Charlotte's Web

The very first chapter book that I read to the kids was Charlotte's Web. We've only reread a few chapter books over the years, but I decided to read Charlotte's Web again because it's such a good book, Oliver was very young when I read it the first time, and we were going to see the play. Meadowbrook usually puts on a musical in March every year. Last year we saw their production of Annie right before the lockdown began. Over the past 13 months we only saw one other theatrical performance - Queen Esther at Sight and Sound in Lancaster. Meadowbrook wasn't sure if they would have a show this spring due to COVID, but several weeks ago they decided to do a smaller (non-musical) production - Charlotte's Web. We saw it last night. We were especially impressed with the performances of the boys who played Templeton and Wilbur. Nadia sat with friends, and the boys sat with me. Milo was only alone in the house in his crate for an hour as Paul got home from work at 7:30. Milo was very, very happy when the kids and I came home!

Photo credit - Nadia

Most weeks we only leave Milo alone in his crate on Sunday morning when we're at church. Because Milo had just had surgery, Paul stayed home with him last Sunday morning and watched the livestream of the service. Milo was alone at home for about one hour yesterday, and I believe he'll spend some time alone at home today and tomorrow. It's so hard to listen to him crying when we're getting in the van to leave. Hopefully as he matures separation won't be as traumatic for him. Ian is attending a birthday party today! I think it's the second time he's been invited to a birthday party in his life, and the other time our family was invited. I believe it's the first time he's attending a birthday party without any other family members present. Micah turned ten yesterday and invited ten friends to go bowling with him today. Nadia can stay home with Milo when I drop Ian off at the bowling alley, but I'll bring Nadia and Oliver with me when I pick Ian up because then we're headed to the Children's Museum for their annual Maker Faire. It's been years since we attended that particular Children's Museum (in Bloomsburg). We had a membership there in the past. Since we attended a play last night, we are actually having two field trips two days in a row. That's a big change. I put FAR fewer miles on the van over the past year than normal. In the last six months I drove fewer than 3,000 miles total. In contrast Paul drives 3,000 miles to and from work every 5 weeks. How much time Milo will spend alone in his crate today will depend on when Paul gets home from work today. 
 

Tomorrow Milo will be alone in his crate while we're at church. The following Sunday we will be voting on the candidate for our next senior pastor. Our current senior pastor is 70 years old. He started at the church as an assistant pastor in 1981, was the first administrator of Meadowbrook Christian School for several years, and has been the senior pastor of the church since 1989. Since the church reopened after the lockdown the attendance has been much lower than it was prior to the lockdown, but more and more people have been transitioning back to attending in person rather than attending online. The average attendance over the last several years has usually been around 1,500-1,600 and typically 2,000-2,500 attend on Christmas Eve and Easter. This Easter we definitely had the highest in person attendance from the past 13 months as about 1,200 people total attended the three Easter services. 

Photo credit - Nadia

Thankful Tuesday

1. Grandma is being transferred back to the nursing home today from the hospital. Hopefully this time she can stay there longer than two days! She will be in quarantine for fourteen days at the nursing home.

2. Milo's surgery was uneventful. The vet said to keep him in the crate with an Elizabethan collar for two weeks aside from when we took him for walks on a leash. We by no means have followed those instructions. I'm sure Milo is very grateful we haven't. We use a pool noodle collar when he's in the crate overnight but otherwise we just watch him like a hawk. He finished his pain medication today, and the swelling is going down at his surgical site. So far he hasn't marked the territory inside the house, and he hasn't been wearing a belly band. 

These two boys have so much fun with empty boxes!

3. The kids really enjoyed watching two of the Left Behind movies together this weekend. Nadia has started reading the first book (the adult not the kids' version), which the first movie was based off of. 

4. I only have to turn the key in Ian's expander for one more week. The expander could have been removed next Monday, but the orthodontist won't be in that day, and he didn't have any available appointments for the following Monday either. So the plan is for the expander to be removed and braces to be put on Ian's teeth on May 3.

Nadia's painting

5. The boys really liked the phyllo meat pie that I made on Sunday. Ian said to me, "you definitely have to make this again." It's a recipe that is commonly served in Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Armenia, Tunisia, Bulgaria, etc. Tonight I made cheese enchiladas for the first time. I made the sauce for the first time, and let me tell you I'll be using this sauce recipe again the next time I make any type of enchilada. Usually I make chicken enchiladas, but these enchiladas that I made tonight were the tastiest I've ever made. YUM! Thankfully all three kids also liked them! Paul hasn't had dinner yet so the verdict is still out on whether he'll like them or not. 

6. My dentist appointment on Friday was uneventful. Nadia was grateful to earn a little babysitting money. 

Nadia and I have been remodeling the Death Star.

7. The kids and I enjoyed having dinner at Red Robin on Saturday. Nadia was grateful for the shoes and clothes that I bought her at a thrift store that day. She almost wears the same size shoes as me! 

8. Nadia and Ian have been having a grand time building with Legos in Ian's room lately.

Nadia and Ian have been working on this 6 story Lego structure.

9. Some of the trees have blossoms! 

10. Ian has really been enjoying reading the book Scary Stories for Young Foxes. 

Noodle collar

Milo had a much easier time getting to sleep last night, for which we were all grateful as that also meant that Ian and Nadia got more sleep. I went into Ian's bedroom at 6:45am this morning because I heard Milo crying. I was relieved to see his Elizabethan collar was still on as that hadn't been the case the previous morning. Usually Ian takes Milo out first thing in the morning, but I took Milo out so that Ian could sleep in a bit longer. Milo usually takes a morning nap, but he didn't sleep at all this morning. He threw up a tiny bit once, but it had been about 4.5 hours after his medication so I didn't think that was the culprit. The kids and I left the house a little after 1pm for a creative writing program. Although the woman in charge is a professor of poetry at Bucknell, in reality it was actually a nature hike. Paul came home from work early as he planned to meet us for dinner, but when he came home he discovered that Milo had gotten his "cone" off and had vomited in his crate quite a bit (he wasn't 100% sure if it was poop or vomit). He also said that Milo was absolutely hysterical. So he decided to stay home with Milo rather than meet us at Red Robin. I had made Pennsylvania Dutch style chicken pot pie yesterday (no pie crust involved) which Paul likes so he's going to have that for dinner tonight instead. 

They didn't have any pool noodles at Walmart, but I found a larger one at Target and purchased it for Milo. I cut some pieces off of it, and threaded a ribbon through them. Milo is now sporting a pool noodle "collar" around this neck which looks far more comfortable than the "cone." I am pretty certain he won't be able to lick his surgical area with this noodle collar on. The pool noodle cost $4 whereas the "cone of shame" cost $26. Now we're trying to figure out if one of us needs to stay home with him when the rest of us go to church tomorrow morning. Milo has been on two pain medications. The vet said that if he had an upset stomach we were to discontinue one of the two medications so I didn't get him that one this evening.

My meal was free at Red Robin tonight because it's my birthday month, and we used a gift card the kids received at Christmas toward the kids' meals. The kids love the place because the drinks are bottomless (free refills) as are all the side dishes and also the macaroni and cheese, if you pick that as your entrée. Oliver had two bowls of mac and cheese, and Nadia had three bowls. We ended the night by watching part of the movie Left Behind. We'll finish it tomorrow. I thought it was a good time to do so since we've been studying the book of Revelation in our family devotions. Paul's mom was transferred from the hospital to a nursing home on Thursday, and then today she was transferred back to the hospital. We pray for her many times a day! 

Milo's surgery

Yesterday morning we dropped Milo off around 7:45am at the vet. He was there for a little over 5 hours for his castration. He came home wearing an Elizabethan collar or "cone of shame." He hates that thing! We tried making him one using a pool noodle, but it turned out the pool noodles we have at home aren't quite large enough to work for that purpose. We are going to try and buy a larger pool noodle tomorrow. He's not allowed to run or jump for two weeks, and the collar is to prevent him from licking the surgical site. Yesterday the poor guy was just miserable. If we are holding him or he's sitting next to me on the couch, we can take off the collar if I make sure he doesn't lick himself, but yesterday he just didn't want to stay on the couch. I don't think he consumed very much of the pain pill I tried to give him last night so this morning I covered his pills in peanut butter, which did the trick. The poor guy cried and kept Ian awake until 12:30am. For his sake and also Ian and Nadia's sakes, I hope he doesn't cry as much tonight. I was so tired that I slept right through it except for the one time Ian came into my bedroom around 11:30pm holding Milo and asking what he should do with him. I didn't see Paul at all yesterday, but I figured he was at home at that point so I asked Ian to ask Daddy about it since Daddy wasn't asleep. 

When I went it to check him at 7:30am, he was in the crate, but he wasn't wearing his collar. Sometime during the night he managed to get it off, and Milo was licking himself when I opened Ian's bedroom door. Today he spent a lot more time in my arms or beside me on the couch, but he did have to spend some time in the crate with the "cone" on when he wouldn't stay on the couch. Of course there is no way to communicate to him that he can't be active for two weeks. I cannot wait until these two weeks are over. We also got him microchipped yesterday plus paid for lifetime dog registration with the state of PA. Altogether we spent about $500 on him over the past week at the vet. Back in January I thought I had selected one heartworm medication and one for flea/tick prevention. Well it turned out I picked two different heartworm medications although the one does have some flea prevention in it. The vet had approved the prescriptions back in January. I wish they had noticed my error then. They recommended two different oral medications for flea/tick prevention that cost about $200 a year or one specific flea/tick collar. I chose the collar since it was $60 for 8 months. Hopefully it will do the trick. I had to remove a few ticks from him last month. Thankfully I had a PetSmart gift card so the flea/tick collar didn't actually cost us any money. Here's to hoping and praying that after he recovers from his surgery his desire to mark his territory will be far less.

Nadia started a little photoshoot of our three guinea pigs yesterday, and after she took quite a few pictures, she asked me to take some more. I will say this is one advantage of guinea pigs - no need for neutering or spaying them since we have three females. We don't have to worry about them having babies, and they have no issues with marking their territory. They occasionally poop when they are out of the cage, but their pellets are dry. They only pee in their cage, thankfully! Buttercup and Peppa are about 14 months old, and Jenna is 4.5 years old. Peppa is the largest of the three. Owning four guinea pigs over the past 4+ years has been FAR, FAR, FAR cheaper than owning a dog for four months. We do love Milo very much. The kids and I really missed him during the hours he was at the vet yesterday.

We're down to three weeks left of school! The boys finished their science curriculum this week. Nadia will miss the final ASL class in two weeks due to our field trip at Camp Susque, so yesterday was her last class of ASL for the semester. 

Photo credit - Nadia

North Dakota

On Sunday Yvonne and I were discussing our photo map that we have hanging above our television in the family room, and I pointed out which states we planned to visit this fall. I also shared which seven states weren't currently in any vacation plans - North Dakota, Louisiana, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Alaska, and Hawaii. At one point I had included Missouri and Kansas in the plan for the trip this fall, but I ended up including TN, AL, MS, AR, OK, and Texas instead. She suggested that maybe we should include Missouri and Kansas and include AL, TN, and MS with our trip to GA and FL next year. It got me thinking, and I decided to formulate a possible plan to visit all 50 states by the time Oliver graduates from high school (and possibly Nadia graduates from college if she goes to a four year school right after HS). I have to say I've never had a burning desire to visit North Dakota, but there is something to be said about accomplishing a goal of doing at least one thing in all fifty states. Since we already plan to be in Montana and South Dakota this fall, I thought I'd see if we could do something in the southwest part of North Dakota that wouldn't add too many hours of driving to our trip. The Theodore Roosevelt National Park seems to be the best choice. If we eliminate Devil's Tower, WY from our trip, then a trip into North Dakota will only add 2.5 hours of driving time.

That left six states that hadn't been put into a possible vacation. Nadia had asked that we visit England during her senior year of high school. I asked the boys today where they would like to visit during their senior year. Ian said Hawaii. Oliver asked for Africa at first (because of the animals he'd like to see there), but then he said Alaska. I have wanted to go to Hawaii for decades. I've never had a burning desire to go to Alaska primarily because I'm not a fan of cold weather, but I know it's a beautiful place, and again if we've visited all 49 other states and are able to visit Alaska, I'm all in! So I realize these are totally just hypothetical plans but here's one possible way we could hit all 50 states before Oliver graduates from high school. Paul prefers our vacations to be taken in the fall, which is fine when all three kids are homeschooled, but after Nadia graduates from high school that probably won't be possible if we want to include her on the trip. If these plans actually happen, the kids will have been in all 50 states, DC, England, France, two provinces of Canada, Guatemala, and at least one country in South America. Iguazu Falls and Machu Picchu have been on my bucket list for decades, but since the Towfighis will be living in Ecuador we might visit Galapagos Island and Quito. Who knows? We never visited them during all the years they lived in Turkey. We had talked about meeting in Greece at some point, but we never made it to Greece or Turkey. So hopefully we will make it to South America while they are living down there. Time will tell if we actually make it to all fifty states or not, but there's no harm in making possible plans toward that goal. 

• Fall 2021 visit TN, AL, MS, AR, OK, TX, NM, AZ, UT, CO, WY, ID, MT, ND, SD, MN, IO, WI, and MI for the first time plus spend time in WV, KY, IL, IN, and OH again
• Fall 2022 visit Georgia for the first time and spend time in Florida again 
• Summer 2023 visit Delaware for the first time
• Fall 2023 visit Quebec, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine for the first time and spend time in CT, RI, NY, and MA again
• Summer 2024 short term mission trip to Guatemala  (use that Spanish we've been learning!)
• Fall 2024 visit Nevada, Oregon, and Washington for the first time and spend time in California again
• Fall 2025 England and France
• February or March 2026 - New Orleans, Houston, and San Antonio which will be a first time visit for Louisiana and a second time in Texas
• May 2027 visit Missouri, Nebraska, and Kansas for the first time and also spend time in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa again
• May 2028 Hawaii!
• January 2029 meet the Towfighis somewhere in South America (use that Spanish we've been learning!)
• May 2030 visit Alaska, which would be our 50th state!

Thankful Tuesday

 

1. It was wonderful to be able to spend about four hours with Yvonne's family on Sunday! They got to meet Milo, and we got to meet Jenna's boyfriend. We're so thankful the travel restrictions were lifted in our state earlier this year, which made their visit possible.

2. It was colder last week (even snow flurries one day!), but it has warmed back up again. It got up to 70 today, and the highs are *at least* supposed to be in the low 60's for the next week or so. Yahoo!! This type of weather is my favorite. I filled water balloons today at Oliver's request. The grass is green! Some flowers have begun to bloom! 

3. Milo's pre-surgical bloodwork came back with good results.

4. Christ is RISEN!!!! We got to celebrate the resurrection at church this year instead of at home!!!

5. The three new "Easter" recipes I tried this year were all enjoyed by our family - Torrejas (Spain), Easter meat pie (Italy), and hot cross buns (England). 

6. We enjoyed a three hour play date at a state park with some homeschoolers today - most of whom we hadn't seen in more than a year. 

7. The kids and I have enjoyed our spring break. Tomorrow we're back to hitting the books, but we only have 18 days left (one of which is a field trip day)!

8. The kids enjoyed laser tag, the trampoline park, and the arcades at Kaos Fun Zone last Thursday.

9. Grandma is being transferred from the hospital to a nursing home tomorrow morning.

10. I really enjoyed our pastor singing "He's Alive" on Sunday, and one of the songs everyone sang was "Is He worthy" by Andrew Peterson. That was so timely in our family devotions we had just been studying Revelation 6-7, and part of the song's lyrics come from that passage (Jesus being worthy to open the seals). 

11. The kids were thankful for the candy the received from me, my Dad/Gubba, and from the two egg hunts on Saturday. There weren't any egg hunts last year. Not all of the egg hunts resumed this year, but the kids were very thankful that there were some egg hunts in our area. My Dad and Margie also gave the kids each a little bit of money. Ian and Oliver had been saving to buy a Minecraft game for the Switch, and with the money they received they had enough to buy it. I ordered it online and Walmart delivered it very quickly.

12. We had a very hard time turning Ian's expander this past weekend. Ian, Yvonne, Andrew, and I all tried without success. Paul came to the rescue and succeeded thus avoiding another extra trip to the orthodontist. Whew. Hopefully we can turn it without incident until we return next Monday.

13. Season two of The Chosen began this week! We really loved season one last year and are excited about the new episodes. Last week Sight and Sound also announced what their new show will be next year in Lancaster - David! We're hoping to see it in 2022, maybe without masks on?

14. Weis (a grocery store) is having a special for almost the next year that every time you go there you can get one 6 pack of Nestle flavored water for 99 cents. I usually don't spend money on drinks for myself, but I will probably get myself one six pack whenever I happen to be in that store. It's not my usual grocery store, but I have been shopping there a bit more often because there is one near our "new" library.

15. I have signed the kids each up for a week of summer camp and one week of tennis lessons in May. Nadia is registered for a 4 hour a day two week theatre camp (for only $50!), and she's planning to attend a Bible quizzing event in Indiana next month and in Oklahoma in June. Some things that didn't take place in 2020 still won't be possible in 2021, but it's encouraging to be able to make some plans for the summer.

16. The kids earned two more junior ranger badges today. 

Easter Weekend

On Saturday morning the kids attended an egg hunt in our town that they had never attended before. The Wesleyan church in our town sponsored the event that was held at an elderly couple's home. It turns out they've been hosting an egg hunt on their property for 35 years, but we had never been there before. There were quite a few people there, and unlike the egg hunt from two weeks earlier, almost no one was wearing a mask or shield. At this event the kids were broken into smaller groups. Oliver was with the 7-8 year olds, and Nadia and Ian were in the group for 11-12 year olds. Even though there were a lot of kids at the hunt, they had put a LOT of eggs with candy in them, candy, stuffed animals, etc. in the grass so the kids came back with quite a bit of candy. We left Milo at home for that egg hunt. If we return next year, we will bring Milo as other families had brought their dogs with them. After we had lunch we headed out to the kids' last egg hunt for 2021. It was held in Montgomery. The other two egg hunts the kids attended this year were sponsored by churches in our town. This was the only community egg hunt they attended this year whereas typically they attend four community egg hunts each year all within 4 miles of our home. Again, almost no one was wearing a mask. They call it an egg hunt, but they only put out two eggs per age group on the field (prize eggs) and otherwise they just have candy all over for the kids to pick up. The candy could be a small piece or a large chocolate bunny. All of the other egg hunts advertised for ages 1-12. This one they broke the kids into groups by grade. Technically Nadia should not have participated because the oldest group was 5th/6th grade, but since Nadia is 12 and didn't participate in ANY egg hunts last year when she was in 6th grade, I let her participate. She knows she'll be too old to participate in any next year. There were far more kids in the 3rd/4th grade group so Oliver didn't get nearly as much candy as his siblings did, but they all came home with plenty. Oliver's will be gone first because he shares his with the kids in the neighborhood. Nadia's will last the longest. She hasn't even finished all her candy from October yet!

On Saturday we played our family game for the week since we knew we'd have company on Sunday. Ian picked Guesstures. Nadia, Paul, and Oliver were on a team. Ian and I were on the winning team. I had planned to make Torrejas for dinner on Saturday night, but we ate leftovers instead. I made the torrejas on Sunday morning for breakfast before we headed to church. The boys and I really liked them so it won't be the last time I make Torrejas! On Saturday Nadia and I made a batch of lemon crinkle cookies for our dessert on Easter, and Ian helped me make a batch of Heath bar cookies. On our way home from church on Sunday we stopped at a park so I could take pictures of the kids in their Easter attire. After eating lunch I began to prep the meatballs for our dinner. We met the Towfighis plus Jenna's boyfriend, Toby, at the same park later in the afternoon. I took pictures of their family for about one hour. After we came home, I began making the dough for the focaccia bread. All sixteen of us had dinner at about 6pm, and they left a little after 7pm to return to Maryland. They were with us for about four hours. We watched the first episode of the second season of The Chosen on YouTube, and then the kids went to bed. I took around 150 pictures yesterday! I edited some pictures last night and finished editing them today. 

Tonight the kids and I had ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, and hot cross buns for dinner. I thought the buns were delicious! I've seen various ideas for a warm place for dough to rise, but this recipe suggested turning on an empty dryer for a few minutes and then putting the bowl (covered with plastic wrap) in the dryer while the dough is rising. I would have never thought of that idea on my own. I always remember my Grandma Sampson when I'm kneading dough as she was the one who taught me how to make yeast bread back when I was around Nadia's age. 

The best parts of Easter this year for me were #1 the church service and #2 spending time with my sister's family. Our senior pastor, who has been a pastor at the church for 40 years and is 70 years old, is retiring at the end of May. He and the pastor who will become the senior pastor when he retires preached the sermon together. At the end of the service, Pastor Arlie sang the song "He's Alive" by Don Francisco (written in the 80's) which is an Easter song from the perspective of Peter that I remember singing in Maryland many years ago. Last year we weren't allowed to go to church on Easter so I was all the more appreciative of the freedom to worship with other believers this year. They even had a very small choir up on the risers for the first time in 13 months. We hadn't seen any extended family members since November so it was also very special to spend some time with Yvonne's family. We were able to meet Jenna's boyfriend, and they were able to meet Milo. I forgot to take a picture of Milo with any of the cousins. I had intended to take one of Milo and Joshua as he really, really loves dogs. Hopefully I'll remember next time!

Paul's mom will likely be transferred from the hospital on Wednesday to a nursing home. We're praying that God will guide and direct her to just the right place, and we're hoping that Paul's dad will at least be allowed to visit her. She has to be on intravenous antibiotics for another 6-8 weeks.  

Good Friday

Paul remarked that is surprising that some public schools still schedule their spring break to be around the time of Good Friday and Easter. Obviously they don't go so far as to call it an "Easter break," Since we weren't doing something really special this spring break (ex. spending it in Chicago with Wendy's family), I wanted there to be at least one special thing each day. Yesterday it was the trip to Kaos for laser tag, trampoline park, and arcades for two hours. We brought two neighbors with us, and Micah and Isaiah were also there with some of their cousins. Nadia liked the laser tag so much that she played three games, which translates to a full hour of laser tag. The other four children I brought played one game of laser tag and then jumped on the trampolines for about twenty minutes before declaring they needed a break and wanted to buy some Gatorade. During the second hour all of the kids played arcade games. A homeschool group has it set up so that the two hours only costs $10 per child. Our trampoline has been off limit because of a tear in the mat. 

The only thing on our calendar today was getting Milo's pre-surgical bloodwork so I decided to give the kids their Easter gifts on Good Friday to help make today special. We watched a Good Friday broadcast this evening. I made an Italian dish called an Easter meat pie for dinner. Ian didn't have any because it includes a lot of ricotta cheese, which he doesn't like. Tomorrow I'm planning to take the kids to two egg hunts. It's been very cold the last two days (had snow flurries yesterday!), but it's supposed to be a little warmer tomorrow and even nicer on Sunday. Tomorrow we're going to have a Spanish dish often served at Easter- torrijas (the Spanish version of French toast). On Sunday morning we're going to have hot cross buns. go to church, and then in the afternoon Yvonne's family is coming to our house for a few hours! I thought we were going to end up having another holiday that we celebrated with only our immediate family, but Yvonne and I made plans for them to come up a couple of days ago. Since they lived in a Muslim country for about fifteen years, they aren't accustomed to eating ham. I had already bought the sweet potatoes, ham, etc., but we're just going to push that meal off a day or two. Both families really, really like rigatoni and meatballs. It's not a traditional meal to serve on Easter, but why not if everyone likes it? I haven't made it for several months. To make the meal a little more special, I'm also going to make focaccia bread. My kids love focaccia bread. I haven't made it for Yvonne's family before, but I think they'll like it. For dessert I'm planning to try a lemon cookie recipe a friend gave me recently. Seeing their cousins will be a very, very special treat on Sunday! The last special thing planned for Easter Sunday will be to watch the first episode of The Chosen season 2 at 8pm! We loved seeing season one last year and have been eagerly anticipating season two, which will focus on Jesus' early ministry. They are hoping to eventually have a total of seven seasons!!

Since the kids didn't have school yesterday and today, I had more free time. Yesterday I started doing some planning for the next school year. Yesterday I came up with a plan so that I can finish reading the Old Testament with the kids. I skipped a few chapters that are just lists of names and all of Song of Solomon, but otherwise we will have gone through the Old Testament together for the second time. I also spent some time working on our homeschooling portfolio yesterday to show at our evaluation on May 1. Today I worked on Life of Fred plans for Nadia and Ian for next year, began selecting some read alouds for next year, and ordered some textbooks for next year. I haven't decided what I'll use for Algebra I for Nadia or 6th grade math for Ian yet. I also need to give more thought to what the boys will do in science next year. I've started a list of books I plan to request by ILL through the public library during the next school year. Field trips may still be very challenging to plan in advance, but I can start choosing read alouds or books I want the kids to read independently to supplement our study of ancient history. 

I haven't decided what we'll do to try to make Monday special, but on Tuesday we're planning to join some homeschoolers at a park. It's been chilly this week, but next week the temps are supposed to be back into the low 60's, which means I should be getting more exercise next week than I've gotten this week. The most important gift to focus on this weekend is definitely Jesus giving his life for my sins. His love is more than we can ever comprehend. Here are some lines from one of my favorite hymns.

1. "Could we with ink the ocean fill,
   And were the skies of parchment made,
   Were every stalk on earth a quill,
   And every man a scribe by trade;
   To write the love of God above
   Would drain the ocean dry;
   Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
   Though stretched from sky to sky."

Spring Break

Last year we planned to spend our Spring break in Chicago and Detroit. Wendy's kids always get a week off of school the week before Easter. We had spent Spring break with them in 2017. When our plans were cancelled last April, I rescheduled the trip  to their Spring  break in 2021, but several months ago I deleted those plans from our calendar as I realized life wasn't going to be normal by Easter. At the moment, the plan is for us to have a shorter visit with them in October. Hopefully those plans will actually take place! Since we cancelled the trip, I wasn't sure how many days I should give my kids off for Spring break. The kids in our neighborhood either attend MCS (Christian school at our church) or the local public school. The public school gave the kids a full week off - from March 31 to April 6. When the neighbors have off and we are trying to do our schoolwork, the doorbell rings many times. I decided to give the kids April 1-6 off. One neighbor rang the doorbell at 10am yesterday. Oliver had told some of his friends on Tuesday that we were doing schoolwork on Wednesday or we would have had

more kids at our door. I tried to help the kids get done a little bit earlier. Oliver and Nadia were done before we had lunch at 11:30, and Ian was done at 12:30. We have 18 days left of school for the year. We'll hit 180 days before then, but I will have documented 187 days by April 30. One of those 18 days is a field trip day so we really only have 17 days left of doing our usual subjects. 

Sometimes we start listening to a book and decide we don't want to finish it. We've usually loved books by Gloria Whalen, but Ian wasn't liking The Hedge School. We gave Hello, Universe a whirl because it won a Newbery Award, but Nadia didn't want to finish that one. The kids are enjoying a Newbery Honor award recipient - Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy. I recently had counted how many Newbery award books we've read so far. They've listened to 51 of the Newbery award winners. Nadia and Ian read one of them (New Kid) on their own, and Nadia read three others on her own, which means Nadia has either read or listened to 55 of the 100 Newberry award winners. There are more than 300 Newbery Honor books.

We've read at least 57 of them together, Nadia and Ian each read another one, and Nadia read five more independently which puts her at 63 total. I have picked out some Newbery award and Newbery Honor books for us to listen to together in the coming months as well as for Nadia and Ian to read independently. We shall see how many we end up reading over the years to come. 

Today we're headed to an indoor entertainment venue (trampoline park, laser tag, etc.), which is something I've avoided for several months due to COVID. I wasn't sure when to resume such activities. When Tab said they were going, I decided we'd join them. We're also bringing two kids from our neighborhood. I did see yesterday that the state historical sites, which have all been closed for over a year, are at least partially reopening the end of April so that's a good sign that things are moving back in the right direction. And my sister called yesterday to ask if they could join us for a few hours on Sunday! We haven't seen any relatives since November, and no relatives have met Milo yet. This means I can finally give two nephews and one niece their Christmas gifts that have been under my bed for months; I guess we'll call them Easter gifts, ha ha!

P.S. Milo didn't get the memo that Spring break started today. He woke Ian up at 6:50, which meant Ian woke me up as well.