10.5 Years Old!

Today is Ian's half birthday! Here is what he is like at 10 1/2 years old....

1. He's usually the first child up in the morning. Sometimes Oliver beats him to the punch. Every once in a while Ian sleeps past 7:00, but he typically wakes up between 6:10-6:45. If I'm not already up, he snuggles with me. Sometimes I have one boy on either side of me, which I have to say is a wonderful way to start my day! If this happens on a Sunday morning, he snuggles in between Paul and I. His bedtime has been 9:00 for 18 months. He is really looking forward to his bedtime moving to 9:30 when he turns 11 in December.

2. Ian's appetite has been growing by leaps and bounds. For breakfast he either has two bowls of cereal, two bagels, or a bagel plus a bowl of cereal. He'll eat plain, blueberry, or cinnamon raisin bagels with butter. As for cereal his favorites include Cocoa Puffs, Froot Loops, Apple Jacks, and Reese's Puffs. When we have breakfast for dinner, his top choices are chocolate chip pancakes or a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel. This boy LOVES bacon. 

3. Ian has really taken off with his piano skills. He hasn't been spending much time playing in his Level 5 books lately because he's been enjoying playing songs from the three books I got him that are all arranged by Philip Keveren. I really love playing duets for four hands with him. He really enjoys the Star Wars and Disney Songs solo music. He also is improving in his ability to play songs by ear.

4. He still loves to draw. Lately almost all of his drawings have been of Pokémon characters. Sometimes he spends multiple hours drawing during one day.

5. Over the years he has gone through phases where he favors either the Wii or the iPad. Lately he's been using the Switch for one hour a day.  He earns the privilege of watching tv for about 40 minutes plus 60 minutes on the Switch by doing one puzzle, reading 2-4 chapters of either a Paddington Bear, Tumtum and Nutmeg, or Olga da Polga book, and practicing the piano. Although he enjoys chapter books, he still also reads picture books several times a day (strictly for fun... not to earn a turn). 

6. Whenever he has any money, he spends it on either Legos, a Pokémon plush, or a Mario Bros. plush. The picture below shows the stuffed animals that are always on his bed. Believe it or not, he gave some to Oliver a couple of weeks ago. There used to be more stuffed animals on his bed. I tease him that soon there won't be room for him in the bed! He also has more stuffed animals in his closet. These are his favorites. Oliver and Nadia lean more toward being "savers" when it comes to money, but Ian is absolutely a spender. He usually spends money as quickly as possible after he receives it or earns it.

7. He prefers wearing pants to shorts. When he was younger he had a preference for long sleeve over short sleeve shirts, but now the transition to short sleeve shirts doesn't bother him. He doesn't like to wear jeans. He wears a polo shirt on Sundays. He often asks me, "Could today be a PJ day?". He wears socks as little as possible, but if he's going to wear socks he likes to wear the ones that go farther up his legs.

8. Ian's favorite foods to eat at lunch include hot dog with mustard and ketchup, crunchy peanut butter and marmalade on honey wheat bread, bologna sandwich, peanut butter and cheese crackers, half of a Gala apple cut into three slices, and YoCrunch yogurt with M and M's. 

9. He isn't a big fan of eggs or cheese. He will eat either of them if they are with something. He prefers a hamburger over a cheeseburger. He doesn't eat grilled cheese sandwiches or string cheese, which are two things his siblings love to eat. 

10. He likes to eat cashews, peanuts, and candy that has almonds in it. He is definitely allergic to walnuts and pecans. 

11. He still LOVES hugs and snuggling. I'm hoping he never outgrows his love of hugging!

12. He really likes Beast Academy math. The day the 5th grade books arrived in the mail a few weeks ago, he sat down and read the guide books just because he wanted to.

13. In February he had to experience losing a pet for the first time. He likes Buttercup (his new guinea pig), but he's definitely not as attached (yet anyhow) to her as he was to Patches. He also had a pet rabbit for 2 months earlier this year. Now he's trying to convince me to find a hypoallergenic cat that wouldn't be a problem for Paul. I surely don't want a hairless cat, but maybe we could look into a hypoallergenic cat that does have hair at some point. Oliver wants to get a pet for his birthday in August. Lately he's been asking for hermit crabs. I think three guinea pigs plus two hermit crabs will be enough for us right now.

14. Ian prefers board games such as Life, Sorry, Candyland, chess, and checkers. One exception would be Pit. He really likes that game even though it doesn't involve a board.

15. Over the last couple of months Ian memorized the order of the 45 US Presidents. He also can identify the provinces of Canada on a map as well as all of the countries of the world on a map and the capitals of the South American countries.

16. He loves to tell jokes and puns! Of my three kids he's also the one most apt to saying "thank you" and expressing gratitude/appreciation to me.

17. His favorite foods to eat at dinner include tuna noodle casserole, rigatoni and meatballs, taquitos, chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, egg, and cheese bagel, chicken tenders or nuggets, pizza, chicken Caesar salad wrap, pork chops, taco salad, and fish sticks.

18. He's an introvert who enjoys time spent at home, but he's been spending a lot more time playing with neighbors the last few weeks. He does some rollerblading, but most of the time he rides his scooter or bike. He's spent a lot more time on the trampoline the past three months. 

19. After wearing glasses for more than 4 years, he experienced a pair of broken eyeglasses for the first time when another child hit him in the face at Bee's Backyard. Because of COVID-19, I waited a few months to take him to the eye doctor. He has an appointment on June 23. His first two pairs of eyeglasses were purchased at the eye doctor. This time I'm planning to order a new pair online.

Summer Bucket List 2020

Studying a LEGO catalogue that came in the mail

Usually I have at least 100 things on our summer bucket list, but due to COVID-19, I'm making a shorter list this year because so many things like fireworks, parades, Camp Good News, Camp Susque, National Night Out, etc. will not be possible this summer. As always, there is no guarantee we'll be able to do everything on the list, but hopefully many of them will be possible. If things like national parks and other historic sites reopen, I will likely add a few more things to our list.

1. Nadia has friends over for a sleepover. Nadia has had four sleepovers so far!

2. Ian and Oliver attend a sleepover at a friend's house. Done!

3. Eat freeze pops. Done!

4. Yard sales -  Done!

5. Play outside with kids in the neighborhood- Done!

6.  Six Flags -  Done multiple times!

7.  Eat ice cream at the Purple Cow, Lewisburg Freez, and May's Drive In - Done!

8. Play on four different playgrounds - Done! 

9. Water balloons and water guns - Done! 

10. Play 74 different games at least once - Done!

Oliver riding MY bike!

11. Catch fireflies

12. Feed ducks - Done! 

13. Hike at Ricketts Glen State Park - Done!

14. Sidewalk chalk - Done!

15. Slip and slide -  Done!

16. Fly a kite -  Done!

17. Eat stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut - Done!

18. Eat funnel cake   -  Done!

19. Overnight camp at PMBC -  Done!

20. Acting class for Nadia and Ian - Done! 

21. Reptiland - Done!

22. Make s'mores -  Done!

23. Ruth plays piano duets with Jenna and Yvonne- Done!

24. Earn Junior Ranger badges -  Done!

25. Eat corn on the cob, grapes, nectarines, honeydew, plums, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, pears, cherries, watermelon, and raspberries - Done!

26. Swimming - Done

27. Week with Aunt Janet on Long Island - Done!

28. Pick blueberries  - Done!

29. Pet sit two gerbils - Done!

30. Kids see some movies for the first time (on DVD, Prime, or Disney+):  E.T., Karate Kid (1984 version), Adventures of TinTin, Miracle, Honey I shrunk the kids, Honey I blew up the kids,  Cool Runnings, Iron Giant, Sonic, The Great Alaskan Race, Troll World Tour, Four Kids and It,  Call of the Wild, Akeelah and the Bee, Artemis Fowl, Think Like a Dog, Underdog, Princess Bride, Holes, The Adventure of A.R.I.: My Robot Friend, Eight Below, and Bridge to Terabithia.  - Done!

31. Nadia and Ian do several 300-500 piece puzzles that they had never done before.  Done!

32. Make s'mores pizza - Done!

33. Make fruit pizza

34. Nadia completes Dave Ramsey's Middle School Personal Finance class - Done!

35. Blow bubbles - Done!

36. Jump rope

37. Roller blading, riding bicycles, skateboard, and riding scooters - Done! 

38. Use new bike ramp - Done!

39. Spend time with cousins Done!

40. Some of my personal goals for the summer include: walking 2-6 miles a day as many days as possible, reading at least 6 non fiction books, listening to at least 23 Bible study videos on Lifeway, completing several photography classes online, listening to sessions of the online homeschool convention, completing a few projects around the house, taking pictures more regularly, and finishing planning the next school year. -  Done!

41. Mom eats a strawberry poppyseed salad at Panera and a dish of custard from Rita's -  Done!

42. Go to Sweet Frog - Done twice!

43. Watch butterflies go through metamorphosis - Done!

44.  Listen to a variety of audiobooks together. Right now we are on our third of five books in the Mysterious Benedict Society. I have a list of 33 more chapter books that I'm hoping we'll listen to this summer through Hoopla, Overdrive, CDs from the library, and Audible.  - Done!

Bike ramp!

The kids have used bike ramps at two of the neighbors' houses. The neighbor across the street had a small wooden one, and the other neighbor has a bigger one that has two ramps connected. When I searched online for the one they had, it was out of stock everywhere. I looked online and found a description of how to build one. I sent it to Grandma by email and asked if Pop Pop might be able to make one for the kids, possibly as a birthday gift for Oliver. Pop Pop got to it right away. Paul brought it home from work last Sunday, but it needed some modifications. Those were made this week by Pop Pop. Paul added rubber to the bottom so it wouldn't slip on the driveway and brought it home from work last night. After watching church online this morning, we let the kids try it out for the first time. Nadia only tried it once. She crashed. Ian did it a few times, but he's not a fan. Oliver, Westyn, and Addi have gone over it many times today. Westyn is definitely the most skilled. Addi turned 10 four days ago. Westyn is 3 weeks younger than Oliver. Oliver is very thankful that Pop Pop made him a bike ramp!

March 15 was the first Sunday we had church at home due to COVID-19. That Sunday we watched our own church's online service. Since then we have watched other church services most Sundays. We listened to Pastor Andy Stanley several of the weeks, for example. Today we watched our pastor's sermon, and I'm very glad we chose to do so because he made a wonderful announcement. Two weeks ago he announced that the first step toward reopening would be to have watch parties  - small groups gathering in different rooms in the church to watch the online service. That didn't appeal to our family. He had said in that announcement they were going to take things very slowly because of the size of the church. Well they had a change of plans over the last couple of weeks because today he announced that they will resume in person worship services in TWO weeks. Yahoo!!!! This was a very unexpected surprise! We'll attend FBC next Sunday and then resume at our church on June 21. He also said that masks are not required!!! You can wear them if you want to, but they won't require masks. Our family has chosen NOT to wear masks unless required; I'm so grateful we won't have to wear them at church. They are asking people not to come more than 15 minutes before the service begins. They won't be passing out bulletins, no shaking hands, no hugging, no gathering at the altar for prayer (there's usually a time for that in every service for those who want to come forward for prayer), and those coming to the second service are to wait in their cars until the people attending the first service leave. There won't be any classes offered the first few weeks - just the worship service at 9:00 and 10:45, but in the middle of July they are planning to reopen the kids' classes. We will be asked to register ahead of time so that they know how many will be at each service to make sure social distancing guidelines can be followed and will continue to also offer the services online for those who are ill or elderly or have other health issues impacting their immune system. I am SO happy that today was our last Sunday of having church in our family room. I'm hoping churches are never required to close again. I don't think I'll ever understand why it's been okay to shop at Walmart and Home Depot but not go to church or the library.

P.S. I took pic at the top of the post around 7:00am on June 3 when I noticed that Oliver was sleeping with his head resting on his hippo rather than his pillow. 

Giving Thanks

1. Our county and other counties near us are going green next Friday! Time will tell what exactly life will be like in the green phase (when will our church reopen? when will Knoebels open? when will the kids be allowed to play on playground equipment?), but most businesses will be reopening, which is a very good thing for the business owners and overall economy. You'd think it would be a very good thing for the employees also, but the government's extra $600 a week has created a myriad of problems. Entering the green phase also means Yvonne's family can come up to visit us next weekend for Andrew's birthday! My kids are very excited about seeing their cousins!

2. We went on a FIELD TRIP yesterday! Woohoo! I never dreamt that government intervention might make that impossible for three months, but we were very glad to go to Reptiland yesterday. Hopefully we'll be able to go on some more field trips over the next three months. I'm also thankful I was able to see my friend, Cheri, yesterday for the first time since December.

3. We live in a small development, but thankfully children live in most of the homes. One family moved out during the lockdown. They didn't use a realtor to sell their home. The family that moved out had one preschool boy (whom Oliver played with), and the family that moved in has a nine-year-old girl and a twelve-year-old boy. After Nadia turns 12 (in 18 days), there will be 5 twelve-year-olds in our development! Most of the children are between the ages of 7-14. The family that has an inground pool also has a nice slip and slide, hoverboard, and mini Segway. Oliver has enjoyed using all of the above. He asked for a hoverboard for his birthday after he found out they are much cheaper than a mini Segway. I'm very thankful the kids have other kids to play with and that Camden's family has allowed all three of our kids to swim in their heated pool. In the picture below Nadia and Addi (who just turned 10 three days ago) were making business cards to advertise their pet sitting and baby sitting business. We will be pet sitting Evanna's two gerbils this month while she's on vacation in Montana with her mom.

4. Nadia's friend, Grace, came over for a sleepover last weekend.

5. Nadia is going to a youth group meeting IN PERSON tomorrow night for the first time in almost three months. Tomorrow *should* be our last Sunday of church taking place in our family room staring at our TV. We plan to begin attending church services IN PERSON at FBC on June 14.

6. Shawn came home from the hospital. He was hospitalized for three weeks following having his appendix removed. We're still praying for him. 

7. We've picked up meals at the public school four times so far. These meals have really increased the amount of containers going in the garbage and recycling bin. We threw away one PBJ sandwich, but otherwise everything has been consumed. The kids have eaten almost everything. None of us like broccoli, but the guinea pigs gladly gobbled that up. I've cut back how much milk, bread, and fresh fruit I am buying because of what we're receiving at the school. This Wednesday one of the things we received was a bag of Starbucks coffee. We shared that with Paul's mom and brother because none of us drink coffee. In the summer the kids have participated in the Kid's Café that the Methodist church usually puts on in our town's park five days a week when school isn't in session. Because of social distancing, they won't be offering the program in the way they usually do but instead will be offering a "to go" curbside lunch program two days a week. We'll give it a whirl once that begins on July 1 to see if the kids want to pick up meals there or not this summer. 

8. Millie was able to buy a box of jumbo shells for us. Thanks, Milllie! That was something I hadn't been able to purchase at Walmart or Weis around here. I'm planning to make stuffed shells next week.

9. The library we usually use reopened for curbside service this week. There have been serious glitches to this new system, which I didn't anticipate because they've had a way to place holds online for years. I had been waiting all week for the books I requested on Monday to be ready for me to pickup. The items were on the shelves and no one else had requested them, but for some unknown reason some of them weren't pulled from the shelves until today. I was at the library on Monday, but some things that came in that day which they didn't give to me were checked out to me that day. In other words some things I picked up today are due in two days even though they always let you have things for at least seven days. Unfortunately, the same thing happened today!!! I got home and checked my account versus what was in the bag they gave me, and there are three books listed in my account as being checked out to me that they didn't actually give me. Two of the books were for Nadia and are ones that they give you 14 days to read, but the book for me is one that you can only check out for seven days. It's frustrating, but at least the library is open and we did get some books and DVDs. Hopefully in time they will work out the bugs to this system. If they don't, we will try to use the library as sparingly as possible this summer as I don't want to start driving there multiple times a week given the library is 20 minutes from our house.

Nadia really enjoyed the book I got for her on Monday (Absolutely Almost), so I got her another book by the same author today. It's very easy to tell when she loves a book because she finishes it MUCH, much faster. Nadia is very thankful the libraries have reopened as she isn't a fan of reading on the Kindle.

10. Speaking of books, the kids and I are thankful for free audiobooks! We finished our 600th chapter book on May 6, and as of June 6 we are in the middle of Rufus M, which will be our 615th book, and two of the fifteen books were each over 500 pages long! The series we are enjoying right now is the Mysterious Benedict Society. We've listened to the prequel and the first book so far. We're in line on Overdrive for books two and three, and I'm planning to pay around $8 for the fourth book on Audible because I can't find a way to listen to that one for free. I figure paying $8 for something that we'll enjoy for 12 hours is a reasonable use of money.

11. The kids love water balloons, and I'm thankful for the Bunch O Balloons that Grandma and Pop Pop gave the kids recently. It is SO much easier than filling and typing balloons one by one. The kids are also very thankful I included freeze pops in my Walmart grocery order on Monday. Little things like a water balloon and a freeze pop can put a smile on a child's face!

12. After the stress of owning two rabbits, I'm thankful for three guinea pigs that bring enjoyment to the kids (mostly Nadia) without stress. Since Nadia has had extra time on her hands recently, she's been setting the guinea pigs up for photo shoots by having them wear doll clothing or using props like old cell phones and plastic sun glasses. 

13. I unfortunately had gained back some of the weight I lost last year. I really hope I do a better job keeping it off this time!!!!! Anyhow the good news is that over the past couple of weeks I've lost 5 pounds. I'm on a plateau right now, but hopefully I'll see some progress again n the near future. I'm hoping to reach my goal by the end of July. At least I'm going in the right direction at the moment....

Field Trip Friday!!!

When I was a middle school teacher in the early 90's, I took my students on an average of one field trip per month, which was definitely more than most teachers. I typically take my three children on far more than one field trip per month. We don't usually go on many field trips in January and February, but we typically go on a LOT of field trips in April and May. Not counting the two days we went skiing in January and February, today was our fourth field trip in 2020. I had scheduled MANY field trips from the middle of March through the end of May that were all cancelled or postponed. The four field trips we've taken thus far this year have been to Gettysburg National Military Park, the Pennsylvania Military Museum, Reptiland, and a theatre production in Wilkes Barre plus aquarium in Scranton. 

Today we went to Reptiland, which is only 8 minutes from our house. The kids can get into Reptiland once a year for free through our PBS membership. I paid for my admission plus paid $6 for three feeding sticks for the budgies and $1 for food for the emus. My friend, Cheri, joined us. I hadn't seen her since December so that was greatly appreciated. She hadn't been to Reptiland since she was a teenager, and she's in her early 60's. The weather forecast showed a 55% chance of thunderstorms this afternoon. Cheri and I were texting each other around noon trying to decide whether to postpone our trip to next week. Reptiland opened today after being closed for almost three months. I asked Ian and Nadia if they wanted to go today or reschedule the trip for next week. Ian is typically a child who wants to stay home. He's also by far the most indecisive of my three. When given a choice, he is most apt to say "I don't know." That didn't happen today. He immediately responded he wanted to go today. He didn't want to wait until next week. I guess after being home for almost three months (our last field trip was March 8), he was very ready to be out and about! It sprinkled for maybe 30 seconds during our visit there. We visited the dinosaurs first, then saw a 45 minute show on venomous reptiles that concluded with the kids touching a milk snake (which is not venomous but is sometimes confused with the copperhead that is venomous). After the show we fed the budgies. Usually Nadia wants to feed those birds for a VERY long time, but because we were wearing masks she didn't last as long. After we fed the emus and visited the Komodo dragon, we then walked around to see the various reptiles contained inside and outside. I have done better the last several days of taking at least one picture a day, but today I took far more than one picture. I'm not a fan of taking pictures with masks on because I love taking pictures of SMILES, but hopefully wearing masks will not be a requirement for years to come and this will be a record of what life was like in 2020.

While we were at Reptiland I did a quick search on my phone and was happy to learn that our county and two other counties near us will be moving to the green phase on June 12. Yahoo! I am very happy for all the business owners who will finally be allowed to reopen their businesses after being closed for three months. Now to find out if Knoebels will actually be allowed to open this summer as both counties they are located in are going green next Friday. I don't have any field trips scheduled for June or July, but two local field trips I'm hoping to take the kids to this month or next month are Packwood House and Eckley Miner's Village. We've never been to either site before. Both are located in counties that are going green next Friday so hopefully they will reopen sometime this month. We had planned to visit Wendy's family in Chicago in April and Yvonne's family in Maryland in May, but both trips were cancelled. The kids are also excited that entering the green phase means they can see some of their cousins next weekend. We are looking forward to celebrating Andrew's birthday when they come up to our house on the 13th! 

Extra Time

Right now I have more free time than I am accustomed to having. I had virtually no free time from the end of August 2017 to the first half of May 2019. My schedule definitely became more manageable once I returned to being unemployed. During the past year I felt like my life was full, but I no longer felt like I was drowning, which is how I had felt the previous 21 months. Homeschooling three kids, yardwork, laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning keep me busy. Since we are having a break from homeschooling right now, are home almost all the time, and the kids are more independent, I have more free time now than I have had in at least twelve years. In the beginning I was using a large portion of my free time to work on lesson planning for the next school year. That Word document is currently 50 pages (single spaced) thus far. Our school year ended in the middle of April. Since that time I've spent more time taking walks (2-6 miles a day whenever the weather permits), playing board games with the kids, decluttering around the house, doing jigsaw puzzles with the kids, watching a few movies, and reading more books. Yesterday I decided to use some money I received for my birthday to resume a membership in a photography class, and I also decided to pay $25 to register for online access to a homeschool conference. I've been homeschooling for seven years, but I only attended two homeschool conferences in that time span. I had considered attending a Great Homeschool Convention in the past, but I had never done so. Since it only cost $25, and I could listen at home any time between now and the end of 2020, I decided to give it a whirl. So today I made a to do list for myself that I hope to accomplish over the next three months. I didn't include the things I'm already doing, like taking walks, on my list but just some additional things I hope to accomplish. 

Usually my to do list in the summer is almost 100% comprised of projects around the house. I might add more things this summer, but my first list has 50 things on it, and only three are house projects. I typically read more fiction than non fiction. I assume I'll continue to read some fiction, but I only put a few non fiction titles on my list. I already finished Introverted Mom: Your Guide to More Calm, Less Guilt, and Quiet Joy by Jamie Martin. Amazon has been giving months of free access to Kindle Unlimited, and so I read that book for free. Similarly, I am almost done with Heartfelt Discipline by Clay Clarkson, which was a book I highly recommend. Chapters 5 and 6 really inspired me the most to try to make some changes in how I interact with my children. The next two non fiction books that I want to read are Get out of your head by Jennie Allen and Everybody, Always by Bob Goff. The latter I am getting at the library. I used part of an Amazon gift card to buy the book by Jennie Allen. Somewhere near the beginning of the pandemic Lifeway offered free access to many Bible study videos. I had chosen three to do but hadn't finished any of them. The free access will be ending in sixteen days so I decided to make that a priority. I listened to two of them today, and I have sixteen left to finish by June 18. Aside from reading a few non-fiction books, watching Bible study videos, and three house projects, I also plan to finish my lesson planning, buy Oliver's birthday gifts (whatever is needed for a hermit crab), complete about 20 courses in the photography curriculum, and listen to approximately 15 sessions through the online homeschool convention. I haven't made a bucket list for the summer yet, but I'm actually contemplating making one even with though life is very unpredictable this year due to the coronavirus. Many things will NOT be on the list that typically are such as fireworks, parades, National Night Out, VBS, etc., but we should still be able to come up with ideas of things we can do even with COVID-19 such as picking blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries at a local farm. Another thing I didn’t put on my list but hope to do more over the summer is play more piano duets with Ian. I used part of an Amazon gift card to buy two more books of piano duets, and they are supposed to be delivered to our house tomorrow! I’m excited about playing the songs with my son!