard to understand what he's saying sometimes at the moment.

We've continued to try some new foods. Nadia usually doesn't like hot breakfast foods (aside from eggs, which she loves), but even Nadia really liked the Belgian waffles I made earlier this month. None of us were crazy about the pan de queijo (a gluten free Brazilian cheese bread), but I remember my brother talking about those when he lived in Brazil. The kids had never heard of a cold fruit soup before, but they enjoyed the strawberry soup I made them yesterday. Paul doesn't usually eat what I prepare when I make breakfast for dinner, but he actually ate some of the pannenkoek that I made on Saturday evening. The Dutch pancake was thicker than a crepe and thinner than an American pancake. I read that you could put either sweet or savory toppings inside it. I opted to put bacon and cheddar cheese inside them, which I think is partially why Paul was willing to give it a try. Oliver and I enjoyed the Spanish flan and also the pan de coco (Filipino bread recipe). The kids and I all really liked the challah. Of the new recipes we've tried so far this month, two of them will be added to our rotation - Belgian waffles and challah. Over the next ten days I'm planning on making acai bowls, strawberry crepes, honey kasutera, jaga bata, candy apples (ringo ame), Musaka, and hamantaschen for the first time. 

Happy New Year!

In September we celebrated Rosh Hashanah, which is the Jewish New Year, and of course we celebrated the New Year on January 1. Today marked the third time in five months that we've celebrated a "New Year" as today is the Lunar New Year, which is celebrated in China, South Korea, Tibet, Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Because it's based on the moon, the date changes each year. Last year it was on January 25. One of the traditions is to wear red, which considering this year the Chinese New Year is two days before Valentine's Day, it probably looked like we were celebrating Valentine's Day based on the red shirts and sweaters and kids and I are wearing today. The inktense art project today was of a Chinese rooster that included the Mandarin characters for the word "rooster." The kids are looking forward to receiving a red envelope (yasui qian) that contains money this evening. We're having an Asian orange chicken and Jasmine rice for dinner tonight. Last week we celebrated the Sabbath. The kids were puzzled as to why I had a lace tablecloth on the table and had lit two candlesticks (remember, keep) for our dinner. The kids absolutely loved the challah bread. I'm sure I'll be making it again!

As for Valentine's Day, I got the kids each a gift - headphones for Ian because he's been obsessed with listening to Parry Gripp songs on the Echo Dot, a box of 12 Hot Pockets for Nadia because that's her favorite thing to have at lunch and I don't buy them very often any more, and a hoverboard go kart attachment for Oliver. Oliver paid for about half of the go kart attachment using some of the gift card money he hadn't spent yet from Christmas. I'm assuming both Nadia and Oliver will take turns using the go kart attachment since they both have hoverboards. We made heart shaped gingerbread cookies on Wednesday. We usually make gingerbread cookies in December, but we hadn't made any in 2020. I'm planning to make heart shaped breakfast foods on Sunday morning - either toast with a heart shaped egg inside or a heart shaped chocolate chip pancake. I'll let the kids choose what they want. On Monday when I take Ian to the orthodontist I'm planning to get 6 brownie batter donuts at Dunkin'. They only sell them around Valentine's Day in our area, and I'll also buy the kids some candy on Monday since it's always cheaper the day after the holiday. 

Milo has started marking his territory inside our house. We had this trouble around this time last year when we had two male rabbits. I thought because we only have ONE male dog, we wouldn't have this problem. The vet won't neuter him until he turns 6 months old. They suggested buying belly bands. Amazon is supposed to deliver them tomorrow. Our plan is to have him wear a belly band when he's inside the house. Hopefully this will do the trick. As of today we've had Milo for exactly two months, and we're all very ready to be done cleaning up his accidents!!!

Date with Daddy

For the past 12 years we haven't had a routine as far as taking our kids out on individual dates. Years ago Paul took a child with him to the Watson Inn for dinner on his birthday, and I did the same on my birthday, but it's been years since we've done that. Nadia has had the most dates with a parent since she is the eldest and also because sometimes she and I have done something that was for girls (like getting our nails done) or seeing the Nutcracker ballet. Oliver and I have had outings together when Nadia and Ian were attending something like history camp when he was too young to join them, but in general Oliver has had the fewest individualized outings with a parent. I read a book last fall that really emphasized taking your children out on dates. I came up with the plan that each child would get to plan a date in the month of their birthday and half-birthday so that they will each have at least one date per year with each parent. Oliver's half-birthday was yesterday. He decided that he wanted to go bowling and eat dinner at Bonanza with Paul. We never went bowling in 2020 because of COVID. Oliver had a great time on his date with his Dad. We shall see what Oliver will plan for he and I to do in August! I hope this is a tradition the kids will eventually have fond memories about when they are adults. It's possible we could expand it to each child having 3 or 4 dates per year with a parent as even if we did 4 per year we could arrange it so one parent had one date with a child per month, but six dates a year is at least a good starting point!

Since I stayed home with Milo when Paul took the kids skiing last month, we won't have any skiing pictures to include in any photo books this year. Paul did take two videos with his phone which I finally got around to uploading. 

We're supposed to get more snow tomorrow. I'm VERY ready for spring to come. Nadia has her first voice lesson for the spring semester tomorrow, but since they take place via Zoom, snow won't cause any problems. 

8.5 years old!

 A - I am not sure why, but Oliver has had the "joy" of dealing with acne at a younger age than usual. He actually started using a special soap to wash his face when he was only seven years old. He doesn't seem to care, but I've felt badly that he had to start dealing with having large quantities of pimples on his face at such a young age. He likes to eat half of a gala apple at lunch. He still pronounces the word animal incorrectly most the time. He says "aminal." 

B -  Oliver loves to eat bacon and ride his bike!  (not at the same time of course!) One of Oliver's friends is a ten-year-old boy named Bentley. Prior to a few months ago we had never had any trouble with any of the kids in the neighborhood, but we have definitely had issues with Bentley. We are praying for him and trying to teach Oliver to be kind but also not let himself be bullied. 

C - Oliver has been learning how to write in cursive the past few months. Camden is one of his friends in our neighborhood.

D -  Oliver still eats his cereal dry most of the time. He does ask for milk in the bowl when he eats Cocoa Puffs. Oliver is always excited when he sees that Deacon (a boy close to Oliver's age) has come to visit his cousin (a little girl in our neighborhood). 

E -  Oliver eats almost everything. His list of foods that he doesn't like is very, very small.  

F -  Friends are VERY important to Oliver. He plays outside with the kids in the neighborhood whether they are several years younger than him or several years older than him. He would gladly skip eating a meal if that gave him more time to play outside with a friend. Oliver is very friendly - no one is a stranger to Oliver! Oliver can swim, but he still hasn't mastered the art of floating on his back.

G - Oliver is almost always generous! I often see him sharing food with the kids in the neighborhood or getting one of them a glass of water. When we invited some neighbors to join us at the trampoline park, Oliver immediately offered to pay for their socks with his own money. It's very rare when Oliver isn't willing to share. He likes to have grape jelly on his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. One of his favorite expressions to say is "Guess what?".

H - Oliver loves hugs and riding on his hoverboard. Oliver loves to play with my hair, which is something I really appreciate. He loves to drink hot chocolate with marshmallows and often asks me to also make a second mug for one of his friends.

I - Oliver often asks for his back to be itched. We've tried to get him to use the word scratch. It reminds me of my brother who loved to have his back scratched his entire life. This past fall he spent $10 of his money to buy a back scratcher on Amazon, and for awhile it was one of his most prized possessions!

J -  Like  his dad, he loves to chew Juicy Fruit gum; unlike his father, he does not like to wear jeans. Jack is one of his friends in our neighborhood.

K - Karyss is one of his friends in our neighborhood. He also has been known to share our Klondike bars with his friends.

L - Of anyone in our family, Oliver creates the most laundry.

M - One of Oliver's favorite things to eat for breakfast is maple brown sugar oatmeal. He likes to drink milk all day long. Maddox, who is in 7th grade, is one of his friends in our neighborhood. Oliver loves to listen to music; sometimes I ask him to listen in his room because it's not something I want to listen to. 

O - Oliver loves to play outside. He spends more time outdoors than his siblings do. He would gladly forgo using electronics, watching tv, or even eating a meal just to have more time to play outside with his friends.

P - Oliver loves Paw Patrol toys. 2020 was the first year it wasn't hard to shop for him for his birthday and Christmas. I used to have the hardest time coming up with ideas of what to buy him, but now I buy him Paw Patrol toys.

R - Oliver learned how to roller blade in the spring, and he rollerblades around the neighborhood many times a week!

S - This boy takes after me in several ways - one being his love of sweet potatoes! I'm also very, very thankful that he love to snuggle just as much as Ian does! He also likes to ride his scooter.

T - Like his mom, he doesn't like to drink soda, but like his Dad he does like to drink sweetened iced tea. Oliver loves to climb trees!

V - Oliver asked me this morning, "What is this thing that has no arms?" He was showing me a sweater vest from his drawer. He wore it to church this morning over a long sleeve polo shirt and looked quite handsome! I haven't done a good job of taking pictures the last several weeks so I failed to get a picture before he changed clothes to play in the snow. 

W -Westyn is one of his friends in our neighborhood. He still really loves to eat watermelon!

Y - Oliver hasn't seen all of the Star Wars movies yet, but he was excited each Friday in the fall to watch an episode of the Mandalorian on Disney+ to see baby Yoda!

Z - Oliver got his first pet six months ago - two zebra danios. He named them Henry and Zuma.  Unfortunately they both died at the very end of December. Since we got Milo a little before the fish died, I didn't agree to getting any pets to replace his two fish. We still have the plant that was on top of the fish tank. 

Thankful Thursday

 

1. We attended Milo's second session of puppy kindergarten last Thursday. We learned how to brush his teeth and pluck the hairs from inside his ears. Milo loves the "puppy ping pong" game they suggested we use to teach him the "come" command.

2. The kids have been enjoying the 13 inches of snow we got earlier this week. The snow meant Paul got a two day weekend, which is a rare treat. His vehicle ended up in a snow bank on Tuesday morning on his way to work. Thankfully he wasn't injured, his car wasn't damaged, and two young men nearby loaned him a shovel and also assisted him with digging out his car. He had left his phone at work the previous Saturday so he couldn't have called anyone to ask for help. 

3. I had lunch with my friend on Friday. I frequently had lunch with a friend in the past, but that's been a very rare treat over the past 12.5 years. I greatly appreciated that Tab allowed my kids to play with hers at her house while I had lunch with Cheri.

4. Nadia participated in a Bible quizzing event at church for 6 hours on Saturday. I'm thankful

she is spending so much time spending the book of Matthew this year.

5. We enjoyed watching a free broadcast of Sight and Sound's production Noah. We had seen it in person in 2013. It's much better in person, but it's MUCH cheaper on TV and also doesn't involve 4 hours of driving (round trip). 

6. Although some people liked some of the new recipes that I tried over the past ten days (ex. Oliver loved the flan), we found two new recipes that everyone liked to add to our rotation - creamy garlic chicken penne and acharuli khachapuri. In fact, we liked the recipe from the country of Georgia so much that I'm planning on making it again in the near future even though in general the plan is that we wait at least 4 months before restarting the meal rotation. 

7. Milo looks so cute! We took him to the groomer yesterday. He got a "D" on his report card because evidently he didn't stay still when they were brushing and combing him. He smelled SO nice, and his fur was SO soft. They recommended we bring him back in 6 weeks. Oh my goodness that would mean we'd end up spending about $500 a year if we took him to the groomer that often! I have no idea when we'll take him to a groomer again. I've ordered forceps, ear powder, and dog clippers in the hopes that I can do his grooming myself. I've never paid as much as I paid today for any hair appointment for myself, and I already give Paul, Ian, and Oliver their haircuts. It was easier to fold laundry and such while he was at the groomer. 

Snow Day

 

Yesterday morning it started snowing, and it has continued to snow today. It's supposed to stop by tomorrow morning. We still went to church yesterday morning, but the youth group didn't meet last night due to the snow. When we shoveled the driveway this morning we had 8 inches of snow. Later today when we measured we had 11 inches of snow. We shall see what the total will be tomorrow morning. I don't think it will exceed the 19 inches we got in one snowfall in December. Last Monday and Tuesday the kids and I didn't leave the house. Today we had two appointments - Milo at the groomers and Ian at the orthodontist. I called the groomer and rescheduled his appointment for Wednesday. The orthodontist's office called me to reschedule Ian's appointment. Originally he was supposed to get his expander on January 25, but due to a part not being in and now the snow, it's scheduled for February 15. Paul stayed home from work due to the snow. He usually only gets a one day weekend (Sunday), but he got a two day weekend due to the snow. Because I met a friend for lunch on Friday, the kids did very little school work last Friday so I didn't give them the day off today. 

It feels so strange to have hardly any field trips planned for the coming months. It's typical that we don't go on many in January or February, but March through June is a completely different story normally. In some cases it's because I'm just not sure when to go back to normal in terms of certain activities. Do we resume going roller skating on the first Wednesday of the month? Do we attend the homeschool meetup again that includes trampolines, laser tag, and arcade games? Or is it better to wait a few more months because of the risk of contracting COVID-19? In other cases, I am leery of scheduling things only to have them cancelled as that's happened plenty over the past 10.5 months. For example,  I was looking at the Blue Angels schedule for the year, but I'm still hesitant to actually make plans at this point. There is always a chance of plans being altered or canceled for a myriad of reasons, but I really, really am looking forward to the day when the thought that events might be cancelled is not so prevalent. I have been working on possible plans for our family vacation this fall. I realize it might not happen this year. If the visitor centers at the national parks aren't open, I'd rather wait until another year, but I'm holding out some hope that maybe just maybe things will be better in about 9 months. I had originally thought we'd fly to Salt Lake City and rent a car, but due to COVID-19 I thought it would be better if we drove. Considering that negative COVID tests might be required for domestic flights, I am even more convinced that if we go we will need to drive to avoid paying for 10 COVID tests. When one of my cousins asked me for the addresses of my sisters, myself, and my dad so that she could send wedding invitations for her daughter's wedding in October, I thought I could work the timing of our trip to include a stop in Indiana for the wedding. 

Over the last few weeks I've come up with two different possible itineraries. The newest plan takes us farther south on the way out west than my previous two plans did. If we used the latest plan, the kids would do something in eighteen states that they've never been in before! That would bring them to 35 total states. In some states we'd be spending multiple days such as Arizona and Wyoming, and in other states we'd only be doing one thing in that state such as the US Space and Rocket Center in Alabama, Little Bighorn Battlefield in Montana, Pipestone National Monument in Minnesota, and the Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa. The vast majority of the stops are at national parks or science museums. At the moment the sites that don't fit in either of those categories are Lava Hot Springs, Yellowstone Bear World, Utah Olympic Park, Popcorn Cannery (only industrial tour in that plan thus far), Riversport OKC, Lower Antelope Canyon, Ford Rouge Tour, Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Museum, Erie Maritime Museum, Shedd's Aquarium, Art Institute, and the Navy Pier. I think the two biggest hurdles for this trip to actually take place are: #1 life returning closer to normal in terms of COVID-19 and #2 Paul agreeing to go on a vacation that lasts around 3 1/2 weeks. Getting time off for vacations was never a problem until he went back to the family business in May 2016. He had one week of vacation in 2016, zero in 2017, two weeks in 2018, two weeks in 2019, and one week in 2020. Since he only took one week off last year, I'm lobbying for him to take three weeks off in 2021. We spent 3 weeks in China in 2006, but generally our vacations are only 1-2 weeks long. I don't anticipate planning other vacations of this length, but the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, etc. are very far from Pennsylvania! Well time will tell if we go out west this fall, and if we do exactly what places we end up seeing. The newest plan doesn't include a few national parks that were included in the other plans. Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park are two that aren't included in the latest plan. I remember really enjoying Bryce Canyon years ago so I was hesitant to eliminate it, but a few places I've never seen before are included in this plan. 

I can't write a post on February 1 without mentioning my brother. He would have turned 37 years old today. I love and miss you, Maurice.