Remembering

Every year on September 11 I hear the question asked, do you remember where you were when you learned of the terrorist attacks on 9/11. The generation before me can answer that question in regards to the assassination of JFK. When I think back to my childhood the "big" events that I recall included when President Reagan was shot, when Princess Di was married, when the Berlin wall came down, and the explosion of the Challenger. In my earlier years as a university professor, 9/11 was definitely the "big" event that generation would speak of when asked that question. Considering it was 18 years ago, I doubt that 18-21 year olds have any recollection of that event. I learned about 9/11 when I answered the telephone in my office at the Christian school where I was a principal. Our middle schoolers were on an overnight outdoor education trip, and the parents of kids on that trip were the first to begin calling me when they saw what happened with the twin towers on TV. I turned on the radio to keep abreast and told the teachers about it during their lunch break. I also called the that took place during their childhood will stand out in our kids' minds when they are adults.

outdoor education retreat center and informed them of what was going on as well. Time will tell what event

There are times when Oliver asks me, "what is this?," and it makes me laugh. That happened last week on our New York getaway. He pointed to a landline telephone and asked that question. Yep to my kids the only kind of phone they are familiar with is a cell phone. He asked me what all the phone could do. Yes, the kids expect a phone to do more than *just* call someone. In my childhood I used rotary phones and phone booths in addition to the touch tone phone he saw in the hotel room. I remember how large and heavy those first cordless phones were and what a novelty that was at that time.

There are other times when Oliver asks, "who is this?," and I want to cry. He pointed to a photo magnet featuring a picture of my parents and pointed to my mom when he asked that question. He was one month shy of four years old when she passed away, and so I have always assumed it was unlikely

he'd have any memories of her in adulthood, but still it pierced my heart. I so badly wish he remembered her. Of course mom never even met Wesley, her youngest grandchild. I'm guessing it's also unlikely that Micah, Grace, or Julianna will have memories of her when they are adults.

I certainly don't remember every place we went on vacation when I was a child, but I do have very positive memories about our family vacations, and I hope the same is true for our kids when they are adults. I've started doing some planning for next year. In light of our reduced income we need to have a smaller vacation budget. I'm trying to see how far I can stretch $1,100 over the course of 2020. I *think* I can stick to that budget and still take the kids on a ten day trip in April (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan), a seven day trip to Long Island in July, and a family vacation for six days in late August to New York, Ottawa, Quebec City, Montreal, and Vermont. I am not including gas or tolls in that budget just lodging, admission

fees, and dinners. It helps that #1 out of the 21 nights we would be staying elsewhere, 13 of those would be with relatives, #2 we can get into many museums for free with our ASTC membership, and we can get into national parks for free since Ian is in 4th grade. Hopefully in 2020 the kids will be adding a few more states (and one Canadian province) to their life list. They've driven through Indiana before, but we didn't stop and do anything in the state in 2017. On our trip to Chicago I'm hoping to stop in Indiana on the way out there, take a day trip to Milwaukee while we're staying with my sister and her family, and spend a couple days in Detroit on the way home. That will add three states to their list - Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan. Ohio and Illinois are already on their list.  We'll be studying other countries and cultures in social studies during the next school year, which is why I want to visit more of Canada. That's the cheapest country to visit from where we live. They were in Canada for one day last August. In addition to spending a little more time in Ontario, we will also hopefully

spend time in Quebec. On that trip I'm hoping to add Vermont to their life lists, as they've already been to MA and NY. I'm hoping the kids will earn at least seven more Junior Ranger badges in 2020; right now I'm thinking we will visit Indiana Dunes (IN), Fort Stanwix (NY), Sagamore Hill (NY), Springfield Armory (MA), Ford's Theatre (DC), National Mall (DC), and Martin van Buren (NY). The kids have earned 13 thus far, and if all goes as planned they will earn five more at Civil War sites by November 27, 2019 (Antietam, Manassas, Petersburg, Richmond, and Appomattox). When Oliver is a fourth grader (September 2021- August 2022) that is when I hope we take a trip out west that is focused on national parks!

Thankful Tuesday

1. Last Monday and Tuesday were stay at home days. In particular Ian and I enjoy having days like that at least some of the time.  Usually Wednesdays will be like that aside from church in the evening. Last Wednesday was more hectic than usual as I had a dentist appointment, filled out the paperwork and paid the fees at Meadowbrook for Nadia to take art and chorus and Ian to take art, went to the library, took the van to Walmart to get one new tire for the van, took the kids to AWANA, and then drove to the Mazda dealership to pick Paul up as he dropped off his vehicle to have work done while we were away. Whew.  So again, days like that make me appreciate days when we can stay home all day. Today should be one of those days as I don't have any plans to leave the house today. Yay!

2. We had a lovely three-day trip to New York last week. Oliver was surprised that Paul was joining us. I appreciated having someone to help with the driving. Of course the trip had been planned with Paul in mind so I fully expected him to come!

We were able to tour the USS Slater (the only destroyer escort that is still afloat) in Albany, visit the Children's museum of science and technology in Troy, spend a day at Fort Ticonderoga including a cruise on the Carillon, tour the battlefield at Saratoga, and visit the Museum of and Science in Schenectady. There was no cost to enter the museums or the national park. We only paid to enter the Fort and USS Slater. We saw far more of Paul than usual!

3. I also had a three day break from cooking thanks to the hotel's hot breakfast buffet, packing lunches, and using gift cards to have dinner at Texas Roadhouse, Red Robin, and Wendy's. Speaking of cooking, I have to stay I am still really enjoying the MealBoard app I'm using. It's helping me get out of a rut in terms of what I bake for dessert, cook for dinner, etc. We used our new grill for the first time on Sunday. I had purchased porterhouse and T-bone steaks awhile back. At first the kids were very skeptical of trying something new (none of them had eaten any steak before), but after one bite Ian declared it was AWESOME! I did tell them not

to expect we'll eat steak very often because it's not cheap, but I can buy steaks for everyone for the same cost as it was to buy one steak for Paul at Texas Roadhouse. So I am planning to buy steaks at least once or twice a year at the minimum. I'm not a big fan of steak so I had leftovers instead. Paul said we'd better get the kids cholesterol checked if we are going to serve them steak to make sure they don't have the genetic condition that lead to Maurice's death. When the kids weren't sure about trying the steak I told them that Grandpa, Pop Pop, Daddy, Uncle Maurice, and Uncle Joe all really loved steak. I'm sure there are others in our extended families who like steak, but those were the first names that came to mind.

4. I enjoyed teaching the 1st and 2nd grade girls' Sunday School class during the second service yesterday. The lesson was on the Bible - books, chapters, verses, OT/NT, etc.

5. Nadia enjoyed going to the Middle last night. She wanted to go to a meeting at our church for the middle school girls at 3:15

yesterday, but I told her that was not a good day/time for us to add something to our schedule since Ian's choir rehearsal starts at 5pm.

6. Oliver usually has gymnastics on Monday nights, but he had to miss his class last night because he threw up twice yesterday morning. The first time he threw up at 6:45am in the bathroom, and the second time he threw up was about three hours later in the van on the way home from taking Paul to the Mazda dealer so he could get his car back. Because Paul was already going in to work much later than usual (due to the time the Mazda repair shop opened on Monday morning) and because Oliver threw up, Paul worked from home yesterday so that I would only have to take Nadia and Ian to choir. Ian's rehearsals are from 5-6, and Nadia's are from 6:15-7:15. That would have been a long time to hang out with Oliver at the library or some similar place hoping he didn't throw up at all. Oliver threw up again at 9:45pm so my day began and ended with cleaning up icky messes. I'm hoping he's over his bug and that

none of the rest of us get it. We were washing our hands and using hand sanitizer like crazy yesterday. I'm very thankful Paul was able to help out so that Oliver could stay home last night. If he's feeling better, I can take him to a make-up gymnastics class at 4:00 on Wednesday. They added a rock wall to the gym, and they are using it in gymnastics this week. Oliver would enjoy that!

7. Nadia and Rachel have been enjoying talking to each other via FaceTime. I'm grateful for the relationship they are continuing to build as cousins and pray it will last for many years to come!

8. Last Wednesday the kids and I bought a new shoe rack. The other one was a lot less visible as it sat under the kids' coat rack in the foyer, but it wasn't working very well lately for several reasons including 1. all their shoes didn't fit on the old shoe rack, 2. now that they are bigger their coats hang farther down and the top level of that shoe rack was covered by coats, and 3. the vast majority of the time the kids would just put

their shoes in the vicinity of the shoe rack but not actually on the shelves or under the bottom shelf. The new one is a tiny bit of an eyesore in my opinion. If our coat closet was bigger I'd put it in there, but the new one is preferred for several reasons - #1 it holds far more shoes so now all their shoes easily fit (with a lot of room to spare), #2 the coats are not longer hanging over the shoes, and #3 I believe they will have more success in actually putting the shoes on the new spinning shoe rack. So in the end my desire for tidiness was more important to me than the appearance. Practicality wins out over décor in my opinion.

9. Last year when Amazon had the three month special of Kindle Unlimited for 99 cents for 3 months I used it a little bit, this time around when Amazon had the special of three months for free - we have really been taking advantage of it. By "we" I mean Ian and I. He finished all four Prince Martin books and now has started the Growly series on the Kindle. Yesterday I also received several free books in the mail from submitting Kellogg's receipts online. Some

I ordered for my kids and some for Christmas gifts for nieces/nephews.

10. We hadn't heard from the guy who was going to replace the A/C in almost a month, but he showed up again yesterday to do more measurements. The first estimate was based on using one particular manufacturer. That one couldn't given him a date when the equipment would be available. So yesterday he gave us a quote using another manufacturer. It was $900 cheaper!! However after he looked at our furnace he suggested we should replace that at the same time given it's twenty years old. The furnace adds another $1,600 to the total cost. Have I mentioned houses aren't cheap? I'm thankful that in general the temperatures have been a bit lower lately which has helped keep our house from turning into a sauna. I'm also thankful that sometimes this month we should have a new air conditioning system with a heat pump (something we haven't had before) and a new furnace. It's supposed to get up to about 90 degrees tomorrow, but thankfully that hasn't been the norm lately.

11. With all the driving Paul does to and from work and that we have done this summer traveling various places, I am still thankful for safety on the roads. We put almost $1K into Paul's car over the past two months which is to me a lot of money especially as we only bought the car last year. We are going to try to avoid going to the Mazda dealer in the future as I believe we could have gotten a better price on the repairs done last week elsewhere. I'm also thinking our next car shouldn't be a Mazda. Previously we've owned Hondas and Toyotas, and we never had to spend that much on any of our other cars when the mileage was this low on the car. Hopefully we can go awhile before we have to spend much money on either of our vehicles aside from oil changes, but again I'm thankful that our cars have never broken down on us and that aside from Paul hitting a dead deer two different times, we haven't had any accidents in the past 15 years.

12. One area I often have felt I could improve upon in homeschooling has been including more hands-on activities in science. Yesterday I took the time to include a simple hands-on activity related to our discussion of buoyancy and density. The kids had a blast. Hopefully I will be more consistent in taking the time and effort to include hands-on activities in science this year. They are making a puppet show in Bible today related to conflict resolution. I have wanted to include puppets more in homeschooling in the past, and I am happy we are off to a good start with that as well this year.

13. Walmart sent me another $10 off a $50 grocery coupon. I placed my order online on Sunday and picked it up last night during Nadia's choir rehearsal. I'll take 20% off my groceries any day of the week! Sometimes they make a substitution if they are out of the exact thing I ordered. Usually it just means they give me a different brand. Yesterday one thing I ordered was three bags of carrots (frozen). They planned to give me three bags of peas and carrots instead. Nope! It's the first substitution I've rejected. My kids don't like peas. I made them eat peas and carrots from time to time but three bags would be too much considering they don't like peas.

Saratoga

After eating at the hotel's breakfast buffet on Saturday morning, we drove about 45 minutes to Saratoga National Historical Park. First we spent about two hours in the visitor center - watching the movie, looking at the exhibits, buying a magnet, and completing the Junior Range Badge activities. Thus far the hardest Junior Ranger packet was the one at Yorktown. Thankfully this one was very reasonable. Then we spent about two hours driving around the battlefield. We listened to a narration from their website (via my cell phone) and got out at several of the stops. We could have driven into town to see the Victory memorial and a house used as a headquarters during the battle, but we decided to start driving to the science museum. We spent about one hour in the museum and then watched a planetarium show. It wasn't the most amazing science museum, but it was nice we were able to see the planetarium show for free as that's not always free when we enter for free using our ASTC membership. About one hour after we left the science museum we went through the drive-thru

at Wendy's for our dinner. We used a gift card I had gotten through credit card points. The national park was fee free (although they did give Ian his fourth grade pass so that we can get in free to other national parks that charge a fee), and the science museum was free. We packed a lunch, the gift card completely covered our dinner, and the breakfast was free at the hotel. The only thing we paid for on Saturday was a magnet at Saratoga (although we used almost a full tank of gas that day). We got home a little after 8pm. My favorite part of our trip was Fort Ticonderoga. Paul liked the Fort but he also really liked the tour of the USS Slater and visiting the Saratoga battlefield. I don't believe any of us had ever been at any of the places we visited before. Of the three kids, I think Nadia has the least interest in history and Ian has the most interest, although his interest is much smaller than Paul's. Nadia was excited to find some wooly worms as we walked around the battlefield! She held three different ones yesterday. She also enjoys doing the Junior Ranger packet because she enjoys crossword

puzzles and the like.

Because we weren't at home Thursday through Saturday, today in addition to going to church I needed to get caught up on chores. I mowed the lawn, cleaned the guinea pig cage, vacuumed, mopped, cleaned the bathrooms, etc. This week will be our very first full week of school albeit tomorrow will be day #6 of regular school work (not counting field trip days). Because of our field trips to New York the past two weeks, the kids missed their first two art classes and Nadia missed the first two weeks of chorus at Meadowbrook. Those classes will begin this Thursday for them.

Fort Ticonderoga

A couple of years ago I said to Paul that I thought we should go to Saratoga when we were studying the Revolutionary War. His reply had been that if we were going there, we should also go to Fort Ticonderoga. I had planned this trip more than once over the past year. Sometimes I picked a date based on a special event at Saratoga, but Paul said he'd rather go in September than during the summer. So I picked this week because today was the homeschool day at Fort Ticonderoga. They had special activities planned (LOTS of them) plus the admission was more than 50% off. I would give the event two thumbs up! It was utterly impossible to do all the tours and activities they had today, but we enjoyed several of them during the six hours we spent at the fort. We listened to a 30 minute talk about the history of the fort, walked through the fort and museum (although Paul would have liked to spend more time there),musket demonstration,  painted with watercolors in the King's Garden, took a 75 minute boat cruise on Lake Champlain, walked through a corn maze, and drove to the top of Mount Defiance. We could not have

asked for a prettier day. The high temperature was about 70, and it was a sunny day.

We enjoyed a free hot breakfast buffet at the hotel this morning before we drove about 70 minutes farther north to the fort. We had a simple lunch that we had packed (granola bars, pretzels, clementines, etc.), and we used a gift card Paul had been given for Christmas for dinner at Texas Roadhouse. The kids had kids' meals, Paul had a steak dinner, and I had a sweet potato. We all enjoy the rolls they serve, and Ian and Paul love eating peanuts. The gift card covered everything except for the tip. In the boat we saw Vermont as much as we saw New York, and Ian said we should go to Vermont some time. I actually am hoping to take the kids to most if not all of the 50 states before they leave our nest. So hopefully we will do something in Vermont at some point. I only count a state if we actually do something in the state. Just driving through the state isn't enough to add the state to the list in my opinion. This year we added states 15-16 to the list (NC, SC). Next year

hopefully we'll add a few more! I'm planning on spending a couple of days in Michigan next April on our way back from Chicago. That will be the first time the kids have ever been to Michigan. Oliver, Nadia, and Paul swam in the pool again this evening. Ian and I just hung out in the hotel room. Since Nadia usually goes to bed at 9:30, Ian at 9:00, and Oliver at 8:30, we have made 9:00 the bedtime for everyone when the five of us are sharing a bedroom. Paul and I are sharing one queen size bed, the boys are sharing the other queen size bed, and we made a bed out of pillows on the floor for Nadia. The hotel certainly isn't as nice as the one we stayed in last week in NJ, but it has done the job (and was affordable). Tomorrow is out last day of this three day adventure!

Albany, NY

I don't like waking my kids up in the morning. Oliver has consistently been the first one up lately. I like the fact that I don't usually have to wake them up on a school day, but today I woke them up at 7:00. My goal had been to be out the door at 7:30. We didn't quite achieve that, but we were still able to join the 12:00 tour of the USS Slater in Albany. The tour started with an 8 minute video. We watched that at the end of our tour since our group had already seen it when we arrived. Our tour guide and the other men who paid to be in the 12:00 tour were all veterans of the US Navy. Our tour guide joined the Navy in 1962. The USS Slater is a destroyer escort which was first used by the US in WWII and later by Greece. The tour plus the movie lasted about 1.75 hours. The tour guide said he was impressed by how observant Oliver was during the tour. He said this because Oliver likes to ask lots of questions, which is something Nadia wishes he did not do.

We then drove about 10 minutes to a children's museum that we could visit for free with our ASTC membership. When we arrived they were in the middle of a live animal program featuring box turtles. We spent about 90 minutes in the museum, and the kids had an enjoyable time. It was a four hour drive to Albany, and our hotel was another hour north. We stopped about 45 minutes along the way to the hotel to have dinner at Red Robin. Nadia *loves* their macaroni and cheese. The kids love that many of the items are bottomless - meaning unlimited refills. Nadia had three servings of macaroni and cheese, two servings of French fries, and two glasses of lemonade. Oliver didn't have seconds of anything. He had apple slices, macaroni and cheese, and apple juice. Ian had one serving of chicken tenders, two servings of Yukon chips, and two glasses of apple juice. Paul had a chicken Caesar wrap, two servings of fries, and two glasses of Coke. I had a bowl of soup and a pineapple smoothie. I had used some Discover points to get a $50 gift card to Red Robin, and including the tax and tip our total was $50. Hence the reason we very, very rarely eat at a sit down restaurant unless we have a gift card.

Our hotel has an indoor swimming pool. The water is COLD so I didn't actually get in although I had changed into my bathing suit. Nadia swam the longest. During the five hours we were in the van today we listened to music on the radio, listened to several chapters of Rifles for Watie, read some of their chapter books (Nadia and Ian), played some on the iPad or Nintendo Switch (Oliver and Nadia each had 20 minutes total, and Ian had 40 minutes), and watched one episode of the Brady Bunch and part of Frozen on the DVD player. We ate breakfast at home and packed our lunches which we ate on the way to Albany. The reasons we drove up here were to visit Fort Ticonderoga and Saratoga. We studied the Revolutionary War last school year. We're about to study the Civil War, but better late than never with visiting these two sites related to the Revolution. Next weekend we plan to visit Antietam which does pertain to the time period we're currently studying. I'm thankful the five of us could go on this three day/two night getaway together!

Thankful Tuesday

1. We enjoyed spending 4 1/2 days with my sister and her family last week! Spending time with cousins is something my kids really, really enjoy. Because Wendy drove her van, she was able to take back a painting my mom had loved of a violin maker, an ant painting that Wendy had helped Maurice with many years ago, Maurice's walrus cookie jar (that he used to store writing utensils), and Maurice's desktop computer.

2. We had safety in our travels to and from New Jersey. Wendy and her kids ran into car trouble about 100 miles away from Chicago on Sunday night. Drayton was able to borrow another vehicle and come get them.

3. It was an inexpensive getaway as Drayton's points covered our lodging, the hotel provided a free hot breakfast, we packed our lunches, and through our ASTC membership we got into two museums for free. Our only expenditures were three dinners, two bus rides, two train rides, admission to the American Museum of Natural History, and four trips on the Subway.

4. In general the temperature has been a bit cooler outside which has helped keep our house at a reasonable temperature. Hopefully the new air conditioner will be installed in the near future.

5. The new lawnmower is very easy to use. It's definitely taking me less time to mow the lawn these days.

6. Nadia has been enjoying some of my dolls. When I was a child I was told not to play with the dolls that were given to me for my doll collection, and I followed instructions. Nadia asked for some of my dolls, and I decided why not let some of them be enjoyed. In the past 30-40 years I've spent VERY little time looking at the dolls. I'm happy that she is getting some enjoyment out of some of them. One of them is the same size as her American girl doll so she can put other clothes on that doll. I told Wendy it's rather ironic that the child who was given a collection (my Grandpa started my doll collection in 1980) is the one (compared to my three siblings) who ended up having the most aversion to

clutter as an adult.  I'm really not into collecting things that are just for looking at with the exception of photographs of my kids. So my doll cabinets aren't as jam packed these days.

7. Last week (8//26-9/1) was a typical week in that Paul only ate one meal with us - dinner on Sunday. This week will NOT be a typical week in that regard, thankfully! Paul worked a shorter day on Monday since it was Labor Day. He still left for work before we got up in the morning, but he was home at 2pm, which was 5-6 hours earlier than usual! This meant we had dinner together two days in a row! It also meant he had time to play Connect Four with Oliver, work on the bathroom floor project, etc. He's taking off work this Thursday-Saturday to join us on our trip to  Ticonderoga and Saratoga. This means instead of eating 1/21 meals with us, he'll probably be eating 11/21 meals with us this week!

8. Paul said he doesn't think we should move. That is an extremely HUGE relief to me.

9. We have had a Dollar General and Family Dollar store in our town for years. I rarely have shopped at either. I prefer Dollar Tree, and the Family Dollar store closed last month and a few days ago a Dollar Tree opened in its place!

10. Nadia received her third letter from her new pen pal today. She is always excited to check the mail because she's hoping to receive a letter from Stella, who lives in Illinois. She also was glad to receive the fourth season of Brady Bunch via Amazon Prime. Nadia also enjoyed having a lengthy FaceTime conversation with Rachel this evening.

11. WVIA (our local PBS channel) added three more places recently where our kids can get in free once a year because we are members - the Pioneer Coal Tunnel (near Paul's parents), Bloomsburg Children's Museum, and an aqurium in Scranton. We've never been to that coal mine or aquarium. I'm hoping to take the kids to the coal mine in October and the aquarium in February. We've been to the children's museum

many times, but we haven't been members for more than a year. It will be nice to visit it once in the next year if we only have to pay for my admission.

12. I haven't been using websites that give you a rebate for shopping online via their website that regularly, but I am trying to get back into the habit. I received a $10 gift card for Walmart in the mail last week which was the first bonus I earned for clicking on their website before completing a purchase elsewhere. I also haven't been entering Coke codes very often lately. Today I entered Coke cap codes and earned 2 free large drinks, 1 large popcorn, and 2 free movie tickets for AMC.

13. Today was our first full day of school this year. Ian used Beast Academy for math for the first time ever. He told me he likes it! It was Oliver's turn to pick the game. He picked Trouble, and Ian won! Today was our first time reading poetry instead of picture books. I am sure we'll make some modifications to the plan as the year progresses, but so far I

have to say so far so good in terms of homeschool lesson plans, Tody (chore app I'm using), and the meal plan I've been using. I'm definitely cooking more often, but it's far more feasible now that I'm not also juggling a FT job. I even had time to walk to the playground with Ian and Oliver this afternoon! I planned to start exercising regularly this summer. I was succeeding in May but that fell to the wayside the rest of the summer aside from a few walks with Cheri and Tab. So here's to hoping I can start walking a few times a week until the weather gets too chilly for me to enjoy being outside. It's painful when a lady asked me the innocent question, "how has your first week of the fall semester been at BU?" at church on Sunday or when I got a text today from a math coordinator at a local public school asking why her email to me was returned as undeliverable. But the truth is that my schedule is SO much more manageable. The last two years I was doing "just enough" to survive. Now I can do things well, and I don't feel frazzled. The kids slept until almost 8am this morning, and

that was fine with me. We are not in a rush. I let Oliver play some this morning while I was working with his siblings on their school work. That meant he didn't finish his schoolwork until later that we used to end our school day in the past, but it was fine because I didn't need to switch gears to my university job after I finished homeschooling.

14. We used the library some this summer, but once we go back to school then we really make good use of the library. I'm very thankful for public libraries and also for books I can get for free through Amazon for the Kindle. We have been using a 3 month free subscription to Kindle Unlimited. Ian is reading the fourth book in the Prince Martin series on the Kindle. Unfortunately the Pediatrician thought he was playing a video game during Oliver's appointment. It's just a Kindle Paperwhite - the kind of Kindle that is ONLY used for reading (no other apps). I am actually strict with the kids and their screen time. I didn't think I'd be chastised for my son reading a chapter book during his brother's appointment. Man looks at the outward appearance. God looks at our hearts!

Harry Potter

Less than 24 hours after we checked out the first Harry Potter book from the library, Nadia had finished reading it (a little over 300 pages long). I guess I should have checked out more than just the first book yesterday! We have three months of Amazon Kindle Unlimited for free, and so I got her book two via the Kindle. Monday will be our usual day to go to the library the next 10 weeks, but since tomorrow is Labor Day the library is closed and the kids also don't have gymnastics or choir tomorrow night because of the holiday. I had purchased a set of 8 Harry Potter DVDs for $23 in July. I had planned on that being a Christmas gift, but I knew Nadia had money she didn't spend in NYC. I told her she could buy the DVDs from me if she wanted them now. She decided to use her money to buy those 8 DVDs plus seasons 4 and 5 of the Brady Bunch. Seasons 1-3 are free via Amazon Prime as well as part of season 4, but we couldn't find a free way to access the other episodes. We watched the first movie today. Since some of the later movies are PG-13 (for violence) I'm not

going to let Oliver watch all of them, but I let all three kids watch the first one after Nadia finished reading the first book. She's in the middle of the last mother daughter book club book, and she has to read one from "the list" before she reads the second Harry Potter book, but I doubt it will be that long before she finishes the second book and we watch the second movie. Ian enjoys reading, but Nadia is the only one I would label a bookworm at this point.

Today was promotion Sunday at church. Nadia had already been promoted in June to the middle school group, and the boys didn't change classrooms because 1st/2nd grade boys are in the same room and 3rd-5th grade boys are in the same room. Oliver will be promoted next year. He's looking forward to it because the snack in grades K-2nd is usually goldfish crackers whereas the snack in grades 3-5 is a small bag of chips. He's looking forward to chips. The extra treat for everyone today in celebration of promotion Sunday was a Rita's ice. Nadia and Ian had blue raspberry. I had cherry, but I think Oliver picked the tastiest flavor - mango. Yum! It was warm in our house on Friday evening when we got back from NYC, but the house stayed cool yesterday and today.