A new co-op

The weather varies greatly in Pennsylvania in April. Today, April 1, started out as a very rainy day, but the rain cleared, and the temperature soared up into the 70's! After taking Milo on many walks the last few months during which I was wearing a ski jacket, scarf, hat, and gloves, it was heavenly to not need a coat of any kind. Milo won't walk if it's raining so I didn't get my usual 2 miles in at 7am, but after I took Oliver to two Easter egg hunts I was able to take Milo for a nice long walk. Now that the weather has been nicer, I've been trying to get my average closer to 6-7 miles a day. Nadia and Ian were at church for 6+ hours today with their Bible quizzing team. After taking Oliver to his third egg hunt (at which he won a prize of a 1/2 lb. chocolate bunny), I watched the last hour of the quizzing. Three boys and ten girls competed, and the team that consisted of the three boys won! Ian has improved SO much over the last year. I think if he puts in more time studying over the next almost 3 months that he will do well at the Nationals in Indiana at the end of June. He was also one of the top performers in the individual competitions. Usually, I take the kids to Easter egg hunts on the two Saturdays before Easter. This is the first year that Ian is too old to participate. Oliver will be able to participate for two more years, which will be my 16th year of taking at least one child to an egg hunt as Nadia’s first was in 2010. I'm planning to take Oliver to one tomorrow afternoon, and that will be his last one for this year as we'll be in Chicago next Saturday. We're also planning to see the movie "His Only Son" (about Abraham/Isaac) at the theater tomorrow afternoon. 

On Tuesday our friend hosted a game day at her home. The number of kids attending continues to grow. Most of the kids are between the ages of 10-15. I decided to see if some of these families might be interested in forming a new co-op, and there are about eight families who are interested! We have scheduled a meeting for April 18 to discuss ideas regarding what day/time to meet, what classes to offer, etc. The man who is the kids' Bible quizzing coach offered to teach a Bible or history class and/or lead a chess club. Although Nadia's first choice would be to attend the Christian school at our church (MCS) next year, all three kids are excited about seeing their friends more regularly through this co-op. I have scheduled two field trips that many of these families are planning to attend next month - one is a guided tour of Eckley Miner's Village and the other is a VERY local guided tour of a historic church, home, and cemetery that is less than 4 miles from our home. As I have the last two years, I've given Nadia the choice of attending drama (and possibly art) at MCS as she did in 2019 or the CHEF co-op. She's chosen the CHEF co-op the last two years, but I think she's leaning towards choosing MCS for the 2023-24 school year. If so, I will sign both Nadia and Ian up to be in the chorus at MCS, which would mean that they could both perform in that school's spring musical next year. Speaking of musicals, Nadia is attending a performance this evening of Beauty and the Beast with her friends Macey and Christopher and also Macey's parents.

Highlights from the past three weeks would include:

1. Nadia and I saw a performance of Guys and Dolls that some of her friends were in.
2. Our whole family saw a performance of Julius Caesar.
3. Ian had four teeth extracted at the dentist at the request of the orthodontist.
4. Oliver, Nadia, and I attended a Matthew West concert at our church.
5. We saw a passion play with my niece Jenna and her boyfriend, and we all had dinner together at Texas Roadhouse. 
6. The five of us attended an anniversary party for a couple in our church.
7. Ian and Oliver attended a game day for homeschoolers. Oliver and I didn't attend because Oliver was under the weather. 

In like a lion

Although we've had some really cold spells this winter where the temperatures have been close to zero degrees, in general this winter has been very mild. Considering I'm not a fan of cold weather, I've been thankful that the temperatures have often been a little warmer than usual. We also haven't had much snow this winter. Yesterday morning I awoke to discover a winter wonderland outside. I typically walk five miles every day, and I've been enjoying seeing and hearing more birds lately during my walks. During my first walk yesterday, the sun was still coming up, and the sky was incredibly gorgeous. The evergreen trees weren't completely covered in snow, but every other tree and plant was completely coated in snow. It was so incredibly beautiful! I wish I had used my camera to take some photos at the start of my walk, but at least I snapped a couple of pictures with my phone in the middle of my walk after the sky had turned blue. 

Our school district had a two-hour delay yesterday, but we didn't have a delay in our home because I had invited nine other children to come to our home to play board games from 1-4pm. Another mom hosted a game day for eight children on February 24. That time the kids played Azul, Ticket to Ride, Sequence, and Chess. I liked the idea so much that I decided to do the same. She had divided the kids into two groups of four. I opted to divide the kids into two groups of six. I put some games on each table that six people could play, and I also put one game for two people (Mastermind and Hnefatafl) and one for four people at each table if the groups wanted to split into smaller groups. I also had all twelve kids play Guesstures together (similar to charades). One mom sent a bag of chips and a bag of homemade cookies. Despite the fact that all the kids had eaten lunch prior to game day, they consumed those plus the two bags of pretzels that I provided. At the game day last month Nadia was the only girl; yesterday there were four girls and eight boys in attendance ranging in age from nine (Isaiah) to fifteen (Ben). One mom stayed during game day, and we were able to chat a little bit. Two of the moms mentioned that they will host a game day at their home in the near future. 

We began our fourth quarter of school last week. Ian is studying Python (coding) instead of science this quarter. Last week we finished the fourth and final Life of Fred grammar book. Tomorrow Ian and Nadia will finish the Life of Fred Beginning Algebra book. Because Nadia had almost reached the goal that I had set for her for the school year in Spanish on Duolingo, she has switched to working on French every day. She is trying to get to the same point in the French course that she is in Spanish. In Biology Nadia will be doing her first dissection this week - an earthworm. We're currently listening to Henry V during the time we usually study history. Speaking of Shakespeare, we have tickets to see a performance of Julius Caesar on Sunday night. 

On March 3, two men installed a new range in our kitchen. We had to hire a contractor for the task because they needed to cut the countertop and cabinets some to make room for the oven. I was not at all impressed with the quality of their work. I don't ever plan to hire them again, but all of the burners work on my new oven, which wasn't the case with my old one for the past nine months or so. I wasn't able to get a white one so it doesn't exactly "match" the dishwasher, microwave, and refrigerator, but it has some features my 24-year-old oven didn't have such as a griddle that can be put on the range, the oven can be split into two different ovens which I anticipate using when I need to bake/cook things at two different temperatures at the same time, the oven can be used as an air fryer (something I've never used before), the oven can be controlled by an app on a phone (I can turn the oven on to start cooking something while I'm at church on a Sunday morning), etc. We also got an estimate on replacing our sliding glass door in the kitchen, but that's not going to happen because it was for a little over $6K! I would never have dreamt one door could cost that much! We'll just keep using the one we have. I'm thankful that we were able to replace the oven because it was definitely challenging at times to cook when I only had one large burner I could use. My new range has five burners, and they all work!

February

The kids enjoyed skiing with two of their friends - Isaiah and Micah

We didn't have any field trips or special outings in January, but the kids did begin their weekly ice-skating lessons, art class (Nadia and Ian), and drama class (Nadia) last month. Field trips and such have resumed this month. Our first was the Living History fair that the kids participated in on February 3. On February 10th we drove down to Maryland to spend the night at my friend's home prior to spending a day in Washington, D.C. The last time the kids and I were in DC was November 2018. We had planned to return in the spring of 2020, and we hadn't attempted any trips back down there since then. On this trip we visited the World War II, Lincoln, Vietnam, and Korean War Memorials before seeing a production of A Horse and His Boy (C.S. Lewis) at the Museum of the Bible. Nadia and Ian attended a Super Bowl party at church last Sunday, and all three kids attended a homeschool Valentine's Day party at a roller-skating rink this past Tuesday. Despite the fact that the temperatures got into the 60's, the kids and Paul skied at Elk Mountain on Wednesday. Unfortunately, the other annual WVIA ski day won't be happening this year at the ski resort closer to our home. The kids had never taken off their coats while skiing before! It was a first for them to ski when it was that warm outside. Today we participated in a service project for three hours packing hygiene kits for people in Ukraine for the first time since October. Special activities over the last ten days of the month will most likely include seeing a production of Freedom Bound (about the underground railroad), a board game gathering at another homeschool family's home, Nadia and Ian attending the Winter Jam concert with the youth group, and Nadia attending a birthday party at a bowling alley. I was planning to take the kids to a maple sugaring program next Saturday, but in light of the birthday party Nadia is attending and the fact that my new oven is supposed to be delivered that day, I don't think we will be attending that after all. 

Oliver had two teeth extracted at the dentist on January 25th at the request of the orthodontist. Ian had an x-ray at the dentist this past Tuesday in preparation for having teeth extracted at the dentist next month, also at the request of the orthodontist. Ian has been wearing a retainer since June 2021, but the orthodontist told him on Monday that his time wearing it will be coming to a close very soon. 

I read two books that the library had gotten me through interlibrary loan while the kids were skiing on Wednesday. I also worked on a database for Experience Missions this week. I've either read or listened to a total of 19 books so far this year. The last one that I completed was The Book Thief which I selected because Nadia is currently reading it; if I had started listening to it before she read it, I wouldn't have assigned it to her given the language in the book. Lesson learned (hopefully). I'm currently listening to Find Your People by Jennie Allen and A Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting by Sophie Irwin. The kids and I have listened to 21 books so far this year (some of them I read aloud). The last two that we completed were Red Falcons of Tremoine by Hendry Peart and Astrid the Unstoppable by Maria Parr. We're currently in the middle of A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park and Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate. We also finished watching the third season of The Chosen earlier this month. The season finale was excellent! 

This month I ordered a new range, which was something we've talked about doing since last summer because one of the burners can no longer be used. I had two contractors give me estimates for installation, and one of them is scheduled to do the work on March 3. The total cost is going to be much higher than I was expecting, but hopefully I will really like the new oven. It does have some features that my 14-year-old oven doesn't have. It's the first time in our lives that either of us have purchased an oven. 

I also purchased airfare for the first time since 2018. Thankfully, I was able to spend less than I was expecting for those tickets as I got them for about $130 each (per person per one-way ticket). We are planning to fly from Pittsburgh to Seattle near the end of August and then fly back from San Francisco a little over two weeks later. I haven't worked out all the details yet, but we plan to spend the first few days in Washington state, followed by two days in Oregon, two days in northern California, three days in Nevada with my Aunt Janet, and our last three days in San Francisco before flying back to Pittsburgh. At one point I considered including two days in British Columbia in this trip, but I've scratched those plans. If we do attempt to visit all or most of the Canadian provinces, we can visit Yoho national park which is located in the eastern part of British Columbia and is only about 20 minutes away from Lake Louise that I thought we'd visit in Alberta. Other things that have been eliminated either due to the cost or because we shortened the length of the trip include North Cascades National Park, Yosemite, a whale watching cruise, and Safari West. I also have scratched our plans to spend a day in Toronto in July because Paul's brother is going on vacation that same week, so Paul needs to be at work. 

I've also begun working on lesson plans for the next school year. Additionally, I've been researching what college classes Ian and Nadia might take while they're in high school. I'm not sure if Oliver will go to college, but I've told Ian and Nadia that the plan is that they each earn at least 30 college credits while they're in high school so that it will only take them three years to finish their college degree. This will save us a lot of money because colleges charge MUCH less for tuition if the student is still in high school, plus the kids will naturally still be living at home while they are in high school. 

Love Languages

Almost 26 years ago I read The Five Love Languages. At that point, Paul and I both had the same two primary love languages - quality time and physical touch. A couple of months ago I had all five of us take a love language assessment online. Paul's top two languages haven't changed. In my case, my top two languages are currently physical touch and acts of service. Considering how little time he and I have had together over the last seven years, I was surprised that quality time is his primary love language by a decent margin. I still scored the lowest for "gifts." When we were dating, I was renting an apartment and living alone, so I can see why words of affirmation and quality time were more important to me than acts of service. Now that we own our own home, it makes sense that acts of service are so much more meaningful to me as I don't have a landlord to call if something needs fixed in our home. Words of affirmation was in third place back when we were dating, and this time words of affirmation were tied with acts of service for second place. Physical touch is also the primary love language for Paul and Oliver, in second place for Ian, and (no surprise) in last place for Nadia. Gifts are the most significant to Nadia (primary) and Oliver (second place). I thought physical touch would be Ian's primary love language, but it was time, and after I thought about it, that made sense to me as he is the one who the most often asks me questions like, "Do you want to play a game with me?" Gifts and words of affirmation received low scores from Ian whereas physical touch and acts of service were tied for second place for him. Gifts and time were almost tied for first place for Nadia; acts of service and words of affirmation were tied for third place for her. Acts of service and quality time were tied for third place for Ian. I was surprised that "words of affirmation" was so low for Oliver (5%) because he writes me little messages like "I love you" at random times, which is not something I receive from anyone else in the family. I wanted everyone to take the assessment because I want to make sure I am expressing love to each family member in a way that is most meaningful to them. 

Nadia and her ice-skating teacher

In the early years of our marriage, Paul and I used to give each other gifts for Valentine's Day and go out on a date. Over the last 20+ years my taste in what I'd like to receive as a gift has definitely changed. I used to receive good jewelry from Paul. That's no longer my preference. I get more excited about something practical like a new kitchen faucet (something Paul gave me for my birthday several years ago). Paul and I haven't exchanged gifts on Valentine's Day for quite a few years.  When the kids were younger, they did receive some gifts on Valentine's Day from Paul's mom and my mom. A few years ago, I started a tradition of buying them each one gift. One year I got them each a book, and another year I got them each a jigsaw puzzle. Since we've been finally getting in the habit of having a family fun night once (and sometimes twice) a week, I decided to primarily get games this year in addition to some candy for each of them, and I decided this year to also get one for Paul not just for the kids. I got Spontuneous for Paul (a singing game because he always jokes about how he's going to be joining the praise team at church). We've played that one twice already, and we had fun. Nadia likes it the best. I got Ian the game Double Ditto and purchased Taco vs. Burrito for Oliver. Nadia has been enjoying watching old TV shows on the iPad the last few years (Cosby, Full House, Family Ties, Wonder Years, Saved by the Bell, Seventh Heaven, etc.), but we haven't found a way to stream Growing Pains so instead of buying her a game, I purchased a set of DVDs containing all the seasons on eBay for her. Hopefully she will enjoy watching that show. Oliver was hoping to get another nerf gun. If I didn't buy him a game, I would have gotten him another puzzle as that boy is doing puzzles every day!

Korean War Memorial in DC

We have a tradition that I make the kids heart shaped food on Valentine's Day. This morning I made them a heart shaped egg inside a piece of toast. We were invited to two different (free) homeschool Valentine's Day parties today - one at a bowling alley and the other at a roller-skating rink. We chose to go roller skating from 1-3pm because the rink is much closer to our home than the bowling alley. Celebrating Valentine's Day has morphed from going out to dinner with Paul to taking my kids to a roller-skating rink. 

The pictures in this post are from a variety of days - the living history fair, ice skating lessons, and our day in Washington, D.C. this past Saturday. We drove down on Friday afternoon and had dinner at my friend's house. She and I were roommates from 1994-1996 when we were both teaching at the same school in Annapolis. We spent the night at their home and then drove into DC on Saturday morning. I typically opt to take the Metro into DC, but since it was a Saturday in February, I decided we'd park in a parking garage near our final destination and get around on foot the rest of the time. Our first stop was the WWII Memorial where we had a 30-minute tour by a park ranger. We also visited the Lincoln, Korean War, and Vietnam Memorials. The kids earned a Junior Ranger badge. I was unable to procure tickets for the Washington Monument. We attempted to go in the National Archives prior to seeing A Horse and His Boy, but there was a long line. In hindsight, I wish we had just opted to visit the Jefferson Memorial on our way to the show. We plan to visit DC several more times in the next three years as there are many sites and museums the kids haven't been to yet (Ford's Theatre, White House, Capitol, Holocaust Museum, Spy Museum, etc.) so hopefully we will make it to the top of the Washington Monument in the future. We had tickets to ride that elevator and visit Ford's Theatre in 2020, but naturally those were cancelled due to you know what. We had lovely weather for walking around the mall on Saturday. 

10.5 years old

  

As of today, it has been exactly 26 years since Paul and I met at a ballroom dance class, and our youngest child will turn 11 in exactly six months! Here are 11 descriptions that are currently true of Oliver.

1. He has a new pair of eyeglasses that he's supposed to use when he's reading.

2. One of his most favorite activities is building forts in various places around our home.

3. His favorite toys are his nerf guns.

4. He is still generally a very generous boy. For example, he received a large canister of Gatorade powder (enough to make 9 gallons) for Christmas. He shares his Gatorade with his siblings and sometimes his friends.

5. His favorite way to earn screen time is to do a jigsaw puzzle. His second favorite way is through Duolingo. His skills with completing puzzles have dramatically improved over the last year.

6. His favorite ways to use his screen time include playing Roblox or Among Us on an iPad, watching YouTube videos (ex. Mr. Beast or Unspoken) on an iPad, or watching a movie with Paul. 

7. Of my three kids, Oliver eats by far the widest variety of foods for breakfast and lunch. He likes almost everything I make for dinner.

8. Oliver is the only one of our kids who regularly opts to go to bed a bit earlier than what we have stated is his bedtime. He's the only member of our family who hasn't ever wanted Milo sleep in his bed with him. 

9. Sometimes he joins me for one of my walks with Milo. He also is the only child who chooses to go with me inside grocery stores. When I go for walks, I usually listen to an audiobook with an earbud. When Oliver joins me, I listen to Oliver because he talks nonstop. 

10. Oliver prefers to read chapter books out loud, but very recently he has made the transition to reading them silently. He only reads when he is required to do so. He's been reading Imagination Station books recently. 

11. I really like the Beast Academy math textbooks. I had been having Oliver work through them at a much slower pace. This is his second year in fourth grade, and the first half of this school year he was using the third-grade books. Although those are superior in developing problem solving skills, they are not a good fit for Oliver. Just last week I threw in the towel while he was in book 4A and decided to have him switch to Teaching Textbooks (4th grade). I feel like this was definitely the right choice. He can now complete a math lesson independently, and he sometimes does more than one lesson in a day of his own initiative! His grades have been excellent so far. What a relief! My current goal is that he will finish the 4th and 5th grade Teaching Textbook courses by May 2024. Now that I've switched him to Teaching Textbooks, he actually is sometimes choosing to do a math lesson on the weekend to earn screen time. This is a first for Oliver!

A new month

My brother's birthday was February 1. He would have turned 39 years old this week if the Lord hadn't called him home in 2019. I know his three sisters miss him very much. 

We didn't have any field trips in January, but we have plans for a few this month. I had one special outing in January. I treated my friend, Cheri, to lunch at a fancy restaurant for her 66th birthday. A professor had treated me to lunch there in 2004, and I hadn't been there since that time. Tonight, the kids participated in a living history fair. I asked them to choose people who lived between AD 30-1454. Next year we'll focus on 1455-1707, and two years from now we'll study from 1708 to the present. The WVIA ski day that was supposed to happen on January 4 was rescheduled to February 15. They haven't announced yet when the second ski day will be, but it's usually the last week of February. We are also planning to spend next Saturday in DC. I ended up reading or listening to 13 books in January, and I've finished one so far in February (Unoffendable by Brant Hansen). I started more than thirteen books last month, but some of them I decided not to finish. I wish I had made that call with a book the kids and I recently finished - Catherine, Called Birdy. I seriously can't believe it received a Newberry Honor Award in 1995. I asked the kids to remind me of this experience in the future if I'm tempted to persevere through a book that none of us really like. We recently re-read two books by Laura Martin, who is one of the kids' favorite authors. 

Since the time Nadia and Ian were very young, I began mentally creating a list of experiences that I wanted my kids to have. In the early years they were things like take my kids to a circus, see Disney on Ice, go to a parade, see fireworks, etc. In many cases, it was because I remembered enjoying those experiences when I was a child, and in other instances (such as attending a Trans-Siberian orchestra concert), it was something I also hadn't yet experienced. Over the last month or so, I've given more thought to what experiences the kids haven't had yet that we might try to accomplish. There were things that crossed my mind that I didn't include on the list such as riding in a hot air balloon or attending a Penn State football game. When I asked the kids if they wanted to attend a college or professional football game, they weren't interested. The only athletic event that they said they are interested in seeing is a hockey game. We moved to Maryland when I was nine years old, and we lived very close to where the Washington Capitals played so I have memories of attending hockey games. Maybe we will take them to see a Hershey Bears game? The list of specific places I hope the kids are able to visit is very long (Alamo, Alcatraz, Gateway Arch, California redwoods, etc.), but I decided to include very few specific places on the list to prevent the list from being too unwieldy. I'm definitely open to suggestions if there are things that have slipped my mind that would be good to include on the list. Nadia will be fifteen in June, so we know we don't have many more years left with her living here at home. 

Nadia was the one who requested to swim with dolphins. When I was researching other possible animal encounters, I learned about the Wilstem Wildlife Park in Indiana. I have modified our vacation plans for April to include a day there. It has greatly increased the cost of that vacation which otherwise was a fairly economical one, but the kids are SUPER excited about having animal encounters with elephants, giraffes, sloths, kangaroos, and otters. Hopefully, it will be an experience that we'll never forget! If it was up to me, I wouldn't have scheduled it. Paul admits he's the "softie" in terms of being willing to splurge on an experience that I think is too expensive, but if he says we should do it, I agree since he's currently the only breadwinner in our family. 

January

We don't have any field trips scheduled for the month of January although we had planned to go skiing on January 4th, but that trip was postponed due to the weather being too warm that day for skiing. This doesn't mean we're staying home all the time. The kids' 10-week session of ice-skating lessons began on January 5th, Nadia and Ian participated in a Bible quizzing competition last weekend, and the homeschool co-op classes began last Monday. We didn't participate in the co-op last semester, but I signed Nadia and Ian up for a 60-minute art class that will continue through May 8, and Nadia has a 75-minute drama class following the art class. On May 18-19, they will be performing Mary Poppins. The auditions are tomorrow. I learned about another youth choir that Nadia and Ian could join this semester that meets on Tuesday evenings, but I decided that we have enough weekly commitments, and I didn't want to add another one to our calendar. My Bible study group resumed our study of John last Wednesday night after being on hiatus since November 9. For the past six weeks our family has enjoyed watching The Chosen on Sunday nights. Episodes #4-5 were my favorite ones so far of the third season. We have to wait until February 5th and 7th to watch the last two episodes of this season. 

Last year I set a goal to invite twelve families (not counting our relatives) over to our home for a meal. So far, we have had one family over for dinner this month, and another family is scheduled to come over this Saturday. I can only think of three families that live in Pennsylvania and are not relatives who have invited us over to their home for a meal over the last 14+ years, Dave & Marla (Dave is an employee of Paul), Kay & Allen (they have been friends of mine for 27 years), and Carol & Denis (Carol has been my friend for 29 years). Those three families all live at least 90 minutes away from our home. Earlier this month we had dinner at a local family's home, which was a first for us since we moved here in September 2008.  They had come over to our home for a meal once last summer. 

I didn't try that many new recipes last year. Of the ones that I did try, the favorite was Creamy Garlic Chicken Penne. I'm hoping to try at least twelve new recipes this year. I've tried three new recipes so far this month. The first one, Amish Breakfast Casserole, was a hit and will be added to our meal rotation, which is also what happened with the creamy garlic chicken penne. Nadia is determined to make a wider variety of desserts this year. It had been years since I had made snickerdoodle cookies. Nadia made them this month, and it turns out that they are a hit with everyone in our family except for Paul, who won't eat anything that has cinnamon in it. At the moment, Nadia's favorite dessert is apple crisp. In the last five weeks we also made peanut butter blossoms and peanut butter cup cookies, which were both well received and ones we hadn't made for several years. 

I haven't been doing a good job of taking pictures lately. Hopefully I will get back in gear with that in the near future. The first picture in this post is from when we visited the National September 11 Museum last month. I have been doing a good job of walking 4-6 miles a day almost every day. The exception would be on really rainy days. I usually listen to audiobooks while I'm walking, and I've also been reading books (paperback or via the Kindle). I've finished eight books so far this year, and I'm currently in the middle of three others. The books have been from different genres - historical fiction (Refugee by Alan Gratz), autobiography (I am Malala and Hiding in the Light), dystopian (Shadow Children series), nonfiction (Essentialism by Greg McKeown), contemporary fiction (A Life Intercepted by Charles Martin), and suspense (Edge of Dusk by Colleen Coble). Next up will be two more nonfiction books - Effortless by Greg McKeown and Find Your People by Jennie Allen. Nadia is currently reading Evidence Not Seen by Darlene Rose, and that is one I also want to read sometime this year. In addition to The Chosen, I've also been watching episodes of the third season of All Creatures Great and Small via the PBS app. I often go months without watching any tv shows or movies, so it's been a treat to watch the third seasons of The Chosen and All Creatures Great and Small. 

Because of the gigantic medical bill that we had to pay last year, I opted not to spend money on house projects last year. I am NOT implying that we were planning to spend $20K on the house. The most we ever spent on the house was $10K when we replaced our roof, and most years we spend less than $2K. Earlier this month a salesman gave us an estimate on replacing some of our windows plus our sliding glass door. We were very impressed with the product he was selling, but the price was way out of our league. I also had a contractor come in to give us an estimate on modifying our countertop/cabinet so that we can have a new oven installed because no one makes ovens that are as small as our existing one. My oven is 24 years old, and one of the two larger burners can no longer be used. I have a long list of potential house projects, but the vast majority will likely never happen (ex. having crown molding installed, waterproofing the basement, finishing the basement, replacing the windows, and finishing putting drywall in the garage). A priority to Paul is replacing the shed, which is literally falling to pieces. I'm not exactly sure which projects will be tackled this year aside from replacing the oven, but likely candidates would including replacing one broken window (above the kitchen sink), replacing the sliding glass door, replacing the shed, and replacing the 24-year-old carpet that is on the stairway, upstairs hallway, and Oliver's bedroom. We'll start with the oven and depending on how much that costs possibly move on to something else on the list. I wish I had a choice in which oven we purchased, but it wasn't worth it to me to get new countertops and/or cabinets just so I could have a choice in which oven we got. 

Towards the end of 2022 we finally got in the habit of having a weekly "family fun night." I was thinking that we would usually do it on a Saturday night, but Sunday has been working on better many times for various reasons such as Paul got home from work too late last night and the previous Saturday, we had company. Today it was Nadia's turn to choose what we did, and she picked that we played Miles Borne. 

O Canada

 

When I was growing up, we spent several of our family vacations in Canada. We went to at least seven of the ten provinces. Our trip to British Columbia and Alberta was my least favorite vacation just because of how many hours we spent in the vehicle even though we had flown out to Seattle from Maryland. My favorite place that we visited in Canada was Halifax, Nova Scotia. Several years ago, I thought it would be a good goal for us to see if we could visit all ten provinces with our children. We spent a little time in Ontario in 2018, and I had made hotel reservations for a more extensive trip through Ontario and Quebec in 2020, but naturally, those plans were all cancelled due to COVID. We ended up accomplishing the New England portion of that trip in September 2022, but I eliminated the Canadian portion due to COVID mandates that were in place at the time. Ironically, while we were on that trip Canada announced that the mandates would be ending as of October 1. Because our whale cruise in Maine was cancelled this past September due to Hurricane Fiona, I thought we'd take a whale cruise this coming September off the coast of Washington, but it turns out that the whale cruises on the northwest coast are FAR more expensive than the whale cruises on the northeast coast. Now that we are planning to visit the maritime provinces, I think we'll aim to go on a whale watching cruise in the Bay of Fundy instead. 

Canada has an Xplorers program similar to the Junior Ranger program in the US. The kids completed the Xplorers booklet at Fort George in Ontario in 2018. I don't expect them to earn anywhere near as many in Canada as they have in the US, but hopefully they'll earn at least ten over the next four years at places such as Banff, Lake Louise, Fundy, Green Gables Heritage, Cape Breton, Halifax Citadel, Alexander Graham Bell, Jasper, and Gros Morne. This week I decided to give more thought to making plans, which if they come to fruition would enable us to visit all of the Canadian provinces within the next 4.5 years. Here are some of those plans:

1. Spend one day in Toronto this July in conjunction with a music festival we plan to attend at Darien Lake (NY).
2. Spend two days in British Columbia this September. I deleted San Juan Island (Washington) from the current potential itinerary and lengthened the vacation by one day to add in this province.
3. Spend about one week on a trip to Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City in June or July 2024 immediately following a Bible quizzing competition in NY. On the way home we could visit the three National Park sites in Hyde Park, New York that we weren't able to visit this past fall. 
4. Take a vacation to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland in 2026. Although Gros Morne National Park looks like it is very beautiful, I think the province that is the most likely to be eliminated from our travel plans would be Newfoundland given the time and expense it would take to get there from Nova Scotia. 
5. Visit Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan along with Glacier National Park and some sites in South Dakota in 2027. Those would be the final three provinces, and this trip would involve the most driving even though I'm thinking we would fly out to Minneapolis. Hopefully we will all have a good opinion of this trip even though we'll have to spend more time in a vehicle than we'd like. Canada is a VERY big country! 

Some of the gingerbread houses that the kids made.

I fully realize that this tentative plan is subject to change, but I also think there's more of a chance that we will achieve the goals to visit all 50 states, all (or at least 9 of the) 10 Canadian provinces, Ecuador, and the British Isles if we have some potential plans. I also want the kids to visit a third world country on a short-term mission trip (probably Guatemala) over the next couple of years. 

1. April 2023 - Nebraska, Kansas, Chicago, and Iowa
2. September 2023 - Lake Tahoe (Nevada), northern California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia
3. January 2024 - Ecuador and southern Florida
4. May 2024 - Virginia
5. June or July 2024 - Ontario, New York, and Quebec
6. September 2024 - Alaska
7. March 2025 - Texas and Louisiana
8. May 2025 - D.C.
9. September 2025 - Hawaii
10. Spring 2026 - D.C.
11. May 2026 - England, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Scotland
12. August 2026 - New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland 
13. August 2027 - British Columbia, Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan as well as some sites in the US (Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota)

Ian's bedroom after I took down the border and painted his walls at the end of December. 

100th Day

Today was our 100th day of school. When I was a student, that wasn't something that was celebrated, but through my Facebook feed as well as my time in various schools observing student teachers, I have learned that in many younger classrooms, the 100th day of school is a big deal. As of Monday, we will be half-way through our school year in terms of number of days that we do schoolwork at home. Including field trips, I think we'll end up with 187 days of school this year (7 more than required) by May 10, which I anticipate being our last day of school this year. I have chosen next Thursday to be the final day of the second marking period for Nadia because she will finish the first semester of Biology on that day. During the second half of the school year Nadia and Ian will be taking a weekly art class at the homeschool co-op, Nadia will also be taking a drama class at the co-op, and all three kids will be participating in a ten-week ice skating class which began yesterday evening. Here are some highlights of what we've been up to during the first 100 days of school:

1. Read and discussed Matthew, Mark, Acts, Romans and 1 Corinthians together. 
2. Memorized Ephesians 1:1-4:10; Nadia and Ian have also memorized select verses from Acts 1-9.
3. Oliver has been studying earth science, and Nadia is half-way through biology. Ian started the year doing biology with Nadia, but part-way through I switched him to General Science. I recently ordered Ian another Python book as he wants to learn more about coding. 
4. Ian currently has earned an A in Algebra I, and Nadia currently has a B in Geometry. Oliver completed Beast Academy levels 3C and 3D. This week he began 4A. In Life of Fred Ian and Nadia are half-way through Beginning Algebra. Oliver completed Honey, Ice Cream, and Jelly Beans. 
5. In Social Studies we have covered about 1,000 years of history so far this school year as we read about Leif Erickson today. The kids will be participating in a living history homeschool event in early February. Nadia is researching Joan of Arc, Oliver will be doing the Apostle Paul, and Ian is reading about Marco Polo. Marco Polo wasn't Ian's first choice, but I couldn't find books at the library for his first few choices. I wish I had been able find more books about Leif Erickson (one of his choices) as getting him a Viking costume would have been much easier than finding something for him to wear when he portrays Marco Polo. We haven't read any Shakespeare yet this year, but we will be studying Macbeth starting on Monday. 
6. Nadia completed unit studies four biographies about Joni Eareckson, Corrie ten Boom, C.S. Lewis, and Rifka Bary in addition to ones on the Screwtape Letters and The Green Glass Sea. For leisure she has been reading books by Karen Kingsbury. Ian read Beorn the Proud, Twice Freed, Augustine Came to Kent, and Son of Charlamagne. For leisure he has been reading books by Brandon Sanderson, Andrew Peterson, and J.K. Rowling. Oliver and I have been reading Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books together. 
7. Nadia has completed two personal finance courses through Dave Ramsey, and Ian is part-way through one finance course. 
8. Nadia and Ian sang in the Susquehanna Valley Youth Chorale.

Yesterday Ian had his annual physical. He currently is 59.5 inches tall, which puts him at the 26th percentile for height. He grew 2.25 inches over the past year, and his height percentile didn't change that much as last year he was at the 30th percentile. When Nadia was twelve years old, she grew 3.25 inches and was 5ft 1.25 inches tall, which moved her from the 29th percentile for height to the 41st percentile. Ian lost a little weight over the last year. Yesterday he weighed 76 pounds, which put him at the 6th percentile. Last year he was at the 20th percentile for weight. Because of this his BMI is currently only at the 3rd percentile, which classifies him as underweight for the first time since he was an infant. I'm going to have him weigh himself periodically just to make sure he doesn't lose any more weight. For the last few years Oliver has been the slenderest member of our family, but Ian now holds that position. I was very pleasantly surprised that the clinic had ended the mask mandate since the last time we were there! It was the first time in almost 3 years that we could enter a medical facility without wearing face masks! I had started to think that might be a permanent change. I'm glad I was wrong!

Fifty-three

As of today, my husband is 53 years old, which means in two years the two of us can join the "Classics" group at our church which is led by our former senior pastor and his wife (previously named "Best Years Fellowship".) We became friends and started dating shortly after he turned 27, so as of early next year he'll have been in a relationship with me for half of his life. Over the past 26 years, Paul has been a full-time student for 11 years, a college professor for 3 years, and worked full-time at Kennedy Concrete for 12 years - half of the time as an employee and the other half as the owner. In 1997 he had recently moved back to Pennsylvania from Albuquerque. He was single, working for his dad, had a car loan, hadn't attended college, and lived with his parents and their dog, Fergie. We've been married for almost 21.5 years, he has a B.S. in math, M.S. in chemistry, and Ph.D. in physical chemistry, we own our home and have been debt free for almost 4 years, and we have three children and have had a total of five pets (three at the moment). 

In the first 31 years of his life, Paul only went on vacation a couple of times. Not counting shorter (2-3 day) getaways, he's been on at least 25 vacations over the last 21.5 years. The kids and I went on an additional nine vacations with other relatives during which Paul didn't join us from 2011-2021. In September 2021, Paul decided that he wanted to join us for all of our future vacations. The kids still occasionally ask Paul if he will be joining us. Paul has very diverse interests, so he enjoys most of the activities included in our vacations, but the forts, battlefields, battleships, and military museums are definitely included primarily for his benefit. 

At the same time that he made the vacation decision, he also made a change in how many days/hours he spent at the plant each week. Previously he typically went into work before the kids got up and got home close to (or after) Oliver's bedtime M-F and worked shorter hours on Saturdays. Over the last fifteen months, there have been far fewer weeks when he has gone to work six days in a row. He often works on the laptop at home if he takes a day off of work (M-F). We used to have a desk in our bedroom, but we gave it to Nadia a year ago. This week I ordered him a small, simple table that I'm planning to put in the living room to become his computer desk as he's been using our dining room table as his desk for the last year. He also has been going in to work much later most of the time - in that case it's not about having more time with the kids but rather just his own preference. Typically, the only times lately that he has put in as many hours as he used to on a regular basis or gone in very early has been when his brother is on vacation. Even though his brother is on vacation this week and they will be in Baltimore at a trade show next week, Paul was planning to take tomorrow off to go skiing with the kids at Elk Mountain. The only other time he went skiing with the kids at Elk Mountain was in 2021 because the trade show was cancelled that year due to COVID. The kids and I are very thankful that Paul is now joining us more often. This ski day has been postponed by WVIA because of the warm (highs in the 50's) and wet weather forecasted for tomorrow. 

When I met Paul his hobbies included ballroom dancing, reading, chess, computer games, and watching college and professional basketball and football games on tv. Although we often went ballroom dancing in the beginning of our relationship, we have gone ballroom dancing very few times over the last 21 years. I am hoping that at some point we will resume taking ballroom dancing classes together. Over the years Paul gradually reduced how many sports he followed on tv. The last one to go was the NFL. We used to watch the Steelers and Giants' games together. We have both been completely oblivious to what has been happening in the NFL the last few years. Paul still loves to read. During the first few years that he was the owner of Kennedy Concrete he didn't read much, but over the last 2+ years he has been reading more - mostly a combination of science fiction, military history, and books about investing in the stock market. Thankfully, he is fine with reading physical books or books with the Kindle or a Kindle app because our bookshelves are overflowing with books. He received three history books for Christmas and one more for his birthday. I got him two books about the Civil War, and my dad and Margie got him one about the French and Indian War and another about the War of 1812. He hasn't played any computer games in quite a while, but he does play on our oldest iPad, which he dubbed "iPadasarous". He enjoys playing Sudoku and Boggle online. He still enjoys chess although he doesn't play very often. For the first 25.5 years that I knew him, I don't believe he ever lost a game, and the only time I remember a game ending in a draw was when he played Yvonne's friend's husband. However, in the last six months, he lost a game to the kids' Bible Bowl coach (hoping for a rematch soon), and in Virginia last week a game between Paul and my fifteen-year-old nephew, Adam, ended in a draw. Adam has improved a lot since they last played as usually Paul gives his nieces, nephews, and children an advantage as he starts the game with fewer pieces. Paul has recently gone back to reading some books about chess, which he hadn't done in a long time. 

For his birthday meal, I offered to pick up a bucket of chicken from KFC using a gift card my dad and Margie gave him for Christmas, but he asked me to make spaghetti and meatballs. Nadia made him Heath bar cookies for his birthday dessert. Hopefully this next year will be an excellent one for Paul. I know he really misses his mom. The kids and I love him very much!