Thankful Tuesday

 1. Henri's winds weren't as bad where my Aunt lives as the storm that came through Long Island when we were there last summer. She just got a lot of rain. In hindsight we probably could have gone out there. We wouldn't have gone swimming on Sunday or Monday, but she didn't lose power as she did last year. We erred on the side of caution particularly with flights from Chicago involved in the decision. The good news is that we ARE going to drive out there tomorrow morning and come back on Sunday.

2. My sister made it here safely with Grace on Sunday evening. Her girls really wanted to go to a trampoline park. That didn't happen due to reduced hours at Kaos due to COVID, but we did go roller skating this morning. It cost $20 for me to pay for admission for my 3 kids plus rent skates for Nadia. This made me appreciate that fact that we usually skate there for free. Wendy, Rachel, and Grace hadn't roller skated in a long time. They improved over the two hours they skated and also appreciate the tips one expert skater was giving people throughout the session. Oliver was in third place in the limbo contest.

3. We played a variety of games together such as Racko, Rummikub, and Quiddler. 

4. We had lunch at Kid's Café yesterday and today, and both times Wendy and I also received a free meal although it's usually only for kids. Today was "parent's day" so all parents were offered a meal, and yesterday we were there at the end and they had so much leftover pizza they opened it up to parents at the end. The tacos and also the éclair cake were tasty today! 

5. Oliver has improved over the last several months in his ability to sit nicely during a worship service, and he's even begun to take notes (fill in the blanks in the sermon outline) on his own initiative! Way to go, Oliver!

6. Nadia and Rachel have loved having a little over 5 days together!! Wendy told me that despite the miles between them, Rachel has previously said that she considers Nadia to be her best friend. Awww!!

7.  Most of the National Parks I had planned to visit in conjunction with our trip to Long Island are currently only open Friday through Sunday due to COVID, but it turns out that Paterson Great Falls is not only open tomorrow but is having extra activities due to the fact tomorrow is the 105th birthday of the National Park system! So we are planning on stopping there on on our way to Long Island tomorrow.

Henri

One of my aunts lives in Florida. Hurricanes are something she talks about every year. In central Pennsylvania we don't give much thought to hurricanes. The worst it means to us is some extra rain as we're not close enough to the coast to be in the direct path of any hurricanes. Several years ago we had a vacation to Williamsburg, Virginia that we had to cancel because of a hurricane. On Friday night when Paul came home from work he told me about Hurricane Henri, which was headed toward Long Island; the kids and I had packed our suitcases earlier in the day without any idea we might cancel the trip. I texted my Aunt, and she suggested we wait to see if maybe it would veer East into the Gulf Stream. I woke up shortly before 3am on Saturday morning, and I never went back to sleep. It was a complicated decision because Rachel was with us and was supposed to fly back to Chicago from Long Island on Wednesday evening, and Wendy was supposed to fly from Chicago to Long Island today. In the end, Wendy decided to drive to Pennsylvania today with her eight-year-old daughter, Grace. She'll spend two days here at our house and then drive back to Chicago on Wednesday with Grace and Rachel. If my Aunt has electricity, the kids and I will drive out there on Wednesday morning and come back on Sunday. We're praying her basement won't flood and she won't lose power or will at least regain it by Wednesday. I'm not usually willing to drive through NYC on a weekday, but since she's putting her house on the market next month, I'm willing to drive out there on Wednesday this time. Given how much the world has changed over the past 18 months, I'm not certain Paul will ever agree to go to NYC again so this might be my last time ever driving in NYC. Time will tell.

One of the main takeaways from 2020 was to roll with the punches as everything was cancelled for months at a time. As someone who enjoys making plans, sometimes that is hard for me to do. I always bounce back, but sometimes it can be hard to swallow at first. The last few days quite a few things have been cancelled:

1. Paul's dad changed his mind about joining us on the vacation. The kids and I were very disappointed. He doesn't feel he can be away from the concrete plant for that long.
2. We had been planning to attend a free Christian music festival on Friday night that was only 20 minutes from our house. Yvonne had expressed an interest in their family joining us and that was part of the reason they made plans to stay with us from Thursday night through Saturday morning. While we were bowling on Friday, Rachel made it very clear she didn't want to go to the music festival so none of us ended going.  This was hard to swallow for some of us, but I did enjoy playing a game of Boggle (that Paul won) instead that night. Had she let us know this earlier, I would have cooked something for dinner that night. I only purchased pizza at the bowling alley for dinner for the 14 of us because I thought we were going straight from the bowling alley to the music festival. 
3. All of yesterday's plans were cancelled due to Henri - the Roasting Ears of Corn Festival in Allentown, National Canal Museum in Easton, Morristown National Park, and spending the night at a hotel in West Orange, NJ. Last year the plans to visit the same places/events were cancelled due to COVID. I don't think I'll schedule them a third time especially since Aunt Janet is moving to Nevada.
4. All of our plans for today were cancelled due to Henri - Thomas Edison National Park and then driving to Janet's house on Long Island. If we do go to Long Island on Wednesday, I'll have to pick which national park in New Jersey to visit on the way home next Sunday (Morristown, Thomas Edison, or Paterson Great Falls).

Amidst the disappointments, there are still many things to be thankful for such as:

1. Nadia and Ian were able to help with a service project in our town last Wednesday night.
2. We got to spend time with 9 members of Yvonne's family from Thursday evening through Saturday morning. Everyone except for Yvonne and I bowled two games on Friday afternoon. It was the first time that Julianna, Micah, or Wesley ever bowled. The kids also were able to play some arcade games as those are included in the kids bowl free program if you need to rent shoes. Joe was able to borrow Paul's bowling shoes.
3. Although I think they liked the lemon crinkle cookies I made earlier this year better than the lemon bars I made for them last week, they always like my pasta, and the cinnamon baked French toast was also a hit for breakfast along with a bacon and cheese frittata. Rachel had asked for chicken Alfredo so I made a pasta bar for Thursday night - three types of noodles (fettuccini, spaghetti, and rigatoni) and two sauces (marinara with meatballs and Alfredo sauce with chicken). 
4. The kids had lunch at Kids' Café a few times last week. 
5. After getting less than 6 hours of sleep on Friday night, I was very thankful that I got almost 11 hours of sleep last night. I can literally go years without taking a nap. I am not a napper, but I took three ibuprofen and a nap yesterday afternoon, and I woke up feeling a LOT better and my fever was gone. 
6. The hotel reservation for last night was supposed to be non-refundable, but the hotel made an exception and gave me a full refund.
7. Rachel arrived at our home on Thursday evening with the Towfighis, and she'll be here until Wednesday morning. She and Nadia are loving having so much face-to-face time after being limited to Zoom for the past 2 years. They had a "sleepover" last night. If they had followed Rachel's schedule for the evening, they wouldn't have gone to bed until 3:40am, but Nadia was ready for bed at 2:30. Paul played a few games of Racko with them, but I was asleep during their entire sleepover. 
8. Wendy and Grace are on their way here!! I haven't seen either of them in two years. I am very, very grateful that Wendy is willing to do that much driving for a two day visit. Pecan pie bars are in my oven right now as she loves pecan pie!
9. Kellogg's is offering the program to receive free books again this fall. It's been up to ten free books in the past, but we're still thankful for six free books! Ian and Nadia helped make the selections. I had purchased crackers that cost $2 which is what enabled us to earn free books.
10. I found a away to stream the new Paw Patrol movie for free on the same day it was released to the theatres on Friday. We shall see when we ever make it back to AMC. We haven't been to a movie theatre since 2019 aside from an IMAX movie at a science museum last October. I thought only the younger kids would watch the movie, but eight of the eleven cousins watched it together. Micah wanted to watch it again so he must have liked it! I don't usually let the kids watch TV in the morning, but since I thought we'd be at the music festival that night I let them watch it before we went to Kid's Café for lunch. I don't think they cared what time they watched it, lol.

3 nine-year-olds

I used to write posts comparing Nadia and Ian and then all three kids. I haven't done so in three years. At Oliver's physical yesterday he weighed 60.5 pounds and was a little shy of 55 inches tall. When Ian turned nine, he was the same weight that Oliver is now (60 pounds), but he was 4 inches shorter than Oliver so Ian's BMI was in the 50th percentile whereas Oliver's BMI is at the 8th percentile. Due to my hospitalization during Oliver's pregnancy and his NICU stay, Nadia's physicals took place months after her birthday for several years. When she was almost 9 1/2 years old, she weighed 74 pounds and was 51 inches tall which was the same height Ian was when he turned nine. Her BMI was in the 82nd percentile. The pediatricians are fine with anything between 5th-84th percentile so neither Nadia or Oliver were considered to be underweight or overweight even though they were at opposite ends of the spectrum. 

Ian's favorite toys when he turned nine were Legos and stuffed animals. Oliver plays with a wide variety of toys. Nadia's favorite toys when she turned nine were dolls - paper dolls, Barbie dolls, and an American girl doll. 

Ian also liked to draw far more than Oliver and was flying through chapter books like Imagination Station and Magic Tree House. I just started giving Oliver piano lessons. Although Ian started piano lessons two years after Nadia did, he had almost caught up to where she was when he turned nine. Oliver spends more time playing outside and playing with the neighbors than either of his siblings.

When Nadia turned nine she was reading more voraciously than Ian did when he turned nine, and she also frequently listened to Adventures in Odyssey. 

Of the three kids, Nadia was the MOST interested in doing every possible extracurricular activity, and Ian was the most interested in staying at home sweet home. Both Nadia and Oliver were extremely friendly when they turned nine, and Ian was still on the shy side. 

Nadia and Oliver turned 9 during the summer before they entered fourth grade. Ian turned 9 part way through third grade. Nadia was the bravest, and Ian was the most fearful of my three kids at this age.

I had promised Oliver an extra date once he finished his multiplication tables. We explored various possibilities including going to the Milton Rock Gym, going bowling, and seeing a movie at the theatre (which we haven't done since 2019). In the end he asked that we go to Taco Bell and the Freez (ice cream place) for lunch after his physical yesterday. He got one of the tacos that the shell is made from Doritos and a baby size cup of peanut butter/ chocolate soft ice cream. I was surprised to see that today is the last day the ice cream place will be open for 2021.

Thankful Tuesday

 1. Last Wednesday through Friday morning I used my laptop in the church's lobby while the kids were in the theatre workshop. I wish I had thought of that on Monday instead of trying in vain to go in the public library! Getting the kids out the door at 7:50 each morning isn't ideal in my opinion, but they must have had a good week because on Friday they were already talking about doing this workshop again next year. 

2. On Thursday I took the kids to McDonald's, Rita's, and bowling after their theatre workshop. 

3. Paul intended to go to work on Friday morning and come home a few hours later to attend the kids' musical which was at noon. When I woke up at 6am, I was surprised to see Paul still in bed. I'm accustomed to being the only person in our bed when I go to bed and when I get up in the morning. When I woke him up and told him the time, he was upset with himself, but at that point it was too late to go to work if he was going to attend the kids' program. Milo was thankful Paul overslept because it meant he wasn't in his crate as many hours as Paul left the house a few hours after the kids and I did. Usually we see him on Saturday evening. We only saw him for maybe two minutes on Saturday evening just before we went to bed, but we saw him FAR more on Friday than we usually do. Paul's dad also joined us for the musical and ate pizza with us at the bowling alley.

4. Paul and I repaired the screen on one window on Friday evening. I am always SO thankful when a project is accomplished from the to do list. 

5. On August 6 our apple tree split. In the past I've always trimmed the branches to make it easier for me to mow. The tree had SO many apples on it this year, I had just been dealing with branches touching down very low when I mowed. I wish I had trimmed the branches like I usually do. In my defense, our next door neighbor's apple tree branches are also bowed down to the ground, and their tree hasn't split. Anyhow on August 7 we started cutting some branches and carrying them to the tree farm in our development. One of our neighbors came over and started to help. They were a HUGE help. They used a chain and one of their vehicles to drag large branches to the tree farm. Their kids helped pick up apples, put them in buckets, and carry the buckets to the tree farm. The deer must have had an apple feast! It was so very kind of our neighbors to help. I gave each of their kids a few dollars and told their parents that I'd love to babysit their kids the next time they want to go on a date as my way of saying thanks for their help. We are trying to save the tree. Paul has a plan of what he is going to do to try to help the tree, and he's been buying the things he thinks he needs for that task. 

6. Oliver "finished" learning his times tables yesterday! We'll obviously need to keep on reviewing them over the next year, but he definitely made progress this summer.

7. One neighbor will be taking care of our guinea pigs during our lengthy vacation. Another family is watching Milo for 24 of the 25 days. Two days ago her in-laws agreed to watch Milo the last day of our trip. I'm paying one of Oliver's friends to mow our lawn once when we're on vacation. I'm thankful for each one who is helping us with our home and pets while we're away.

8. I have become friends with a mom we met at our pool. She is homeschooling two of her children - a boy who is in 6th grade (same as Ian) and a girl who is in 7th grade (one grade below Nadia).The kids have enjoyed swimming together a few times this summer, and I have enjoyed chatting with the mom. Hoping we'll find other opportunities to get together over the next year as they don't live too far from us.

9. I had thought it would be free to visit the Lowell Observatory on our trip with our ASTC membership. They haven't opened for general admission yet, but they are giving tours. The tours are rather expensive, but I found out that if we paid for a membership there, we could take a tour for free. The membership cost only a tiny bit more than paying for one person to take the tour. So I joined the Lowell Observatory yesterday as that will be a much cheaper way to have five people take the tour. I also booked our Mammoth Cave tours recently. The kids and I are excited that it's just three weeks until our trip! That thought stresses Paul out. Later this week I'm planning to book the Lowell Observatory tour and the Timpanogos Cave tour (they cannot be booked more than 30 days in advance). Then on the first day of our vacation I'm planning to book our cliff dwelling tour at Mesa Verde as they can only be booked 14 days in advance. I've put much more time into planning this vacation than any other we've ever taken. Hopefully we will have a great time!

10. I took the kids to see a free production of The Tempest on Saturday night. It was their first exposure to Shakespeare. I can't say they loved it, but they did think there were some funny parts. The next play we plan to see there is Secret Garden in February. I predict they will like that one a lot more. The Tempest won't be their last exposure to Shakespeare! The actors were all vaccinated and didn't wear masks. Everyone in the audience was required to wear a mask regardless of vaccination status, and they were very careful to keep everyone spread out in the auditorium.

11.As of August 11, Paul and I have been married for twenty years. They say opposites attract. There are of course some ways in which we are very similar or can usually easily come to an agreement. In our case some of those would be finances (we rarely disagree when it comes to money), our faith, and our kids. I'm extremely grateful that Paul encouraged me to consider IVF in 2007 and then homeschooling our kids, and I'm very, very thankful that he supports our family financially so that I can be a stay-at-home homeschooling mom. They say that money and infidelity are two of the top three reasons for divorce in the US. I've never had any reason to question that Paul would be faithful to me, and most of the time we've been on the same page with finances over the years. There are naturally many ways in which we are very different. I was freezing in church this past Sunday morning, and Paul was very comfortable. The three areas where I think we differ the most that can lead to conflict are saving things (him) vs. decluttering (me), his choice of employment (because of how little time he can spend with the family most weeks), and the length of time it takes to complete projects around the house. I have been waiting, for example, for three months now for him to hang one picture on the wall. I usually do that type of task myself, but it's heavier than anything else we have on any of our walls, and my attempt was a failure. Anyhow, I am thankful for the 20 years of marriage we've enjoyed thus far. We loved traveling to the Caribbean and Europe together during the first 5 years of marriage, and we've enjoyed being parents the last 13 years. My favorite three years of the past twenty were from August 2012 - August 2015, and that's because I was at home with our three kids AND we spent FAR more time with Paul those three years. Paul's parents were married 54 years. I doubt we'll both live to make it that far, but maybe we'll make it another 20 years if the Lord doesn't return before then! One area we could definitely do better in would be to go on dates more often. Our last date was on May 4, 2018 for Pete's sake! We have one scheduled for this November. I had thought we might go on a getaway without the kids for our 20th anniversary, but it's really hard for Paul to get time off in the summer. I am very, very thankful though that he's agreed to go on a 25 day trip in September. I used our 20th anniversary as one of the reasons when I was trying to get him to agree to the length of the road trip. 

12. I contacted Nadia's pen pal's mom yesterday, and she said that we should be able to work something out for the girls to meet in person (they've been corresponding faithfully for 2 years) in early September during our vacation in Illinois or Wisconsin! 

13. The kids have been able to sleep in the past few days! I know they won't sleep in on Friday or Saturday morning as they never sleep in when cousins are in the house, but I'm enjoying a few quieter mornings at the moment.

Back to the Beginning

The kids had a theatre workshop this week from 8:15-12:30pm each day in Montoursville. The musical was called "Back to the Beginning." Paul's dad, Paul, and I attended their program at noon today. Ian did a great job of singing, smiling, and doing the motions. He had auditioned for a speaking part, but he didn't audition for a solo. Next year I told him that he MUST audition for a solo. He has a beautiful voice. Oliver tried to do the motions, and he did sing a little bit. Learning that many songs in less than five days was very challenging for him. Nadia did a good job with her small speaking part and solo. After their show, we went to a bowling alley where the kids can bowl two games for free. Paul, Ian, and Oliver have bowling shoes. I want to get Nadia bowling shoes for Christmas this year. I paid for Paul's two games plus Nadia's shoe rental. We also bought a pitcher of root beer and pizza for the six of us to share. The bowling alley gives a $5 credit towards their arcade games when you pay for a shoe rental for a child. The kids used the credit and earned a few pieces of candy. The first game they all bowled without bumpers. Paul had two strikes and four spares in the first game and ended with a score of 137. Nadia had a "strike on the second ball". That was the only spare for any of the kids in the first game. She beat her brothers with a final score of 72. Ian had 54 and Oliver had 36. After the first two frames of the second game, the kids decided to use bumpers, Paul, even though he didn't use bumpers, improved to 152 in the second game. Ian had the highest score of the three kids with 100 points. Nadia was in second with 70, and Oliver was in third with 66. Pop Pop and I just cheered on the bowlers. The worst part of this camp is the fact that we need to be out the door by 7:50 each morning. We're looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow and not needing to rush out the door. I'm planning to mow the lawn tomorrow morning.

I also took the kids bowling yesterday. Monday through Wednesday we went straight home for lunch after I picked the kids up. I took them swimming in the afternoon on Tuesday and Wednesday. Yesterday I took the kids to McDonald's and Rita's before they bowled two games. I imagine Milo will be grateful the theatre workshop is over because he spent more time in his crate than he usually does this week. Yesterday the kids bowled one game with bumpers and one without. The first game Oliver had one spare, and Nadia had two consecutive strikes. She won with 93, Oliver had 88, and Ian had 75. Their scores were much lower without bumpers yesterday. Ian had 38, Oliver had 35, and Nadia had 30. Nadia didn't go bowling in 2020 so when she bowled yesterday it had probably been about two years since she had gone bowling. The boys have gone bowling more often than she has this year. As of yesterday, VBS is done for our family for 2021, and as of today all classes/camps for summer 2021 are done, but we still have 16 days left of summer break. 

Thankful Tuesday

1. Nadia had a great week a Camp Susque! She made some new friends, two of whom attend a Christian school about 25 minutes from our home. She is hoping to go to Camp Susque the same week as the one who is also entering 8th grade so they can be in the same cabin or tent next summer. The weather was great, and her only physical ailment was a hefty collection of mosquito bites. I'm not sure if this link is shareable, but here is a link to a 5 minute video the camp made of that week of camp. During the closing ceremony, the campers and parents sang several verses of two hymns. Tears streamed down my face as we sang "And Can it Be." I wasn't familiar with the second hymn. I also shed tears while watching the video during the part when the girls were singing "Wonderful Grace of Jesus," which was my most favorite hymn when I was Nadia's age. My mom got goosebumps when she really like a song. That was embarrassing to her. I think tears streaming down one's face is more noticeable than goosebumps. We don't sing many hymns at our church, and when we sing we can rarely hear the congregation singing, which is a bummer to me. So I really savored singing hymns on Saturday morning with only two acoustic guitars. 

2. Micah and Isaiah came over for a play date on Tuesday. They played at home with Ian and Oliver and also played at the playground before eating tacos and drinking root beer floats at Kid's Café. They also painted pottery at Centered Earth and went roller skating at Trout Pond Park where it's free to skate on the first Wednesday night of every month. We are thankful for our friendship with their family!

3. Addi and Westyn joined us on Thursday for a free game of bowling followed by arcade games, laser tag, and the trampolines at Kaos for $10 each. Our night out concluded with sharing a large pizza. 

4. The boys enjoyed having pizza with me at OIP and then spending four hours at Knoebels on Friday night. Their wristbands only cost $12. Paul joined us for the last two hours at Knoebels.

5. I'm very thankful for the nine years that Oliver has been a part of our family! He liked all of his presents; his favorite was definitely the electric scooter that Pop Pop gave him. My dad called him on the phone, and Paul's dad spent several hours with us on his birthday.

6. The kids and I plus three kids in the neighborhood have been enjoying eating the chocolate cake with peanut butter icing that Aunt Millie made Oliver.

7. Two weeks ago FedEx delivered a package to our house that was for the previous owner who sold us this house 13 years ago. I called the sender (Walter Reed), and they told me to take the package to a FedEx store. Thankfully I was able to find a phone number for the man, and he came to get his package the same day it was delivered to our house. He was thankful I helped him receive his prosthetic. 

8. I'm thankful that Ian and Oliver can participate in VBS for four nights this week at the Alliance Church. Ian has gone to VBS there since he was three years old, and this is his last year as they only do it through 5th grade. Oliver will, Lord willing, be able to go for two more summers provided there are no more closures like we experienced last year.

9. Even though I didn't intend to go to Panera yesterday, I did really enjoy the strawberry salad. I hadn't had one since Cheri took me out for my birthday in April. Today I opted to buy a $2 egg McMuffin at McDonald's instead because the salads at Panera are expensive. Most fast food restaurants in our area are still drive thru only, but thankfully the one in Williamsport is allowing people to eat in their restaurant which meant I had a place to plug in my laptop and use their Wi-Fi.

10. Although it was frustrating that due to "social distancing" I wasn't allowed to sit in the library in a room by myself yesterday, I'm thankful that for the most part things are closer to normal than they were at this point a year ago. It's wonderful not to need to wear masks, the kids don't have to have their temperatures taken each day at camp like they did last year, and VBS is being offered again.

11. We enjoyed watching the second season of The Chosen and the first season of The Benedict Society. We are eagerly anticipating watching new seasons of both shows in 2022. On Sunday we watched a video of the 2005 production of Ruth at Sight and Sound. We're looking forward to watching "David" in person in 2022 as we aren't going to Sight and Sound in 2021. The boys and Paul have also been enjoying watch Bad Batch on Disney+. The last episode of the first season will air this Friday. The kids enjoyed watching the Olympics on Locast and also the Peacock app. They learned about some sports they had never seen before. Did you see the speed rock climbing? Unbelievable!

12. I'm very thankful I have finally taken the plunge with creating some nicer videos. I hope they will be something our family can enjoy for years to come. I'm thankful I'm learning how to use a stabilizer for my cell phone and a tripod for my DSLR. Hopefully my skills will improve over the years.

13. Although Nadia was disappointed that she didn't get one of the five main parts especially considering there's only one participant older than her and none are her same age, I'm thankful that all three kids can participate in the theatre workshop this week. I'm looking forward to seeing the musical on Friday.

14. I wrote Nadia emails that they printed out and delivered to her at dinner M-F last week at Camp Susque. It made me think about all the letters I wrote my parents and received from them when I was at camp as a child and teenager. My mom wrote me thousands of emails from 1990-2016. I got an email from her almost every day, and many days I received multiple emails from her. And these were lengthy emails. I almost quit the blog after she died because one of the main reasons I started the blog was for my mom. She used to write me an email after reading almost every blog post responding to what I had said in that particular post. Unless my children at some point in their lives develop the habit of frequently emailing me, I highly doubt that anyone will ever come close to sending me even half as many emails as my mom sent me. I miss her, and I'm grateful for the time she invested in talking to me on the phone and sending me letters and emails.

15. Paul, his brother, and one other employee are on the company's health insurance policy. The premium went up recently more than 50% so Paul is discontinuing offering that as a benefit. Thankfully today I signed us up for a plan that costs less than $500 a month (which is about 1/5th of what the company had to pay for our insurance per month). The plan seems to be good in general with the exception that we'll have to pay 30% of any hospitalization or surgery. Hopefully we can stay out of the hospitals as there isn't a maximum out of pocket for this plan. 

16. I'm also VERY thankful that my phone has a feature to automatically silence phone calls that come from numbers not in my contact list because ever since I started shopping around for private health insurance I've been deluged with MANY phone calls and texts each day regarding health insurance. 

Last week of camp and VBS

The word "camp" is overused in my opinion these days. For example, our church calls their VBS "Kidzway camp." They are the rare exception in that instance. Every other church around here still seems to call it VBS. The word "class" is almost never used if it happens in the summer. For example, Ian and Nadia were in what I would call an art class for 3.5 hours a day for 4 mornings, and it was called an art camp. The kids have technically been in 5 camps this summer: overnight camp for the boys at PMBC, overnight camp for Nadia at Camp Susque, a two week afternoon theatre camp for Nadia, Camp Good News for all three kids, and art camp for Nadia and Ian. Last summer Ian and Nadia participated in a theatre workshop (evidently Family Life Network goes against the grain in terms of not using the word "camp") at a church about 25 minutes north of us. I actually held off on signing the kids up this year just because all the chauffeuring in the summer is exhausting for me, but then Nadia asked if they could do it again. I didn't see how I could say "no" considering they will be putting on a musical, and Nadia, Ian, and Oliver haven't been in a choir for the last 18 months with the exception of this same workshop last August. The workshop is for ages 8-15. Since Oliver was just turning 8 when the camp was being held and said he didn't want to do it, I didn't sign him up last summer. I didn't give him a choice this year. Ian and Nadia loved it last year. Hopefully Oliver will also have a good time! I did tell Oliver he didn't need to try to audition for one of the main parts. Ian opted out of that last year. I told him this year I did expect him to audition for a part. Nadia has never needed encouragement to audition for anything. The camp is put on by a Christian radio station located in New York. 

One perk of all three kids participating in the camp is that it means I don't have to make two round trips each morning. I'm sure Milo would rather that I did make two trips, but he can handle being in his crate for the 5+ hours we'll be away from home. This is my second time this summer to have some hours without any kids, and I don't think it will happen again until July 2022. The workshop is from 8:15-12:30. I thought I'd run a couple of errands and work on the Duolingo app (Spanish) on my phone until the library in Montoursville opened at 10:00am. The kids are at a church in Montoursville. I walked in with my laptop and sat down in a room where there were zero patrons. A librarian came up to me and said that due to social distancing they don't allow patrons to bring laptops into the library. There was ONE other patron in the entire library, and I picked a different room than she was in. I asked what if I promised to leave if anyone else came in the room. Nope. At our library (which is in the same county system as this one), they have totally gone back to normal. They even took down the plexiglass partition that was in between the librarian and patron at the check out desk. I couldn't believe I wasn't allowed to sit in the library even if I was the only person in that room. Ugh. I drove to Panera, brought my laptop in, and treated myself to my most favorite salad. Now to figure out what I will do the next four days. I toyed with getting a manicure. I got one in 2019 which was my first in probably about ten years. If it were a little cooler out, it would be a good time to take a nice long walk. One project I have this week is trying to find a new health insurance plan for our family as Paul isn't going to offer it anymore at work as the premiums went up too much recently. Well we shall see what I will do since the library in that town won't be an option this week. I'm looking forward to seeing their musical at noon on Friday!

Tonight the kids will also start their second and final week of VBS this summer. Usually they participate in more than two weeks of VBS, but last year they weren't in any so two is a big improvement! Nadia is too old to participate in this one, but she has volunteered to be a helper. Usually this VBS lasts five days, but they are only having it for four days this summer. They are using a different curriculum than the kids had at another church last month, and the church is only 1 mile from our house. 

We were going to swimming this afternoon after theatre camp, but due to a shortage of lifeguards, the pool doesn't open until 4pm today. When will all these employee shortages come to an end?!?!? I took the boys to Knoebels on Friday night, and roughly 40% of the rides were closed due to not having enough employees. The park had a hiring event recently, and they actually were raffling away a CAR to entice people to work at the park! As the signs say at Dunkin and Subway, being short staffed is the "new pandemic." 

I didn't finish Nadia's 13th birthday interview until 6 weeks after her birthday. I finished Oliver's 1 day after his birthday. I think his is better than hers although I think it's too long. I will be more selective in the future as to which photos I include to make them shorter. I included pictures from the last 12 months. If I continue to make videos throughout the year, then I won't include so many in their birthday videos in the future. And I still need to begin to follow the guidelines I learned in the videography course. I haven't done that yet, but at least I've started making videos. 

It's now less than one month until we go on vacation!  That statement puts a big smile on my face and the kids' faces, and it inspires fear in Paul that he doesn't have enough time to finish what he needs to at work. We usually go to Long Island in July, but for a variety of reasons we're going the last full week of August this year. This means our school year won't begin until August 30. We will have seven whopping days of school before we take 3.5 weeks off. So in some ways our school year won't really start in earnest until October 4. Next year we are planning to go to Georgia and Florida for our family vacation. I asked Paul whether the end of April or sometime in September would be better for him, and he said September. So we might be taking our family vacation in September again next year.

Nine Years Old!

My baby, who hates for me to use that word, turned nine years old before he woke up today. This will be my last year of having a child whose age is a single digit. Here are nine ways that I would describe Oliver Elliot:

1. Friendly - he easily talks with strangers whether they are adults or children. He absolutely loves to play with other kids whether they are his age, younger than him, or several years older than him. He absolutely needs to work on always being kind and walking away if someone is being unkind to him. 

2. Generous - he's the kind of person who would absolutely give you the shirt off his back. Oliver loves to share. Of the five people in our family, he is definitely the most generous. 

3. Loves to be outdoors and be active - it doesn't matter what time of day it is or what the weather is like, Oliver loves to be outside, especially if he can play with other kids in the neighborhood. He also is more attentive to nature (such as birds) than his siblings. We have a tree growing in a cup in our kitchen from a seed he planted. Considering how much time he spends outside, it is a blessing that he is the least prone toward getting sunburned of my three kids. Oliver is almost always on the go. He rarely chooses to do a sedentary activity in contrast to Ian and Nadia who enjoy things like playing with Legos, Barbie dolls, drawing, coloring, and reading. He has been rather accident prone most of his life. Thankfully the frequency of him needing a band-aid has gone down over the last year with the exception of him needing 4 stitches last month. 

4. Eats almost anything - The list of foods he doesn't like is rather short - cantaloupe, broccoli, or raspberries. A few foods that used to be on his dislike list in the past (ex. bananas and tomatoes) he will eat now. Sometimes he eats very quickly (such as when he sees friends are playing outside), and other times he takes F O R E V E R to finish a small meal. He is never tempted to overeat. He's 4.5 feet tall (74th percentile) and weighs 60 pounds (40th percentile) which puts his BMI at the 13th percentile. In other words he's closer to being underweight than overweight (if he lost 2 pounds he'd be underweight). He still enjoys cooking and baking. Maybe he'll be a chef someday?

5. Loves to listen to music - he uses his Echo dot, discman, and cd player to listen to music. His taste in music isn't the same as mine. He wears headphones so I don't have to listen to his music. I absolutely love hearing him sing at church. He sings more loudly in church than his siblings do. I also enjoy hearing him sing along with the radio when we're in the van. Some of his favorite artists include Toby Mac, Skillet, and Lecrae. 

6. Affectionate - Oliver loves to give and receive hugs and kisses. He loves to snuggle, and he often brushes my hair because he knows I like that. He uses the least Spanish of anyone in the family, but he has switched to calling me "Mamasita" all the time. 

7. Talkative - Oliver talks almost nonstop every minute of the day that he is awake. There are times I long for a bit of silence, but I know some day in the future I'm going to miss hearing his voice! I'm hoping over the next year he can learn to do a better job of listening to audiobooks, what I read aloud, sermons, etc. He has started taking notes during the sermons at church. He also needs to work on being careful regarding the tone of his voice when he's talking. 

8. Brave - In general he takes after his big sister in terms of never being afraid of trying new experiences such as zip lining, climbing a rock wall, etc. He's looking forward to the daring experiences we're planning to do at Snowbird resort in Utah and Riversport in Oklahoma City in September. The notable exception would be rides at amusement parks. When he was younger he would ride anything that he was tall enough to ride - even roller coasters. Last summer and this summer he has decided not to ride many dry rides that he's tall enough to ride. He still will ride all of the water slides. 

9. Easy going - Oliver is usually very flexible and willing to defer to the wishes of others. Although this is in general a wonderful trait, I do wish that he would be more motivated/competitive at times. For example, I found out that he didn't learn ANY of the Bible verses last week at Camp Good News which hurt his team. The kids wore headbands and received one bead for each verse they said plus an extra feather if they said five extra verses. Every year that Ian and Nadia have attended this camp they've always received all five beads, and they've almost always earned the second feather for learning the extra Scripture passage. I told Oliver that he wasn't going to Knoebels this Friday unless he at least learned the five verses that were for the beads last week. He learned two of them on Monday and one each day on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. It's great to be content, but it's also important to be motivated to do one's best.

Birthday Eve

Oliver has eagerly anticipated this birthday for months.  I had planned 5 special events for his birthday. The trip to DelGrosso's Amusement Park with Karyss and Maddox had to be cancelled since he got four stitches the day before we planned to go. He started wearing his birthday shirts on Monday; he really likes the "Birthday Dude" shirt. This week Micah and Isaiah came over at 10:15 on Wednesday. The boys played at our house, and then I took them to the playground where the played and had tacos and root beer floats compliments of Kid's Cafe. Then they played some more at our house before I took them to Centered Earth. They each picked out a piece of pottery and what color paints they wanted to use. Ian painted an owl cup that he plans to use as a pencil holder in his bedroom, Oliver painted an ice cream bowl, Isaiah painted a dolphin, and Micah painted a gingerbread house. Our next stop was to get breakfast sandwiches from Dunkin'. Because they are still not allowing any customers inside the restaurant, we ate outside on some grass. Then the boys went roller skating; It's free to skate on the first Wednesday night at that rink. I bought them each a slushie. The boys gave Oliver a light for his bicycle tire, fruit snacks, and Goldfish crackers. We got home around 8pm so the boys had almost ten hours together that day.

Yesterday Westyn and Addi joined us for an outing. We would have left a little earlier than we did, but they were attending another Good News Camp. We left around 2:45 and headed to the bowling alley. The kids could have each bowled 2 games for free, but we only had time for 1 game. Ian and Oliver wore bowling shoes that we own. I paid to rent shoes for Addi and Westyn. Because we paid for their skate rental, they gave us two $5 cards to use on the arcades. The kids each got one small piece of candy from the points they earned on the games. The kids used bumpers when they bowled. Addi had two strikes and came in first place (99), Ian got a spare on his first frame and ended up in 2nd place (81), Westyn didn't have any spares or strikes but he came in third place (80), and Oliver had three spares and came in last place (78). Next we drove to Kaos where I paid a total of $40 for the four kids to play for a little less than 2 hours. First they played on arcade games, then they did two games of laser tag, and they ended with 20 minutes on the trampolines. Our excursion ended with sharing a large cheese pizza at Long Island Pizza. We got home around 7:15pm. Paul spent the night at his dad's apartment last night.

Oliver went on a date with Paul in February for his half birthday, which meant his birthday date would be with me. Since Nadia is at overnight camp this week and Paul has been working extremely long hours (ex. on one of the nights he came home this week he got home after 8pm and left for work again at 2:30am), Ian is joining Oliver and I on our date. Oliver picked to go to Knoebels. On Wednesday and Friday nights you can get a handstamp for $12 that is valid from 5-9pm. I'm going to buy the boys each a handstamp this evening. Oliver wanted to bring Milo along as Milo loved being at Knoebels in May, but Ian really wanted to have pizza once more this week. So Oliver agreed that we would share a pizza at OIP in Elysburg prior to arriving at Knoebels at 5pm. Tomorrow, his actual birthday, will bring his four day birthday celebration to a close. 

Oliver will be getting donuts for breakfast tomorrow morning while we are on our way to pick up Nadia at Camp Susque. I can't wait to hear all about her week at camp! Pop Pop is coming to our house tomorrow, and he's bringing a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing that Oliver requested from Aunt Millie and Uncle Al. He asked for macaroni and cheese with grilled hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner tomorrow night, and he invited one of the neighbors (Maddox) over to join us for his birthday dinner.

For the first several years of his life it was very hard to come up with ideas of what to buy him for Christmas or his birthday because #1 he didn't have any particular interests, #2 we already had a lot of toys, and #3 he never asked for things. Last year was the first time he actually gave a few suggestions for a wish list. Over the past year he's told me MANY things he would like to receive such as: table and chairs for our deck, a tent, a swimming pool for our backyard, a treehouse, a minibike or electric dirt bike, an electric scooter, a skateboard, an Edison robot, Paw Patrol toys, a snowboard, Fritos, Goldfish crackers, gummies, a new slide for the play set in the backyard, a knight costume, a subscription to Amazon Music Unlimited, and Super Mario 3D World + Bower's Fury, which is a Nintendo Switch game. He also asks me very, very often if we can adopt another child. I tell him it's Daddy he has to get to agree to that request. I got him a skateboard and a few toys that he picked out at yard sales the last three months, and my Dad and Margie got him the Edison robot. He's not getting even half of the things he's asked for, but hopefully he will have a great birthday tomorrow! 

Speaking of birthdays, I finally finished Nadia's birthday interview video. I didn't record many videos over the past year. I included pictures of her from July 2020 to June 2021, her video interview, two short videos from white water rafting, and short interviews of Ian, Oliver, and Paul. It's definitely an improvement over the videos I've done over the past 13 years as I've never done any editing before - just hit record (mostly with a camcorder) and uploaded whatever I recorded. However, I utilized very little of what I've learned in the video course. In the future I hope to record short video clips FAR more often with either my phone or DSLR. I also hope to improve my skills both with recording videos and also with putting everything together with video editing software. I hope that I will improve with each video I make, but I especially hope that I can do MUCH better with my video of our vacation in September. I've learned that it's better to record interviews indoors (to avoid background noises of birds and such), to use the tripod when I'm recording a video with my DSLR camera, and to use the stabilizer when I'm recording videos with my cell phone. The stabilizer has been a big help for almost every occasion. I got a good video of Oliver doing the limbo at the roller skating rink on Thursday, but I couldn't figure out how to use the stabilizer when I was taking videos of the kids bowling yesterday. I'm sure it's my lack of knowledge that was the problem. Ian and Oliver have already seen Nadia's birthday video. I hope Nadia likes it when she sees it tomorrow. Just like I have to say "I'm done" when making a photo book (or I could spend an absurd amount of hours making one), I had to say "I'm done" with her video. It's the type of project that I could keep tweaking for hours on end. 

Four weeks from today

We are starting our school year a bit later than usual this year because we are headed to Long Island later than usual. Four weeks from today will be our first day of school for the new school year. We started logging some days of school for 2021-22 in July and will continue to do so this month, but those days have been or will be filled with things like field trips, art camp, and theatre camp. On August 30 we'll resume spelling, math, history, etc. Oliver is back to working on his multiplication tables after taking a break for part of the summer. Knowing that our summer break is drawing to a close and that we'll be on Long Island one of those four weeks, I decided to turn my attention toward projects around the house and creating videos. I'm also still working on learning more Spanish. Yesterday I power washed the fence, one side of the house, and the van. I also trimmed two trees and several bushes, did some cleaning and straightening up in the shed, and did some organizing of bookshelves and one kitchen cabinet. Today the boys and I hauled the branches I had cut down last night to the tree farm. It's nice to have a place where we are allowed to dispose of natural waste. Today I mopped the floors and also worked with the boys on doing some organizing and purging in their bedrooms and the basement.

Nadia with her cabin mates and counselor

Growing up I remember my mom would regularly call Ray to come and clean our carpets and/or upholstery. I've owned a home for 20.5 years, but I've never paid anyone to clean any flooring or furniture before. Having a puppy hasn't been good for our flooring. Last week I placed an order for new flooring in our dining room so I certainly didn't pay for that carpet to be cleaned. I figured that paying for the family room and upstairs hallway carpets to be cleaned was a lot cheaper than replacing the flooring. It looks so much better! There was one stain in the hallway they couldn't remove, but overall it looks much better. I also asked them to do the carpet on the stairs. One of the men suggested also doing the tile and grout in the entryway. What a difference! If it wasn't so expensive, I'd also have had them do the kitchen. The tile in the entryway is 22 years old, whereas the kitchen flooring is only 5 years old so I opted just to do that area. I think at some point in the future I'll have them do the kitchen. We've lived in this house for 13 years. I'm not sure how often I'll have them come back, but I doubt I'll wait 13 more years! Last week I tried to get a window repaired, but it seems that's not possible with Pella windows. For now I'm just keeping the blinds down somewhat to cover up the cracks in the glass. Fixing or replacing our front door is more important to me than repairing that window, and our shed is also literally falling apart. Owning a home seems to involve constant repairs of some sort or another. Last week I also framed three pieces of art work from art camp (two of Nadia's and one of Ian's). 

I haven't started actually working on creating a video yet, but I have been taking videos lately that I hope to use in the projects. I'm not a perfectionist by nature, but I feel myself holding back because I know it's going to take time and practice until I reach the skill level that I am hoping at attain as a videographer. I keep telling myself I have to start somewhere! Not that I have "arrived" as a photographer, but I'm certainly a better photographer now than I was 10 years ago. My goal is to create seven videos over the next four months: Nadia's 13th birthday interview, Oliver's 9th birthday interview, Milo's first year, a recap of our 5 trips to Long Island, a recap of summer 2021, a recap of our 25 day vacation, and Ian's 12th birthday interview. Learning this new skill has involved using new equipment. Over the last few days I've been using the cell phone stabilizer my Dad got me for my birthday, a tripod that my parents got me years ago but I haven't used much in the past, and wireless microphones. I've also been using my DSLR to record videos whereas in the past I've only used it for taking pictures. I'm hoping that at least my skills at recording videos will improve over the next few weeks so that I can take some good clips on Long Island at the end of this month and on our 25 day vacation out west in September.

Camp Susque Week 3 of Girl's Camp 2021

Today I'm giving thanks:

1. That the kids had a great week at Camp Good News. Ian won first prize for the week in archery!

2. That we were able to get some of our floors cleaned today. What a difference! Praying that Milo won't ever pee on the carpet again.

3. That Paul can spend the night at his Dad's apartment tonight. He's working really long hours this week while his brother is on vacation. Spending a couple of nights at his dad's place cuts down on his commuting time which means he can get more sleep and we can save money on gas.

4. That the weather was nice on Sunday. Work is being done in the room where we have worship services at church on Sunday, which means we're having church outdoors for two Sundays. Ian was inside as the youth service was held indoors, but Olive, Paul, and I sat outdoors for church on Sunday. Nadia also had a service outdoors at Camp Susque as they use the "chapel in the pines" on Sundays.

5. I enjoyed having dinner with my friend, Cheri, at a restaurant neither of us had ever been to before on Friday prior to attending free concerts on our church's property that were put on by the local Christian radio station. Mostly I just enjoyed being able to spend time with her in person. They had food trucks at the event, and Cheri and I got some Bruster's ice cream. I tried "Graham Central Station." It was delicious!! Someone handed Cheri a pizza from Domino's, and she gave it to me. Paul had some of it for dinner that night, and the kids had some at lunch the next day. We won't object to free pizza!

6. From the pictures I've seen of her, it looks like Nadia is having a good week at Camp Susque so far! She was disappointed it was cancelled last year. I'm so glad she can attend this year and not need to wear masks, etc. 

7. We have been accumulating gift cards for restaurants from credit card points for what Oliver calls our "big field trip." HA HA! You know you're a homeschooler when your child thinks a 25 day vacation is a field trip. We even got a couple for treats (ex. Cold Stone Creamery and Krispy Kreme). I just have to figure out if I can get gift cards for two more dinners, and I'll be done with that project. There are a few times we will eat out and not use a gift card (ex. dinner in Yellowstone National Park), but we shouldn't need to spend that much on meals during our trip provided the prices of food doesn't jump up too drastically. Even when I was at dinner on Friday they had a copy of a handwritten paper that had updates to the prices of the menu which they said was due to inflation. In 6 days I'll be able to see only one month until we leave on vacation!

Chapel in the Pines on 8/1/21