Thankful Thursday

 1. Nadia has been hired as a part-time kennel assistant! She starts her training at 7:30 tomorrow morning. It seems for the most part she will only work on Saturdays. They are paying her $12/hour. She is hoping to at least earn enough to pay for her car insurance. 

2. Last weekend Nadia had a nice time with some of the girls she worked with at Camp Susque. I drove Nadia and Melanie to the home they were staying at, and Melanie's dad picked the girls up on Saturday morning.

3. The five of us were able to help pack meals at FBC on Saturday afternoon. Altogether 100,000 meals were packed that day at that church! 

4. The weather has been unseasonably warm. I love it! Not everyone in my family agrees with me. 

5. We enjoy hosting co-op at our home. The messiness of art is not my favorite part but hearing the laughter and watching the kids interact with each other warms my heart. This week's debate was on whether Pluto is a planet or a dwarf planet. Our final two debates will be on AI and whether there should be an age limit for the President, VP, and those in Congress. In art this week the kids began sculpting a turtle out of clay. Paul does two chemistry experiments with them each week. After lunch the kids play games. This week it was Balderdash and Pit for the first 90 minutes. Some kids stay later. This week the kids who were still here after 2:00 played Catan. 

6. Paul was supposed to have jury duty in August. Thankfully they were willing to postpone his until November due to our trip to Alaska. Every Friday evening (for four weeks) he has to check online to see if he's supposed to report at the district court in Williamsport or not. The first two times the answer has thankfully been "no." In light of co-op, we're hoping for the same result tomorrow and next Friday night. 

7. Ian has been using a gymnastic mat as a chair in our family room. I decided we needed to get another chair of some sort, and the kids picked a large bean bag. I used credit card points to get a Walmart gift card and used that gift card to pay for the 5-foot bean bag chair. Ian isn't the only one using that seat! Similarly, I used credit card points to buy a new faucet from Lowe's for the kids' bathroom. Hopefully it won't be too difficult for Paul to install it. 

8. In January Ian's primary care doctor started the process that finally culminated in him having a sleep study in Hershey last night. I usually transport the kids to their music lessons, doctor appointments, etc., but Paul stayed in the room with Ian for his sleep study. We are praying for accurate results so that we will know if Ian has sleep apnea, and if he does have it, how severe it is.

9. I'm thankful that we live in a free country where we have the ability to vote. I'm also grateful for the outcome of the election. Ultimately, God is in control, and my faith is in Him alone certainly not any politician, but given the ages of Alito and Thomas, I have been praying that when it's time for them to retire, they could be replaced with justices who would strictly follow the constitution. It's the first time in my life that every single candidate I voted for won! I am encouraged that Trump won even though Kamala's campaign spent FAR, FAR more money. I think how much money is spent on campaigns is insane and that which campaign has the most money shouldn't be the determining factor in who wins. Personally, my political views are not influenced one iota by all the things that showed up in our mailbox, by billboards, or by ads. Similarly, it is reassuring to know that people can make their own personal judgments despite what the media is constantly telling us (ex. "he is Hitler" - seriously?!?). Is Trump my ideal candidate? Absolutely not. I didn't even vote for him in 2016 because I wasn't sure if he was actually going to be conservative. Ironically (because Paul was the one who talked me out of the "lesser of two evils" philosophy while we were dating), Paul voted for him three times.

10. Paul has believed for four years that Trump actually won in 2020. I have thought it was *possible* that due to election fraud he lost, but I wasn't sure that could be stated as a fact. I changed my mind this week. In 2008 131 million people voted, in 2012 it was 129 million, and in 2016 it was 136 million which puts the average at 132 million over those 3 elections. The total for 2020 was 158 million, and this year the number was probably around 139 million. Hillary got 65 million votes in 2016 (Trump only had 62 million that election), and Kamala got 67 million in 2024. You'd think there would be much more of a draw to elect the first woman president (I hope that does happen at some point in my lifetime!). I can't believe that 20 million extra people actually voted in 2020 when the choice was between two old white guys. I'm more convinced now of the theory that fraudulent mail-in ballots swung that election. Since the numbers came back to "normal" this time, I feel like the election was probably fairer. I'm sure for many decades there has been some fraud involved on both sides of the aisle. I had students at Bloomsburg who would brag about the fact that they voted twice - once by absentee ballot based on their home address and again on campus using their college address, but it seems like in 2020 it was taken to a whole new level. I have to show an ID to board an airplane or check in at a hotel. I don't smoke or drink alcohol, but if I did, I'd need to show ID to make those purchases. I think our elections would be less susceptible to fraud if people had to show ID when they voted. Nadia was inundated with so many text messages encouraging her to vote, and she's only sixteen. The next time we have a presidential election both Nadia and Ian will be able to vote. They are growing up too quickly! 

Thankful Thursday

1. The kids enjoyed going to a glow-in-the-dark dodgeball party for Xandir and his cousin, Alice last Thursday afternoon.

2. Last Friday, Cheri, Nadia, and I enjoyed a meal at Applebee's and a For King and Country Concert. We used a gift card for our meal and had free tickets because we were volunteers with Compassion. The only costs were the gasoline to get down to Hershey and back plus the fee to park, which I learned would have been $25 instead of $35 if I had prepaid for it online. Lesson learned! The concert was sold out, and 299 kids were sponsored that night! PTL! I got an email from the director of volunteers for the state of Pennsylvania, and he said it was my tenth time serving as a volunteer with Compassion. 

3. The boys enjoyed helping as candy runners at our church's Trunk or Treat. Oliver was Batman, and Ian used some things we had at home to create a Scrooge costume. Part of his costume included Oliver's suit jacket. Oliver LOVES to wear suit jackets, so I got him one at Target recently.

4. The VanHorns got 6 free tickets to see Daniel at Sight and Sound due to working at Knoebels. They invited Ian and Nadia to use two of their free tickets on Wednesday. They enjoyed spending that time with them! Since that meant Wednesday was going to be a day off from school, I invited Xandir over to spend a few hours playing with Oliver yesterday afternoon. 

5. Paul had lunch with Dave (former employee) today.

6. Because Ian's sleep study was postponed at the last minute, all five of us were able to help pack meals at Experience Missions for a few hours on Tuesday night. 

7. The weather has been unseasonably warm. Nadia would prefer it to be cooler, but I like warmer weather! Paul and I took Oliver and Milo trick or treating last night, and we didn't even need to wear a light coat! 

8. The man who purchased Kennedy Concrete took a one-year loan from Kennedy Concrete which was to be repaid by July 31, 2024. Up until this week he hadn't made any payments on the debt since December 2023. Thankfully, he made another payment this week which represented about 25% of the balance. Hopefully he'll pay the remaining 75% by the end of December. 

Opting out

 I don't recall exactly when I joined Facebook, but I'm guessing it was no later than 2007. From at least 2016 until 2024 I have had times where I have temporarily deactivated my account for varying amounts of time, but I never considered permanently deleting my account. However, that's the step I recently took. For a period of thirty days, I have the opportunity to undo that decision. Once the thirty days pass, it will truly all be gone. I decided that the "cons" outweighed the "pros." I have never used Twitter, and I had an extremely short stint of looking at Instagram. I do post the videos I create onto YouTube, but I view things on YouTube very infrequently - sometimes to watch church online or to watch a Bible Recap video or the like. I used to read far more blogs, but most of the people I used to follow no longer post on their blog or they do so very infrequently, so I don't spend much time in a year reading blog posts that others have written. I think this means that if I find out something about someone I know, it's going to be the old-fashioned way - because they told me, emailed me, or texted me about it. When I deactivated my account, I was still able to use Facebook Messenger. I don't have access to it any longer because I went the deletion route this time. I had a private Facebook group that I used with my homeschool evaluator, but I've let her know I'll be switching to sending her a monthly email instead, which is one of the options she provides all of her families. I might be in the dark about some events in the future because of this choice I've made, but in general I don't think we'll feel too much of an impact by my choice. I created an account for Paul many years ago, and he's never accessed his account. Paul has done fine with never using Facebook for the past 17 years. It can be done! Paul uses Twitter now because of his new investment "job."

I've also decided I am done using Duolingo because I finally finished the Spanish course! It "only" took me 1,244 days to accomplish that feat. I currently have a 1,246-day streak, but I'm planning to let that go. I'm also on a lengthy streak when it comes to being in the diamond league (169 weeks), and my friends quest streak is also fairly long. I've earned the monthly badge every month from June 2021 to October 2024. On Sunday night I won the final round of the diamond tournament for my 6th time. My current Spanish score is 120 out of 160. Since I finished the course, I now have access to the "Daily Refresh," but I have been very unimpressed with that feature of the program, which is why I'm planning on letting my "streak" drop from 1,246 down to 0. Most days I spend 30 minutes on Duolingo. Hopefully what I've learned in Spanish will be useful at some point in my life. I can understand the letters we get from the Compassion kids we sponsor who speak Spanish without reading the translation into English. As is normal for learning another language, my receptive comprehension is far better than my expressive skills, especially when it comes to all the verb tenses. Duolingo can only take you so far, but I know now far more words in Spanish than I've ever known at any other time in my life. 

All of the photos in this post are from the homeschool co-op that meets in our home on Tuesdays. We've been having debates (first one was on whether cigarettes should be banned in the US, the second was on animal testing, and the next one will be about zoos), doing artwork (completed three of the six art projects I planned for this session, and we've started the fourth project which is an acrylic painting of a lighthouse). discussing books (Sign of the Beaver, The Two Towers, and Listening for Lions), playing games, and doing chemistry lab experiments (this last Tuesday one involved hydrochloric acid and an egg). I haven't touched my camera in quite a few weeks. I don't plan to opt out of that though! I need to do a better job of taking pictures more often. 

Here are some other random updates from the past three weeks:

1. This month our church began a campaign to raise 4 million dollars over the next 3 years to pay off existing debt (1.7) plus build a new, bigger facility for the Sunbury campus and Recovery Church (2.3). 

2. Nadia had a sleepover at a friend's house two weekends in a row. She was one of three girls from Meadowbrook who auditioned to be in the district chorus. Unfortunately, they didn't make the cut. Nadia has been taking two Bible classes through Liberty for six weeks. On October 21 her third class through LU began - an art history class. I recently registered her for three classes (7 credits total) for the spring semester - two Bible classes plus a government class. She also has a job interview on November 1 for a job that involves grooming dogs. She has logged around 35 of the required 65 hours of driving so far. We found out today that the dates of the Nationals for Bible quizzing next summer won't interfere with the dates Nadia will hopefully be a counselor at Camp Susque. PTL!!!

3. Ian and Oliver spent several hours at a friend's house last Saturday. Ian played the piano for the youth worship team for the first time ever on October 9. 

4. All three kids auditioned to be in the Wizard of Oz at MCS. Oliver and Nadia will just be in the ensemble. Ian was given two parts - a crow plus Nikko (head of the flying monkeys). All three kids are looking forward to going to a glow-in-the-dark dodgeball birthday party tomorrow afternoon. 

5. All five of us helped pack meals at our church on October 12 (collectively packed 125,000 meals for people in Uganda and Ecuador) and at Experience Missions on October 22. All five of us also attended a Colton Dixon concert at our church on October 18. Ian, Nadia, and I were volunteers with Compassion that night. Twenty-two kids were sponsored!

6. Oliver attended two trunk or treat events on October 19-20. This is his last year of being eligible for these events due to his age. The boys will be helping as candy runners at the trunk or treat at our church on October 25 while Nadia and I attend a For King and Country concert with Cheri in Hershey as Compassion volunteers.

7. I was the substitute teacher for our Sunday School this past Sunday. I taught a lesson on Haggai.

Thankful Tuesday

1. Paul, Nadia, and I had a good visit at Liberty University September 19-21. I'm thankful there is a Christian college not *too* far away that offers the degree Nadia wants to pursue.

2. The three of us also enjoyed spending time with my dad during our time in Lynchburg. We had dinner with him twice, played games together at his house, saw Anastasia together at LU (a musical none of us had seen before), and attended church with him.

3. The boys had a fabulous time at my sister's home in Maryland while we were in Virginia, and the Seiberts did a great job taking care of Milo in our absence. 

4. Our co-op resumed on September 24. The first picture in this post is of the colored pencil project that the kids worked on. We have eleven kids in our co-op. I just snapped a picture of half of their projects. Paul is doing two chemistry experiments per week with the co-op, and I am leading book discussion groups, debates, art, and some geography lessons. My kids are very grateful that their friends come over once a week! We do our work from 9-12, have lunch together, and then some (or all) of the kids stay for another 90 minutes of playing games. The first game we played today was Guesstures (similar to charades). The 5 girls beat the 5 boys with a score of 75 to 52. After that three girls played Suspend and Rack-o while seven kids played hide and seek in the dark in our basement. Milo loves having more kids here. He's a big fan of co-op! 

5. Our town had their annual community yard sales this past weekend. Some years we haven't been around, and other years I've spent many hours scouring these yard sales. This year Nadia, Oliver, and I did a little bit of yard sale shopping on Saturday. I got some clothes for the kids, hiking boots for Nadia, and six puzzles for Nadia. 

6. The kids have signed up for their auditions for the Wizard of Oz on October 12. I'm thankful they can participate in this school musical! The rehearsals are starting much earlier this year (October 21 compared to January 18 last year). Thankfully, we have far fewer schedule conflicts this year. 

7. Yesterday was Milo's fourth birthday! We love him so much and hope he has many more years of life with our family. Nadia baked him a cake using a recipe intended for dogs.

8. I've enjoyed Nicholas Sparks' books for years, but this week I listened to his newest one (Counting Miracles), and I loved it. 

9. This summer I purchased the geometry course by Teaching Textbooks for Ian, but then in September we switched to the textbook by Art of Problem Solving. I asked TT if there was any way we could have a refund as he had only done 10 lessons, and we've been costumers for seven years. Although it was outside the normal refund window, they made an exception and gave me a store credit that I can use next summer when I purchase Oliver's next math course. It was nice not to waste the money spent in light of switching from one curriculum to another. 

10. This past weekend I watched the movie Sweetwater which was about one of the very first African Americans to join the NBA. It was informative and entertaining to watch. I tend to enjoy movies based on true stories.

11. I’m having a lot of fun researching ideas for our trip to Hawaii next August!

College for a Weekend

Once Nadia decided she wanted to major in Zoology, this greatly narrowed down the list of possible colleges for her to attend. Fewer than 40 colleges offer that major in the US. Liberty University offers two different tracks, and one of theirs is for those who do not want to become veterinarians. This past weekend we attended College for a Weekend at Liberty University. On Thursday morning we left our home around 10:00, dropped Milo off at the Seibert's home and then drove to Maryland. We spent around an hour with the Towfighis before Nadia, Paul, and I continued driving to Lynchburg. We stopped at a Wendy's to get dinner. We didn't arrive at Liberty until around 7:15pm. Stopping in Maryland added two hours of driving time, but Ian and Oliver were able to spend three days with the Towfighis. Micah turned ten on Friday. I think it was the first time the boys were with him on his birthday. After we parked in a parking garage, we walked to the Student Union to check-in to the event. Nadia then joined her friend Rory for games and ice skating while Paul and I went to my dad's house. Paul came back to pick her up a couple of hours later.

Friday morning, Nadia and I left bright and early so that we could park and walk to a biology classroom for an 8:15 class. I returned to my dad's house after we found the classroom. Nadia attended a second biology class at 9:20. Paul and I met her for convocation. The Vines Center seats about 9,500, but that wasn't room for everyone at 10:30 on Friday because of the extra people on campus for Parent's Weekend and CFAW. They use the basketball arena, which seats 4,000, for overflow when needed. We ended up in the overflow because Paul and I had to park much farther away when we returned. In addition to a time of singing, we heard from Cole Hocker, who won the 1,500 at the Paris Olympics this summer. Convocation is mandatory for those living on campus and is held twice a week. About 6,000 students also voluntarily attend a chapel service on Wednesday evenings. Although we went to church with my dad at Heritage Baptist on Sunday morning, Nadia will most likely attend Thomas Road Baptist (on campus) on Sundays while she attends Liberty. Our church isn't small, but our church is about 25% of the size of TRBC. After convocation we went to the dining hall for lunch. The amount of food choices available was impressive. After lunch we visited two different dorms, went on a "Surviving your first year" tour, and bought a sweatshirt at the bookstore before Nadia attended a digital photography class. While she was in class, I submitted her application, paid the enrollment deposit, and picked up the "free" t-shirt and blanket offered for those who applied and paid their deposit. The application fee was waived because we were there for CFAW. After her class was over, we visited one more dorm before we drove back to my dad's house. The four of us went to Logan's Roadhouse for dinner. My dad said he hadn't had a steak in at least 20 months. Later that night Paul dropped Nadia off for late night games on campus and picked her up two hours later. 

Saturday morning all three of us left bright and early for a tour that started at 8:00. Parking was no trouble at that time on a Saturday! After the "academic" tour, we went to the Snowflex Centre where Nadia tried their ski slope and also did a little tubing. We paid $10 for a two-hour pass, but she only stayed for 30 minutes. She prefers skiing in Pennsylvania. After having lunch in the dining hall, we took a third student-led tour before meeting my dad to see a performance of Anastasia. After Anastasia we ate dinner at the dining hall. In hindsight, it would have been better if we had eaten dinner on campus on Friday night and eaten at Logan's Roadhouse on Saturday night because they had very limited options on Saturday in the dining hall because there was a football game at 6:00. That evening we played games with my dad at his house and Nadia worked on her online college classes. 

On Sunday morning we attended the 9:00 worship service at my dad's church, and then we drove to Maryland to pick up the boys. We left his church around 10:30 and arrived home about nine hours later. Our stop at the Towfighis was much briefer than it was on Thursday, but we made brief stops for lunch, dinner, picking up Milo, and buying a few groceries at Aldi. If we drive from our home to Liberty, it takes about 6 hours including a stop for gas and/or food. There are usually other students from our church attending Liberty each year, so I don't think we'll need to drive down and back every time Nadia has a break during the school year. Rory is taking dual enrollment classes now just like Nadia, and both girls plan to start at LU in the fall of 2026. Rory's brother is currently attending Liberty. Although this was Nadia's first and we presume last official college visit, she has visited (and taken tours on some) other colleges including IWU, Houghton, SWU, OKWU, and Messiah. Ian isn't sure where he'd like to go to college so we might be visiting more than one with him. I think Cairn will be the first on our list to visit with Ian. Considering that Paul and I are in our 50's, it doesn't seem abnormal to have a child who is getting close to graduating from high school, but on the other hand it feels like the past sixteen years have just flown by. Liberty is certainly bigger than all of the colleges I attended or taught at. Praying for the continued growth emotionally, spiritually, physically, socially, and academically for all three of our kids! 

The last two pictures were taken from the top of the tallest building on campus.

Thankful Thursday

1. I forgot to mention that during our trip to Alaska, I spotted two of the four license plates I was hoping to find. I saw one from Nevada and South Dakota. Usually it's harder to get North Dakota, but for some unknown reason I've seen MANY license plates from North Dakota this year and only one from South Dakota. The two I am still looking for are Hawaii and New Mexico. I haven't found all 50 in one year since 2021. I certainly saw FAR more Alaska license plates than usual this year! 

2. Last Saturday we spent the day in Lititz. Our first stop was the Johannes Mueller House. We had a guided tour that included a lot of interesting information about the Moravians. Then we met 10 out of 11 Towfighis at the high school to see a production of Tuck Everlasting by a group called Servant Stage. I've read the book and seen the movie but never seen that musical before. Their shows and concessions are all "pay what you wish". We had pizza at Nino's before driving back home to Milo. We've certainly seen the Towfighis more often this year than we usually have in the past! 

3. Everything went smoothly with the boys' orthodontist and dentist appointments on Monday. Ian now has braces on his bottom jaw for the first time. Oliver pulled one tooth out at church on Sunday morning, and the dentist pulled two more (at the request of the orthodontist) on Monday afternoon. 

4. Nadia started taking two Bible classes online through Liberty University this week. We're thankful she can earn some credits toward college while she's in high school.

5. They have chosen the Wizard of Oz for the spring musical, which was the one Nadia voted for! All three kids plan to participate.

6. Yesterday the kids enjoyed roller skating with friends (for free) at a homeschool roller skating party from 10-12. The party was *supposed* to be from 12-2. We wouldn't have been able to go if it was held then. I'm thankful Carolyn made a mistake, and that the owner of the rink was able to scramble at the last minute to open up the rink two hours earlier than planned! 

7. Nadia is glad that some of her friends want to go to the homeschool prom with her. She didn't go the last two years, but she's planning to go in May. This means we need to buy her a dress!

8. On Tuesday I took seven kids to PSU. Ben and his sisters followed behind me. I had organized a field trip to the nuclear reactor at PSU. The 2.5-hour program was outstanding. The kids enjoyed eating some M&M's as they learned about half-lives, and they also enjoyed eating some marshmallows after they finished building some atom models. About 20 homeschoolers showed up for the program plus a few moms. We were parked in a parking garage right next to the Creamery, so I decided to treat the ten kids to ice cream after we ate our packed lunches. It was delicious! 

9. When we attended the homeschool potluck on September 6, I tried a new recipe - campfire cookies. They were so delicious that there weren't any left to bring home. I already made them a second time since then. Yum!!

Thankful Thursday

 1. The last two days we were in Alaska went well. We enjoyed seeing a variety of animals at the Large Animal Research Station in Fairbanks (including sandhill cranes), sled dogs at Husky Homestead, milking calves at our final Airbnb, muskox at the Muskox Farm, and a variety of animals at the Reindeer farm (my favorite being the bison). 

2. Returning the van went smoothly, and we again appreciated having TSA Precheck when we flew out of Anchorage. Our flight was delayed, but we arrived safely in Baltimore early in the morning on August 30, and Joe kindly picked us up and brought us back to their home. It was lovely to not need to pay for parking at BWI!

3. We enjoyed spending some time with 9 out of 11 members of Yvonne's family on August 30-31. Joel and Nathan joined us for an excellent production of Pilgrim's Progress at the Museum of the Bible.

4. The Seiberts did a great job taking care of Milo while we were gone. We were grateful to be reunited with him on August 31. Addi and Westyn took care of our guinea pig and mowed our lawn once while we were away. 

5. Nadia began taking voice lessons with her choir teacher on September 3. It means we now have a weekly commitment Monday through Thursday between piano lessons, voice lessons, art, and chorus. Nadia is also staying 30 minutes later on Thursdays for an extra session to prepare for district choir auditions. That extra session doesn't cost us more money. 

6. All three kids are taking art and chorus this year at MCS. It's the first time Oliver has taken any classes at MCS. Ian and Nadia took classes there in 2018-2020 and then returned in the fall of 2023. We're also thankful that the three possibilities for the spring musical are all ones the kids could enjoy. Some of the musicals they've done in the past would NOT have been appealing to my boys. We're waiting to hear if they're doing Barnum, Willy Wonka, or the Wizard of Oz.

7. On September 4 Bible quizzing and the youth group resumed meeting on Wednesday nights. This is also a first for Oliver. Quite a few new kids showed up last week for Bible quizzing! Because the adult small groups didn't resume until yesterday, Paul and I went on a date last Wednesday night using the money my dad gave us for our 23rd anniversary. We had dinner at Texas Roadhouse, and I got a treat at Rita's. We also got some clothes and shoes for the kids at the thrift store and some groceries at Aldi's. Dates when you've been married 23 years are a lot different than dates prior to marriage, ha ha! 

8. On September 6 we enjoyed having dinner with other homeschoolers at the VanHorn's. 

9. Nadia is improving in her driving skills. I'm very thankful for God's protection! On Monday morning when she was driving Ian to his orthodontist appointment, it hit me that she's been driving a lot and never gotten gas. She's been the only one to drive Paul's car for the last couple of months. I feel like the Holy Spirit graciously prompted me to think of this because when I asked her, she said she didn't know how much gas was left. I leaned over and was shocked to see it said we had two miles until we'd be out of gas. Thankfully we were less than 2 miles from a gas station. Whew. There are so many lessons to learn with driving including paying attention to the gas gauge. I've never run out of gas before, and I hope she never does either! 

10. I paid for one month of access to the Angel guild. As a family we watched Sound of Hope which is about a small town in Texas that adopted a LOT of kids through the foster care system. Oliver has watched a few episodes of the Wingfeather Saga, and all the kids watched some episodes of Tuttle Twins. I don't plan to keep it more than a month right now, but it's nice to be able to access their movies and shows from time to time. There are a few more movies I'd like at least some of us to watch before our month ends. 

11. We haven't had a working doorbell for two years. Yvonne wisely suggested purchasing a wireless doorbell. It was very inexpensive, and it was also very easy for Paul to install. Problem solved! Ironically the very first people to use our doorbell were two women campaigning for Harris/Walz. I politely said we wouldn't be voting for them and said have a nice day. Usually if people are coming two by two to our door, they are Jehovah's Witnesses. I don't ever recall anyone ever stopping by for a political reason. They asked for Paul in particular, probably because he's registered independent.

12. Last Wednesday I waited at church while the kids were in art and chorus, brought them home, and then turned around and took them back an hour later for Bible quizzing and youth group. Paul suggested that our normal routine should be that the kids just hang out at church for about 90 minutes after choir until Bible quizzing begins at 4:30 on the weeks he and I are coming back at 6:30 for our small group. This means that we will have a window of up to five hours together without kids. If he's busy with the stock market, it might cut that time in half, but still, it seems like a great plan to me! I don't think we'll typically go out to eat, but we can go for a walk, play a board game, etc. There are definitely perks to Paul working from home! 

13. Finding good coupon codes for Shutterfly is NOT as easy as it used to be years ago, but I did manage to get two copies of a photo books that contains over 100 pages for small amount of money. I used to make photo books more frequently when they were only 20 pages long. Now that I can make them a little over 100 pages long, I have only been making two photo books per year. This photo book was for March through early September. 

Muskox, Reindeer, and Huskies

On our last full day in Alaska, we started our day in Fairbanks at the Large Animal Research Station that is run by the University of Alaska Fairbanks. They have muskox and reindeer. We watched two muskox charge at each other over a piece of vegetation our tour guide was offering them. Their name is misleading because they don't have any musk glands, and they are most closely related to goats. At the Research Station we also saw and heard (they are very noisy!) some sandhill cranes. We also visited a muskox farm the following day in Palmer, which is about one hour north of Anchorage. While we were there, we heard a couple of male muskox roar. It sounds very similar to a lion's roar although not as loud. At the farm, we also saw four calves which were only four months old. After they've attempted to mate some females with a couple of males, they separate the females who *might* be pregnant and wait eight months to find out if they are pregnant or not. The only way they know is after the calf is born! Under the shaggy coat of fur muskox have a layer called qiviut that is insanely soft. They shed that layer once a year, and that is the reason the muskox farm exists. They sell yarn and other things made from the qiviut. Ian's one souvenir from the trip was a plush muskox.

After driving south for about two hours, we visited the Husky Homestead, which is near Denali National Park and is the home of Jeff King, who has won the Iditarod four times. Amanda Otto also works there and recently finished in 8th place in the Iditarod and second in the Yukon Quest. First, we got to hold a puppy, most of which will eventually be sled dogs for Otto, King, or one of their competitors. These dogs LOVE to run. They have a very large hamster wheel for both the puppies and the adults to use. We also watched the adults run as a team on a treadmill. Amanda and Jeff told us about some of their experiences. 

It was a cloudy day, so we didn't see Denali. On our way to Palmer, we ate dinner at a cafe that has a wonderful view of Denali when it's not hidden by clouds. The food was good, and the prices (by Alaskan standards) were reasonable. On the trip we mostly got our desserts from the grocery store. The exceptions were that four of us had gelato (and Paul got fudge) in Seward one night, and we all got ice cream in Palmer on our last night in Alaska. Although I booked our final night through Airbnb, it was actually a bed and breakfast. I hadn't realized that breakfast would be included so we had already purchased two breakfast sandwiches at the grocery store for Nadia and Ian to eat for breakfast. We left those in the freezer in the guest suite for someone else to enjoy as all five of us ate the homemade breakfast. Had we arrived at 7:00 pm, we could have bottle fed four newborn calves, but we didn't arrive until 8:00. 

The next morning, Oliver and I got up early so that we could bottle feed the calves. Oliver fed two of them. I was very content to leave the pen after I fed one of them as I didn't realize how pushy they could be and how they would try to suck my legs. My pants were getting covered in slobber! Oliver also picked raspberries and strawberries from their garden for our breakfast. She served us scrambled eggs, waffles, potatoes, fresh fruit, orange juice, and chocolate milk. Yum! Our first stop on Thursday morning was a Muskox Farm, and our second was at a Reindeer Farm. They actually had MANY different animals at the Reindeer Farm. We fed many different kinds of animals that day including a moose and reindeer. The animal I was most impressed by was a bison that would obey various commands such as giving the woman his knee or his hoof!!! That bison is more obedient than our dog.

After we left the Reindeer Farm, we drove to the valet parking lot near the Anchorage airport where we returned the Dodge Caravan minivan that we had rented through Turo (basically the vehicle equivalent of Airbnb). We took a shuttle to the airport and breezed through security. TSA Pre check is definitely worth the fee in my opinion! We purchased an early dinner at a McDonald's in the airport. Had we known our flight was going to be delayed, we would have waited on buying it. We flew to Seattle and then to BWI. We tried to sleep on the second flight. Some of us were more successful than others, but none of us got *that* much sleep. Joe picked us up at the airport in Maryland and brought us back to their house. Nadia, Paul, and I went back to sleep. I had a headache most of the day due to getting very little sleep and adjusting to a four-hour time change, but still we enjoyed spending time with Yvonne's family. Brenden spent a lot of time in my arms. 

On August 31 we spent the morning with Yvonne's family. The boys didn't get up until almost 10:00 am. After eating lunch, we drove to DC with Joel and Nathan as we had tickets to see a performance of Pilgrim's Progress at the Museum of the Bible by the same group that we had seen perform Prince Caspian. After the show was over, we walked Joel and Nathan to the nearest Metro station, and the rest of us drove back to get Milo and go home. We were very tired and went to bed shortly after arriving home. I was grateful I had done three loads of laundry at Yvonne's house the previous day. We had to wait until after church on Sunday morning to stop at a grocery store and buy things like milk, eggs, and bananas. 

Alaska is a beautiful state, and we were grateful to see a variety of animals and despite the clouds making it difficult, we were able to see the northern lights. We were all healthy, all of the places we stayed were nice, and we didn't have any difficulties with our rental vehicle. Most days the low was in the 40's or 50's and the high was generally in either the high 50's or low 60's almost every day we were there. We didn't have any issues with mosquitos, although we did encounter MANY pesky flies on the hike to Exit Glacier. The leaves were starting to turn colors, It rained a few times we were there, but many of the days it was sunny, which is not typical. We were able to see Denali on two of the ten days we were in Alaska, and a minority of people who visit are able to catch a glimpse of it. The price of gas was very reasonable, but the price of food there is rather high. Subway is the national chain (not counting gas stations) that is spotted most frequently outside of the cities. I wouldn't make many changes if I were to have a do-over on this trip. I would definitely make sure to take a picture of Denali when I saw it (duh!), I'd visit the Creamer's Field instead of the ice museum in Fairbanks (the ice museum was a spur of the moment addition when I realized how close we were to it while eating dinner our first night in Fairbanks), and I would have had us drive in a loop by adding a stop at Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in between our time in Seward and our visit to Fairbanks. That would have added some miles to our trip. Over the course of the ten days, we drove exactly 1,200 miles. Time will tell if we ever return to the state. My guess is that it was a once in a lifetime trip for at least Paul and me. I'm very thankful we were able to travel to Alaska! 

Forty-eight states done and two to go! Within the next year we hope to visit our last two states. I already got our tickets for our flight to New Orleans in May and our return flight from Phoenix. I decided not to cancel our Alaska Airlines credit card which means in light of the annual fee involved that we've decided to fly on Alaska Airlines to Hawaii next August because we will receive two companion fares for about $100 each, which is much cheaper than what it usually costs for a roundtrip ticket to Hawaii. We plan to visit my sister in Maryland in December for Christmas, but we don't plan on flying anywhere or going on any big vacations until May. Now that I've finally finished blogging about our trip, I need to work on making a video, a photo book, and getting a print to put in the Alaska space in the map on our wall. I have a feeling it's going to be a picture of the bull moose that we saw up close and personal!

Museum of the North in Fairbanks

New School Year!

I haven't finished writing about our trip to Alaska. I will get caught up on that eventually, but this is our first week of school. The schools in our area had been in session for about 8 days before we got started due to our trip. We started our school year on Labor Day as that isn't really a holiday we celebrate. To celebrate our new school year, I told the kids we'd go to Becky's, which is an ice cream place not that far from us. On Tuesdays from 6:00 to closing, they offer dogs a free small dish of vanilla soft serve, and we had never taken advantage of that offer although we'd talked about doing it many times over the last few years. Today was the day! After we ate dinner, Nadia drove the kids and I to the park for our back-to-school pictures, and then she drove us a few more minutes to Becky's for ice cream. Milo didn't finish his treat. It was too much for a little dog. He loved it, but he was shivering like crazy after he stopped eating. He's never had something that cold before to eat! I said it was also an early birthday treat for him as he turns four at the end of this month. 

Nadia will begin her classes with Liberty University on September 16, and the co-op at our home will begin on September 24. Two other kids might be joining our co-op later this year. Nadia had her first voice lesson today, and Ian will continue to have piano lessons on Mondays with Lyn DeVito. Nadia has been faithfully practicing the piano, and she's planning on auditioning for district chorus. She has set a goal of finishing two levels this year in piano. Tomorrow the kids will attend art and chorus for the first time this school year at MCS. It will be Oliver's first time ever taking any classes there. All three plan on auditioning to be in the spring musical. We've been told they'll either be doing Willy Wonka, the Wizard of Oz, or Barnum. Bible quizzing and youth group also resume tomorrow, which again are firsts for Oliver. Our first field trip (not counting the ones we took in July/August) will be to the PSU Nuclear Reactor on September 17, and their first homeschool party is at the roller-skating rink on September 18. Here are some things the kids will be studying this year:

1. Ian and Nadia are studying chemistry (Life of Fred and Apologia). Oliver is completing an elementary level chemistry/physics and also an elementary level botany science textbook. Paul is doing a chemistry lab during the co-op.
2. In math the kids are doing Pre-Calculus (Nadia), Geometry (Ian), and 6th grade math (Oliver). We use Life of Fred plus Teaching Textbooks. Ian will also be using Art of Problem Solving. 
3. In history we are studying from 1708 to the present. 
4. Oliver is working on his typing skills, level 7 of spelling, and level 3 of Fix it Grammar. 
5. Nadia and Ian are completing a University Ready Writing course through IEW. 
6. Nadia is learning French through Duolingo, and Ian is studying Spanish.
7. Nadia is learning how to drive, and she wants to get a job so she can have enough money to pay for her car insurance once she gets her license. She has applied for a job at Lingle's (grocery store) but is hoping to get a job at a horse farm or Warrior Run Petcare. 
8. We are working on memorizing verses (or in the case of Ian and Nadia chapters) from the book of Luke. 
9. I'm giving more specific assignments for literature for Nadia and Ian. This week they both started reading Uncle Tom's Cabin and soon they will also be starting The Two Towers, as that is a book many of the kids will be discussing at co-op this fall. Sometimes I will choose what Oliver needs to read on school days, but other times it will be his choice. Right now he's reading books from the Dead Sea Squirrels series, but he'll be reading Sign of the Beaver for co-op later this month.
10. We've started our fifth year of watching World Watch News five days a week all year long. 
11. We continue to listen to audiobooks together as a family. Currently we're listening to The Night War by Kimberly Bradley and Stellarlune by Shannon Messenger. 
12. In our fall session of the co-op we'll be doing chemistry lab, art, book groups, debates, and geography. In the spring session we'll be doing book groups, personal finance, drama, and chemistry lab.

I'm very grateful to be starting my twelfth year as a homeschool mom! Praying for the kids to grow physically, academically, spiritually, and emotionally over the coming year! 

Fairbanks

From Denali we drove a little over two hours to Fairbanks. We went to a BBQ place, and then walked to a ice sculpture museum that was positively a tourist trap, but Oliver had a blast sliding down the ice slide. After we walked around Fairbanks a little, we drove to our Airbnb, which was a two-bedroom guesthouse. Nadia slept on the couch in the living room. Similar to the cabin near Denali, the last road was unpaved with a lot of potholes; however, we were able to take a shower here. We purposefully didn't stay in downtown Fairbanks because we wanted to have a chance to see the northern lights. Using Aurora apps and checking a couple of websites, I had seen that prior to us coming up here, there had only been low activity (1-2 out of 9). I had been praying for weeks that God would enable us to be able to see the aurora while we were in Fairbanks. This was the primary reason we ventured this far north in Alaska and why I scheduled the vacation for the end of August. I was thrilled to discover through the websites and apps that the two nights we were staying in Fairbanks were BOTH good nights in terms of above average activity (4-5 out of 9). Unfortunately, there were two factors that made it difficult to see the beautiful lights. First, it is only dark for four hours a day here. Secondly, it was very cloudy both nights. The first night every time Paul got up to check, he only saw clouds. During our reindeer walk yesterday, other guests were talking about trying to see the northern lights the previous night. One family said they had seen them, but another family visiting from China said they stayed up until 4:00 am and still never saw them. The second night my aurora apps were sending out alerts on a frequent basis, but for many of those hours it was still daylight. I usually go to bed at 9:30, but I stayed up until 11:00 in my attempt to see the lights. Thankfully, Paul got up and checked a few times including at 2:45 am at which time there was one spot in the sky where the clouds weren't blocking the northern lights. Praise the Lord!! If the sky had been clear, it would have been such an amazing evening to see them, but I am very thankful that for the first time in my life I've seen the northern lights! I know they have been visible farther south this year, but this was my first time to see them. Paul and I both stayed out and watched them for about 35 minutes. I had read up on how to take photos of them with a DSLR camera, but due to the limited nature of the display we saw, I just took two short videos and one picture with my phone. The lights we saw were mostly green. Paul got the kids up, but each of them only spent a few seconds on the deck outside and then promptly returned to bed. 

Yesterday morning our first stop was the Museum of the North, which is located on the campus of the University of Alaska. We watched two thirty-minute movies there. One was on the northern lights, and the other was about bowhead whales. We also explored the exhibits. We had lunch at The Crepery. The size of the line gave evidence to how popular the restaurant is! The crepes we chose were pepperoni and cheese (Ian), ham and cheese (Nadia), bacon, egg, and cheese (Paul), whipped cream with three types of berries (Oliver), and Creme Brulé with two types of berries (me). They were all delicious! Although eating PBJ again would have been more economical, I'm glad we splurged and took a break from that to enjoy a special lunch. Our third stop was Running Reindeer Ranch where we spent 2.5 hours learning about and interacting with reindeer, which are the herd animal version of caribou. She has fourteen reindeer in her herd, but we only saw nine of them as some were elsewhere as this is rutting season. The program concluded with homemade cookies and lemonade. It was a very enjoyable experience! Afterward we drove back downtown for pizza and a stop at Safeway. The cashier at the grocery store joked with us about how we were dressed considering it was in the low 60's and sunny outside. He said that Monday and Tuesday had been the nicest weather days so far in 2024 in Fairbanks. We have been very fortunate on this trip because for the two weeks before we came here it had been raining SO much in Seward, Anchorage, and Fairbanks. We are very grateful that the weather has been mild, and we haven't experienced too much rain. Oliver and Nadia appreciated that the tv in our Airbnb had Disney plus, and Nadia enjoyed putting together a 300-piece puzzle on Tuesday night. Over the past eight days we've driven about 800 miles altogether. This morning, we will do one final activity in Fairbanks and then begin driving back south toward Anchorage. 

P.S. I wrote this post on August 28 not September 3!