Thankful Thursday

I haven't taken any pictures since Sunday, but I did take two videos yesterday of the kids practicing their verses for AWANA. It's the first (and only) time Nadia and Ian are in the same book in AWANA. It's Nadia's third year in T&T, and her 8th (and last) year in AWANA. It's Ian's first year in T&T. The last two years Nadia only passed the bronze level in her T&T books. I told Nadia and Ian this year they were required to at least complete the silver level each week. If they went for gold, they'd have to memorize about five times more verses each week; thus far neither have selected that option. I might require Ian to rise to that challenge sometime in the next two years because he memorizes verses very quickly. Silver only involves looking up more verses and answering questions about them in the workbook. Next year I will need to come up with a new plan for Nadia as far as Bible memory since she won't be in AWANA. Last night at AWANA they were supposed to bring in something from another country. Nadia wore a t-shirt I got in China that says I climbed the Great Wall. Hence the reason she's wearing a t-shirt that's too big for her in the video. It's my shirt. Right before AWANA Ian switched into a shirt I got in Aruba, and Oliver wore a Chinese shirt that one of my former Graduate students gave me. His was a bit on the small size as it's a child size 4, but we made it work for one night. Ian and Nadia have finished 1/4 of the AWANA book thus far. Oliver is off to a much slower start, but he's making progress. Within two weeks hopefully he'll be able to say the books of the New Testament. He learned them last year, but since we hadn't reviewed them in many months, he had forgotten some of it.




Today I'm giving thanks...

1. For AWANA, the children's program at BSF on Monday nights, and the Middle youth group Nadia sometimes attends on Sunday nights. Our church offers a program for kids on Wednesday nights, but I like AWANA so much that we send them to the Alliance Church for that instead of our church. Actually none of the three things listed are offered at our church. Not to leave our church out, I am grateful to be in the choir (rehearsals are Wednesday nights at the same time as AWANA) and an adult Sunday School class (when I'm not teaching in the children's department).

2. As of today I have completed 35 of the 72 visits to student teachers I will need to make this semester. By next Friday I should have done 40 of 72- more than half! Thus far I *think* I'll only have 5 student teachers in the spring. Given how much extra driving is involved, I am pretty sure if I return to the university next year I'm going to be part-time so that I can avoid having student teachers.

3. Paul was able to take the kids to a "We the People" musical in Wilkes Barre last Thursday and a Young Person's Concert at BU this Tuesday morning. Although the kids sing in a choir at church and take piano lessons from me, I have been trying to beef up their music education this year. I've been having them listen to more classical music (Tuesday they listened to Haydn for an hour for example), Nadia and Ian have been playing the recorder with me on Fridays (we'll skip that tomorrow due to the field trip), and we've been singing more hymns together at home (and reading about the individuals who wrote them). They are also taking a music class at Lycoming College for seven weeks and the eighth week presenting a small concert. They had their first class this week. Oliver is in a general music class (he said playing the drums was his favorite part), and the other two are in a choir. Over the course of the year there are three more goals I have for music - #1 taking them to more classical music concerts, #2 working more on music theory, and #3 teaching Nadia and Ian to apply the skill they use in reading music when playing the piano to reading music while singing, which seems to be a forgotten art now that churches just display words on a screen and hymnals are no longer used in most churches. Next year I'm thinking of having Nadia join the Susquehanna Valley Youth Chorale which meets on Monday nights because she will be too old for the kids' choir at church and too young to be in the adult choir at church. Once she's in high school she could join the adult choir with me.

4. I was able to take the kids to the Warrior Run Heritage Days event on Saturday. It's really nice when a field trip is less than ten minutes from your house! Some years we've skipped it due to rain; I'm also thankful it wasn't a rainy day. Today is a DRENCHING sort of day, but today's outing was for a reading circle plus bowling activity with other homeschoolers at a bowling alley. That event could be held rain or shine!

5. I am feeling less stress than I did at this point last year. I think this is primarily due to the fact that I had more advance notice so everything was planned out before the semester began and that these courses (elementary math methods, student teaching, and assessment) are far more in my comfort zone than the ones I taught last fall (reading methods, fine arts, and math/science in early childhood). It was my first time teaching the fine arts and reading courses. Nothing I'm teaching this semester is a new course for me, although it had been six years since I taught the assessment class. It also helps that Paul has been taking the kids to gymnastics, picking up the books I request online from the library, mowing the lawn, and sometimes cooking one meal a week. Although I have less stress, I still am far busier than I'd like to be, hence I'm praying for God to make it clear whether I should stay home next year or work 50% or 75% (I've pretty much eliminated 100% as an option to consider). I'd like to have fewer headaches for one thing, but the upside to this challenging schedule is that we will be able to pay off the retirement loan and truly be debt free for the first time in our 17 years of marriage (as I took out a mortgage 8 months before we got married and Paul came into our marriage with school loans).

6. Although the game wasn't aired in our area, the Steelers had a solid win on Sunday. Paul's game was aired on Sunday, but his game didn't have a happy ending. He'll be up tonight cheering for his team. I'll be asleep, as I am totally exhausted.

7. Our department chair observed me teaching at 8:00 this morning. It went well. I was observed regularly from 2003-2007, but then from 2008-2012 I wasn't observed at all because I was tenured. Tenured faculty are only observed every five years whereas adjunct faculty are observed every single semester.

8. OLIVER IS READING!!!! He has really taken off. I need to take another video because he's made so much progress. This is a huge relief. It won't be too long before he'll move to Level Two of reading and start Level One of spelling. Yahoo!

Almost half-way done

An academic semester at my university is 16 weeks long, if you include finals week; we also get a week off for Thanksgiving, which means for the classes I teach on campus we have fourteen weeks of class this semester. This is the seventh week of the semester, which means as of this Thursday my classes on campus will be half-way done. I am giving a midterm exam on Thursday in my assessment course. Most of my student teachers are staying in the same classroom for the entire semester, but those who split the semester between two classes, next week will be their last week in their first placement. The last two weeks of each placement I need to conduct a three-way conference with each of my ten student teachers. I had my first two conferences today. The conferences need to be held during one of their planning periods (ex. when their students are in art, gym, etc.). A few of my student teachers this semester have their planning period first thing in the morning. This is problematic for me because I also teach from 8:00-10:45 Tuesday/Thursday. Thus

far this semester I have been able to schedule all my student teaching visits for either Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday, but this week and next week I will also be heading out on Wednesdays. I couldn't schedule any this Friday because we are taking the kids on a field trip to Ephrata and then from there heading down to MD to see the Towfighis one more time before they head back to Turkey plus visit Mount Vernon next Monday as in the very near future we'll be studying George Washington in social studies. I was unable to schedule any conferences for next Tuesday or Thursday, which means I'll have more office hours than usual next week. This week I'm meeting with student teachers on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and next week I'm meeting with them on Wednesday and Friday. I will be able to do a little bit of homeschooling tomorrow as I expect to get home around 11:00am, but in light of our field trip on Friday, it means Monday was my only day to really homeschool the kids at home this week. I'm glad that's not the norm. Unfortunately the same thing will happen next week, but after that I should be back to teaching my kids on Wednesdays.

Preparing for the three-way conferences involves a significant amount of time on my part. I have to read each of their units (and each one is often 30+ pages long), look at a picture of their bulletin board or learning center, read their self-critiques they've written after watching a video of a lesson they taught, complete an online form for the PA department of education, and complete another form for our university which involves rating them in 21 different areas. I admit part-way through this weekend I was rather overwhelmed, but over the weekend I completed everything for six student teachers. I did one more yesterday, which means I have three left to do. A project was due in my assessment class today. I probably should not have scheduled that to be due at the same time as my "crunch" time for student teaching. If I'm feeling exhausted I'm reminding myself that I get a week off in November for Thanksgiving AND I get five weeks off in between the fall and spring semesters. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!

In terms of my kids' school year, next week (on the 17th) we will hit the 25% mark for the school year (day 45 of 180). Because we didn't go to Virginia for a week in September as originally planned, we are a little bit ahead in some subjects compared to where I thought we'd be at this point. Yesterday the kids had their first music classes at Lycoming College. Oliver is in a general music class (K-2), and Nadia and Ian are in a choir (grades 3-6). The classes are taught by music education majors. In order to go to Ephrata Cloister on Friday and Mount Vernon on Monday, they will be missing one art class, one gym class, and one music class. Paul took the kids to a Young Person's Concert put on by the orchestra at my university today. This means we're 3/3 so far with field trips this month.

NOT their Grandma

My mom was asked on many occasions if she was my brother Maurice's Grandma. Because I was twelve years old when he was an infant, many people thought I was his mother and she was his grandmother. I used to get a kick out the fact that people thought I was his mother. My mom naturally wasn't fond of being mistaken as his Grandma. She turned 39 years old when Maurice was one month old. I was 40 when I gave birth to Oliver. When my mom was my current age she had more gray hair than I do, but even so evidently I look old enough to be my children's grandmother. My mom only had that happen regarding ONE of her children. I have had multiple people in the last week assume I was even Nadia's grandma. I guess I must look older than my age. If I had given birth to my first baby at the age of 21 (instead of 36), and my daughter also had a baby at the age of 21, that would still mean my grandchild would be four years old (not ten!). I guess as time passes this will probably happen more and more. The good news is that Paul and I will soon be at the age where we can start

reaping the benefits of "senior" discounts. Earlier this month I noticed that Colonial Williamsburg has a discount for those fifty and older, and Paul will be turning 50 in 15 months.

I went to bed at 7:15pm on Thursday night. That sounds like a geriatric thing to do. I may not be a night owl, but even that is early for me. I have generally been going to bed between 9-9:30pm because my body is currently programmed to wake up at 5:30. Sometimes I am able to go back to sleep and don't get up until closer to 7:00. Friday morning I got up around 6:15 which meant I had slept for 11 hours! I was exhausted. Even though Wednesday was an at home day for me, it was still a very jam packed day between homeschooling, cooking, grocery shopping, and doing work for the university (at home). Paul took a sick day that day, but he was up in the bedroom most of the day so his presence didn't lighten my workload at all. I skipped choir rehearsal so that I could go grocery shopping and write evaluations of my student teachers. Aside from the grocery

store, the only other place I drove that day was taking the kids to and from AWANA. Tuesdays and Thursdays are my most exhausting days because I often drive over 100 miles each of those days plus am gone from home for at least 11 hours straight. And when I get home those two days I usually eat dinner and then do more schoolwork until I go to bed. I have pretty much eliminated the idea of working FT next year from the list of options. At this point I am trying to decide between working PT (25%, 50%, or 75%) or staying-at-home. Right now I'm working 125% of FT, which is also what I did this past spring semester.

Friday morning I visited a student teacher while the kids were in art/gym class. Paul had to drop them off because I needed to leave the house at 7:40, and their classes don't start until 9:15. When I picked the boys up from gym class, we went into the playland while Nadia was in art class. I read a few chapters of Generation Z Goes to College until Nadia's art class was done. I am in a faculty book club, and we're discussing

the first few chapters of this book next Tuesday. According to the book Nadia and Ian are part of Generation Z. I'm not sure what is the name of the generation that Oliver is a part of. My sisters and I are from Generation X, and my brother is from Generation Y (more commonly called "Millennials"). Because I have a LOT of grading to do this weekend as I will begin conferencing with my student teachers on Tuesday, I decided to buy two large pizzas yesterday which means I didn't need to cook dinner yesterday or today. Normally we try to only eat out (or buy takeout pizza) once a week, and we had gone to Bonanza on Monday night for Nadia's spiritual birthday, but I decided to make an exception since I was feeling overwhelmed by my to do list. I am thankful I didn't stay up to watch the Steelers on Sunday night because they lost (again!). Their game isn't going to be aired in our area tomorrow so that means more hours for me to do schoolwork after church tomorrow.
This "Grandma" took the kids to the annual Heritage

Days held less than ten minutes from our house. I had to let out the seam from the costume I bought for Nadia to wear 3 years ago in Williamsburg. She has definitely grown several inches taller in those three years! I'm trying to get as much work done as possible this weekend in part because next Friday we have a field trip and then are driving to Maryland to spend one more weekend with my sister and her family before they return to Turkey the following week. We also are planning to spend a day at Mount Vernon while we're down there.

No matter how busy I am, one thing I always make time for is reading to the kids. Last night I read Ian and Nadia a book about Koko (the gorilla who used sign language). They really were enthralled and wanted to learn MORE about her. I started reading the kids chapter books in December 2012, and this week we finished books #400 and 401. We're also more than half-way through book #402, which is Indian Captive by Lois Lenski. I read a mystery to Oliver this week (Nate the Great), and Ian and Nadia are also reading mysteries in preparation for a books and bowling homeschool event next Thursday. They used to select specific books for the book groups, but now they are picking a different genre each month. Our homeschool group has been doing this once a month for many years, but this coming Thursday will be the first time we've given it a whirl. The February gathering is always also a Valentine's party. Paul will be taking the kids since I teach on Thursdays. This Tuesday he'll actually be taking them to the university where I teach for a Young Person's Concert the orchestra is presenting (primarily for public school children). So far October is getting off to a better start in terms of field trips not being cancelled left and right like they were in September!

Oliver has been showing improvement with his reading recently. For months he would sound out a word by saying the sound that each letter would make but then would just guess and say a word that had totally different letters than the ones he just sounded out. He asked to read today and asked to read a story later in his reading book. We haven't even done some of the lessons that precede this story (which is why he had no idea how to read the words "he" or "no" yet because we haven't introduced any long vowels yet), but I was very pleased with the progress he's made. Hopefully his fluency will take off in the near future! Progress is always a big encouragement.

Thankful Thursday

1. I've wanted to attend a Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas concert for many years. It seems this will be the year it happens! I know families who make it an annual tradition. I highly doubt that will be the case for us given how much it costs to buy 5 tickets, but I am very thankful we'll get to go at least once. We're going to use some free passes for Sky Zone (trampoline park) the same day we're up there for the concert. On Monday I bought ten boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios (on sale at a good price) because that translated to a $50 voucher from Ticketmaster which helped bring down the cost of the tickets some. In a similar vein, someday I want to take the kids to see the Radio City Christmas show in NYC. Paul and I saw it once before we had kids, but that's on my "bucket list" of places I want to take the kids at least once before they leave the nest.

2. I've had a little respiratory bug lately. Thankfully it hasn't morphed into anything too severe, and thus far no one else in the family has caught it. I have to keep popping cough drops when I'm teaching at the

university. I skipped ladies Bible study on Monday night and choir last night because I have been feeling under the weather and was trying not to spread myself too thin.

3. I met with an advisor from TIAA-CREF regarding my retirement accounts last Thursday. I was long overdue in doing that, and it felt great to cross that off my to do list.

4. The van passed the state inspection last Thursday. Paul took care of it while I was at work.

5. Paul ended up not going to work on Friday so he could go to the doctor for his back pain. Because of that I was able to have a more thorough visit with my student teacher because I wasn't trying to get back in time to pick the kids up from their gym/art classes.

6. The kids and I went to some yard sales in our town on Friday and Saturday. We didn't visit as many as we usually do, but we were able to get some of the things we hoped to get (like cowboy boots for the kids for next summer).

7. On Monday the kids and I all wore pink and strolled through our town for a free lunch - soup, sloppy joe's, hot dogs, cupcakes, brownies, chips, apples, etc. We might have been in the newspaper as a reporter took a picture of the four of us.

8. Yesterday was Nadia's 6th spiritual birthday! I took the kids out to dinner on Monday night at Bonanza. It's $2 for kids to have dinner there on Mondays. We hadn't been there since April, and it's their favorite restaurant! Yesterday morning Nadia opened her gift (last two seasons of the Brinkman Adventures CDS and three of Mandisa's CDs) before we ate our traditional birthday breakfast of donuts.

9. Paul is taking the kids to see a show called "We the People" today in Wilkes Barre. The educational shows at this venue are free for students! This means thus far we are 1/1 with field trips for October. Hopefully the track record will be much better this month than it was last month!

10. I am back in the groove of using the elliptical four times per week. Finally!!! I don't do it first thing when I wake up, which is why I am not doing it on Tuesday, Thursday, or Sunday as I am out the door early those three days.

Decisions

Life is full of SO many decisions. I've seen a wide variety of numbers used as far as how many decisions an adult (or a teacher in particular) makes in a day, but they are all large numbers (exceeding 1,000). Some decisions of course are very small such as what time to get up, what shoes to wear, what to eat for breakfast, which field trips to go on, what grade to give a student on an assignment, etc.. Other decisions are far more significant. Although I like having a choice when it comes to something like what flavor of ice cream to eat, there are times when making decisions can be difficult. Recent examples in my life would be regarding the new homeschool art class and which Bible study to attend. I had decided to sign Ian and Nadia up for the 5th grade MCS art class (Christian school at our church). After school had been in session for 2 weeks, I found out that the same teacher would be offering a homeschool art class. I wrestled with whether to sign none of my kids up for the homeschool class, just the boys, or all three kids. I ended up forfeiting the $50 registration fee I had paid for Ian and signed

the boys up for the homeschool art class. The teacher sent me an email a week or two later letting me know that the homeschool class would be far fewer weeks compared to the MCS class, and was I sure I was making the right decision for Ian? Who knows. Paul and I came to that decision together, and that's what we're sticking with for this year. The upsides are that Oliver is also in an art class and that with them being in art plus gym from 9:15-11:30, it means I can go visit one student teacher during that time span.

I also wrestled for a bit whether to sign up for an inductive Bible study at our church or a BSF study in Williamsport. I ended up picking the BSF study in part because they also have a program for kids and  because I had been wanting to try a BSF study since 1995 when my former roommate Kim (when I lived near Annapolis, MD) kept telling me how much she loved BSF. The other study I had been considering was on Tuesday nights, and it turns out I'll be teaching until 7:30pm on Tuesdays in the spring so it was good I didn't sign up for the year

long Tuesday night study of Revelation. I have to say that I am not super crazy about the BSF study thus far. I've done many different Bible studies over the past 20+ years, and my favorites have been those by Beth Moore or Kay Arthur (the inductive ones I've done lately). The good news is that the homework for BSF takes far less time than the other two, and at this stage in my life that's probably not a bad thing, but I am dubious I'm going to stick this out for an entire year. The kids are starting in a music class at Lycoming College on Monday nights (before BSF) next Monday. I'm thinking we'll stay in BSF at least until the music class is over (ends right before Thanksgiving), but unless I have a change of heart between now and then, I think that will be it. I'm hoping to be able to join an inductive Bible study at my church starting in January. If it looks like the ones being offered conflict with my schedule, I'm considering offering to a lead an inductive study at our church (that way I get to pick the day/time).

The BIG decision right now is what to do regarding my employment next year. Basically I have three choices - return to being a SAHM as I was from 2012-2017, work PT at Bloomsburg University, or work FT at BU as I have been since August 2017 and will be at least until May 2019. As of May 2019 I will be 40% of the way to the point when I would be permanent again (could happen sooner if they post a job and I am selected). If I return to being a SAHM or work PT, that would erase the two year investment toward permanency. I recently wrote a lengthy list of the advantages of each option. I won't bore you with all the details. Basically the two biggest pluses for working (PT or FT) are financial (orthodontic coverage, retirement plan, greater income, etc.) as well as that Paul gets at least 60 more days with the kids per year. The biggest pluses for me being a SAHM are less stress, exhaustion, and headaches (for me), I have more time with the kids, more time for other things (photography, Bible study, exercise, etc.), and I am able to do things (housework, homeschooling, etc.) to the best of my ability instead of feeling like I usually have to settle for "good enough." I've heard it said before that it's easier to make a choice if one option is bad and the other is good. It's harder when you have two or more "good" choices and you're trying to discern which is the best one. I'm praying that God will make it crystal clear which is the BEST decision for our family - for me to stay-at-home, work PT, or work FT. I will say at this moment I'm leaning toward SAHM. I also am praying that Paul and I can be of one mind in this decision. I think at the moment he's leaning toward me working PT or FT. This is one of those moments in life when I wish God would send me an email that told me exactly what to do. That isn't going to happen, but hopefully I can be sensitive to His leading in my heart. Not knowing makes it so much harder to make a myriad of other smaller decisions such as whether I attend various meetings and events on campus. Right now I am reading a book about Generation Z in preparation to participate in a book club with other faculty members. This semester is going better than last fall. I enjoy these courses more, I started the semester far more prepared due to having more advance notice, and Paul has taken over mowing the lawn. This has translated to me saying "yes" to the kids more whether that's playing a game of Sorry with Ian or finally taking the kids to the playground on Sunday afternoon (first time we walked there in many months).

Field trip woes

The kids  have had three field trips thus far this month - Safety Day at Camp Susque on September 6, Mary Poppins on September 8, and a painting class at Paint, Party, and More on September 22. All of the other trips have been cancelled or postponed including: a program at RB Winter State park, a fossil dig at the Montour Preserve, Jamestown, Williamsburg (two days), Yorktown, Graeme Park/ Da Vinci Science Museum, and a program and hay ride at Rohrbach's Farm. So that means eight of the eleven field trips I had scheduled for this month were cancelled or postponed. We were supposed to go to Graeme Park this Friday and also Da Vinci Science Center. Maurice was planning to take some buses and meet us at Graeme Park. I cancelled Friday's trip because the thought of driving almost to Philadelphia on Friday is too repulsive at the moment considering I am often driving over 100 miles on Tuesdays and Thursdays between driving to the university plus visiting student teachers. Instead the kids will attend art and gym class on Friday, and I'm planning to visit one student teacher on Friday morning because I visited two yesterday

and plan to visit two tomorrow, and I am trying to see five per week. The other seven field trips were cancelled because of rain. We enjoyed a few days without rain, which was greatly appreciated especially when we were at the Bloomsburg Fair on Sunday for the Casting Crowns concert. Yesterday the rain returned. Paul didn't see the messages the farm sent saying the program had been rescheduled for next month due to the farm. When my first class ended at 9:15, I noticed the messages and sent him a text. He was already part of the way there, but my text did spare him from driving the whole way there in vain. I have eleven field trips scheduled for October. Hopefully the kids will be able to attend most or all of those! Going on many field trips is one of the perks of homeschooling in my opinion. I'm also hoping we can have a break from the RAIN. We have had far too much rain over the past two months. Thankfully, we didn't get much rain from Florence. Our basement is dry, and the humidity level is now down to 50%. Hopefully it will keep dropping.

Here are some things I am thankful for today...

1. The kids had fun with their grandparents last Thursday.

2. They painted sea turtles on Saturday morning. It ended up being a private class just for my three kids!

3. We enjoyed going to the Bloomsburg Fair on Sunday evening. I used to go every year starting in 1997, but then I had only been once in more than ten years. My mom and I took the kids there in September 2012 (Oliver was still on oxygen at that point), but none of the kids remember that. We have gone to at least one fair almost every summer, but lately we had gone to one closer to our house. We went primarily to attend the Casting Crowns concert, but we also saw a circus act and explored various exhibit halls to see the huge pumpkins, crafts, livestock, etc. We also had dinner there. It's a much bigger fair than the ones we have attended the last several years. This translated to it taking us a full 30 minutes to get out of the parking lot when we were leaving.

4. The Steelers and Giants both had lousy starts this season, but both of our teams won on Sunday and Monday. Night games don't work well for me, as I get up at 5:30 on Tuesday morning. I had work to do once I got home from Bible study on Monday night, and then I went to bed so I only watched a couple of minutes of the game.

5. I have used the elliptical four times in the past eight days! My goal is to use it for at least 20 minutes a day on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturdays. I didn't do it on Friday, but I did it last Wednesday, Saturday, Monday, and today. Nadia has been using it almost every day! I'm so glad that the elliptical is getting used more regularly as it wasn't cheap and we didn't use it much in the first year we owned it. I'm also very thankful we weren't charge for the repairs.

6. The weather has finally cooled off! Our electric bill is the highest it has ever been for October. We are paying about twice what we usually do. It was our highest bill of the year and that is definitely not usually the case. Right now we are in that wonderful time when we don't need the heat or air conditioning.

I haven't taken many pictures lately so I am going through my phone and uploading things I hadn't uploaded previously - so it's an odd assortment of photos and videos. I still need to upload videos from Nadia's musical last month. The videos are from Niagara Falls.

Photo taken on August 22 at Dorney Park

Ten Years Ago

On this day 10 years ago we sold our previous house, bought, and moved into our current house. My mom was there with us that day, which was a big blessing to me as Nadia turned three months old that very day. I wasn't getting much sleep at night, and I also had gone back to work (FT) when Nadia was 8 weeks old. This marks the first time in my life that I've lived 10 consecutive years in the same house. Paul lived more than 10 years in the house where his parents still live. From 1972-77 I lived in Clearfield, PA, 1977-78 Birmingham, AL, 1979-81 DeSoto, TX, 1981-1990 Glenn Dale, MD, 1990-92 Cedarville, OH, 1992-94 Glenn Dale, MD, 1994-96 Arnold, MD, 1996-2000 Port Carbon, PA, 2001-04 Pottsville, PA, 2004-08 Catawissa, PA, and 9/24/08 to present Watsontown. When I bought my first home (January 2001) I didn't expect we'd live there for decades, but I didn't think we'd be moving 3.5 years later. When we bought our second home (July 2004), that time I remember saying the day we moved in that I hoped we would live there for decades. That house was much cheaper

than our present house and also involved a much shorter commute to work for both of us. If I could go back in time, I think it would have been better if we had never moved in 2004. We moved so that Paul's commute to PSU (which he made from 2008-2012) would be shorter. We didn't look at many houses when we bought our present house because we assumed it would be very temporary (3-4 years). Ironically this is the house where we've stayed the longest in our marriage thus far.

We do like the house aside from the occasional problems with water in the basement. The kids have more children to play with in the neighborhood than they would have in our previous house as the houses were fewer and farther between out there. When we moved in there were three of us in the house. Now there are five of us plus two guinea pigs. It was definitely easier to keep the house clean when we first moved in, but I will take a messier house over an empty nest any day of the week! I was reminded of this last Thursday. The kids spent

the day at their grandparents house while Paul was at work. I gave them the day off of school work in light of our vacation being cancelled. I got home from work around 5:45pm, but the kids and Paul didn't get home until a little after 8pm. It's hard enough being away from the kids when I'm at work. I come home to an empty house on Tuesdays because they are at gymnastics. I'm grateful that normally I don't come home to an empty house on Thursday.

The first few years we were here I didn't make many changes to the house because I thought we weren't going to live here very long. I remember telling my mom that if we ended up living her on a more long term basis the first thing I would do is replace the carpet in the dining room. Ironically, in the last two years we replaced the flooring in several rooms but not that one. Since the dining room table has become a Lego table, it doesn't really bother me that there is carpet under the table. I will insist that the table be cleared off before Christmas as we will need to use that table for eating when are hosting the Benners,

Maurice, my dad, and Margie at Christmas. Ironically, the most expensive project is one I regret that we undertook. We had a fence installed in 2009. It has never been helpful for us, and it has created extra work (weed whacking under it and cleaning the fence). Although I'm not a dog person, if we end up getting a dog some day, it will help me feel better about the thousands we invested in the fence. Back then I was trying to decide whether to replace the deck or get a fence. I wish I had picked the deck back in 2009! We are going to do something with the deck this fall. I'm thinking of hiring someone to build some steps and eventually Paul can put down some concrete pavers to make a small patio for the grill. Speaking of cleaning the fence. I spent over two hours cleaning it on Saturday and it looks better than it has in years.

When we were in Maryland last month, my sister asked me if I had considered moving to a house that would be closer to work for both Paul and I. Although I'm not a fan of having a longer commute, I really don't want to move. Moving is such an exhausting, stressful, and time consuming process. We will lose money on this house when we sell it. We have put time, effort, and money into fixing up the house over the past two years, and we'd have to start all over if we moved to a new house. Plus, if we moved we would have to borrow more money as the houses are more expensive there, and I am trying to get out of debt his year so that if I return to being a SAHM it will be more possible to live off of one income. We shall see how long we end up living here! It's the only house that Ian or Oliver have ever lived in and the only house Nadia remembers since she was an infant when we moved here.

Thankful Thursday

1. It was a challenge to teach Ian how to write his manuscript letters when he was five. It has been such a pleasant surprise to find out that it was been a breeze to teach him to write in cursive (thus far anyhow). He's writing beautifully and of his own initiative writing in cursive at other points in the day such as when working on spelling.

2. One of the libraries within the library system we usually use recently acquired 24 more sets of Adventures in Odyssey cds (previously they only owned 8 sets). Nadia is thrilled! It's wonderful to be able to check out so many from the library rather than needing to keep buying so many for her own personal collection.

3. It's nice having Nadia and Ian in the same AWANA book for the first (and last) time ever. They are both in T and T. It means they are memorizing the same verses (Titus 3:4-5 this week). The picture at left was taken yesterday morning as last night was "Fashion Disaster" night at AWANA. Nadia configured both outfits. They changed their outfits several times over the course of the day. I'm thankful they don't usually wear this many articles of clothing in a single day! In the end Ian wore Nadia's pink pajama pants to AWANA, and Nadia wore some of his shirts and ties.

4. Our elliptical was repaired on September 12, and I don't believe we are going to be billed for it for which I am thankful. Also hoping and praying our basement stays dry so it doesn't get wet again! Now I need to start using it on a regular basis. I used it for the first time in many months yesterday.

5. Paul took the kids to Safety Day at Camp Susque on September 6, and I took the kids to the Not Back to School Pond Party on September 7. They enjoyed both events!

6. Paul took Nadia to the WGRC Skate Night on September 6, and Nadia won a cd!

7. The kids and I enjoyed seeing Mary Poppins on September 8.

8. The kids and I are participating in a BSF study for the first time ever. We are studying Joshua right now. I help them with their BSF homework on M/W/F. On September 10, I had too full of a schedule - homeschooled the kids, got my haircut (while the kids were with me), and then Paul came home early so I could go to faculty meeting on

campus. I came home to eat dinner, and then we went to Bible study. I was questioning the sanity of signing up for a Bible study. This past Monday we were home aside from a quick trip to the grocery store and I didn't feel so tired at the Bible study. I could have attended another faculty meeting OR a meeting at church related to singing in the choir. I skipped both of those so I could attend the Bible study and also so I wouldn't overload my schedule.

9. The kids enjoyed playing at Micah and Isaiah's house on September 12. Part of the time they were there I had my annual eye appointment. There was no change to the top part of my bifocals, but the bottom part will be strengthened when I order new frames next month.

10. Oliver had his first ever art class last Friday. The Christian school is going to give me $150 back of the $200 I paid for Ian's tuition for the year. We decided to keep Nadia in the 5th grade Christian school art class. Oliver and Ian are in the homeschool art class. All three of them had their first homeschool gym class for the 2018-19 school year last Friday. I'm very thankful our church offers these classes! The fact that they have art from 9:15-10:00 and gym from 10:00-11:30 means I can do some observations on Friday mornings. Last Friday I did one during that time frame. The boys play in the playland from 11:35-12:25 while Nadia is in her art class.

11. We were able to see many members of Paul's dad's side of the family on Saturday as we celebrated the life of Paul's grandmother.

12. The kids are back in the Soul Patrol choir at church, and my first choir rehearsal for the new school year was last night. I love the arrangement of "Amazing Grace" that we're going to sing for Easter this coming spring. I'm thankful that the kids were able to sing "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" at Great Gram's funeral on Saturday.

13. We received $169 back of the $458 we had spent in advance for the vacation in Williamsburg that we ended up canceling due to Hurricane Florence.

14. Paul and I received our new bedspread on Tuesday. It's the first one I've purchased for our bedroom in our 17 years of marriage. The one we had used for the last I am not sure exactly how many years had been a wedding gift. I was somewhat limited in my choices as we have light blue walls and navy blue carpet, but I found an inexpensive set on JCPenney's website that went with those colors. The set included 2 shams and 3 throw pillows. I also purchased a new bed skirt and new valences for the windows as the maroon bed skirt and maroon valences didn't go with the new bedspread.

15. Since before the semester began I had put on my syllabi that they wouldn't have class on September 18 due to our planned vacation. I had planned to use a personal day. I didn't think the students would like me changing the plans and telling them that now we were going to have class after all so I went and visited student teachers instead. Normally I am gone from 6:30am to at least 5:30pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but this Tuesday I left at 8:15am and got home at 3:30pm. It was less exhausting even though I still drove well over 100 miles that day (just for work - not counting the miles to Bible study).

16. Phil Vischer has a new show on Right Now Media called "The Mr. Phil Show" that the kids are enjoying. Any show that teaches them more about the Bible is appreciated by me!

17. I'm thankful we don't have many apples this year. It means I have to buy more apples, but it's a lot less work! Yesterday I made apple crisp, which typically I only make with apples from our trees, but the grocery store had apples on sale for 88 cents a pound so I bought a lot of apples and used some of them for apple crisp, which is something Nadia and I both really, really enjoy eating.

So long, Great Gram

 Paul's grandmother passed away on Tuesday; she would have turned 96 in December. Like me he never met one of his grandparents. In his case it was his mom's father. In my case it was my dad's father. His other grandparents passed away in 2004 and 2005. His mom's mother had lived with them for many years. He was very close to his Nan. For a few decades his father's parents had lived in the house next to Paul's parents' house. Paul worked at the plant for years with his Pop. Great Gram loved to make things with her hands. She made each of our Christmas stockings. She made and framed a cross-stitched piece of artwork for each of her great grandchildren (including my three kids). And the list could go on and on of the many things she made for people throughout the years. On Friday afternoon Paul's mom asked if I would be the Scripture reader and if the kids would sing at the service on Saturday morning. I chose some verses from the end of Romans 8 and Christ the Lord is Risen Today. I picked that hymn for the kids in part because they had learned the first verse of the hymn in kids' choir at church and also it seemed to be a good hymn when focusing on the joy of knowing that Great Gram is now in Glory with her Lord and Savior.

This occasion meant that we were able to see some of Paul's extended family whom we generally only see at weddings and funerals. We had seen all of them a little less than six years ago at Gram's 90th birthday party. The two women pictured above with the kids are Pop Pop's sisters. On the left is Aunt Marlene (who lives in CA), and on the right is Aunt Diane, who lives in Florida. We visited Aunt Diane in 2013 when we were in Florida. Pop Pop's brother (Dick) passed away many years before his parents did. Dick's daughters (Paul's cousins Lisa and Jessica) were there along with their mom (Aunt Barbara who is pictured at right), their husbands, their children, and one granddaughter. Oliver enjoyed playing with Olivia who is Lisa's three-year-old granddaughter. Since Lisa is Paul's first cousin, if I am understanding how the cousin terminology works, I think that means Olivia is Paul's first cousin twice removed. I think it also means that Oliver and Olivia are fourth cousins. It's confusing if you ask me! Paul's Aunt Debbie and Uncle Bill were also there albeit they are relatives from his mom's side of the family.

Ian loves to tell jokes whether that be puns or knock knock jokes, etc. Some of his jokes are funny, some make absolutely no sense, and some are a bit too obvious to be funny. After the funeral there was a time for cookies and coffee in the church's fellowship hall, and then the family went to a restaurant for a meal that was served family style. Ian was sitting across from Aunt Debbie and Uncle Bill, and I think he kept them rather entertained. As someone said that day, Ian looks like me the most (of our three kids) but he certainly takes after his dad in several ways -one of which would be that he laughs at his own jokes (just like Paul does). After the meal, most of us went back to Paul's parents house. People stayed varying lengths of time. We stayed until a little after 7pm. The fact we spent the day with extended family made me feel a little better about our decision to cancel our vacation. We got the money back from Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg ($169 total between the two), but we didn't get the money back from the time share ($289). The kids were already at

Colonial Williamsburg once (2015). I think we'll wait maybe five years to reschedule our visit to that site, but I'm hoping that sometime in 2019 we will make it to Jamestown and Yorktown (just two days not an entire week). Hopefully whenever we do Colonial Williamsburg again we can also visit Virginia Beach. I have many fond memories of that beach as we went there many times as my dad's cousin and his family lived there.

Gram collected angels. Although her collection had already been purged a few times over the years, she still had a lot of angels in her efficiency. Many were on display at the church on Saturday and guests were encouraged to take as many as they wanted. Oliver only took one but my other two took a few each. Some are ornaments we can display on the Christmas tree.
The kids each also picked one of her stuffed animals to take  home. At Paul's parents house they had photographs and jewelry up for grabs. I selected one necklace and one pair of earrings. Nadia picked a lot

more than I did. At church today she was wearing earrings, a necklace, and a bracelet that all used to be her Great Gram's. Gram was the only great grandparent that any of our kids met as all the rest had passed away before they were born. We used to see her at family gatherings (ex. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, the kids' birthdays, etc.), but lately she hadn't been leaving the assisted living home even for those events. Ian and Nadia remember her, but Oliver doesn't. So he was VERY confused as to who died. He kept thinking it was Grandma or Pop Pop (Paul's parents) who died and at the restaurant asked if it was Aunt Debbie who died (nope she's alive and well and sitting at the same table eating with you, LOL). He also was very confused as to what a "funeral" was. He kept referring to it as a party, and since he's been obsessed with water balloons the last few months, he asked if there would be water balloons at the "party." Um no. Although it was a joyous occasion as the Lord granted her desire and called her to Heaven, we didn't throw water balloons. As Pop Pop said during the service, considering his current age (will be 76 in December) it won't likely be that many years until he is reunited with his Mom in Glory.

Rain, Rain, and more Rain!

From July 21 to the present we have had an insane amount of rain. For at least the third time in less than two months our backyards have been covered in water to the point you couldn't see any grass. Although many in our area deal with flooding from the Susquehanna River, that is not our situation. As I drove home from work this evening I saw more and more roads were closed due to flooding, and many of those were very close to the river. The river had overflowed its banks in some spots. Our problem is that the ground is so oversaturated that there is standing water in many places. Our new sump pump (which we purchased last month when our basement flooded due to the previous pump giving up the ghost) is doing a good job, but yesterday we had some water in the basement this time because it came through some of the tiny windows. Again it was because the ground is just SO oversaturated. Last Wednesday a repair guy came to fix the elliptical. The company had sent the wrong parts; he's supposed to come again tomorrow morning as we received the correct part on Saturday. Here's to hoping he can repair it tomorrow and that we don't receive a bill for the parts or repair service. It's under warranty, but that could be a moot point if they feel it's due to water damage. Also, I am wondering if we should move the elliptical somewhere else in the house to make sure it stays dry, but I can't think of where else it could go. 

Today Paul was going to take the kids to RB Winter State Park for a program for homeschoolers scheduled to take place from 9-3, but last night I received an email that due to the stream there having too high a volume of water, the event was cancelled. I quickly sent Paul a different set of lesson plans for today. This Thursday we had planned to drive to Williamsburg, Virginia. Due to Hurricane Florence, those plans have been scrapped. It is disappointing as we had plans to visit Jamestown, Yorktown, Virginia Beach, and Colonial Williamsburg. We are studying that time period right now. The kids were at Colonial Williamsburg in 2015, but they have never been to the other places. Paul's parents had planned to join us. I already received an email from Colonial Williamsburg suggesting that I call them to receive a refund for our reservations. I am planning to do the same with Jamestown/Yorktown tomorrow (it was one ticket for both places). The biggest expense was the $289 we paid for a three bedroom unit for seven nights. I am also going to see if they will give us a refund or allow us to change the dates. I have been a member of Interval (the time share company) for over 18 years and have never made such a request before. There was one other time we didn't use a week we had paid for. The other instance it had nothing to do with the weather but was due to me deciding to teach in the summer on campus. The kids are very disappointed as they knew the resort had an indoor and outdoor swimming pool, etc., but there is no way we are heading toward a place that is about to be hit by an intense hurricane! I am hoping Florence doesn't bring us much rain. 

I had requested a personal day for September 18. I am attempting to cancel that request. I had already told my students since the first day of class that we would not be meeting on 9/18. They would  be rather upset if I changed the schedule at this point. I had already given them an alternative activity in place of class. So presuming my request to cancel my personal day is approved, I think I will spend the day visiting student teachers. I visited two today, and I plan to visit two more on Thursday, which means I need to visit six of them next week. 

It looked as if our schedule was totally clear for Saturday, but it turns out we'll be attending a funeral because Paul's Gram died today. She would have turned 96 years old in December. Paul and I attended his Nan's funeral (his mom's mom) and his Pop's funeral (his dad's dad). Considering my mom already passed away, it's not a shocker that now Paul (at the age of 48) no longer has any living grandparents. I was in my late 20's when one of my grandparents died and in my early 30's when my other two grandparents died (I never met my dad's dad). Even if Hurricane Florence hadn't interfered with our travel plans, it turns out Paul's parents wouldn't have been joining us after all due to this death in the family. Great Gram had been very ready to go to Heaven so to me it doesn't seem like a sad event. When a person lives a full life and is longing to go to Glory, how can we feel sad when they pass away?