Philadelphia! (part two)

I thought I'd be able to write the second post about our trip on Tuesday night or Wednesday, but once I got home I had to hit the ground running in terms of doing school work. My original plan had been to visit a children's museum and aquarium in New Jersey on Tuesday. On Monday as I was looking up the directions I realized that the Garden State Discovery Center was about 20 minutes farther than the Aquarium. Knowing we'd already be driving home that day, I didn't really want to add a 40 minute round trip drive to a children's museum given I knew there was still so much we could see and do right in Philadelphia. Since we had free parking because of our hotel stay, we opted to walk to the Academy of Natural Sciences, which is run by Drexel University. It's located very close to the Franklin Institute. Ian didn't object to walking again, but Oliver and Nadia weren't too thrilled. The museum was about one mile from the hotel; one advantage of walking was we saw things we wouldn't have seen if we were driving such as statues and our walk through the gates of City Hall. The walking would have been more pleasant if it had been warmer out. You just never know at this time of year what to expect with the weather. The good news is we didn't have any snow, and it only sprinkled on us a little bit on Monday evening, but otherwise it didn't rain while we were out and about, which was good as I forgot to bring umbrellas!

We spent about two hours at the museum. Most of it was free for us due to our ASTC membership. There were two exhibits that had additional fees. We opted to skip the crocodile one because we already go to Reptiland once a year, and they were the ones who set up that temporary exhibit in Philadelphia. We paid $3 each to visit the butterfly exhibit. If I had to do it over again, we would skip that one also because we didn't even have enough time to see everything in the museum during the two hours we spent there, in part because there was a fire drill at one point. We attended one program that featured a Cooper's hawk and a Solomon island prehensile tailed skink. On the third floor that had a variety of animals that the children could ask a staff member to take out so they could touch it. They chose a legless lizard (looked like a snake). Unfortunately when I brought my camera to this museum I forgot to take the memory card out of the laptop so could only use my phone to take pictures. I made sure to put the memory card in before we went in the aquarium!

On our way back to the parking garage next to the hotel, we stopped and had breakfast sandwiches for lunch at Dunkin Donuts. Then we drove across the river into Camden, NJ. We spent the next few hours at the Adventure Aquarium. It's hard to say which is better when comparing that one and the one in Baltimore. They are both excellent. They have differing strengths. The kids enjoyed touching a variety of animals such as a cleaner shrimp, anemone, starfish, shark, stingray, etc. Oliver loved the hippos. All three of them loved walking over the rope walkway over the shark tank. They did that multiple times. We watched a short program featuring an African penguin. We watched two 3D movies that were each about 25 minutes long. One was about emperor penguins, and the other was titled 20,000 leagues under the sea. Altogether between our walk to and from the Academy of Natural Sciences plus our walking around the museum and the aquarium, we walked six miles total on Tuesday. Over the course of the three days we walked more than fifteen miles. Oliver fell asleep in the van as we were leaving Philadelphia. I had done all the driving on Sunday. We didn't drive at all on Monday. Paul did the majority of driving on Tuesday, although I drove the last hour of our trip home. We stopped at McDonald's on our way home for a later than usual dinner. During our car rides to and from Philadelphia we listened to a few chapters of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (via Audible and a Bluetooth speaker) and the kids watched a couple of Veggie Tales dvds.

If money were no object it would have been nicer to have two rooms, but for two nights we survived all sharing one bedroom. We were all glad to be back in our own beds on Tuesday night. Paul's first question was to ask for details about the sleeping arrangements for our trip to San Diego. We aren't all sharing one bedroom for that trip as I reserved a 3 bedroom condo through airbnb. I think the trip was a success! Because we had this outing, I cancelled two other field trips I had originally planned for this week. We skipped the homeschool hangout at the Children's museum on Wednesday morning as I needed to get work done and the last thing I wanted to do was get right back in the van, especially as I was going to drive almost two hours round trip to see a student teacher that afternoon. Also, I was going to take the kids to see a show about Harriet Tubman this morning, but I again opted to skip the drive. Skipping the show meant all three could go to gym class plus Ian and Nadia could go to art class. While they were in art, Oliver and I went to Walmart and the library. My goal is to finish my student teaching evaluations today, and when I complete that I will be totally caught up with grading. I'll have a little break from student teaching evaluations, and during that respite I want to work on writing the final exam for the math classes. Although I'd rather live in a warmer climate, I am grateful that we live in an area where within four hours or less we can be in NYC, Pittsburgh, Philadephia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC. This makes it feasible to go on SO many field trips to historical places like Gettysburg, Antietam, Saratoga, Valley Forge, etc. as well as many museums, aquariums, and zoos. Since we didn't go on as many field trips as usual this school year, I want to schedule more of those this summer, and I'm hoping next year we get back to doing more during the school year.

Thankful Thursday

1. Oliver was given permission to resume normal activity on March 9.

2. Nadia was able to participate in AWANA quizzing on March 9. She came in 6th place. They only gave ribbons to those in 1st-5th place.

3. Ian's basketball season came to an end on March 10. Nadia's will end this Saturday. Now we need to decide how many (0, 1, 2, or 3) to sign up for basketball for next year as the sign-up will be on March 24.

4. Nadia, Oliver, and I enjoyed seeing the Cinderella musical on Saturday afternoon.

5. I enjoyed teaching the first and second grade girls on Sunday morning.

6. We really enjoyed our getaway to Philadelphia. Aside from the one night in VA in August for my dad's wedding, Paul hadn't traveled overnight with us anywhere since September 2016. We got in for free at many of the places we toured due to Charter Day (Conrad Weiser Homestead and

Cornwall Iron Furnace), our ASTC membership (Franklin Institute and Academy of Natural Sciences), and our fourth grade National Park pass (Franklin Museum). The US Mint is always free to tour. We gave a donation for our tour at Christ Church. We packed food for one lunch and two breakfasts. We used gift cards for two other meals. This meant we only had to pay for one meal a day (three total). Our biggest expenses were the hotel (we got a good price through Priceline) and our tickets at Adventure Aquarium (which was outstanding). Because we walked 6-8 miles a day, we only paid parking once ($10 at the Aquarium). The kids enjoyed swimming in the pool at the hotel. Normally when we go to Philadelphia we drive there and back on the same day, but I think this is the better way to go as it's exhausting to do that round trip drive all in one day. I imagine we'll probably make a trip to Philadelphia once a year because there are so many things to see there. We've only scratched the surface!

7. The kids only needed to be at the babysitter's house for 8 hours this week due to the fact it was spring break on campus. It wasn't spring break for my student teachers, which is why I still had to work some this week. Aside from emailing some students and cooperating teachers, I actually took 2.5 days off of doing school work (Sunday through Tuesday) which was nice although what I really long for is a day off from school work that's just a relaxing day. I only have eight weeks left. The end is in sight!

8. I received an email today stating that the nominating committee at church has nominated me as a candidate for the election for the church board. That is an honor to be considered for that role.

9. The men cut the kids' cars on Wednesday night. We greatly appreciate the help! Ian's looks like a pencil, Nadia's like a piano, and Oliver's looks like a Batmobile.

10. I'm thankful for safety on the road. I drive a lot these days, Paul drives 100 miles a day to and from work, and we just went to Philadelphia and back.

11. Oliver finished his first Sparks book on Wednesday night! He has come a long way with memorizing verses over the last three years. It was a big struggle the first two years. Ian is on pace to finish his extra credit book. He passed five sections on Wednesday night. Nadia is on pace to finish her book; she passed two sections last night (which means she only has five sections left).

12. Paul's mom took excellent care of our guinea pigs for several days. The kids were very glad to be reunited with them on Wednesday evening.

13. The credit card company discovered today that someone was using one of our card numbers. They didn't have the physical card. Ironically we hadn't used the card at all for four months. They racked up over $300 charges through several small purchases at Taxify (whatever that is) and Uber. I'm glad we don't have to pay any of those bills. It's sad that credit card fraud is so common these days!

14. I had planned for the kids and I to read 1 and 2 Peter , and I discovered that on Right Now Media Phil Vischer had just released a new series for kids on 1 Peter. Perfect timing!!

Philadelphia! (part one)

Sunday after church we drove to the Cornwall Iron Furnace, which was built in 1742 and is the only one in North America to survive fully intact. Because it was Charter Day, admission was free, and they were giving free guided tours. Our next stop was the Conrad Weiser Homestead. We arrived after the free guided tours had ended, but we were able to interact with various costumed demonstrators and watch a reenactment of a skirmish from the time of the French and Indian War. Oliver spent a lot of time watching a man carving spoons out of blocks of wood. None of us had been at either of these places before. The event at the Conrad Weiser Homestead was very similar to the one we often go to in our town in September. We had packed our lunches, and we went through a Wendy's drive-thru for dinner on our way to Philadelphia. When we checked in at the hotel, I was told they don't have any cots here. I had asked for a room with two beds and had figured that Nadia would sleep on a cot. Since we couldn't use a cot, I shared a bed with Nadia, Paul shared a bed

with Ian, and we made a makeshift bed for Oliver on the floor that consisted of him sleeping on top of a few extra pillows.

After taking our suitcases to our room on the 18th floor, we changed into swimming suits and headed down to the 5th floor to swim. Unfortunately they had just added a lot of very cold water to the pool. I didn't get in. Nadia lasted the longest. Oliver was very fearful because it said it was 4 feet deep, but actually it was only about 3.5 feet deep as he could stand on his tippy toes, and he's only 46 inches tall. When we swam last night, we were thrilled that the water was warm. All five of us swam. Oliver loved to tell anyone and everyone we encountered on Sunday or Monday that we were going swimming. He invited quite a few people (park rangers, etc) to join us. No one can call him shy! He did a much better job of swimming on Monday. Hopefully the swimming lessons in the near future will help him even more.

Because we had free parking with our hotel, we ended up hoofing it yesterday. We walked more than 8 miles total. First we walked to the US Mint. I was the only one who had been there before. We spent about an hour there and then walked to the Christ Church where George Washington, Betsy Ross, etc. worshiped. England had built the church as an affront to William Penn (who was a Quaker and never worshiped there). Not long after it was changed to an Episcopalian church when they broke apart from the Church of England. The basin of the baptismal dates back to the Middle Ages. Nadia was concerned about the stability of the podium used by the readers. Then we toured the Franklin Museum, Post Office, and Printing Press. We got in free because Nadia is in fourth grade. After lunch at the Reading Terminal Market, we spent three hours at the Franklin Institute (science museum). We stopped and had dinner at an Applebees on our way back to our hotel. The only site that cost us money was the Christ Church (I gave a $10 donation because we received a private guided tour). The US Mint is free for everyone, and we got in free to the other

two locations because of our ASTC membership and the National Park Service program for fourth graders. The kids had their passports stamped for the first time. I gave them their passports at Christmas. I will write more later. It's time to head out to one more museum and an Aquarium before we head back home. 

Back to Normal

Friday morning I took Oliver back to the neurosurgeon, and she said Oliver could resume normal activity! I figured they weren't going to repeat the CT scan but just ask if he seemed to be back to normal. I actually considered cancelling the appointment as I figured it would last less than 5 minutes, which it did (and our specialist copay is now $45 since the kids and I switched to a different insurance on March 1), but it still was nice to get the official word that he can resume normal activities. I asked her about the malformation of his cerebellum, and she said that since children have to be sedated to have an MRI, they only do an MRI if there are symptoms. We're praying he never has any symptoms so he won't need that surgery. Paul's brother has the same condition, but he wasn't diagnosed until he was in his 40's. She also said to be really careful about putting sunscreen on his scar this summer to try and help the scar fade. Paul went into work later than usual on Friday so that he could take Nadia and Ian to art class while I was taking Oliver to the hospital. I then took Oliver to the playland for a few minutes, and then he went to gym class for the first time since February 2. While all three kids were in gym class, I met with one student teacher teaching science in a middle school located about 15 minutes from church. The kids had spent at least a little time at the babysitter's house the previous four consecutive days, so it was nice that I was able to fit my work into the time slot of their gym class on Friday.

Friday night Nadia participated in an AWANA quizzing event for clubbers in grades 3-6. Last year she won second place. This year I didn't have time to help her study, and she didn't do as well. Last year she had a perfect score on the written test and missed 1 of 10 multiple choice questions (when they use the paddles in the auditorium). This year she also got 9 out of 10 in the multiple choice portion. Both years she missed the first question. She didn't understand what they were asking. It was actually a very easy question, and she did actually know the answer but was confused by the way they asked it. I have no idea how she did this year on the written portion, but she definitely didn't do as well as last year. She was hoping to get 1st place this year (since she was one question away from first place last year) so she was very disappointed. I reminded her that she hadn't studied very much. I promised to help she and Ian study next year. Ian and Nadia will both be able to participate next year. It was another evidence of one more thing I have had to cut from my to do list due to taking on a FT job.

Ian had his last basketball game of the season yesterday. I wasn't able to attend because it overlapped with the performance of the Cinderella matinee at the Christian school at our church. I had never seen that musical, and we were surprised in the ways it differs from the movie. Oliver, Nadia, and I attended the musical. We were all able to attend Nadia's game. She *almost* made a basket (went off the rim). Her team won again. Thus far their record is 6-1, and their last game is next Saturday.

Yesterday I graded in every spare minute I had. Paul helped cook dinner, and I am almost done filling out forms and such for my student teachers. I was hoping to not need to do much work today through Tuesday on our little spring break getaway to Philadelphia. After church this morning (I'm teaching the 1st and 2nd grade girls' class today), we are headed first to the Cornwall Iron Furnace and then the Conrad Weiser Homestead on our way to Philadelphia. Today is Charter Day in PA - commemorating the day when Charles II gave this land to William Penn. This means many historical sites are free to enter today, which is why we're stopping at those two places today. Hoping the five of us enjoy these three days together!

Thankful Thursday

1. A couple of weeks ago Paul fixed the drain in my sink in the bathroom.  He also changed the battery on my cell phone. I purchased my phone four years ago, and I bought a refurbished one. I was thinking I might need to buy a new phone, but all I needed was a new battery. Paul felt like he was doing  brain surgery trying to replace the battery, but he was successful! Now if he could just repair the floor in our bathroom. We are still all sharing one bathtub/shower.

2. Oliver left his lasso (Christmas gift from my dad and Margie) in Maryland on January 1. Margie mailed it back to him a couple of weeks ago, and she also included a few other things in there which the kids appreciated.

3. After tomorrow there are just nine weeks left in the semester. Whenever I feel like I am drowning, I keep saying "I think I can, I think I can" (from the Little Engine that Could). I bought cookies at the grocery store this week. I usually make cookies from scratch, but I need to find ways to accomplish everything on my to do list. I am making progress. My goal is to finish my student teaching evaluations by Saturday night so that I

truly can have three days off (Sunday-Tuesday) while we are taking our trip to Philadelphia.

4. Paul's mom has agreed to take care of our guinea pigs while we're away. Paul will be transporting the beloved rodents to their house tomorrow morning in connection with going to work.

5. Ian's basketball team had a pizza party tonight. Tonight was his last practice, and Saturday will be his last game.

6. I paid off our mortgage on Tuesday! We had pizza Tuesday night, and I declared it to be our "mortgage burning party." Not that I actually set anything on fire. It's a nice feeling knowing that a bank doesn't own any part of our house. Now I just need to pay back my retirement account loan...

7. Maurice called me on Tuesday with the thrilling news that NYU had made him an offer! This is quite an honor as they make offers to less than 1% of their applicants. We're still praying that maybe Penn will

make him an offer. We should know in a little over a month where he'll be doing his doctorate (Austin, Philadelphia, or NYC). I'm very proud of my brother!

8. Over the last few weeks I purchased two dresses for myself from Sears (online). I paid about $25 total for the two dresses put together. The first one arrived in the mail yesterday. I was happy it fit as usually I prefer to try on a dress before buying it. I don't like it as much as the ones I bought at JcPenney last summer, but it still felt nice to wear something new. When Oliver saw me this morning he told me I looked beautiful and was very specific in giving additional compliments (he liked the polka dots, liked my necklace, etc.). Five year olds are honest. They don't give insincere compliments. It meant a lot to me. The dress had a price tag of $90 on it. I would never have paid that much for it, but it felt like a bargain to get it for about $14.

She got a basket!

When I teach a class on campus, the middle of the semester isn't a crunch time. It's a different story when supervising student teachers. Some of my student teachers will be moving to a different classroom two weeks from today, but even the ones staying in the same classroom are wrapping up the first six credit course next Thursday. There are many evaluations to complete during the last two weeks of each student teaching course (which means it happens twice each semester). I have been spending every possible spare minute working on these. For my 15 student teachers it worked out to 103 assessments to complete (the number varies based on what type of certification they are earning). I'm half-way done as I have completed 52 thus far. I need to have them all completed within the next ten days. I am meeting with each of my fifteen student teachers and cooperating teachers for a three-way conference between March 5-15. I had my first three conferences today, which means I have twelve left to complete. Next week is spring break, which means I won't be teaching my math classes next week. The student teachers don't get spring break. I only scheduled four of the fifteen conferences for next week because the five of us are planning to be in Philadelphia from Sunday through Tuesday. 

Yesterday Paul and I went on a date. We were looking forward to it because we went on only one date in all of 2017, and that was just to have dinner and go shopping at Lowe's. We were also looking forward to it because we had tickets to see the Broadway musical Amazing Grace. It had been 8.5 years since we had seen a Broadway show together. In August 2009 we celebrated our anniversary by seeing Wicked in NYC. I was pregnant with Ian, and Nadia was 13 months old. Several months ago I had looked into seeing Amazing Grace in December when it was playing at the Museum of the Bible in DC, but that plan was scratched when I learned Paul wasn't going to be joining us for the Christmas celebration with my side of the family in Maryland. Going in December would have been far less stressful for me because over the last six weeks I have been getting a lot of work done each Sunday afternoon and evening. I did some work yesterday but far less than I would have done if we hadn't gone on a date. To go on the date it meant I have been working until 10-11pm most nights and starting my work at 5-6 am most mornings.

Paul's parents met us at church yesterday. Paul and I left after the second service and got home about eight hours later. We had more than four hours (round trip) of driving plus a 3 hours at the theater plus went through drive-thru windows for our lunch and dinner. Paul's parents took the kids to McDonald's for lunch, then to Montour Preserve for a program on Maple Sugaring, and then spent the rest of the time at our house. We really appreciated their help! The kids were thrilled because they got to see their grandparents TWO days in a row. Paul's parents hadn't made it to any basketball games thus far this season, and the season is coming to a close soon. So they came up on Saturday for Nadia's 9:00am game and Ian's 2:00pm game and spent some time at our house in between the two games. The kids were in seventh heaven to be able to spend time with their grandparents two days in a row! The team Nadia's team was playing only had three girl's show up, and they play five-on-five. So that team recruited Hannah - a second grader who is the younger sister of one of Nadia's teammates, and then other girls from Nadia's team took turns playing on the other team. There are seven girls on Nadia's team, which has meant that usually she plays four of the six periods. This past Saturday was her first time playing all six periods. Five of those periods she was matched up against Hannah (the second grader who has thus far never played on any basketball team), and the sixth period she was matched up against a girl from her team who was helping the other team. Hannah and Nadia both scored a basket. It was Nadia's first basket this year, and I saw it (unlike Ian's the previous week that I missed even though I was in the gym when it happened). 

Today I am giving thanks:

1. That Nadia and Ian had a good time skiing with Paul last Monday.

2. That I was able to take the kids to both Children's museums, gymnastics, the library, and the playground last Wednesday. These pictures were all from last Wednesday. As you can tell by the fact the kids weren't wearing coats, it was a pretty day that day!

3. That Paul took Nadia to her gymnastics class this evening. The homeschool gym class ended last week. I could have signed them up for the next session, but instead of signing all of them up for a 2pm class on Wednesdays again, I only signed Nadia up for gymnastics. She's in a level 2 class (more challenging than the homeschool one) from 6:30-8:00. Paul said if I picked a 6:30-8:00 class he'd be willing to take her (yahoo!), and so I picked Monday nights because the library isn't open that late on Friday nights (those were the two nights they offered a Level 2 class from 6:30-8:00). The

session is eight weeks long. Four of those weeks all three kids will have indoor swimming lessons at Bucknell from 6:00-6:25.

4. Our piano was tuned this afternoon. It had been a few years since we had it done. It's nice to be able to afford expenditures like that.

5. Nadia made her first basket on Saturday! This was her first time making one with the basketball hoop at the full height. She came very close to making a second basket, and she also had two steals. She's the weakest player on her team, but she has definitely made progress over the past two months! It was wonderful that Paul's parents were able to see her make her first basket this year. 

6. We enjoyed our date yesterday. We need to go on more than one per year. The show was wonderful; it was about the life of John Newton (the author of the hymn "Amazing Grace"). The kids enjoyed spending time with Paul's parents, and they also helped me out by taking them on a field trip to learn about maple sugaring. 

7. Paul's mom's first cataract surgery went well. We also *think* she is done with chemo for the time being. We are thankful it seems that the latest medications have been effective. Here's to hoping and praying she won't need any more chemo or radiation. She's quite the trooper!

8. In March 2013 we began our venture in the world of team sports. Nadia played on a soccer team in the spring and fall of 2013, and in January 2014 we had our first experience with her being on a basketball team. From spring 2013 to the present we've had three seasons a year of team sports - mostly soccer and basketball with one season of softball (Nadia last spring) and one of flag football (all three kids last fall). I didn't sign anyone up for a spring team sport this year, and I'm not planning on signing any of them up for any team sports next fall. I'm looking forward to the reprieve of practices and games in the near future. We haven't decided about basketball next year whether to sign 0, 1, 2 ,or 3 kids up for it. Nadia says she really wants to play basketball again, but she also was really disappointed when she wasn't able to take ice skating lessons this year so I'm not sure what we should do. Nadia has two games left, Ian has one game left, and Oliver's season was cut short due to his concussion and fractured skull. I'm hoping to sign all three kids up for at least one week of tennis lessons this summer. 

9. I heard good things about swimming lessons at Bucknell University last summer. I decided to give it a whirl this year and then see which we like better. I was able to sign all three kids up for private lessons in the same time slot. I don't plan on signing Nadia and Ian up for additional lessons this summer, but I do plan on signing Oliver up for another class as I really want him to be swimming by the end of the summer. Ian is excited that these lessons will be indoors as sometimes he shivers in the outdoor pool in the summer.

10. Including this week there are ten weeks left this semester. I keep telling myself "I think I can, I think I can" because it's easy to feel like I'm in way over my head when I look at my to do list. Summer will be here before we know it. The kids and I can't wait!!! I am trying to do a little better and saying "yes" to the kids instead of always saying "no." For example, I painted Nadia's fingernails yesterday  morning and played Sorry with Ian this evening. I can't wait to greatly reduce the amount of multitasking I am doing. I've been grading at the children's museum, grading during Ian's basketball game (when he was sitting on the bench), grading during the intermission of Amazing Grace, etc. 

11. Tomorrow I'm going to pay off our mortgage!!! We technically won't be debt free yet as I borrowed some money from my retirement account to help pay it off, but it's still a great feeling! If we just make the required payments to the retirement account that loan will be paid off in 4 years. I had my first mortgage in January 2001 so a little over 17 years later, we are done with having a mortgage (I hope to never need another mortgage anyhow). Yay!!! At least we are no longer paying any interest to a bank. With the retirement loan I am just paying interest to my own retirement account.

Skiing with Daddy!

Last year Ian and Nadia had their very first experience with snow skiing. Paul and I had planned to take them in January (2017), Paul couldn't take a day off of work that particular week. The same thing happened last month. In February (2017), Oliver spent the day with Grandma and Pop Pop, and Grandpa and I took Nadia and I skiing for the first time. It had been twenty years since I had gone skiing. I had made plans another year to go to Ski Sawmill. My mom had agreed to stay in the lodge and entertain Oliver. I can't recall if Grandpa or Paul was going to join me in skiing with Nadia and Ian that day, but the plans fell through that particular year. It looked like the plans might fall through again this year because the ski resort was closed Friday through Sunday due to the warmer temperatures and lots of rain. Thankfully they reopened today! Nadia was really concerned because she had a blast skiing last year and didn't want to have to wait until 2019 to ski again. The plan this  year had been for all five of us to go. We would have paid for Oliver's ticket and rental as we only get four free lift tickets and four free ski rentals, but due to his skull fracture he wasn't able to go skiing today, and since Paul didn't go last year I thought I should be the one to stay home with Oliver this year. Hopefully next year all five of us can go! I suggested to Paul he might want to have Nadia and Ian wear helmets. I am a bit paranoid about that these days. The high today is supposed to be in the 50's so hopefully they're having a great time! I asked Paul to take some photos and videos with his cell phone. He's not used to taking on the role of photographer. I'm bummed to miss out, but the upside was that I am getting  a lot more work done today than I would have if I had gone skiing.

One day last week Oliver decided to write a thank you note. I have no idea whom he intended to give it to. He was asking me for help with spelling the words. Then he asked me if he could look at his handwriting book so he'd remember how to write some of the letters. He was struggling with the "k" and asked me (I was doing dishes at the time) to write it for him. I said "sure" and he then offered to share his handwriting book with me, ha ha!!!! It was very kind of him to offer, but I have had a firm grasp on how to write that letter for more than 40 years!

Sometimes when I observe a class, I come home and ask my kids a question the student teacher asked her students. For example several weeks ago the (middle school science) teacher was discussing the birds were endothermic. We had disussed ectothermic vs. endothermic in our science curriculum recently as well. On Friday a seventh grade geography teacher was talking about the two smallest countries - Monaco and Vatican City. In his discussion of the Vatican, he asked his students what a pope was. He received a variety of answers (ex. monarch over all of Europe), but none of them were correct. So later that day I asked Nadia and Ian the same question. Nadia said he was the head preacher of the Catholic Church. She was pretty close! Ian told me that he was the man who wanted to sell indulgences so he could build a cathedral. Well that was true 500 years ago. It helps that we've been studying Martin Luther and other reformers recently.

I didn't have time to write a thankful post on Thursday, so here it is a few days later....

1. Oliver has received many cards in the mail. It's so sweet of people to do this! One lady from our church enclosed $1 in his card, which of course is thrilling when you're five-years-old. Receiving those cards was a reminder (yet again) that this is something I need to do better at.  I mailed a sympathy card (to a mother who recently had to bury her son who was in his 30's) and gave a birthday card to the secretary in our department.

2. The kids enjoyed watching the Olympics. I let Ian stay up until 9pm each night so he could watch it each evening with Nadia and Paul. Sometimes he and Daddy were playing a board game while watching the Olympics. He has been playing either Candyland, Sorry, or Chutes and Ladders almost every day lately.

3. I have eleven weeks left of this semester. I am repeating that to myself again and again whenever I feel like I'm drowning. I told Ian that when he asked me to play Sorry with him, and I had to say "no" because I had too much work to do. I will have plenty of time to play Sorry this summer. I can't wait!

4. I enjoyed teaching the 1st and 2nd grade girls' Sunday School class on February 18.

5. I enjoyed singing "My Ransom" with the choir on Sunday. It was an a Capella arrangement. For some reason lately I have really been enjoying a Capella choir anthems.

6. We enjoyed seeing the musical "Four Score and Seven Years" in Wilkes Barre on February 21 and also having lunch at Applebee's that day.

7. We also enjoyed the musical "Mr. Popper's Penguins" at Bucknell last Thursday although I was totally exhausted by the time we got home. I'm thankful for the four free tickets we received for the show from the Children's Museum!

8. I got a haircut on Friday! It had been three months since my last one. I really like my new hairdresser even though she's more expensive than where I had been going for several years.

9. The kids enjoyed learning about flowers at the Children's Museum on Saturday. The program was put on by Biology professors and Biology students at Bloomsburg University. The kids learned about the parts of a flower, picked a color for their carnation (Ian's turned orange, Oliver's turned green, and Nadia's turned blue), made rose and lavender bath salts, planted some zinnia seeds, made tissue paper flowers, etc.

10. Paul was able to take the day off of work today to take Nadia and Ian skiing!

11. Ian finished his third Sparks book. Last Wednesday he passed five sections in his extra credit book.

12. On Friday I learned that the Broadway show "Amazing Grace" would be performed in Lancaster on March 4. I had wanted to see it a few months ago in DC. My Dad and Margie attended it there, and they said  it was excellent. Paul and I only went on one date in all of 2017. One night in November we went to Lowe's and had dinner at Texas Roadhouse. I really wanted to go (Paul's parents could watch the kids), but my hesitation was that the last few weeks I've been putting in many hours of work every Sunday afternoon/evening on a combination of housework plus work for the university. In the end we decided to take the plunge and buy the tickets. We've gone on very few dates the past 6 years, and most of those have just been for dinner/shopping. It's been quite a while since we did something more special. I imagine Nadia and Ian also would have enjoyed the show, but we decided to just make it a date and not bring them along this time. So here's to hoping and praying I can manage to get my work done for the week of March 5 by Saturday night!

13. We enjoyed the gorgeous weather last Wednesday and our time at the playground! The high was only in the 30's the very next day, but it was an encouraging reminder that spring will be here before we know it!

Summer already?

We had snow on Saturday, and then it really warmed up yesterday. My students wanted me to hold class outside as it was in the 60's. It was even warmer today! I'm not sure what the official high temperature, but I do know when we were at the playground this afternoon it was 76 degrees! That might be typical weather in Florida in February, but it's very unseasonably warm for Pennsylvania. Tomorrow the high will be only in the 30s so today we took advantage of the warm weather. The kids went for a walk with the babysitter yesterday, but I didn't really spend any time outside yesterday aside from walking to and from my vehicle.

This morning we did school work for about 45 minutes before heading out the door for a field trip to see a musical entitled "Four Score and Twenty Years" which naturally was about the Civil War battle in Gettysburg. We haven't studied American history thus far. We will be studying US History more the next two years. Lately we've been studying the Reformation. The kids know a

lot more about Martin Luther and his 95 theses and Gutenberg's printing press than they do about the Civil War. In hindsight I should have given them a mini lesson on the topic before our field trip. Because we pack lunches on the days they go to the babysitter, I decided to make today's lunch more special and we used part of a gift card to Applebee's that we received at Christmas. After lunch we stopped at the library before taking Nadia and Ian to gymnastics. While they were in gymnastics, I took Oliver to the Children's Museum located in the same building. After gymnastics was over, we all headed to the playground, which was a VERY popular place today in light of the gorgeous weather. It was nerve wracking for me as far as trying to make sure Oliver didn't run, go down slides, climb anything, etc., but it was just too pretty of a day to stay inside. Nadia played outside more when we got home.

I was grateful to have that many hours of pretty much only wearing my "mom" hat. I did email a few students during the

day, but that was it while we were out and about. I did some schoolwork after I got home from choir rehearsal this evening. Yesterday Nadia asked me if this was the last semester I was going to teach. She would prefer for me to return to being a stay-at-home mom.

Tonight at AWANA the kids were to wear something related to an athletic team. They all chose to wear Steelers t-shirts, so I was even more inspired to get out my camera today. Oliver was dressed the most appropriately for the weather, but I didn't feel like digging through the short sleeve shirts packed away in Nadia and Ian's closets to find them short sleeve shirts to wear.

I was tempted to skip today's field trip because the theater is located a little over an hour from our house and I am already driving quite a bit these days to visit student teachers. I've been filling my van's gas tank twice a week (thankfully I will get my mileage reimbursed at the end of the month which will help compensate for paying more for gas these days). So the last thing I really wanted to do on my day "off" was to drive for 2+ hours, but I have skipped so many field trips the last two months I decided to stick with the plan. Tomorrow night I'm taking them to see Mr. Popper's Penguins. The play we saw today was free for everyone (mostly public school children were there). I received free tickets for tomorrow night's show from the Children's Museum, and it's being held at Bucknell (less than 20 minutes from our house). We're making up for lost time a bit with field trips this week as we have four planned over four days!

Catching up

On Saturday Nadia received her team picture. Coach Chip and all her teammates are in the photo, but her assistant coach isn't in the picture. Ian won't have a team picture because he was sick the day they took their team photo, but Oliver, who only played three games, will receive a team picture. If one child didn't have a photo I wish it was Oliver. Ian has two games left, and Nadia has three games left because one was cancelled due to snow. This Saturday is a bye week (no games) so I'm taking the kids to the Children's Museum for a plant dissection with biology professors from Bloomsburg University and to a maple sugaring program at the Montour Preserve.





Having Paul home this weekend meant I was able to get more work done. I asked him to do math with Ian and Nadia yesterday. They were not thrilled about doing math on a Sunday, but I told them they were doing Monday's math lessons ahead of time. I also decided to do less than usual in science today. My goal was to finish schoolwork before lunch so I would have more time today to keep plowing through my to do list. I had written a lengthy and rather varied to do list yesterday which included things like making some phone calls to schedule appointments, doing some shopping online for a few things we needed, finishing a large photo book, grading, writing reports for some of the student teachers I observed last week, submitting a conference proposal, etc. It's a very good feeling to have crossed so many things off my to do list yesterday and today!




As you can see from this post, the kids' choir sang in both services yesterday. I forgot to charge the battery on the video camera, so I had to use my phone, which definitely is of a lesser quality. Since Grandma and Pop Pop weren't able to make it, I knew they'd want to see videos. I taught the first and second grade girls' Sunday School class yesterday during the first service and attended the second service with Paul. I slipped down for a few minutes so I could hear them sing both times. They are singing again in April and then putting on a musical in May.