Giving Thanks

1. My dad's quadruple bypass surgery went smoothly last Wednesday.  He left the ICU and was transferred to another room in the hospital on Thursday, and today he came back home!

2. I was in a car accident on January 17. It shook me up. It had been 17 years since my last accident. I was going straight through an intersection, and a woman turned left into our van. When I realized she was doing this, I came to a complete stop in the middle of the intersection and honked the horn. This got her attention, and she tried to come to a stop, but part of her SUV hit the driver's door of our van. She decided to pay for the repair bill herself instead of going through her insurance. She asked me to get two estimates. I got one last Monday at a body shop one mile from our house, and I got a second quote last Wednesday in Milton after Oliver's dentist appointment. The one closer to our house was almost $500 cheaper, so naturally she picked that one. I received the $1200 check from her in the mail on Saturday.  I'm thankful that no one was injured, that the woman

has paid for the repairs, and that the accident wasn't any worse than it was. Here's to hoping I go at least 17 years without another accident. I'd prefer to never be in another accident as long as I live! The van is scheduled to be dropped off at the body shop on February 3, and I was told it will take five days to fix it. Typically the kids and I stay home all day on Monday, but it seems we'll be home for five days, with the exception of Wednesday night. I assume the kids will miss their basketball practices, art class, chorus, Bible quizzing, and ice skating lessons next week, but I think Paul can come home on Wednesday night by 6:15 so that the boys can go to AWANA and Nadia and I can attend part of choir rehearsal (me) and middle school youth (her).

3. The kids and I enjoyed seeing the new Maleficent 2 on DVD through a free rental from Redbox on January 17.

4. We got more snow on January 18, and I was thankful that Paul got home safely from work that afternoon. It took him 30 minutes longer than usual. I was

also thankful that the boys' basketball games were cancelled that day. I really, really don't like driving in the snow and driving in the snow one day after being in a car accident was nerve wracking for me, but we got home safely after Nadia's basketball game.

5. On January 19 Nadia decided to attend the youth group meeting (for grades 6-12) at First Baptist where they play basketball instead of the Bible study at the Methodist church (for grades 4-8). She's attended the Middle at the Methodist church for 1.5 years. The Methodist church is 4 minutes from our house whereas the Baptist church is 13 minutes from our house. I agreed to let her switch if Paul was willing to do one of the trips. He agreed to drop her off at 6:00 each Sunday night if I pick her up at 8:00. She knows a few of the kids in that youth group because they attend our church and/or the Christian School. There are a lot more kids in that youth group than the Middle, and the group regularly schedules social events, mission trips, and service projects. She wanted to

join their laser tag event on January 21, but she had basketball practice that night. She talked about things like a progressive dinner and such, which reminded me of my days in the youth group in Maryland. I doubt she'll return to the Methodist church aside from VBS, but she's looking forward to continuing to participate in the youth group at our church and also at First Baptist. She was invited to three different Super Bowl parties - one at each church! She decided to go to the one at our church.

6. We celebrated Ian's 6th spiritual birthday on January 20! He chose to have dinner at Bonanza, and we were able to use the gift card my Dad gave us for Christmas. it cost a little less than $25 for the five of us to have dinner, which included drinks for everyone except me. It's certainly cheaper to eat there compared to most sit down restaurants, especially considering it's a buffet that includes dessert, which we never get at sit down restaurants. We had donuts for breakfast on January 24 also in honor of his birthday. I let him pick

something out at the bookstore at our church, but the manager told us all the kids' books will be on sale 25% off in February so he's waiting until then to pick out his gift from his parents and also from my Dad.

7. Oliver had two teeth pulled at the dentist last Wednesday. He was a trooper! The teeth still had their full roots so there was quite a bit of bleeding. Because the teeth came out in a much more painful way than usual, the tooth fairy gave him $10 and Grandma gave him $3. He used his money to buy a pretzel at the basketball game on Saturday and ordered a Paw Patrol toy on Amazon.

8. Nadia has memorized the first two chapters of Hebrews and is half way through chapter three. Her goal is to memorize all of Hebrews, 1 Peter, and 2 Peter by the middle of June. Next year she'll be memorizing the book of Matthew. Ian isn't too sure about joining her in this in September 2021, but I am expecting both of them to memorize the books of Romans and James during the 2021-22 school year. Memorizing comes VERY

easily for Ian so I sure it won't feel as daunting once he actually starts working on it.

9. The kids have enjoyed their last two computer hardware classes. Their last class will be this Friday, which will be an introduction to programming. The second class was about putting together a desktop computer. They each had to connect the cords for the keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc. The third class was about setting up a network. The kids set up a network that included all of their desktops.

10. Paul usually works six days a week, but he took a day off this past Saturday to attend the kids' basketball games. Ian's was the most exciting as he stole the ball at least four times. The first game was at 9:00 and the last game started at 2:00. Oliver and Paul weren't able to come home in the middle. Ian, Nadia, and I were home for about 90 minutes in between Nadia's game and Oliver's game. I'm thankful this is the last year of having three basketball games on Saturdays. At the most we'll have two games next year, and I'm really

questioning whether Oliver should continue to play basketball. Nadia helped out in the concession stand from 12:00-3:00, which she greatly preferred to watching the games.

11. Oliver has been enjoying reading Mouse and Mole books from the library as well as a Bible reader since he finished Level 4 of All About Reading in December. Ian has been reading FAR more than usual this month. Usually he'll only read if it will earn him a turn on the Wii or Switch, but he's actually been doing some reading "just for fun" WOOHOO! His favorite author these days is Nathan Hale, and Nadia's favorite is Heather Vogel Frederick. I'm grateful all three kids like to read!

12. We started a new Spanish curriculum today. We had not really done much with sign language in the fall. We own the Rosetta Stone cds for Spanish, and maybe we'll go back to those at some point, but today we started using Excelerate Spanish, which I bought on eBay. I was looking for something all three kids could

do together. Hopefully this will work well for us. Things were going along smoothly in our homeschooling so I thought it was time to add another subject. Nadia wants to go on a mission trip to Guatemala, which means it would be very helpful for her to know more Spanish than she knows from her past use of Duolingo and Rosetta Stone.

13. Paul finished his repairs in the kids' bathroom on Wednesday night, and Nadia and I had showers in our house for the first time in months on Thursday. We had gone almost a month without taking a shower as our last shower had been on Christmas Day at Paul's parents' house. When he started taking out the silicone the end of September, I had no idea it would take almost four months for him to complete the project. I'm very thankful to be able to take showers again. I'd be thrilled to never take another bath the rest of my life. Because we were allowed to use it for a little bit at the end of October, I am still nervous that the project isn't actually complete, but I'm assuming as more time passes I will become convinced that being able to take a shower isn't just a temporary situation. In addition to being able to take showers, it means that things from that bathroom which had been stored in our master bedroom, our bathroom, and the half bathroom have now been returned to their rightful places, which means less clutter in the other rooms, which I greatly appreciate. Maybe some day there won't need to be a circular saw in my closet? That will be removed whenever Paul finishes the master bathroom project.

14. Last week we received junior ranger badges in the mail from two different national parks. Some parks allow you to complete the booklets from home! They've completed 6 or 7 so far this month! They've almost completed 30 altogether, and my current goal is for them to each earn 150 Junior Ranger badges.

Thankful Tuesday

1. The kids and I had a great time skiing on Thursday. I really, really appreciated that they had only chair lifts - no t-bar lifts! Woohoo! Oliver still needs to learn how to properly stop. His method is to sit down on his bottom, but I was very, very thankful that he never pulled me down as that happened quite a bit the first time he went skiing.

2. Children's Place sent me a $5 coupon, and they always have free shipping. I used the coupon to buy Nadia a shirt for 97 cents. I like paying yard sale prices for brand new clothing!

3. Paul made it back safely from Baltimore on Friday night. He arrived at our church around 10:30pm, and Nadia was done with Bible quizzing around 11:15pm. I was thankful he could bring her home as the boys and I were asleep at that hour!

4. I'm thankful the kids can take part in the group ice skating classes this year. Hopefully they'll make a lot of progress over the next nine weeks!

5. I'm thankful Nadia is working on memorizing the book of Hebrews. She wasn't much help to her team last weekend, but she enjoyed participating in the competition and it helped her learn how these events work. Meadowbrook was having a basketball tournament on Friday and Saturday, and she stayed with her friends and watched one game after the quizzing was over. Because she takes art and chorus there she was allowed into the game without buying a ticket. She wanted to skip her basketball game on Saturday morning so she wouldn't miss any of the quizzing, but I didn't think it was right to back out at the last minute. My compromise was to ask her coach if it was okay if she left at half-time. He agreed. There are 10 kids on the team, and only five play at one time. Normally each child would play three of the six (6 minute) periods. He only had her play one of the first three periods so she only played six minutes on Saturday since she left at half-time. This is her seventh and final year of Upward. If Ian and Oliver play through sixth grade, we will have four more years of basketball after this year.

6. The kids and I enjoyed getting two subs at Subway on Thursday with a gift card. On Friday we used part of a gift card to get tacos for Oliver and I and a bucket of chicken from KFC for Paul and Ian. This week we only plan to eat out once - on Friday night.

7. I think the kids learned quite a bit during their first computer hardware class on Friday afternoon!

8. The weather was GORGEOUS on Saturday and Sunday! It was unseasonably warm!!! We didn't even wear coats to church! The kids played tag with two neighbors, rode their bikes and scooters, etc. while I raked and bagged four bags of leaves, vacuumed the minivan, swept out the garage, etc. I don't normally do those tasks in January, but it was great to get some fresh air without being cold.

9. My dad's bypass surgery was postponed until January 22 because another patient needed to have a surgery more quickly than my dad does. This seems to be a blessing because Margie was diagnosed with pneumonia last week, and this gives her time to hopefully be feeling better before he comes home after his surgery.

10. The kids, especially Nadia, have really been into doing puzzles lately!

11. Paul started painting the kids' bathroom on Sunday. Hopefully that means we can take SHOWERS in the near future. I never thought I'd have to go more than three months without a working shower in our house.

12. The boys and I watched the new Lady and the Tramp movie on Disney+. We enjoyed it!

13. Yesterday the kids and I stayed home ALL day, which felt heavenly after being out and about more than usual last Thursday through Saturday.

Skiing at Elk Mountain!

We had plans to ski at Elk Mountain in 2017, 2018, and 2019, but it never actually happened because the dates we could ski there usually fell around January 2-4 and as we approached the date Paul would then say he was too busy at work to take a day off to go skiing with us. I felt uncomfortable with the idea of taking Ian and Nadia skiing by myself (for their very first time skiing) in 2017, and I felt uncomfortable taking all three kids by myself in 2018 and 2019, especially as it would have been Oliver's first time skiing. Last year when all five of us were skiing at Ski Sawmill towards the end of February, I told Nadia that I would (Lord willing) take all three of them skiing twice in 2020. Ski Sawmill had seemed more appealing to me because it's almost exactly one hour from our house, whereas Elk Mountain is almost exactly two hours from our house. Yesterday was the first time any of us had skied at Elk Mountain. Hindsight is 20/20. Had I known that the bunny slope at Elk Mountain had a chair lift, I would have come here last year! I didn't fall down ONE time yesterday. I can't recall how many times Oliver pulled me down getting off the T-bar lift for the bunny slope at Ski Sawmill.

Isiah and Micah planned to ski last February at Ski Sawmill with us, but they were sick that day and unable to go skiing. They went skiing last January at Elk Mountain, but we didn't go. This time we both were skiing together! My three love to go skiing, but skiing with friends made it an even better experience! The ski sloped opened at 8:30. The kids have typically been waking up sometime between 7:00-7:30 each morning. I hate waking the kids up, but I decided to wake them up at 7:00. If we were to arrive there at 8:30, I would have had to wake them up at 6:00. I knew we couldn't stay until 4:30 because they had their first ice skating class at 5:15. I had the kids' lunches made before I woke them up. I toasted three bagels for them to eat in the van while we drove to Elk Mountain. We arrived at 9:30, and it took a full hour to take the shuttle to the lodge, use the bathrooms, and get our ski equipment. Nadia and Ian pretty much skied for four hours straight. Oliver and I took a little break at noon to go back to the van and get our lunches and my camera. At Ski Sawmill the parking lot is right beside the lodge, but the next time we go to Elk Mountain I'll bring our lunches and such up to the lodge when we first arrive because the lockers only cost 50 cents! Nadia and Ian were having so much fun skiing that they decided to wait until 3:00 to eat their lunches, and we usually eat lunch sometime between 11-12. I had my cell phone and camcorder in my pockets the whole day. I used my camera a little bit after eating lunch and then locked it in a locker along with Ian and Nadia's lunches.




Everyone started on the bunny slope. I then told Nadia and Ian they could go explore some other beginning (green circle) slopes while Oliver and I would stay on the bunny slope. Isaiah and Micah showed up with their father and his parents around 11:30, and Ian stayed on the bunny slope the rest of the day so he could ski with Micah. Isaiah's dad was teaching him how to ski. Nadia skied with everyone for the majority of the time, but she and I did do one intermediate slope together (blue square). Oliver, Ian, and Nadia certainly fell down, but everyone always landed on their bottoms so no one was injured. Paul was relieved to hear that. I took a few pictures with my cell phone, about six videos with the camcorder, and quite a few pictures with my cell phone. I haven't even gone through all the pictures yet. I had planned to stop at a Subway on the way to the ice skating rink for dinner, but in light of how late they ate their lunch, I decided to wait until after their ice skating class to eat dinner at Subway.




Nadia and Ian had taken ice skating lessons - first the Snowplow Sam class from 4:30-5:15 in 2015 and then figure skating lessons from 5:15-6:00 in 2016 and 2017. Their basketball practices interfered with ice skating lessons in 2018, which was the year I first planned to have Oliver take the Snowplow Sam class. When the basketball practices again interfered in 2019, we decided to pay for private lessons instead. The group class is much cheaper. In 2015 it cost $50 for ten weeks of lessons (skate rental is included). The last few years it has been $60 for ten weeks of lessons. Private lessons were more expensive because we had to pay the teacher plus pay admission to the public skate and pay for renting skates. Because Oliver had taken private lessons last year, I decided to skip having him take the Snowplow Sam course. They divided the kids into three groups last night and had multiple instructors for each group. Nadia was thrilled that she was put in the most advanced group. They worked on crossovers last night. Ian was at first placed in the middle group, but then they moved him back to the beginning group. Ian has an easier time with basketball than Nadia does, but Nadia definitely has an easier time with ice skating. I'm looking forward to seeing how much progress all three of them will make over the next ten weeks! The last week is not a lesson but a pizza party during which family members also can skate for free.

Skiing for four hours and ice skating for 45 minute meant they definitely worked up an appetite. One of the kids had received a $15 gift card to Subway for Christmas, and that covered dinner for the four of us last night with about 30 cents to spare. Our skiing trip cost us the gas to drive four hours round trip plus the 50 cents for the locker. We used the driving time for listening to Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry for an hour, listening to music on the radio, and the kids watched part of The Odd Life of Timothy Green. Ian also read six chapters of an Olga da Polga book. Nadia read a little bit as well, but her motion sickness doesn't allow her to read in the van as much as Ian.

Considering we were gone from home for almost 12 hours straight yesterday, it would have been nice to be able to stay at home all day today, but such was not the case. We did schoolwork this morning, and then we left around 1:30 to go to the library and bread store en route to the kids' computer hardware class that took place from 2:30-4:00. Next week we'll shop at Aldi before the computer class. I made a super quick trip to buy just a few things afterward but that coupled with a stop for gas plus a stop at Taco Bell/KFC for dinner meant Oliver was about 15 minutes late for his basketball practice. We typically either get a pizza to go or use a gift card once a week. This week we definitely ate out more than usual, but we used gift cards every time. Next week I think we will only eat out on Friday night after the computer hardware class. Even though Paul didn't eat with us today, we brought home some chicken from KFC for him. Oliver and I got tacos, Nadia ate dinner at church at the Bible quizzing event, and Ian ate some chicken. We very rarely go to KFC (once a year or less) so Paul is eagerly anticipating the chicken that's in the refrigerator. I always think of my mom in conjunction with KFC as that was one of her favorite places to eat.

Nadia is supposed to be picked up around 10:00pm. I am hoping that Paul gets home from Baltimore around that time so he can pick her up as the boys will be asleep at that time. We haven't seen him since Tuesday morning. Tomorrow all three kids have their first basketball games for the season, and Nadia will be rejoining the quizzing event after her basketball game is over. Paul has worked for 13 days straight. He usually works on Saturdays, but he's taking tomorrow off to see the kids' basketball games.

Thankful Thursday

1. Paul had a safe trip to Baltimore, and the kids and I had a safe trip to and from basketball practice on Tuesday night despite the snow we both encountered while driving.

2. The kids enjoyed the snow we received this week. We got two inches on Tuesday night. They played in the snow on Monday and Wednesday.

3. The kids and I enjoyed having dinner at Bonanza on Monday. It had been many months since we have been there, and it's one of their favorite places to eat! Including tip it cost a little less than $20 for the four of us to eat, and that included free drinks (although I still just had water). That's definitely cheaper as typically when five of us eat it costs $50 at a sit down restaurant. We were using a gift card we were given at Christmas, which made it even better.

4. We had our cable turned off on Tuesday. We had access to the local channels (the ones that are free if you don't live in a rural area) for four months. We'll save money for the next

eight months by eliminating that expense. This is an upside to the fact that neither of our football teams did well this year.

5.Patches has been shedding like crazy. I am very thankful this is not the norm as I am finding her hair all over the house!

6. Although it's an adjustment to have Nadia using FaceTime so frequently, the fact that she primarily has used it this week to study the book of Hebrews puts a smile on my face! I don't normally buy the kids apps, but spending $5 for an app that helps her study three books of the Bible, sure thing!

7. Oliver passed several sections at AWANA last night. This was a HUGE relief to me. I was so frustrated in November and December that I seriously thought of throwing in the towel as far as having him attend AWANA because he would know the verses cold at home and come home without the sections being signed off. I let it bother me more than I should have, but now I am refreshed and encouraged to keep pressing on with helping him learn his

AWANA verses. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can....

8. The snow and sky were really pretty this morning. I very rarely take any pictures that don't contain a family member in them, but I took a couple this morning because I thought it was so beautiful.

9. Nadia made dinner on Tuesday night. Paul doesn't like meatloaf, but the kids and I do, so it seemed the perfect time to make it while he's in Baltimore. She also made mashed potatoes. Ian isn't a fan, but the rest of us like mashed potatoes. In about 11 months I'll start having Ian cook one meal a week also. I love meatloaf albeit I never feel like I might it quite as well as my mom did....

10. The kids have been enjoying some classic Disney movies on Disney+ such as the Shaggy DA, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, etc. It's like going down memory lane for me as I remember watching those when I was a child!

Who says you need to wait for warmer weather to use your new scooter?

When I saw he was wearing sunglasses while doing his math, I just had to take a picture!

It's begun....

I never went through a phase of using the phone a lot when I was an adolescent, but I know that most girls do, although maybe nowadays they text more than they talk? At some point last year, I can't exactly recall when, Nadia and Rachel started talking to each other fairly regularly via FaceTime in the evening. That has continued, but Nadia has been spending far more time on FaceTime recently because now she's also using it to talk with three friends from church. The three 7th grade girls are all on her Bible Bowl team. They all attend our church and the Christian school at our church. I purchased an app for Nadia that they use to practice quizzing. It was created by the Nazarene denomination, and it covers the books the youth in our denomination are also studying this year (Hebrews, I and II Peter). The girls use the app while on FaceTime to quiz each other on their knowledge of Hebrews. Nadia was blown away the first time she used FaceTime with all three of them at once when all four of them were at home. She didn't know that was possible. Tomorrow night will be her first time

attending the Bible Bowl meeting at church, which is held every Wednesday from 4:30-6:00. She'll be at church from 4:30-8:15 on Wednesday nights through the end of June as the middle schoolers meet from 6:00-8:15. Nadia hasn't asked for her own phone (yet). Paul and I will have to come to a decision at some point about when we will allow our children to have their own phones. For now she's content to use my phone or an iPad to FaceTime her friends or cousin. I almost never use FaceTime myself. I prefer just to talk rather than have a video chat.

These pictures are from yesterday, but we actually got more snow this afternoon and evening. I received texts from the Christian school and the gymnastics center that things were cancelled this afternoon and evening due to the snow, but Ian and Nadia's basketball practices were still held as planned. I was nervous as I'm generally a big chicken when it comes to driving in snow or ice, but we made it there and back safe and sound. I haven't heard from Paul yet, but I'm assuming he made it safely to Baltimore earlier today. We still don't have a shower we can use, but he did fix the leaky pipe under the kitchen sink last night and also helped me make the tracing for the company in Indiana that is making our kitchen table pad.

Over the past 12 months Nadia and Ian have made tremendous strides in their writing skills. Ian draws for fun (all. the. time), but he never writes for fun. Nadia occasionally writes for fun; I think mostly because her cousin Jenna does. Older cousins can be a good role model!  Anyhow it hit me today that it would be nice to sometimes post what they have written. At the minimum their grandparents would probably enjoy reading their writings, and it will make it easier for me to look back down the road at some of their creative writing. Yesterday they were each to write one paragraph from the point of view as if they were the American flag. Over the year they've worked on various dress-ups and sentence openers such as using an adverb clause, prepositional phrase, who or which clause, etc. The new one that they just used for the first time yesterday was to write three very short sentences in a row. The definition of short sentence is one with 2-5 words. At some point I'd like to post some things they wrote in 2019, but here is their first composition for 2020. Lately they've mostly been writing five paragraph essays so it was a change of pace to only write one paragraph.

The American Flag 

by Ian Kennedy

In the morning junior counselors at Camp Good News raise me high in the air while campers sing beautiful songs about God and our country. I stand for liberty. I wave at the White House. I stand for justice. If you come there you  might notice the President, who hopes to be a pillar for our country. I stand for freedom at a school where children pledge their allegiance to me. Proudly, I observe African American and white children playing together at the playground. I stand for America. Astronauts placed me n the moon. Sometimes I see the space station noiselessly floating by. I am the American flag, an important symbol for our country.

Flags are important

by Nadia Kennedy

Proudly I wave at schools. In good weather and in bad, I wave. School children, who watch me as I go up every day, sing beautifully for me because I am the symbol of America. I am on the moon. Neil Armstrong paced me there. I stand there still. I am on Navy ships as they bravely fight for our country. I smell the salty air as I wave. I am at Camp Susque. Raising and lowering me every day is a routine. I am important to our country.

When it rains....

Paul has been trying to repair a machine at the plant which hasn't been working since the end of December. Thankfully, since it's the winter, this is not their busy season in terms of shipping out orders. He had also been working on wiring a trailer that they planned to use today when they drove to Baltimore. He worked at the plant all day yesterday, and Sunday is usually his one day off from work each week. He didn't get home until 8pm last night, and he was out the door again before 4am this morning. After working on the trailer, he ended up discovering that there was a problem with the pick-up truck. They couldn't connect the trailer to the truck. He and his brother had to try and figure out how to squeeze everything onto the truck and not use the trailer this week. Because of these glitches, Paul has delayed his trip to Baltimore until tomorrow. His brother and other employees are making a round trip down to Baltimore and back.

When Paul came home last night, I was reading a picture book to the boys. He mentioned there was some water on the kitchen floor. I assumed at first he meant Oliver spilled some when getting water to drink. When I saw how large the area was that he was mopping up, I asked if the dishwasher had flooded as I had just done a load of dishes. Paul found a large crack in a pipe under the kitchen sink that had flooded that cabinet and also the kitchen floor. When it rains, it pours!!! He shut the water off so we wouldn't accidently use that sink today. Right now I have a shower, a shower/tub, and a kitchen sink that can't be used. The dirty dishes are piling up, and I can't use that sink to wash my hair today as I had planned. We've used the half bathroom sink for things like making oatmeal this morning and wetting a washcloth to clean the kitchen counters. I'm planning to go to a hardware store today to buy a replacement pipe so hopefully we won't have to go very long without a kitchen sink.

Speaking of rain, we have had a fair amount of rain lately, but this morning when we got up we saw the ground was covered in a thin layer of snow. I let the kids play outside a little this morning, as I knew it would all be melted away if we waited to go out until after they finished their schoolwork.

Season passes!

When I was growing up my mom tried to include at least one amusement park and one industrial tour in each of our family vacations. Obviously some vacations, such as in Florida, included more than one day at an amusement park. Circus World was one of our favorites in Florida. My first memory of being at a Six Flags was when we were living in Texas, and some of my earliest memories of being at an amusement park are from when we were at West View Park in Pittsburgh. I remember being on the Dips roller coaster as a young child. The height restrictions were definitely MUCH looser in the 70's! Most of our family vacations have included at least one amusement park and sometimes multiple parks such as our trip to San Diego in 2018. Last year we went to far fewer amusement parks than usual. We didn't visit any on our vacation although we certainly could have gone to Busch Gardens or Kings Dominion when we were in Virginia, and due to plans being cancelled due to rain, we spent very little time at our local park (Knoebels). We really only had one full day at an amusement park in 2019 - our day at DelGrosso's to celebrate Oliver's 7th birthday.

When I was making our vacation plans for this summer, I had included an industrial tour (Ben and Jerry's ice cream factory), but I hadn't included any amusement parks. I thought we would go to Knoebels twice (May 3 and June 10) and DelGrosso's once. I was contemplating going to HersheyPark, as we haven't been there in a few years. This week one of the picture books I read the kids was about Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss). They mentioned a sculpture garden in Springfield, MA, and I knew we were already planning to visit the Springfield Armory in August. Doing more research I discovered we can get into the four Springfield Museums for free with our ASTC membership - art museum, science museum, Dr. Seuss museum, etc. Since Paul won't be joining us when we go to Chicago in April or Long Island in July, he had asked me to lengthen the August vacation a little bit since that's the only vacation he'll have this year. I originally had planned a 6 day trip to Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, etc. I had already added more national parks in VT, NH, and NY on our way back home so with the addition of the Springfield museums I added one day to the trip. When I was reading about Springfield, I noticed there was a Six Flags park near there. This got me thinking that I should look into a season pass for Six Flags. I have purchased memberships to museums before, but I've never purchased one for an amusement park before because the our local amusement park, Knoebels, doesn't sell them. All the other amusement parks we've visited in PA do have season passes (DelGrosso's, Sesame Place, Dorney Park, HersheyPark, Dutch Wonderland, and Idlewild), but they all seemed to be too far from us for us to make multiple visits a year. We've been to the Six Flags parks in Maryland and New Jersey, but we went when we had a free pass for the kids through their reading program. I knew that a season pass to Six Flags cost less than going there twice, but since we just bought a total of 1-2 tickets per year (one the years Paul didn't go and two when he did), it never made sense before to go that route.

As I was on the website I noticed that you can purchase either a season pass or a membership. I went the membership route because #1 the membership also includes the Hurricane Harbor water parks (which the season passes do not) and #2 I was certain the membership would enable you to have free parking at all of the parks whereas it seemed that possibly the season pass option would only give us free parking at the park which was our "home" park. It will cost us $30/month for 9 months, and that will enable all five of us to visit any Six Flags amusement park for free this year (with free parking). I deleted the trip to Knoebels from the calendar for June 10 (a BOGO day), and we'll pass on going to DelGrosso's or any other amusement park this summer with the exception of going to Knoebels on May 3 (when we can go for free). The parks that are the closest to us are Six Flags Great Adventure in NJ, Six Flags Darien Lake in NY, and Six Flags America in MD. The ones in NY and NJ are 3 hours from our house and the one in MD is 3.5 hours away without traffic. There is another one in New York, but I don't think we'll make it to the Six Flags that is in the Lake George area as we were just in that area in September, and it's farther from our house. We've never been to the Hurricane Harbor in NJ, but I believe we will go there this summer when we visit Six Flags Great Adventure. The other one we might visit this year is Six Flags Great America in Chicago if Wendy's family also has season passes or a membership, if that park is open during their spring break. If we make it to Great America in April then we likely will visit eight different Six Flags parks this year: one in NY, two in MA, one in Quebec, two in NJ, one in IL, and one in MD, which would mean it would cost us each $6.75 per park. I imagine we will probably go to the one in Maryland more than once since Yvonne's family goes there many times in the summer as it's very close to their house. I have the option to cancel the membership at the end of a year (3 months are free). Compared to Disney, it's a bargain to be sure! It costs about $600 for us to spend ONE day at Disney compared to $270 to spend as many days as we want at Six Flags parks over the course of several months.

Half a century!

Paul turned 50 years old today! We started dating a few weeks after he turned 27; in four years he will have dated or been married to me for half of his life. I've been with him as he entered his 30's, 40's, and now 50's. I threw him a surprise party when he turned 40, but aside from his family, I would have no idea whom to invite if I were to have thrown him a party this year. In the first several years of our marriage we used to get together with Paul's parents, brother, Gram, etc. for every birthday, but for the past maybe ten years or so, we have generally only gotten together for the kids' birthdays. This year I wanted to spend time this week with Paul's family, but because Oliver was sick and we didn't want to expose Grandma to his germs, we postponed our get together until tomorrow. He had donuts for breakfast yesterday morning, pizza for dinner last night and will again tonight, the kids made him birthday cards, I made him Heath bar cookies, and I bought him Payday candy bars plus a book about the battle of Saratoga. Hopefully he's having a special birthday even though his birthday always comes right before his trip to Baltimore (which means he's under more stress than usual).

Because we didn't travel this Christmas break (which turned out to be a wise choice given how sick Oliver was during the time we would have been in Maryland), we had more time at home than we usually do over Christmas break. When I have extra free time, my first thought is almost always that I should tackle some projects around the house. I thought I'll paint the basement steps, clean the vents, and a few other things from the to do list. I ended up not doing anything around the house aside from the typical chores plus putting away the Christmas decorations and tree. I used my extra time to spend many hours on National Park Service websites doing research on Junior Ranger badges. I was trying to find out which ones we could do from home (either online or by mail). I printed out a big stack, and the kids have started working on them. Nadia loves to do word searches and crossword puzzles, which are often found in those packets. Yesterday I had all three kids complete one on Mary McLeod Bethune. I also made hypothetical plans as to when we might visit other parks where you must complete the booklet in person. I believe the kids have completed 22 so far. I came up with plans as to when we might complete another 128 badges (some by mail and others in person). I also listed another 41 that we *might* be able to do at one point or another. Some I added to the list because they are within a reasonable driving distance of us (NY, MD, DC, VA, NJ, or PA), and others I included just due to wishful thinking - Carlsbad Canyon, Pearl Harbor, Mount Rushmore, Hoover Dam, etc. Ones I think it would be nice to visit some day, but I have no idea if we'll actually make it there or not.

I have a possible plan of what vacations we might take over the next 4.5 years. I know the plans might drastically change, but mapping these helped me get an idea of possibly how many Junior Ranger badges the kids might be able to do (I should have bought them bigger canvases; I wasn't thinking big enough when I bought those!) as well as how many states they might make it to before they graduate from high school. These plans go through spring of 2024, which is when Nadia will be finishing her sophomore year. Just as the years have flown by with Paul, I know that the years that Nadia is still living at home will also fly by, and so I am trying to put careful thought into what our vacations will be like in the next several years. I would love it if we could take the kids to a Caribbean island once (or Hawaii) and also to Europe once, but I am not making any plans along those lines at the moment as right now those kinds of trips are definitely out of our reach financially. It is a high priority to me that each of the kids go on a missions trip to a third world country at some point, but I haven't given thought as to when exactly that might happen.

Here are the plans I have at the moment. I know they will change many times. For example, I discovered this week that Greenfield Village in Detroit is opening up 8 days later than they did last year, which means we won't be able to go there in April after all. Sob! I'm still planning to take the kids to Detroit in April, but I had to adjust our plans once I found out we couldn't spend a day at Greenfield Village. I see that FDR's home will be closed for renovations when we will be in that area in August. Since he is one of Paul's least favorite presidents, I'm sure he will shed no tears over the kids not earning that particular Junior Ranger Badge. On the other hand he'd probably be thrilled if I included a trip to Coolidge's homestead, as Coolidge is one of Paul's favorite Presidents. George Washington is definitely his most favorite, but we've already been to Mount Vernon. I included flights in four of the trips and all the rest we would drive in our own vehicle to the locations. Time will tell how many of these we actually experience, but at the minimum I've had fun planning them! I only listed trips to Long Island for July 2020 and July 2021, but as long as my aunt is well enough for us to visit her, we will continue traveling there once each summer.

1. April 6-15, 2020 - Chicago/Detroit with stops in Ohio and a daytrip to Milwaukee
2. May 18-20, 2020 - Maryland/DC
3. June 2020 - a two night excursion that will include Mercer Museum, Longwood Gardens, Fonthill Castle, Rehoboth Beach, and the Air Command Center
4. July 4-11, 2020 - Long Island with a stop at a national park in NJ on the way home 
5. August 26-31, 2020 Ontario/ Quebec with stops in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts
6. September 24-25, 2020 - an overnight in western PA to visit 5 national park sites plus Fallingwater and Old Bedford Village
7. July 3-10, 2021- Long Island with stops at 5 sites in NYC on the way there and stops at 2 sites in NJ on the way home
8. October 2021 - Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming (round trip flight to Salt Lake City)
9. Spring 2022 - 1 week in WV/OH/KY
10. Spring 2021 or Fall 2022 or Spring 2023 - Georgia/Florida (Paul has been itching to go back to Orlando as the kids haven't been to Epcot or Universal Studios yet and Oliver was very young the other times we were in Orlando. I added in 6 national parks to the possible trip.) fly to Jacksonville and fly back from Orlando or Tampa
11.  Spring 2021 or Fall 2022 or Spring 2023 - California/Nevada (primarily San Francisco area plus Lake Tahoe where two of my cousins live) fly to San Francisco and fly back from Reno or Sacramento
12. Fall 2023 - New England (CT/MA/ME/RI/NH)
13.  Fall 2023 or spring 2024  - a few days in Philadelphia and also a few days in MD/DC
14. Spring 2024 - Southeast (GA/TN/NC/KY/AL/MS) round trip flight to Atlanta

Thankful Thursday

1. Although Ian enjoys reading, he enjoys playing with Legos, drawing, and such even more so he rarely chooses to read "just for fun." Well he finally found a series he likes SO much, he will actually read them for leisure - Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales. They are graphic novels. Paul was impressed with the knowledge Ian gleaned from reading the one about the ironclads used in the Civil War.

2. Last Friday Uncle Joe plus six of their children spent about 7 hours at our house. Jenna, Nadia, Andrew, Uncle Joe, and I played Rummikub, Monopoly, Racko, Cranium, and Quirkle together. The kids always love to spend time with their cousins!

3. Ian had his first basketball practice last Saturday. Our music pastor's son is on Ian's team again. They were on the same basketball team when Ian was in Kindergarten. Nadia had her second basketball practice on Saturday. I'm thankful for all the volunteers who make the Upward program possible. Paul went in to work a bit later than usual that Saturday morning, which meant he was able to drop Ian and Nadia off at the church at 9 am on his way to work. Oliver was sick, and so this meant he and I only had to make one trip at 11 am to pick them up. I took down the tree and other Christmas decorations while they were at basketball practice on Saturday morning.

4. My dad failed a stress test last week. He needs to have quadruple or quintuple bypass open heart surgery. I am thankful the problem was discovered before he had a heart attack or any other type of significant cardiac event. We're praying that the surgery on January 14 and his recovery will go as smoothly as possible.

5. Paul isn't generally around when we're enjoying a chapter book together, but sometimes he is and he's not really fond of the particular book. Recently we listened to A Long Way from Chicago, and Paul laughed his head off quite a bit during the chapters that he listened to with us.

6. Ian has begun to play the piano by ear a little bit! He was trying to play some Christmas carols by ear.

7. The kids enjoyed decorating their gingerbread house, train, and castle on Monday.

8. Aside from Oliver throwing up around 8:00pm while we were there, the kids and I had had a nice time ice skating on Tuesday night. It was VERY crowded so I didn't bring my camera in, but the upside of that was I wasn't nervous about falling while ice skating (pics are from my cell phone). The free party included a hot dog, bag of chips, bottle of water, cookies, donuts, and cupcakes. Nadia had a dolphin painted on her face.

9. The kids and I enjoyed seeing a movie yesterday. Nadia and I loved "Little Women" albeit I cried a little, and the boys enjoyed "Spies in Disguise." I think I'm going to reread Little Women, Little Men, etc. I used a $5 gift card from Kellogg's, a $10 gift card from Microsoft, the last $5 from a gift card Grandpa and Margie gave Oliver in August, and $18 concession cash from Kellogg's toward our snacks. Because we didn't go to a matinee I had to pay $1.91 toward my ticket, and I paid $11 for 2 large popcorns, 1 slushie, and 1 large drink. We saw three movies from November 23 to January 1 and had popcorn and drinks at each movie. Altogether I spent less than $13 for the four of us to see three movies thanks to coupons and gift cards. Since we were watching movies that started at 4:10/4:30, we stopped at a DD on the way there and used a gift card Oliver received for Christmas to buy four breakfast sandwiches as our dinner. We also got 6 donuts for breakfast this morning in honor of Paul's 50th birthday (tomorrow).

10. I received an email from Audible saying if we finish three books before March 3 we will receive a $20 credit to Amazon. Nice! We had been listening to books on Overdrive and Hoopla, but we started Strawberry Girl today, which was in my library on Audible.

11. I got a haircut today. I have switched to getting it done once every four months. It's shorter, which I like better even though Nadia always objects every time I get it cut.

12. I used Christmas money I was given by Paul's parents and my Aunt to buy a table pad for the kitchen table and for the second leaf for the dining room table. Hopefully these will help keep the tables in good shape and enable us to seat more people at the dining room table when we have company.

13. Paul took Nadia to the roller skating rink this evening.

14. We got 2 large pizzas today. We usually get one, but because Paul's birthday is tomorrow I got two so that we would be able to enjoy pizza two nights in a row as pizza is one of Paul's most favorite foods. I also made him Heath bar cookies today, which is one of his favorite desserts.

15. Oliver's appetite is finally returning. Today was the first day I didn't give him any medicine. I wanted to be sure he was healthy before we got together again with Grandma. I'm very thankful that none of the rest of us caught his bug.

16. I contacted the company that manufactures the swing I bought for Nadia in June (which ripped after only being used for 3 months), and there is a 1 year warranty so they are shipping us a replacement! Hopefully the new one will last longer than 3 months.

Happy New Year!

The kids and I haven't developed any traditions regarding New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. Sometimes we are with my side of the family around that time. If not, they are usually pretty ordinary days for us. I'm not a night owl so I am not one that has any desire to stay up until midnight on December 31. This week the kids attended a New Year's Eve party for the first time in their lives as we went to the free party at the ice skating rink last night. They gave out free hotdogs, chips, cookies, donuts, cupcakes, and bottles of water. The only downsides to the event were the DJ had the music a bit loud and the rink was rather crowded, but considering the whole thing was free, we won't complain! We planned to get together with Paul's family today because Paul's birthday is on Friday, but we rescheduled because #1 Oliver threw up at the ice skating rink last night from coughing and #2 Paul is not a fan of pork. The tradition in this area is to eat pork and sauerkraut on January 1, and that's what Paul's mom is making for dinner tonight. She'll make lasagna or something Paul likes on Saturday. Because Oliver has been sick, I put him to bed at 8:30 (his usual bed time). I let Ian and Nadia stay up until 10:00 last night, which is also when I went to bed. Paul was the only one who was awake at midnight in our house. Because our plans to go to Paul's parents' house changed, I decided to take the kids to see a movie instead. We often go many months before we see a movie in the theater, and we saw two over Christmas break! We saw a movie on the first and last day of our Christmas break (December 21 and January 1). Oliver and Ian are going to watch Spies in Disguise while Nadia and I watch Little Women. Tomorrow we will ease back into our regular routine.

Some people have an aversion to making New Year's resolutions because of the fact that so many people fall off the bandwagon after a very short period of time. Since I was a teenager I have been setting New Year's resolutions regarding things like reading through the Bible in a year, exercising more, losing weight, etc. Naturally I have goals for myself and for the kids. None of us have arrived that is for certain, but I've decided not to write down goals at the start of 2020. The past few summers I've written a "bucket list" for the summer. We've never accomplished everything that was on the list, but we've generally accomplished the majority of the items. I decided to make a sort of bucket list for the year instead of writing a list of goals. I don't want to be discouraged, so I am purposefully not including things like "the master bathroom repairs completed" on the list as I have no idea how many more years that project will end up taking. I'm sure there will be other "firsts" along the way, but here are some that I'm aware of at the moment.

1. Take the kids skiing twice. Nadia and Ian have gone skiing once a year for the past three years. Oliver has been skiing one time. This would be a first if the kids went skiing twice in one year. 

2. All three take group ice skating lessons. Oliver has never taken a group ice skating class. Nadia and Ian took group ice skating lessons when he was too young to participate. None of them took any ice skating lessons in 2018, and they all took private lessons in 2019 because the class was at the same time as their basketball practices. I have signed all three of them up for ten weeks of group ice skating lessons this year. 

3. Nadia is going to try out to be in Tuck Everlasting. She has never auditioned to be in any production at our church before.

4. In 2019 the kids earned about 20 Junior Ranger badges. This year I'd like to see if they could earn at least 45 more badges; this is only possible because some national parks let you earn the badge from

home.

5. I'd like to add five more states/Provinces to the kids' list of states they've visited - Vermont, Delaware, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Quebec.

6. Nadia is going to participate in our church's Bible Bowl team for the first time starting next week. She hopes to compete in Oklahoma in July! Since this is her first year in the youth group, there are other opportunities for "firsts" such as attending the NSAYN youth conference on February 29 and attending Winter Jam at PSU on March 28. She's never memorized an entire book of the Bible before so if she succeeds in memorizing Hebrews, 1 Peter, or 2 Peter this year, that would be a first! I'm also planning to take Nadia to a Secret Girl program on May 5, and neither of us have attended one of those before.

7. We'll hopefully continue to take many field trips. Here are some places the kids have never been before that I hope to take them to in 2020: Electric City Aquarium, First Ladies National Historic Site, Kipona at City Island, and Rehoboth Beach.

Rutherford B. Hayes' home, Shedd Aquarium, Art Institute, Navy Pier, Chicago Children's Museum, Betty Brinn Children's Museum, Discovery World, Henry Ford Museum, Ford Rouge Factory, Wheatland, Arlington Cemetery, Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Ford's Theater, National Museum of the Navy, Spy Museum, WWII event at the Reading Airport, Sagamore Hill, Fire Island, Thomas Edison, Museum of Indian Culture, Milton J Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology, Fort Stanwix, Parliament Hill, Canada Science and Technology Museum, Basilique Notre-Dame de Montreal, Montreal Science Centre, La Citadelle, Plains of Abraham, Montmorency Falls, ECHO Leahy Center, Lake Champlain Chocolates, Ben and Jerry's factory, Springfield Armory, Martin van Buren, Longwood Gardens, Air Command Center, Milton Rock Gym, James Garfield, River Raisin Battlefield, Underground Railroad Living Museum, Marsh Billings Rockefeller, Saint Gaudens, Allegheny Portage, Johnstown Flood, Flight 93, Fallingwater, Fort Necessity, Friendship Hill, and Old Bedford Village.

8. We're also hoping to continue to attend a variety of shows and concerts. A few that we hope to attend for the first time this year include: Queen Esther at Sight and Sound, Blue Angels in Annapolis, Matilda at CTL, and Tuck Everlasting at CWC.

9. I am planning to attend an event featuring Priscilla Shirer on April 25. I'd like to join the Mr. and Mrs. Sunday School class at church for three months in the spring, if Paul agrees to do that with me.

10. Paul and I might go on a getaway for a few days the last week of July to celebrate our 19th anniversary. If this doesn't happen, hopefully we can at least go on one date in 2020 as that didn't happen in 2019.

11. I believe the kids will attend fewer camps in 2020 than they did in 2019, but I am hoping that Nadia and Ian (and possibly Oliver) will attend a Christian theatre camp for the first time hosted by the Family Life Network at the Greenview Alliance Church in Montoursville.

12. The kids are signed up to take a computer hardware class on Friday afternoons starting next week. They've never taken anything like this before. I hope they learn a lot!