Ohio

I lived in Ohio from the fall of 1990 to the spring of 1992 while I attended Cedarville University. On Saturday evening as we drove to our hotel, we were very close to Cedarville. My nephew, Andrew, plans to attend Cedarville starting in August. The hotel we stayed at that night didn't have a swimming pool, but there was a very large jacuzzi tub in our room. Oliver, Ian, and I donned our bathing suits and spent some time in the hot tub. Our first stop on Sunday morning was the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. Usually something is considered "old" here in our country if it's 200 years old, but these mounds are 2,000 years old! Nadia earned three Junior Ranger badges and one patch at this site! The park ranger was very generous and he gave me three badges and one patch for each of the kids (on the honor system) although the boys hadn't finished all of the booklets before we left. I'll make sure they complete them! As of today, Nadia has earned a grand total of 167 Junior Ranger badges or patches, Ian has 171, and Oliver has 164. Because they occasionally earn more than one at a site and they earned some through the mail or online, the grand total of National Park sites we have been to so far is smaller, but as of yesterday we've been to 107 National Park sites so far! 

Our second stop was the science museum in Columbus. I took students on a field trip to that museum when I was student teaching (albeit it was at a different location 30+ years ago). We got into the museum for free because of our ASTC membership, but we paid to visit a traveling exhibit about Tutankhamen. We didn't have time to listen to the entire audio guide (despite the fact we spent over an hour in the exhibit) or visit everything in the museum because we were trying to get home at a reasonable hour. Paul and I were lobbying for the kids to ride the unicycle on a tightwire. The boys were too scared to do it, and Nadia wasn't interested. Paul and I also wanted to see a free planetarium show, but that was also vetoed. We did enjoy a (free) traveling exhibit on animals from the American Museum of Natural History (NYC) and also a 15-minute presentation that featured two rats playing basketball. A video clip of that will be included in the vacation video I will be making hopefully sometime this week.

We had breakfast at the hotel and stopped at a Wendy's drive-thru for dinner on the way home. Everyone in our family aside from me loves bacon so they were thankful that this hotel breakfast included bacon as the others that had meat on our trip only had sausage. Thankfully none of the hotels were doing the "grab and go" breakfast which began in 2020. We brought an air mattress because the final hotel didn't have a sofa bed, but it did have a sofa so Nadia just slept on the sofa. We never used the air mattress on this trip. Most nights even if the couch was a sofa bed she just opted to sleep on the couch without opening it up. There were only two nights when the mattress was really uncomfortable for me for which I was thankful. We got home around 9:30pm and immediately went to retrieve Milo from our neighbor's house. He was SO excited to see us and be back in our home! 

Although I enjoy vacations, I find them to be somewhat exhausting, partially because I don't usually sleep well in a hotel room. I also find that there is always so much to do as soon as possible once we get home. I know tomorrow will be a more restful day. Today I was doing laundry, emptying the dishwasher from a load I did right as we left, homeschooling the kids, grocery shopping, mowing the lawn, etc. The grass was REALLY tall. Unfortunately, it was just getting close to needing to be mowed for the first time before we left, and it really grew a lot during the 11 days we were gone. I could tell that Milo got out of the habit of taking longer walks as he wasn't happy about walking 2 miles with me this morning like we do around 7am almost every day, but part way through our walk he adjusted to the notion. Because I mowed the lawn, he won't get as many walks with me today as usual. Because we had to leave before 2pm for co-op, I asked Nadia to make tuna noodle casserole while I was mowing. She finished her Geometry course on April 5 so she had time to do that today. The main things she still needs to accomplish over the next three weeks include finishing her biology course, writing a ten-page paper on sharks, and completing a literature unit on Pilgrim's Progress. She finished one on The Hobbit while we were on vacation. 

Most of the time we were driving we alternated between listing to music at least half of the time and listening to audiobooks. Nadia put on headphones and listened to music while the other four of us listened to an audiobook. We all listened to our church's worship service on Sunday as we drove home. We listened to The Perilous Road by William Steele and two books by Mark Batterson - Jack Staples and the Ring of Time and Jack Staples and the City of Shadows. This post is out of order as it details our final day whereas I haven't written about our two days in Indiana yet. All of the pictures in this post except for the one below were taken in Ohio yesterday. The one below is from our time in Indiana.

Missouri

We entered Missouri on Tuesday afternoon when we drove into Kansas City to visit Science City which is housed in Union Station. On Wednesday morning our first stop was the Kansas City Zoo which is a large zoo. Typically on this vacation I have been getting fewer steps than I usually do in a day, but Wednesday was an exception. We all got a LOT of steps in that day even though we "splurged" and paid to ride the sky ride to the Africa section. Originally, I had booked a factory tour at Roasterie, a coffee company, but they had called to cancel all tours for the month a couple of weeks ago. This enabled us to spend more time at the zoo. After we finished exploring the zoo, we drove back into the downtown area to visit the National WW1 Museum and Memorial. We went to the top of the tower, and the boys completed a booklet similar to a Junior Ranger booklet in the museum. Nadia mostly sat and looked at her cell phone. The regional Federal Reserve Bank is located within walking distance of the WW1 Museum, so we also spent a few minutes in the Money Museum before driving to the Mexican restaurant where we were having dinner. The kids each received a bag of shredded money. Paul was the only one who was able to lift the 27-pound gold bar with one hand. After dinner we drove about 3.5 hours toward the eastern side of Missouri. We spent the night at a hotel near the Meramac Caverns.

At 9:00am on Thursday we began our tour of the caverns, which were at one point a hideout for Jesse James. Our second stop was the site where Ulysses S. Grant met his wife, Julia. He and his wife lived in the home for 5.5 years. We saw the movie, went on a guided tour of the home, and the kids each earned a Junior Ranger badge. Our third stop of the day was our only industrial tour for this vacation at the Herbaria Soap factory. Originally, I had planned for us to spend 2-3 days in St. Louis. The first thing that was eliminated was Six Flags St. Louis because we shortened the length of the vacation. Later the Saint Louis Zoo and Saint Louis Science Center were eliminated (even though both have excellent reviews and we could have gone to both of them for free) because we decided to spend an extra day in Indiana. The thing that I viewed as the most important site to see in Saint Louis was the Gateway Arch. We watched the movie, explored the museum so the kids could earn a Junior Ranger badge, and rode a tram to the top of the Arch. On our way back to the parking garage, we picked up one large St. Louis style pizza. Their pizza is made without yeast, so the crust is very thin, and they use Provel cheese, which is a combination of cheddar, provolone, and Swiss cheese. The slices are cut into squares instead of wedges. One 16-inch pizza cost almost exactly the same as what we pay for two 16-inch pizzas at home, but still that was a much cheaper meal than going to a sit-down restaurant albeit we had to pay with a credit card whereas we almost always use gift cards at restaurants. We ate our pizza in our hotel room and then drove about two miles to the Fabulous Fox Theatre where we saw a touring Broadway performance of Wicked. It was the boys fourth time to see a Broadway show and Nadia's fifth because I took her to see Cinderella several years ago. The two main characters were particularly outstanding. We all enjoyed the show. The downside was the performance didn't end until 10:20pm, which means most of us were up past our usual bedtime. 

In the previous itinerary, we weren't leaving early on Friday morning because we were still going to be in St. Louis, but when we made the decision to spend Friday at Wilstem Wildlife Park that meant we had to leave St. Louis bright and early on Friday morning because we had to drive over 3.5 hours to get there. Part of Indiana is in Central Time Zone, but very close to the Wildlife Park we returned to Eastern Time. So that meant I got up at 5:15am and we left our room around 5:45am (Central Time) in order to get to Wilstem around 10:30 Eastern Time. All of the other days on this trip we've had a free breakfast at either Wendy's home or at a hotel, but the hotel where we stayed in St. Louis didn't offer a free breakfast, so we stopped at a McDonald's drive-thru on the way to Wilstem. The kids drove through part of Indiana in 2017 on our way to and from Chicago, but the first time they did something in the state was in 2020 when we walked over the pedestrian bridge from Louisville, Kentucky to Jeffersonville, Indiana and took a tour of Schimpff's Confectionery. In the earlier itinerary I thought we'd only spend one day in Indiana visiting the Indianapolis Zoo, Benjamin Harrison's Presidential Site, and the Children's Museum, and I thought we'd visit Indiana Dunes on our way to Chicago. In the end, it turns out that we didn't make it to the Indianapolis Zoo this morning or Indiana Dunes last week, but I do think we will visit the Presidential Site and Children's Museum today. Life is full of twists and turns. 

Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas

Monday morning we left Chicago. Our first stop was the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site in Iowa. In September 2021 we visited Iowa for the first time. Nadia never wanted to return to the state because first of all that is where I broke my ankle and secondly because when we went on that hike there were a LOT of mosquitoes. Thankfully, no one was injured or bit by a mosquito when we visited Herbert Hoover's birthplace. The kids each earned a Junior Ranger badge. We typically don't eat lunch when we are on vacation, but I had packed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at Wendy's home for the three of us who eat them prior to leaving that morning. However, because we were planning on having what for us would be a late dinner, I decided we'd stop at Culver's for a treat in between our stop in Iowa and Omaha. We had never been to a Culver's before and wanted to try their cheese curds and frozen custard. We did enjoy the treat, but I was in a bit of sticker shock over how much it costs to stop and get ice cream for five people although it was less than 1/2 of what it would cost if we got ice cream in San Francisco. We didn't leave Chicago as promptly as I had hoped, and our first stop for gas took a bit longer than expected. Altogether we were a little over an hour behind schedule by the time we arrived at the zoo in Omaha. It's a large zoo. The primate building was closed due to repairs on the roof, but we really enjoyed the first building that we visited. The first animal we saw was a bat eared fox. I discovered that beavers are a lot bigger than I had imagined them to be. The zoo is technically open until 6pm, but it turns out that some parts close at 5pm, and since we didn't know that we didn't plan accordingly. We weren't able to see everything due to the fact that we were there from 4:15-6:00, but we still had a good visit. Originally, I had planned for us to walk across a pedestrian bridge in Omaha, but that had been scratched from the plans somewhere along the way. We had dinner at Applebee's and spent the night at a hotel in Lincoln, Nebraska. Paul and Oliver spent an hour swimming in the indoor pool. I usually have trouble sleeping in other beds due to my back, but I was spoiled in Chicago because Drayton let Paul and I sleep in his bed which has a memory foam mattress. The mattress at the hotel in Lincoln was particularly awful for my back. 

Tuesday morning we got up early because we thought we were going to explore the Homestead National Park in Beatrice, Nebraska when it first opened. Unfortunately, when we arrived we were informed that local law enforcement had put them under lockdown. We explored the outside area a little bit and then waited in our van for a little while in the hopes that the lockdown would be lifted in the very near future. At one point we decided to abandon our hope of entering the building and started our drive to Topeka. The park ranger called us a little before 10am to inform us the lockdown had been lifted, but we were already en route to Kansas. She felt badly that we had come all the way from Pennsylvania and weren't able to enter the buildings, so she said she'd mail us our junior ranger booklets, badges, and such. We have been collecting magnets for our refrigerator and wanted to have at least one per state. We didn't buy one at the Omaha Zoo because we planned to get it at the National Park instead so we won't have a magnet for our refrigerator from Nebraska, but we will have a photo from the state to use for our large map that is on the wall of our family room. I looked online this morning, and it turned out the "tip" that law enforcement had been given was bogus. Our one other unpleasant experience in Nebraska happened at the gas station in Beatrice. We discovered that they charged an extra 60 cents per gallon if you pay with a credit card. I've had to pay a little more a few other times (ex. on Long Island) but never anywhere near 60 cents per gallon!!! I wish we had been able to wait until we were in Kansas to get gas. We don't carry around enough cash to use cash to pay for our gas. 

Because we arrived in Topeka earlier than planned, we added in a visit to the Topeka Zoo. Because we have an AZA membership, we get in 50% off at most zoos and get in free at some zoos. The Omaha Zoo only gave us 50% off on three members of our family. They allow two adults and 6 kids to get in for 50% off, but they define kids as ages 12 and under. So, we had to pay full price for Nadia and Ian, which I wasn't expecting. The Topeka Zoo is much smaller than the one in Omaha, and they allowed all five of us to enter completely free with our membership. Although it took only an hour to walk through that whole zoo, it was still much bigger than the zoo in Delaware where we are members. We also visited the Brown v. Board of Education National Park in Topeka that is housed in what used to be the Monroe School before the schools were desegregated. The kids each earned a Junior Ranger badge - Nadia's second on the trip and the boys' third.

We were in three states yesterday because we ended our day in Kansas City, Missouri. We spent about two hours at Science City located in Union Station, had dinner at IHOP, and spent the night at a Holiday Inn which had much better mattress than where we stayed the previous night. Unfortunately, the indoor pool was closed. Our meal at Applebee's cost what we are accustomed to spending for a sit-down meal, but that was NOT the case at IHOP. I had extra IHOP gift cards because we planned to eat at one in California in September. I'll have to get more for that stay, and I think IHOP will be removed from the list of places where we eat dinner because it was just way too expensive. We're willing to pay a little more at Olive Garden but not for pancakes and eggs. To put it in perspective, our bill last night for the five of us was similar to what we paid for seven people to eat at Texas Roadhouse last month. It seems steaks should cost more than pancakes and eggs not the other way around!

The weather for the first six days of our trip has been excellent. We haven't seen a drop of rain, and the temperatures have been lovely. We were wearing shorts yesterday and were a bit chilly when we were walking around Homestead, but we were very comfortable the rest of the day as the temperatures got into the high 70's. Looking at the forecast, it seems that probably the only time we might encounter rain will be the last two days of our trip when we're in Indianapolis and Columbus. Our neighbor is supposed to be picking Milo up from the kennel today. I miss Milo and have been praying for him every day. We won't be leaving Missouri until Friday morning. As of yesterday, the kids have now spent time in 44 states (plus DC). Thankfully, COVID hasn't had any impact on this trip (no mask or vaccine requirements) aside from the fact that Drayton couldn't take us to his office at Google because our kids didn't have the COVID vaccine. Ironically, Google just dropped that requirement yesterday. If we were in Chicago this week, we could have had a free meal and played games at Google (pool, ping pong, air hockey, foosball, etc.).  

No one had to get up early this morning because our hotel is less than 10 minutes away from the Kansas City Zoo where we are starting our day at 9:30. We're also planning to visit the Federal Reserve's Money Museum and the National WW1 Museum and Memorial which are also located in Kansas City. We aren't visiting any forts or battlefields on this trip. The WW1 Museum is our only military history stop in our itinerary. It's been normal for us for several years to visit National Park sites and science museums on our vacations, but we only started including more zoos and aquariums last year when Nadia told us that she wants to major in zoology. 

Windy City

 

On Thursday we drove to Chicago. I chose to title the blog post with a kinder nickname than the unfortunately accurate label of "murder capital" of the USA. The first time I visited Chicago was when I was in college in Ohio in the early 90's. Paul's first visit was when the two of us spent a couple of days here at the end of 2001. I returned again by myself to speak at a couple of professional conferences when I was a professor. The kids first visit to Chicago was in 2017. The kids and I had planned to return in the spring of 2020, but those plans were cancelled due to COVID. In 2021 Paul and the kids visited Chicago for their second time when the five of us spent a little time with my sister and her family during our lengthy road trip. During all of our previous visits, we never drove straight out here from our home. In 2017 we went to a museum in Cleveland, spent the night with one of my cousins, and then stopped at a science museum in Toledo on our route to Chicago. Now that the kids are older, I figured they could handle driving a longer stretch without stopping, but I still had planned for us to stop at Indiana Dunes National Park. When I found out that our neighbor couldn't watch Milo at the beginning of this vacation, we changed our plans because I had planned on us leaving our house around 6am to allow time to explore Indiana Dunes before arriving at my sister's home. The earliest we could drop Milo off was 7:30am, and all three kids lobbied that they would rather have more time with their cousins than stop at Indiana Dunes National Park. Including two tops (one at a rest stop just to use the bathroom and another at a gas station for gas and a bathroom break), it took us 9.5 hours to get from the kennel to their home in Chicago, and since they are in the Central time zone, by the clock it seemed like it took us 8.5 hours. Thankfully traffic wasn't an issue, and we got here safely. I drove the whole way. My back was fine for the first four hours, and after that I had a headache and backache. Nadia and Ian have been in a car that long without stopping when they've traveled with the Bible quizzing team, but as a family this was definitely a new record. Even with our big road trip in 2021 we didn't ever drive anywhere near 9.5 hours straight. I believe our previous record was 6 hours.

When we arrived here, I asked if anyone was up for a walk because I knew that would help my back recover from all those hours in the driver's seat. Thankfully, Paul, Wendy, and Adam were up for a walk before we had dinner. After dinner, Wendy worked on a challenging puzzle that some in her family have been working on while Paul, Ian, Adam, Drayton, and I played a game of Samurai Sword. Drayton and Adam were the only two who had ever played that game before. On Sunday evening Nadia also joined us for a second round of Samurai Sword. Ian, Nadia, and I were on the winning Ninja team that night. Other games that were played during our time at their home included Stratego (Adam beat Ian), chess (Paul beat Adam), Pandemic (Rachel, Wendy, and Nadia), and Spontuneous (Rachel won). We talked about playing Boggle and Code Names but didn't get around to playing either of them. Other activities included attending church on Friday night and Sunday morning, four kids went bouldering, going on a few hikes with Adam, and attending Grace's 10th birthday party at an indoor trampoline park. 

The two people I saw the least of during our time in Chicago were Nadia and Rachel. They were off by themselves the vast majority of our time. They baked lemon cupcakes for Grace's birthday party and also continued their tradition of creating a mystery dessert with unusual ingredients. This time it included a graham cracker crust, apples, Apple Jacks cereal (crushed up), golden Oreos (crushed up), and Cool Whip. We aren't allowed to know the ingredients until after we've eaten some of the dessert. This was their fourth time making a mystery dessert. They had a sleepover one night which translated to them going to bed around 2am and getting up before 6am to continue watching Enola Holmes on Netflix. 

Oliver primarily played with Grace with the exception of Saturday when she was at gymnastics for a couple of hours. While she was at gymnastics, Adam, Wendy, Ian, Oliver, Paul, and I went to one of the two National Park Service sites in Illinois - Pullman Memorial. Ian and Oliver earned a Junior Ranger badge and patch. We attended a guided tour of the site. We arrived in Chicago around 4:30pm on Thursday and left around 7:20am on Monday. My next post will be about our time in Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas. Milo has been at the kennel since Thursday morning. Our neighbor is planning to pick him up tomorrow morning (Wednesday). We miss him, and we hope he's okay. 

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.