Sking at Ski Sawmill

My father and I took Nadia and Ian skiing for the very first time at Ski Sawmill in February 2017. Paul took them skiing at the same location in February 2018; Oliver and I stayed at home that time because he had recently fractured his skull. All five of us skied at Ski Sawmill in February 2019. Last month I took the kids skiing at Elk Mountain for the first time. We can receive four lift tickets and four ski rentals for free from WVIA (PBS station) twice a year. We had *planned* to visit Elk Mountain the past three years, but this year was the first time the kids went skiing more than once in a year. All five of us skied at Ski Sawmill yesterday. Thankfully this ski resort is only one hour from our house. They have a t-bar lift for the bunny slope, which was a big problem last year for Oliver. The first attempts to use the lift this year also didn't go well, but thankfully yesterday he learned several important skills including how to ride a T-bar lift, how to get off the T-bar lift without falling off, and how to stop. They didn't have any T-bar lifts at Elk Mountain, and his method of stopping last month

was to sit on his bottom. Once he mastered the T-bar lift, he then began going up farther on the bunny slope. Once he could do that without falling, I agreed to let him go to the top of the mountain on the chair lift. Nadia did that slope more than ten times yesterday. All five of us did it together twice. I stayed in the rear so I could help Oliver get up if needed. I videotaped parts of his second trip down with my cell phone. I had forgotten to bring the camcorder. We skied for five hours. None of us were injured although some of us have some sore muscles today. Last year Paul had a bad fall; he was particularly relieved that this trip went better than the last one. The weather was incredibly nice. It was unseasonably warm; it got up to almost 60 degrees! Today is a rainy day, but Saturday through Monday were warm and sunny days.

Today I am giving thanks....

1. That the kids and I had an enjoyable Valentine's Day together. We had brownie batter donuts for  breakfast that morning that we had purchased

at Dunkin Donuts after ice skating lessons the previous night. They received gifts and cards from me and also from Grandma. We had a little bit shorter school day than usual so the kids would have time to assemble their new Lego sets. We had pizza for dinner and that was the only time we left the house that day, as Oliver's basketball practice was cancelled because it was Valentine's Day.

2. That we're healthy again. The kids had a respiratory bug. They got over it much faster than Paul and I did, but we're all healthy again. It had been seven months since the last time I was sick. Here's to hoping I can have a nice long stretch like that before I succumb to another bug!

3. Paul and I were both sick on February 16. We only attended church that day because the boys were singing in the kids' choir, and the choir is now only singing on Sunday mornings twice a year. The choir is small so their absence would definitely  have been noticed. Paul attended the first service, and I attended the second

service. Oliver REALLY sang out!!!

4. Nadia enjoyed the nerf war at the Mennonite church in the afternoon on February 16. It was an event planned for two youth groups. She is really enjoying being a part of the youth group at the Baptist church on Sunday nights.

5. On February 20 Ian scored a basket! It was his first time scoring this season. This is his first year playing full court basketball with the hoop at the full height. The WHOLE gym burst into applause when he scored!!!

6. We didn't go on any field trips in January, but we went to Wilkes Barre and Scranton last Friday. First we saw an outstanding show called "Turning 15 on the road to freedom" which was about the civil rights movement so that blacks would be allowed to vote in the 1960's. The actors had AMAZING voices. Then we visited the Electric City Aquarium in Scranton for the first time as well as spent some time at Bee's Backyard. All of

the shows we attend at the FM Kirby Center are free (aside from feeding the parking meter for an hour). The kids got in free at the Aquarium (thanks to WVIA), and we all got in free to Bee's Backyard (again thanks to WVIA). The aquarium was nothing compared to the ones in Baltimore or Camden (our two favorites), but we attended an interesting program about animals who live in the rainforest (tortoise, python, cockroach, and gecko), and the kids always enjoy touching sting rays. Ian was disappointed that their octopus had passed away. Nadia was thrilled that we used one of the gift cards from Aunt Millie and Uncle Al (Christmas gift) and had an early dinner at Red Robin before taking Oliver to his basketball practice. One unfortunate part of the day was a boy accidentally broke Ian's glasses while we were at Bee's Backyard, but considering he's worn glasses for more than four years, I guess I can't complain as this is the first time he's had a broken pair of eyeglasses.

7. That the five of us had a great day of skiing yesterday. Paul worked ALL day on Sunday so

he could join us at Ski Sawmill yesterday (he didn't get home from the plant until after 8:30pm on Sunday). I haven't been taking many pictures lately, but I took a LOT of pictures and videos yesterday. I'm including some of the photos and some of the videos in this post. WVIA used a picture of our family at Ski Sawmill last year on an email they sent out and also on the page on their website about this year's event. I was very surprised to see my face in an email from WVIA! In the afternoon as Oliver and I were in line for the T-bar, a man looked at me and said - you were on the WVIA website! I said he was right. He said he kept trying to figure out where he knew me from and then remembered it was the photo on the WVIA website. We're famous, ha ha! I pasted the picture from the email here (at left).

8. Coal and Cocoa turned three months old on February 11. Jenna (our guinea pig) seems to be doing fine so we aren't planning to adopt a second guinea pig. The bunnies are definitely getting used to us. We have all been licked by Cocoa. It feels very similar to being licked by a cat. Cocoa was very confused on Sunday when she licked my leg when I was wearing nylons. They almost always pee on their litter boxes, but they poop on their litter boxes less than half of the time. We are also teaching them not to bite the wood around our house. They want to eat our windowsills, baseboards, etc.

9. The kitchen table pad, which I ordered the end of December, finally arrived. I bought a new vinyl fitted tablecloth which has worked MUCH better than the linen tablecloths we had been using because #1 it stays in place (the kids were constantly pulling it), #2 it's easy to wipe up spills, and #3 it fits better as my other tablecloths were much too big for our new kitchen table. Having a vinyl tablecloth is not my first choice aesthetically, but practicality has won out to be sure as I didn't enjoy frequently laundering the linen tablecloths. I think between the table pads and the vinyl tablecloth our table should stay in good condition for many years to come. That's the goal anyhow! Paul drilled in glides to the bottoms of the chairs to protect our floor.

10. Nadia continues to make good progress in memorizing Hebrews and 1 Peter. She has been memorizing 21 verses per week so that she will memorize Hebrews, 1 Peter, and 2 Peter by June. She's already decided that next year she will start working on memorizing the book of Matthews in the middle of July because that book has more verses than these three books combined.

11. We've been doing some Junior ranger badges online and also by mail. Yesterday Nadia received a large envelope filled with goodies from a national park in Ohio about the Buffalo Soldiers. That had been an easy one to complete, and we only had to email something to show she had completed the quiz. She received a boatload of freebies for earning that Junior Ranger badge!

Giving Thanks

1. I got my van back on Friday afternoon! Paul came home early because it was snowing, which meant I didn't have to walk to the auto body shop as I thought I would need to do. Ian and Nadia were thankful they could stay home with Daddy while I took Oliver to basketball practice on Friday night.

2. We spent some time with friends on February 29, which included visiting a sheep farm. We always enjoy spending time with them. Unfortunately we learned that Nadia is very allergic to hay. She had hives on various places on her body after crawling through some tunnels Micah and Isaiah had made the previous day with bales of hay.

3. We used a gift certificate to get pizza from Papa John's after we left the computer programming class on January 31 while we were en route to Oliver's basketball practice.

4. Oliver had his best basketball game  on February 1. Nadia had her best game of the season thus far on February 8. Paul joined us for Ian's game on February 1, and he saw all three games with us on February 8. Nadia helped in the concession stand for 5 hours on 2/1 and for 3 hours on 2/8. I'm thankful she likes to help! Nadia has three games left, and the boys have four games left as they each had one game cancelled due to snow. This Saturday is a bye week. Yahoo!

5. Nadia enjoyed the Super Bowl party at our church. She didn't actually watch the game. She played bubble ball with her friends for about three hours. I was very thankful the Chiefs won because SF already has 5 rings.

6. The youth pastor's wife gave Nadia a ride to church on Wednesday afternoon so she could attend Bible bowl.

7. Oliver did a great job in AWANA on February 5. He recited all the books of the Bible, a few verses, and located 10 books of the Bible that they asked him to find in his Bible. Way to go, Oliver!

8. My dad gave Paul some money for his birthday that he said was for a steak dinner. Paul joined us at ice skating lessons on February 6, and after the lessons we went straight to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. I don't order an entrée there - just a side dish (a sweet potato). We all love their rolls. Paul and Ian enjoy the peanuts, and Paul enjoyed his steak!

9. My brother's birthday was February 1. It was a hard day for me. I had an awful nightmare related to him on Sunday night. I am thankful for the 35 years I had a brother, and I am thankful he's with our mom, his body is whole, and I will see him again one day.

10. I'm thankful Patches was such a sweet little guinea pig. We miss her very much!!! Her little white hairs are still throughout our house....

11. The kids were so excited to go pick out two rabbits at the SPCA last week. Hopefully Cocoa and Cole will be as good of pets as Patches was. Rabbits are more expensive because they need to be neutered, which costs $259 per rabbit. Ouch!! We plan to have that surgery done next month. Now if we could just figure out how to tell the two apart!

12. I don't normally drive Paul's car, but I did last week because we only had one vehicle. We saw more of Paul than usual (which was good!) because he came home from work earlier than usual on Tuesday and Friday, and he stayed home from work on Thursday (so I could have the car) and on Saturday (so he could attend all three basketball games). When driving his car I noticed he was very overdue with getting his oil changed and tires rotated. He is taking the van to Walmart to have that taken care of right now.

13. We're in the middle of three read alouds right now, and Paul really is glad we're listening to Breaking Stalin's Nose.

7.5 Years Old!

My baby turned 7 1/2 years old today! I doubt there are many (or any?) adults who celebrate their half birthdays. Adults don't go around saying "I'm xx and 1/2 years old," but children do take pride in adding that 1/2 to their age. Oliver was VERY excited when I told him several days ago that his half-birthday was almost here. Here are a few descriptions of my baby:

1. He still LOVES to hug and cuddle. What a blessing! He sits on my lap on the comfy reclining chair when he reads to me. I soak up every minute.

2. Memorization doesn't come easily for him, but we work on his Bible verses diligently, and he's certainly doing better than he did in previous years. In early December I gave serious consideration to having him take a break from AWANA, but we had a breakthrough and now I have hope that he might be able to finish the third Sparks book in April. It's hard for me to picture him being on a Bible quizzing team in four years, but who knows.....

3. He recently started learning to

type! It was 100% his initiative. Thinking back, I had required his siblings to type in second grade, but I have been much more laid back with Oliver. He's enjoying working through lessons on Typing.com.

4. He usually wakes up sometime between 7:00-7:30. I had to wake him up last Saturday because we had to leave the house at 7:30 for Nadia's basketball game. I really, really don't like to wake my kids up, and since they are homeschooled I try to do it as little as possible. He goes to bed at 8:30 without any objections. If he's tired, sometimes he asks to go to bed early. If he's in a vehicle and its dark outside, he is very prone to falling asleep in the van. For most of his life when he woke up (once the van was in the garage), he would be VERY grumpy when he woke up (meaning lots of crying). Thankfully this doesn't usually happen any longer.

5. Long trips in the van used to involve a LOT of crying. The length of what is considered "too long" for Oliver has lengthened over the years thankfully. The only time I recall a long meltdown in the car over the past six months was on our way back from Virginia in November.

6. Oliver finished the Level 4 All About Reading curriculum. He has been reading Mouse and Mole books as well as a Bible reader. I think we will wait until third grade to start him on chapter books. He enjoys reading and is making progress. That is what is most important to me.

7. Handwriting is a big challenge for him. He finished the second grade textbook, and now I'm having him write in a journal instead. I am planning on introducing cursive in the fall. Maybe that will go more easily for him? He loves to make a big circle when he dots his i's and his periods are also HUGE.

8. If you ask him to say the spelling for a word or use tiles on a spelling app, he does pretty well, but if you ask him to write the words down he generally jumbles up the order of the letters plus writes some letters backwards.

9. Lately Oliver has been having a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast. He drinks a glass of milk at all three meals (only child who did this at this age). He eats a wider variety of foods at lunch - bologna sandwich, egg salad sandwich, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, hot pocket, baked beans, yogurt, or a hot dog. He doesn't like ketchup. He wants mayonnaise on the bologna sandwich and nothing on a hot dog. The sandwiches must use Italian bread. He usually eats half of an apple at lunch, except in the summer when he has watermelon instead. Like Nadia, he loves to eat cheese. For dinner he enjoys a very wide variety of foods. It's easier to list the foods he won't eat as that list is much smaller: tomatoes, bananas, nuts, and strawberries.

10. He enjoys earning one 20 minute turn (on the Wii, Switch, or iPad) on school days, but unlike his siblings he doesn't want to earn a second turn or earn any turns on the weekend. On the other hand, watching tv is a high priority to him. Lately he and Ian have been watching an episode of Duck Tales and an episode of Clone Wars each day on Disney+.

11. His green blanket is still his most beloved possession. For awhile his orange fish was also a lovie, but he hasn't been showing a preference for any specific stuffed animal lately.

12. He still loves to play with other kids whether that means outside with kids in our neighborhood or inside the playland at our church.

13. All three kids are expected to clear their dishes from the table after every meal, make their beds, help clean up the toys, put away their clean laundry, and help me bring in and put away the groceries. His specific chores are to collect the garbage from the individual trash cans once a week and also help Ian with dusting once a week.

14. He's playing on a basketball team for the third year. He's definitely making progress but still definitely the weakest link on his team. Last Saturday he recovered the ball for the first time ever and had a look of utter shock on his face. The woman refereeing the game was laughing. I wish I had a picture or video of that. It was so, so funny! He's also taking ice skating lessons. Last year he had private lessons, and this is his first time in a group class. He's making progress.

15. He's still singing in the Soul Patrol choir at church. He uses our Echo dots a LOT to listen to music. He likes a wider variety of music than I do.

16. Math has been a huge struggle for Oliver. He has learned to look on the page before writing almost every number because otherwise he writes most of them backwards. The good news is that just in the past couple of weeks he's had a big breakthrough with his addition skills. I recently introduced regrouping and rounding to the nearest ten. I need to work with him on learning his addition and subtraction facts over the next six months.

17. He lost three teeth over the past six months. First, he finally lost ONE tooth the normal way, and then the dentist extracted two teeth from his top jaw because his permanent teeth had been in for quite a few months and the baby teeth were showing zero signs that they might come out on their own.

18. Normally Oliver has a very hard time coming up with ideas for a wish list for his birthday or Christmas. This year at Christmas was the first time he came up with several suggestions. Lately he been most interested in Paw Patrol toys. Thankfully he still isn't prone to the "gimme syndrome." If he asks for something it's usually either a food of some sort (such as spending $1 at a basketball game for a large pretzel) or an experience. Many times when we are reading picture books related to our social studies curriculum he will ask questions like, "Can we go there?" (when he saw pictures of Idaho) or "Is there a museum about him?" (after we read books about Jesse Owens). He gets excited at the thought of visiting the house of a former president.

19. He loves to look through our growing collection of photo books. Remembering people's names (even relatives!) is very difficult for him.

20. He shows almost no interest in our pets or the pets of other people, but he does enjoy seeing animals at a zoo or aquarium.

Farewell, Patches and Hello, Cocoa and Coal

Monday was a very, very sad day in our house. We noticed that Patches wasn't interested in eating anything. Ian said he didn't think she ate anything on Sunday. I called the vet in our town, but they said they didn't treat guinea pigs. They referred me to a vet in Danville. I called and made an appointment for 11:00. When I watched her more, I became convinced she might not live until 11:00 so Paul took her immediately to the vet earlier than the scheduled appointment. I had dropped the van off at the auto body shop on Sunday night. Thankfully Danville is on the way to Kennedy Concrete. We were praying and hoping against hope that the vet could do something to treat her, but he said she was suffering. He put her to sleep. Paul asked if Ian wanted to bury her in our backyard, and he was very adamant that he didn't want to have anything to do with her dead body. Oliver and Nadia didn't seem very affected by her passing, but it has been hard on Paul, Ian, and I. Ian, of course, has taken this loss the hardest because he held her All The Time. He did most of his schoolwork with Patches on his

lap or sitting beside him. He even took that guinea pig into the bathroom sometimes! I had recently made a rule that he couldn't bring Patches to Oliver's room when we have our bedtime devotions and prayers because she was a bit distracting. It was very hard for me to see her suffering. Patches was such a sweet guinea pig, and Ian was so gentle with her. I think Jenna wouldn't be so skittish if she had been Ian's pet instead of Nadia's. Ian cried many. many times on Monday. He cried some on Tuesday and Wednesday but not as much. I don't believe he's cried yet today over Patches. Guinea pigs are supposed to be social creatures, which is why we got two in the beginning. We have been keeping a close eye on Jenna, but thus far it doesn't seem that she is suffering emotionally over the loss of her cage mate. When we first got them, they snuggled together, but they haven't done that in years. Guinea pigs typically live 5-7  years, but they can live more than 10 years. We got Jenna and Patches in December 2016 so we were certainly not expecting either of them to pass away at the age of

three. Jenna has been held more than usual this week due to Ian not having his own guinea pig. If she seems to be lonely, we will adopt a guinea pig from the SPCA to be her companion, but thus far her behavior seems to be totally normal. It's an adjustment for us as we're used to speaking of them in plural ("girls" or "them"). I remember going through the same adjustment after my mom passed away. I'd out of habit say I'm going to my Mom's house or my parents' house. It was an adjustment to switch to calling it my "dad's house."

I had planned to surprise Nadia with two rabbits for her birthday in June. PopPop had agreed to build them an outdoor hutch. On Monday I realized we needed to get another pet for Ian's sake. I spilled the beans about my birthday plans for Nadia and said that Ian could get another guinea pig right now and we'd get two bunnies in June or we could get two bunnies now instead of a second guinea pig. He immediately picked rabbits. We picked out two female black bunnies on the SPCA website, and I ordered a cage, litter box,

and some wooden toys. We already have Timothy hay and bedding because of the guinea pigs. Paul assembled the cage last night. Paul came home early from work (at 4:45) on Tuesday so I could take the kids to basketball practice. The youth pastor's wife took Nadia to church at 3pm yesterday so she could attend Bible quizzing at 4:30. Paul was home in time for me to take the boys to AWANA at 6:30 and so I could go to choir rehearsal. Nadia and I left church a little early to pick the boys up at 8:00. Paul worked from home today because Thursday is the day I use the car the most. So we decided that this morning would be when we would make the trip to the SPCA to adopt two rabbits. The kids were SO excited! Nadia had a list of names she was considering. She had discussed the list with her cousin, Rachel. Ian had one name picked out, Rose. He must really like that name as that was Patches' middle name.

I needed to get my photo taken for my driver's license, and because I was trying to have my license be Real ID (have all the other ones been fake?), I needed to bring my passport, social security card, etc and go to a different location which wasn't far from the SPCA. That was our first stop. We also bought some rabbit food at a pet store. Nadia really, really, really wanted us to adopt two female rabbits. However, the two rabbits that were already used to sharing a cage were two male rabbits born on November 11, 2019. Their names were Jazz and Juniper. Their sister's name is Amber, and their mom's name is Ellie. Nadia wanted us to adopt Amber and Ellie, but they said Ellie wasn't fond of being held. Thankfully once she held the one she named Cocoa in her arms, she fell in love even though he's a male rabbit. The rabbits are both black, and thus far we can't tell them apart by looking at them, but we can tell them apart by their behaviors. Ian considered a few different names once he realized Rose wouldn't work for a male rabbit, but he ended up picking Coal. So we now have THREE pets in our living room. Here's to hoping that they all live a lot longer than Patches did. Ian of course was asking if Patches is in heaven. I told him honestly that I don't know. I know we will be happy in heaven, and I think there will be animals in heaven (all herbivores), but I have no idea if every pet we owned on earth will be in heaven. We'll find out some day. Hopefully Cocoa and Coal will be just as good pets as Patches has been the past three years!

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.