More time with cousins!

Wendy and her kids spent Monday and Tuesday in Maryland with Yvonne's family. On Wednesday they first visited Maurice in Philadelphia and then drove to our house. My kids were counting down the hours all day long until they arrived! It was just about bedtime on Wednesday night so they weren't able to play then, but they had two full days to play together yesterday and today. I had lesson plans for homeschooling for Thursday and Friday, but those were scrapped as it's a rare treat to have cousins at our house. I was at work yesterday. Paul mowed the lawn and took the van to Walmart for an oil change and tire rotation while Wendy was with the seven kids. I got home about 5:30pm and we had dinner together. Today I was able to stay home and spend time with my sister, nephew, and nieces. Nadia and Ian didn't want to go to art class today. They usually love art class, but time with cousins trumps just about everything. We all went to church together. Susie took pictures of plants and trees and such around the property and the other kids played in the play land.

We came home for lunch and the kids played for awhile. Wendy took Rachel, Grace, and Nadia to a trampoline park. I stayed home with the other four kids. Susie and I played a game of Scrabble. All 10 of us (Kennedys plus Benners) are sick, but it seems none of us got as severe a case of the bug as Yvonne did. Oliver had a 101 degree fever on Wednesday. Because we are all still under the weather a bit and because it might rain, we cancelled our plans to visit T&D Cats. I hope we make it there at some point! It's about 40 minutes from our house. We've lived here for ten years and haven't made it there yet. I have free passes for the kids. And we are studying those animals later this month. Paul is at work, but the only time the rest of us plan to leave the house today is to make a quick trip to CVS and the grocery store (both are less than 10 minutes from our house). None of us wanted to say goodbye to the Benners today. I love spending time with my sister, nephew, and nieces. I wish we lived closer to each other, but they are planning to come here for Christmas, which is a little less than four months away. At some point we need to schedule another trip to visit them in Chicago.

Back in the classroom

I am totally wiped out at the moment. I am reminding myself that last fall I was utterly exhausted at first as I adjusted to the new routine and eventually I became acclimated. Last fall I taught four classes back to back (5 hours total). Part of my exhaustion stems from the fact I didn't get much sleep on the couch in Maryland on Friday and Saturday night, driving from 6-10pm on Sunday night, the fact that I woke up with a fever and a sore throat this morning, and because I woke up much earlier than I needed to this morning (first day jitters). It wasn't altogether a bad thing that I got up earlier than necessary because I got some things done at school prior to class that I had forgotten I needed to do in preparation for the first day. I will say I know I will like the schedule in the spring better than this semester because I don't have an 8:00 class. I'm not super keen on leaving the house before 7:00am. I'm not the only one who doesn't prefer 8:00 classes. I have two sections of the math methods class - 26 students in the 8:00 and 36 in the 9:30.

Altogether I think the first day was a success. I taught two math classes, drove to Hazleton and visited four student teachers in four different buildings (about an 8 minute drive between each building), and then had some time in my office before teaching the assessment class. I stopped at the grocery store on the way home, which meant I got home at 6:00 (30 minutes shy of 12 hours since I left this morning). The kids and Paul should get home from gymnastics at about 7:50pm. This means on Tuesdays I will barely see them at all. It's very bittersweet. I do enjoy teaching at the university, but I miss my children something fierce. I again was fighting the tears as I drove to work this morning. Hopefully it will get easier emotionally as the weeks go by. I have been trying to give Paul detailed instructions, but I haven't been specific enough. The plan was to have beef stew and biscuits for dinner, but the beef stew still isn't done (Paul's first time making it) so the kids had lunch type food twice today, which probably didn't bother them as Nadia and Ian aren't exactly fans of beef stew. 

I made myself creamed corn pancakes because I was too hungry to wait any longer for the stew. I'm not exactly sure what all they accomplished in terms of homeschooling today. When I mentioned returning the science and history picture books to the library that he read to them today, he asked, "what picture books?". Oops! Homeschooling three children in three different grades isn't an easy task, and this is all new for Paul so there will be a learning curve involved! I imagine we'll get done earlier tomorrow than they did yesterday or today as I'll be their teacher tomorrow. I had planned to try and visit seven student teachers today, but I decided it wasn't wise to push myself. I had a full enough schedule as it was. It just means I won't finish the "welcome visits" until next Tuesday. Tomorrow I plan to stay home sweet home all day long. That sounds heavenly!

Back to School

Yesterday was the last day of our fifteen week summer vacation. Our last hurrah was spending about 48 hours in Maryland. The kids and I drove down on Friday. Traffic was worse than usual, but we had a safe trip. We got there a little before 5pm, and Drayton and his kids arrived a little before 9pm. Maurice moved to Philadelphia on Saturday morning so I spent Friday evening and Saturday morning helping him pack and carrying boxes and such out to the U-Haul. He and his friends left before lunch on Saturday. As of yesterday my brother now lives in the same state as I do. He is a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania (usually just referred to as Penn). He expects to probably be there for at least five years. He's not actually much closer to us in Philadelphia than he is when he is here in Maryland, but Philadelphia is a LOT closer than Brazil or Texas - where he spent a total of five years between the two places. My kids were thrilled to inherit many of his stuffed animals. I took some pictures of all fifteen cousins together. In two of them they are spelling out the message "We love Uncle Maurice" and in the other they are holding pages that indicate their ages (ranging from Wesley who will turn 2 next month to Jenna who will turn 16 in November). There are three sets of kids who are the same age (two 8-year-olds, two 5-year-olds, and two 11-year-olds).

We drove home on Sunday evening because I needed to be on campus today for two meetings. Tomorrow my classes will begin. I am teaching two sections of a math methods course from 8:00-10:45 and an assessment class from 3:30-4:45. I am hoping to do many of my student teacher visits from 10:45-3:30. I accepted five more student teachers on Friday to help my department chair out because she had one day to find supervisors for twenty student teachers. Hopefully I didn't make the wrong decision. My ten student teachers are in ten different buildings in a total of three school districts. Normally I hope to homeschool my kids on M/W/F, and Paul will teach them on T/Th. I had meetings on campus this morning so I was gone from 8:00-12:45pm. Paul left for work after I got home. He went in yesterday while we were in Maryland in the hopes that then he wouldn't need to go in today, but he accidently forgot his work keys so the two hour drive was in vain yesterday. He got home from work at 7:45pm today. Homeschooling today took longer than usual. We usually finished by 11 or 12 last year. I had a feeling it would take a bit longer this year (as they get older it takes longer), and that was even more the case since it was Paul's first time. When I got home at 12:45 they hadn't done science, social studies, or Bible yet (plus Oliver hadn't written in his journal and the boys both needed to draw their self-portrait which is something I always have them do on the first day of school each year). I worked with them from 12:45-2:15. Then I got some schoolwork done, cooked dinner, cleaned the guinea pig cage, and went to the grocery store. I'm exhausted. I didn't sleep well at all in Maryland so that coupled with the 8 hours of driving means I'm wiped out. Nadia and I both have sore throats. I hope we're not coming down with anything.

 I will admit that it was hard for me to leave for work this morning. I had to fight back the tears as I'd rather be at home teaching my own children like I did from 2012-2017. It is special that they get this time with Daddy. Oliver objected to me leaving, and he kept telling me this evening that he wanted Daddy to go to work tomorrow and me to stay home. Sorry, buddy but that won't happen until Wednesday. Nadia didn't want to go over the mistakes she made in math today with Paul so I did that with her after putting Oliver to bed. My department chair asked me today if I would teach an online class during the winter session (a short session in between the fall and spring semesters). YES! I would much rather teach online because I can do that from home. I hope and pray that we all have a great school year this year! I'll post the pictures of what they said they wanted to be later this week, but I will tell you that Nadia and Ian both said missionary (which upset Nadia as she wanted Ian to say something different than she did). The previous three years Ian said work at the Lego company (K,1st) and inventor (2nd). Oliver said he wanted to be a soldier in the army. Is that why he cut his hair so short? Ha ha! Ian was actually very specific and said he wanted to be a missionary in Papua New Guinea. Time will tell what each of them end up doing when they grow up. Whatever they end up doing, I hope they are in a growing relationship with the Lord. Speaking of which, Oliver accepted Christ as his personal Savior today which was a wonderful answer to prayer! Next August he'll have two birthdays in the same month.

Thankful Thursday

1. I'm thankful for Audible, our Bluetooth speaker, and the DVD player in the car. These three items make it possible for us to listen to books and the kids to watch DVDs during long car rides.

2. I'm also thankful for safety on the roads. We drove to Niagara Falls on Saturday morning (4 hours), drove back home on Sunday night (4 hours), made a round trip drive to Dorney Park yesterday (4 hours total), tomorrow I'll be driving to Maryland (3.5 hours if I don't hit traffic), and Sunday night I plan to drive back home. Whew. I'm also glad I don't usually drive that much!

3. We signed our new wills and power of attorney documents on August 9, and since then we received the documents in the mail. We did this the first time in 2010. I had this on my to do list for a couple of years. I am grateful to have crossed it off the list!

4. The five of us enjoyed a Zach Williams concert and funnel cake at the West End Fair on August 9.

 5. The boys had a good week at Good News Camp. Ian keeps talking about things the missionary from Papua New Guinea taught him (such as the 10/40 window).

6. The kids and I enjoyed seeing Christopher Robin at the theatre on August 10. After going many years without entering a movie theater, the kids saw three movies this summer in the theater! It cost me a grand total of 99 cents for the four of us to see Christopher Robin thanks to coupon codes entered on Fandango.

7. The boys and I enjoyed attending a social at Pastor Ken's house on August 12.

8. Nadia is grateful to be a part of the "Middle" group at the Methodist Church. She attended on August 12.

9. Paul took Nadia and Ian to a free archery class at RB Winter State Park on August 12.

10. Ian and Oliver enjoyed playing at the Treasure Castle Playland on August 13 and 16.

11. Oliver's doctor appointment only lasted 30 minutes on August 14. I think this is a new record for the shortest time we ever spent on a visit at the Pediatrician's office. I am also thankful that all three kids are usually healthy so that we usually only go to that office for well child visits.

12. Tab, Micah, Isaiah, Grandma, and Pop Pop were able to come and see Nadia's theater group present "A Kid's Life" musical on August 17.

13. We had a great weekend in Niagara Falls. We enjoyed touring Old Fort Niagara, Fort George, Buffalo Museum of Science, and the Falls. Other highlights included a cruise on the Erie Canal, the Maid of the Mist, Cave of the Winds, and seeing a touring Broadway presentation of Aladdin in Buffalo.

14. Ian loves the new green carpet in his bedroom!

15. There was only one short passing shower while we were at Dorney Park yesterday. The lines can be very long there, but since some kids have gone back to school, the lines were not long. Paul and I went there in 1997 when we were dating. It had been 21 years since we had been to the park! Nadia rode every single roller coaster. The boys favorite part was the wave pool.

16. The kids were going to spend the day at the grandparent's house today, but that was cancelled. I planned to paint the basement floor and do some exterior painting. Even though the kids were here with me all day, I got a lot of work done including a load of laundry, a load of dishes, some exterior painting, vacuuming and mopping floors, weed whacking, and mowing the lawn. Mowing the lawn was a VERY time consuming project. It took twice as long as it usually does because it was so high. Paul wanted to mow the lawn but between his work

schedule, rain, and our 3 day getaway, he hadn't been able to mow. In hind sight I should have mowed last week, but I have been trying to avoid mowing due to my allergies. I burned a lot of calories today. Here's to hoping I can get out of bed without assistance tomorrow. My back is not happy with me at the moment. Nadia and Oliver helped me clean the bathrooms while Ian was doing some dusting.

17. It hasn't rained at all today! That's been a very rare occurrence lately so we're not taking it for granted.

18. Last year I shared an office with another adjunct instructor. Because two professors in our department retired and a third is on medical leave for the year (and then will retire when the paid leave has been used), I will be getting my own office this year. The department chair also offered me overload today (up to 5 extra student teachers). The semester starts on Monday so hopefully this change will be ironed out very quickly. They were offering a FT contract to a new adjunct, and today she

accepted another job offer (to be a principal) so they needed to find supervisors for 20 student teachers ASAP. I found out last Friday where my five student teachers are located. Four of them are close to the university. The fifth is 20 minutes from our house but 50 minutes from the university. I'm hoping to do as many of my visits as possible between 10:45-3:15 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We shall see how this works out. The overload involves some extra pay.

19. Paul has been working very long days (as in he'll come home when the kids are going to bed), but he has been taking off days for things like our long weekend in Niagara Falls and Dorney Park.

20. The boys enjoyed bowling last Tuesday, and all seven of us (including Grandma and Pop Pop) enjoyed bowling plus dinner at Cracker Barrel on Friday after Nadia's performance.

Forts, Waterfalls, and Aladdin!

We had a lovely three day weekend. Although it was raining (in PA and part of NY) while we drove up on Saturday morning and again on Monday night, it didn't rain at all while we were in Buffalo or Niagara Falls. It was heavenly to have a break from the rain which has been almost a daily occurrence for the past month. The man who installed Ian's carpet today said he heard on the news we only had ONE day without rain in the past month. The temps were a tiny bit lower, it didn't rain, and it wasn't humid. In other words it was lovely weather! That's not to say we stayed dry the whole time because we were close to Niagara Falls on Saturday afternoon and early evening as well as Sunday morning. We stayed at a home through Airbnb on Saturday night that was located in Niagara Falls, NY; we could have used up to four queen size beds, but the host only put bedding on three of the beds since only five of us came. I had booked that reservation for seven people when I thought Paul's parents would be joining us. Nadia had a bed to herself upstairs, and on the main floor

of the house I shared a bed with Oliver in the same room that Paul shared a bed with Ian. That night we got for free thanks to credit card points. The second night we stayed at a La Quinta hotel near the Buffalo airport, and that hotel stay included a free hot breakfast. We had just one room with two queen size beds. I shared a bed with Nadia, Oliver slept on the floor, and Paul and Ian again shared a bed.

We had packed food that we ate for breakfast on Saturday and Sunday and for lunch on Saturday and Monday. The food at Niagara Falls (US) was very expensive (even worse than Disney!) so I didn't order a meal for myself for dinner on Saturday. I ate a little of Ian's meal and a little of Oliver's. On Sunday we purchased two meals - lunch at Tim Horton's in Canada (the kids and Paul  had never been to a Tim Horton's before) and dinner at Subway in Buffalo. We had planned to eat dinner at TGI Fridays using a gift card, but when we got there we found out there was a 30 minute wait for a table, and we would have been late for Aladdin so we walked to a

Subway instead, and a gift card we had covered most of that meal. On Monday we used a gift card to get dinner from Wendy's on our way home.

We left the house around 6AM on Saturday and drove to Old Fort Niagara. The fort was used at a few different time periods, such as the War of 1812, but this past weekend they were focusing on the Soldiers of the Revolution. They had a variety of special activities including watching them fire cannons, a demonstration of how the British would punish a soldier, a battle reenactment, musket firing demonstration, etc. We could have participated in more of the special programs but we wanted to allow enough time for Niagara Falls. We parked on Goat Island, got our tickets for Cave of the Winds (the soonest we could buy were 3.5 hours later than when we arrived), walked through the park and across bridges to the place where they sold tickets for the Maid of the Mist, rode the Maid of the Mist, had dinner, walked back, and did the Cave of the Winds tour. The kids really enjoyed both the Maid of the  Mist and the Cave of the Winds. We received ponchos at both. Paul threw both of his ponchos away, but the kids and I kept ours from the Maid of the Mist. We all threw the yellow ones away that we got at the Cave of the Winds because they were much flimsier. We also received sandals at the Cave of the Winds. I have known Paul for 20.5 years, and it was the first time I've ever seen him wear sandals! We saved our sandals, but one of Ian's broke on Monday morning. Nadia and Oliver have still been wearing theirs. Nadia got soaked at the Cave of the Winds. I only took my cell phone (in a waterproof bag) at Niagara Falls on Saturday because I didn't want my good camera to get wet. I took some videos on the hurricane deck which I hope to upload later.

On Sunday we explored the Canadian side of the falls for about an hour and then drove to Fort George in Canada. They also had far more reenactors there than usual as they had "soldiers" from various other forts (even from Ticonderoga) who were participating in various firing demonstrations and also performing fife and drum music. Paul really enjoyed the perfect volley competition with muskets. The kids completed a booklet similar to what they have done lately at US National Parks, and they were each given a Fort George dog tag for completing their booklet. Their favorite part of Fort George was the building that housed many costumes and games. Nadia signed up to fight for two years, and the boys signed up to fight until the end of the War (of 1812).

Ian's favorite part of our weekend was seeing Aladdin at Shea's Performing Arts Center in Buffalo on Sunday night. We all enjoyed the show. I would have enjoyed it more if I had remembered to pack some nicer clothes in our suitcase. I was feeling embarrassed at how

casual we looked compared to the vast majority of those in the audience. Oops! It was very well done. I would like to take the kids to one Broadway show a year if we can possibly afford to do so. The kids were already discussing which show they might like to see next year (in NYC) - Frozen, Lion King, and Anastasia were three of the ones they talked about possibly seeing.

Monday morning we went to the Buffalo Museum of Science, which we were able to visit for free thanks to our ASTC membership. We spent about three hours there before driving to Lockport where we took a two hour cruise on the Erie Canal. We went through two locks twice. Prior to this experience I don't think the kids understood how a lock worked. I remember visiting one in Michigan when I was a child with my grandparents. After our cruise, we drove back home. Including a stop to go through the drive-thru for dinner and another bathroom stop, it took us 4 hours to get home.

Nadia and Ian saw the orthodontist again today. Their last visit was in January. This time he said to come back next June. I admit I was hoping he would say they were ready for braces now only because the dental coverage through the university includes $3,200 per child for braces. If I decide to return to being a SAHM next year, then I think Nadia won't actually have braces, and I'll need to set aside money from this year's income to pay for Ian's braces in the future if we have to pay for them ourselves. Thus far no one has mentioned Oliver needing braces. Ian is the only one I'm willing to pay for braces myself because his teeth/bite are definitely the worst of the three kids (he got it from me). A trip like we just took is something I need to think about when making the decision. Although we found ways to make the trip less expensive, it still is something we would definitely not be able to afford if we are just living off of Paul's income. I'm praying God makes it crystal clear what I should do. Thankfully I don't need to make the decision right now. After today we have five more days left of summer vacation before the school year starts on

Monday. In between now and then we plan to go to Dorney Park (amusement park) and give the kids a chance to play with all of their cousins in Maryland. I'm also hoping to get some painting done. The flooding in the basement removed some of the paint on the floor that I had painted last summer so I got another gallon of paint on Friday. I also want to do a little bit of exterior painting if I get a chance to do so. I took a lot of pictures over our three day getaway, but I'm not going to post all of them today.

Usually we don't buy souvenirs on our field trips or vacations, but recently a homeschooling FB friend of mine showed a picture of part of her refrigerator that included magnets from various places they have been. I loved the idea. We bought our first four magnets on this trip one each from Fort George, Old Fort Niagara, Niagara Falls, and the Lockport locks on the Erie Canal. I also splurged and bought a photo package. They took two photos of our family at the Cave of the Winds, and I loved both of them. In one we are smiling and the other we look terrified as we're supposedly going over the falls in a barrel. The download access code isn't working for me yet. Hopefully they will get it fixed soon so I can share the pictures here. Since I usually am taking the picture it's rare for us to get one with all five of us in the picture. I'd like to get some large prints and frame them after I able to download them.