Orthodontics

In 2015 the dentist told me that Nadia and Ian needed to see an orthodontist. I called two orthodontists, and both said that Ian (age 6.5) was too young to be seen, but Paul took Nadia to see Dr. Wilson. He said it would be at least 18 months until she would be ready to begin. About 18 months later Nadia and Ian had their first appointments with Dr. Stush. We've been returning every 6 or 12 months since then. Last summer Dr. Stush said he thought Nadia would be ready to begin treatment in 2020. I had orthodontic insurance through my job, but when I found out that I was unemployed, I cancelled Nadia's next appointment. All of these appointments have been free, but I didn't see the point of continuing if we weren't going to pay for her to have braces at this time. Ian's teeth are definitely in worse shape than Nadia's. If we are going to spend $$ on braces, we decided Ian should be the priority. I took Ian to Dr. Stush today, and he said it's time to start the first phase. The next appointment (mid October) will cost $250, and then I'll meet with the orthodontist at the end of October to discuss the plan. That is when I'll find out how much it will cost. Dr. Wilson doesn't charge for the first appointment, and he gives the cost at that time. Dr. Stush's office is in Lewisburg, which is 20 minutes from our house. Dr. Wilson has two offices. One is also in Lewisburg but in 2015 he wasn't doing first appointments at that office. His other office is about 35 minutes from our home. The quote will cost $250 from Dr. Wilson, but it will be free to receive that from Dr. Stush. I am trying to get Ian an appointment with Dr. Stush. I have no idea if there tends to be much of a difference in the cost from one orthodontist to another, but just in case there is, I am wanting two quotes given braces cost thousands of dollars. I wish I could get both estimates for free, but it seems one of them will cost $250. I started my orthodontic work when I was in fourth grade, and my braces didn't come off until I was in eleventh grade. I hope and pray that Ian won't have appointments for that many years! When I thought they'd both be having braces, I planned to wait until both were ready so I could do their appointments on the same day, but at this point we're just planning on paying for braces for Ian. Nadia is fine with that! The dentist hasn't mentioned (yet) that Oliver needs to see an orthodontist. Oliver's teeth used to look perfect to my untrained eye, but that hasn't been the case since his permanent teeth started coming in. I'm hoping they'll straighten out on their own. When I was pregnant with each child, I prayed that they would inherit teeth like their dad's not like mine. Ian definitely got my teeth. Hoping Nadia and Oliver's teeth prove to be like their dad's. For budgeting purposes I have been assuming Ian's braces will cost about $5K. In two months I should find out how accurate my guesstimate was. 

 

Today's appointment wasn't actually totally free for me because I paid Nadia $5 to babysit Oliver. I know in this COVID-19 era they do not like you to bring extra people to medical appointments so I paid Nadia to babysit Oliver while I took Ian to the orthodontist and library. She has saved almost $150 over the last few months, which is by far the most money she's ever had at one time in her life. I thought maybe she'd use it to buy a hoverboard as she loves using Oliver's, but she said she's going to put that on her Christmas wish list. I think she's going to buy more Legos. Aren't we already drowning in Legos?!?! I can't talk because I saw a GREAT sale recently where the Lego sets were marked down 80% and bought two sets for Nadia and two sets for Ian for Christmas gifts. Most of Nadia's Legos are in her bedroom. Most of Ian's Legos are in the basement. Some of his are on the dining room table, but I claimed half of the dining room table for doing jigsaw puzzles because I'm too old to do them on the floor. Last week Paul, Nadia, and I completed a 1,008 piece puzzle that Pop Pop had given Great Gram years ago. The picture is of Nadia and Ian when they were much younger. It's a photo Wendy had taken at a park in Maryland. Yesterday we started a 1,000 piece tiger puzzle. It's rather a misnomer to call it our dining room table as we almost never eat at that table, ha ha! 

Busy Bees

 We have had very, very few social activities listed on our calendar over the past almost 5 1/2 months. Last week the kids and I didn't leave the house from the time we got home from Six Flags on Tuesday evening until Saturday afternoon when we went to the Schreck's house. Tab had organized a get together with several others families. We each had purchased different items to put together medical packs for the Voice of the Martyrs. Our family sponsored three packs and contributed nail clippers and bars of soap for all twelve packs that the group assembled yesterday. The kids each made a card with Bible verses on it for each pack, although we realize the packs might end up in countries where the individuals cannot read English. Tab had also invited a woman who has several beehives to give a presentation about bees and beekeeping. Oliver said his favorite part was tasting a spoonful of honey from one of their hives at the end. Bees are certainly very amazing creatures! We thought we'd be attending a bonfire at our church last night, but they postponed it to this Saturday because the weather forecast didn't look good. It turned out that it only rained in the morning. 

For three months we weren't able to attend church in person and then for the past almost three months we've just been attending one worship service each Sunday. Next Sunday they will be resuming almost everything that the church had been offering prior to the shut down in March. The one exception is they won't be restarting any choirs yet. They must be anticipating that far fewer children will attend because they used to offer five different classes for elementary children (Kindergarten, 1st/2nd grade girls, 1st/2nd grade boys, 3rd-5th grade girls, and 3rd-5th grade boys) and in September they are just offering one class for grades 1-5. They have had a tradition lately of giving out free Rita's Italian ice on promotion Sunday. The kids are looking forward to having Rita's two weeks in a row because they also were serving Rita's before the baptismal service today. Oliver chose mango, Nadia had cookie dough, I had pina colada, and Ian  chose root beer. Yum!! This morning we left the house around 8:35 and got home at 3:00pm. That was much longer than usual! We dropped Nadia off at First Baptist for a rehearsal and then the rest of us attended the 9:00 service at our church. It was a significant service in that our senior pastor announced he will be retiring in June after serving the church for forty years. He announced that they will be putting Pastor Branden's name for a vote to become the next senior pastor. Pastor Arlie will be turning 70 next year, and Pastor Branden was born in 1984 (same age as Maurice would have been). Branden first was the athletic director at the Christian School and then for several years was the youth pastor. He has been the pastor of another campus of our church for the past year. I have always thought that Branden was a fabulous preacher. After attending the 9:00 service at our church, we drove back to FBC to attend their 10:30 service. Nadia sang with their praise team because it was "youth Sunday" at that church. A high school boy preached the sermon. We returned to our church for an outdoor picnic at 12:15 - Rita's, chips, hotdogs, and fruit cups were served. Nadia was thrilled to see some of her friends in person for the first time since March. After the picnic we attended a two hour baptismal service in which 53 people were baptized outside. Oliver wanted to be baptized but was intimidated about giving his testimony, but some gave very brief testimonies. In hindsight, he could have participated. He told me today he definitely wants to be baptized the next time the church has a baptismal service. 

Nadia loves to be on the go. It was wonderful to see more people today and attend more than just one worship service, but I have to admit I'd rather just stay home this evening. She still wants to attend youth group this evening. Moments like this cause me to look forward to the day when Nadia has a driver's license even though the thought of our children behind a driving wheel is somewhat terrifying. The middle schoolers will resume meeting on Wednesday nights starting on September 9 which means Nadia will again have three chances to be with middle schoolers each week - Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, and Wednesday nights. We haven't heard if Bible Bowl will be resuming next month or not. We are grateful to be taking steps back toward normalcy! 

Last Blast

I realize that technically it is summer until September 21, but usually once kids head back to school, it feels like the summer is over. Some aren't going back to school until September 8 due to how late Labor Day is this year. We were at Six Flags America in Maryland on Tuesday with Yvonne's family, and I think for our family that was the last blast of summer. The kids and I went to a Six Flags park a total of five times this summer - three times in New Jersey and twice in Maryland. We met at least some of the Towfighis on three of the five trips. The one in Maryland is close to their home. Yesterday was Paul's first trip to an amusement park in more than a year. He got up at 2:00am to go to work and was back four hours later, which meant he spent 2+ hours on the road to spend almost two hours at work. He tried to nap some in the van while I drove down to the amusement park. We left at 7:10, stopped once for gas, and arrived at about 10:50, which meant it took us less time to get there than it did when I drove down in July. When we visited the park in early July, we didn't enter the water park section. This week we spent time both on dry rides and the water park. I liked spending time in the water park because face masks aren't required on those attractions, which means I get to take pictures and even though I didn't go down any water slides, I could cool off a bit now and then as it was a hot day. We left later than planned, and our stop at a Wendy's drive-thru took us about 30 minutes. As for actual driving time, it was definitely the shortest trip to that park from our house this summer, but we still didn't get home until about 10:45pm. I had taken the kids to a Six Flags park four times by myself this summer, and I told Paul the only way we would make the fifth trip would be if he came with us to help with the driving. He did most of the driving, but he woke me up at one point and asked me to finish the drive home. Knowing he had been awake since 2:00am, I agreed, but obviously both of us were very tired. The kids had a fun day. Since I had my camera, I actually didn't ride any rides. Jenna was working at Chick-fil-A that day so we didn't see her, but we were able to spend time with the rest of their family. They are planning to move to Quito, Ecuador once the pandemic has ended although depending of the timing of their move that might not include Jenna, as she plans to begin studying at Messiah College next fall.

Paul planned to go into work early in the morning again yesterday partially because he had a lower EMG scheduled for 2pm at the hospital, but after the long day we had on Tuesday, he was too tired to go into work at all. Ian got up about 15 minutes later than usual yesterday (7:15), and I got up when I heard him get up. Nadia really, really likes to start her school work at 7:00. She hates to sleep in on a school day, and I hate to wake the kids up. Ian woke Nadia up around 7:45. Oliver slept until a little after 9:00, and Paul slept until about 10:15. So it took longer than usual to finish our schoolwork yesterday, but to me that is one of the advantages of homeschooling - flexibility! I had asked Paul to run three errands that were near the hospital after his appointment. He returned and picked up books and DVDs at the library, picked up donuts for breakfast today as it's Oliver's spiritual birthday, and I had made a short list of things to get at Walmart. While he was there, he checked the bicycle aisle. It was almost completely empty, but there were two 24 inch mountain bikes, which is what Oliver wanted for his birthday. Paul wasn't sure it would fit in his car, but he managed to squeeze it in. Oliver hasn't ridden it yet because he really tore up his knees last week, and I've banned him from riding anything until his knees heal. Paul told me the two choices, I showed them to Oliver on the computer, and he picked the red one. The bike was his birthday present from Grandma and Pop Pop. 

We've been gradually easing ourselves into the new school year. Nadia enjoyed taking a lot of pictures today with my camera after completing another lesson in an online photography course. Beast Academy 3A and learning to write in cursive are definitely very challenging for Oliver so I've decided to hold off a bit longer on starting to teach him the piano. I am still hoping to start him sometime this year. We shall see. I think reading, math, and handwriting are far more important, and none of those come easily for Oliver. I am actually thinking of buying the Beast Academy 2A-2D books and using those this year instead of 3A-3D. If I could go back in time I wish I had waited until Oliver turned 6 to start him in Kindergarten. Because homeschooling instruction is individualized, it really doesn't matter what "grade" he is in. I think he would find it upsetting if I told him he was in second grade again this year.. I'm just hoping that by the time he turns fourteen he'll be ready for high school. Promotion Sunday will be on September 6 at church, and he's expecting to move from the 1st/2nd grade boys class to the 3rd-5th grade boys class. Parenting is full of so, so many decisions to make. We try our best, but we are very human. 

They are having a big outdoor baptism service this Sunday, and Oliver expressed a desire multiple times to participate, but I don't think he's ready to be handed a microphone and give a spontaneous testimony in front of hundreds of people. We'll just wait until he's older and is ready to make a video, which is what they usually do when baptisms are held inside the church. 

Family Vacation

Over the past 5+ months I've tried very hard not to think about what we "would" have been doing on a certain day if it weren't for COVID-19. That's been easier to do sometimes than others. For example around Easter it was hard to avoid all thoughts that we had planned to be in Chicago with the Benners. The past few days it's popped into my brain now and then that we thought we'd be in Canada right now. I had planned five vacations for 2020, and Paul planned to join us for two of those. Three of the five were cancelled, but the kids and I were able to spend 6 days with Aunt Janet on Long Island. The last vacation I had planned prior to the pandemic is scheduled to start a little over five weeks from now. If it happens, it will be Paul's first vacation this year. After finally receiving refunds for our hotel reservations for the August vacation, I decided to start looking into the October trip. I realize that things could change over the next five weeks. I'm hoping and praying that if there is a change between now and then it will be that more things reopen not that more sites are closed again. I had 27 sites in our itinerary for that trip. Seven of those are still closed - one science museum in Ohio, four national parks in Ohio, and two manufacturing plants in Kentucky are not offering tours right now due to COVID-19 (Toyota and the American Printing House for the Blind). I couldn't determine if the Salt Works company in Kentucky is currently giving tours or not. Many of the sites have adjusted the days/times they are open. This might make it impossible for us to visit the Kentucky Horse Park as the day we are scheduled to be there is a day they are currently closed each week. The specific dates for this trip were picked because of a special event at the National Museum of the US Air Force. The museum has reopened, but all their special events have been postponed to 2021. Many sites are not offering everything that they usually do. For most enough of the site is operational for me to think it is still worth a visit. The one I'm not sure about is the Shaker Village in Kentucky. I will see more detailed information closer to the time we plan to visit there before making a decision.  At the moment it seems if I can reschedule when we go to the Kentucky Horse Park we could visit 19 of the 27 attractions I had originally planned for this trip. I'll wait until closer to our trip to see if I want to try and cancel or modify any of our hotel reservations. Nadia was shocked when I said there was still a chance we might go on that trip. I feel like I've been saying this constantly this year but "time will tell." 

Paul loves peanut M&Ms but for years has avoided eating any brown ones because he said they were more chocolatey than the other colors. I never agreed with that theory. It came up when we were at Aunt Janet's earlier this month, and Nadia said she thought he was right. We did an experiment with her (giving her M&M's while she was blindfolded and she was to say "brown" or "not brown."). She didn't do well. A couple of days ago we repeated the experiment with Paul. He failed miserably. We laughed a lot. I wonder if he'll start eating brown peanut M&M's now that he knows they don't taste differently? I'm glad that Paul is going to join us for our trip to Six Flags America tomorrow. We haven't gone on any outings with him since March 8 when we went to the PA Military Museum. Even though we're planning to leave the house at 7:00am, he's still planning to go into work tomorrow morning. Considering he has a two hour round trip commute, I wonder how much sleep he's going to get tonight? I couldn't keep up with his schedule that is for certain. 

Jonah

When Nadia was three-years-old, she was obsessed with the story of Jonah. We had multiple picture books that told the story, and I read them to her at her request umpteen times a week. She also had a fear of whales when she was that age. I remember once she asked me if there might be a whale in the bathtub. When I took Nadia and Ian to SeaWorld in August 2011 on the day the Wendy and Drayton took their kids to Magic Kingdom, I was really hoping that seeing Shamu would help Nadia realize that a whale could never fit in a bathtub and also that she would see whales in a more favorable light. When I found out that Sight and Sound was showing Jonah in 2012, we decided to celebrate Nadia's fourth birthday in Lancaster. I was in the hospital, but Paul came and picked me up and I was allowed to watch the show provided I went into the theatre in a wheelchair. This past spring Sight and Sound released a recording of one of their performances of Jonah (from 2017). I saw that it was being aired, but I didn't suggest that we watch it a few months ago because I figured seeing it in person is much better than watching it on our TV. However when I saw more recently that they were airing it again this weekend on the TBN app, I decided we should watch it today. Yes, most of us had seen it before, but Oliver hadn't ever seen it, Nadia had just turned 4, and Ian was only 2 1/2. I'm glad we watched it today. Yes, it's not nearly as powerful as watching it in person, but buying five tickets to Sight and Sound costs quite a bit of money, and this was free. They are airing a live performance of Esther in early September. That broadcast won't be free. Since we have tickets to see Esther in December I'm not tempted to pay to watch it on TV, but if you aren't able to see the show in person, $25 for your family to see the show is quite a bargain. I hope we are actually able to see Esther in person in December. Time will tell. My favorite show of all the ones I've seen at Sight and Sound over the years so far was Jesus, which we saw in 2018.

In general our area has not been hit hard during this pandemic. Lately our county plus another neighboring county have not been doing well in the number of new cases per 100,000 people analysis. This is because more than 100 cases of COVID were reported in a federal prison in Union County. In our county the spike has primarily been due to more than 125 cases at a nursing home in Milton (the same town where we go to church).

I'm one who strives to follow the rules, but I have to say in various instances over the last 5 months the rules haven't made any sense to me. For example, we still aren't allowed to walk into the library and access anything on any of the bookshelves. Thankfully, we can pick up materials that we have previously requested at the front desk. During the entire pandemic there has never been any restrictions on what customers could or couldn't touch at the grocery store, Walmart, Home Depot, etc. The stores that weren't allowed to be open in the red phase (such as department stores) reopened in June again with no restrictions on what customers touched. So what is so dangerous about library books compared to items sold at stores? The library we usually go to has three libraries that are connected. They transfer the books between the three libraries three days a week. I knew that the books that patrons returned were quarantined for three days, but I learned a few days ago that if a library employee transfers book from one library to another the books are again quarantined for another three days. If two different librarians touch a book in the same building they don't quarantine them again. I don't understand the logic. Similarly it seems that doorways are particularly "dangerous" when it comes to COVID. We wear our masks for less than a minute as we enter church and do the same when we exit, but we don't need to wear them during the worship service. It was the same at the swimming pool. We had to wear a mask when passing through the entrance, but that was it. It seems to me either we should wear the masks the whole time or we don't need to wear them at all. I can't see how the danger is any greater during the 30 seconds we pass through the doorway, but since that is what we are asked to do, that is what we do. Speaking of entrances, usually there are four entrances into our local Walmart. I understand why the one by the Auto Center is closed because the Auto Center hasn't been open since the middle of March, but I don't get the logic of closing two of the three main entrances. Doing so means that many more people are crowded together because there is only one entrance. Having all three entrances open would make social distancing more likely to happen. I have seen some stores have put arrows on the floor indicating which direction traffic is supposed to flow in an aisle. In my observation people don't seem to be paying any attention to those arrows. Most people are wearing masks inside stores, and most people are trying to stay 6 feet apart from each other in a checkout line, but the one way arrows don't seem to have done a lick of good.

Because of the rise in cases in the federal prison, the two school districts in that county were asked to delay the start of their school year until September 8. Again, I cannot see a correlation between inmates testing positive and what is done in K-12 schools. It doesn't make sense to me. We are supposed to resume classes at our church on September 6. I am praying that this surge of new cases in the nursing home will not mean that has to be postponed. I have a feeling they are going to require kids and teens to wear masks during those classes since that is what they are requiring in the local schools. They are hosting a bonfire on August 29, and I believe that is when we will find out those details. We're not fans of wearing masks, but we definitely prefer wearing a mask to class than not having the class offered at all, which is how it will have been for almost 6 months if they do reopen in two weeks. Next Sunday they are having a picnic outside after church prior to an outdoor baptismal service. 44 people have signed up thus far to be baptized next Sunday! 

Nadia has an audition this evening for a theatre production that the audition, rehearsals, and performance will exclusively be done through Zoom. We shall see how that goes. I know she'd prefer to participate in person, but drama via Zoom is better than no drama at all. The woman who directed Cinderstein is the one organizing it. This one act play is called "Bad Audition by Bad Actors." 

4,750 Pieces

 

2020 has been a very unique year for a wide variety of reasons. If people had tried a year ago to describe what life would be like in 2020, I am quite certain I wouldn't have believed them. In the middle of March when everything began to shut down, I kept telling myself surely things will be better in May. Then I adjusted that to "hopefully things will be better in June." And some things have improved. We have been attending a worship service in person each week, we can pick things up at the library, we were able to join a pool, and we were able to go to Long Island for six days, but life is still far from normal, and I no longer think normal is just around the corner as I did when this first began. I usually love to plan field trips and vacations. I have no desire to plan either of those until the pandemic is over. Having plans constantly cancelled this year is the reason I've changed. Instead of adding more things to our calendar my mind set is well we'll see how many more plans I had already made will continue to be cancelled. I am currently hoping that by next August things can truly be back to normal. Time will tell if I'm being realistic, pessimistic, or optimistic. I hear people say they can't wait for 2021, but I highly doubt much is going to change in January. I'd LOVE to be wrong. One way our lives have been different the past few months is we have been spending a lot of time doing puzzles. When I was a child we had a tradition of "family fun night." I loved that tradition. We would rotate through our family as to who got to pick what we did during family fun night. It might be as simple as playing Uno together. Sometimes someone picked doing a jigsaw puzzle together, and I have to admit that was probably my least favorite choice for family fun night. I was not a fan of puzzles. My mom would give us each a minimum number of pieces we each had to do before we could excuse ourselves. I generally didn't stick around once I completed the minimum requirement because I didn't think doing a puzzle was fun. I greatly preferred reading a book. Well in addition to being the year of face masks, social distancing, freezer shortages, and quarantines, 2020 has been the year of puzzles for our family. Over the last few weeks the kids put together 12 puzzles that they hadn't ever put together before. Some of these puzzles were done more than once. For example, Nadia did the 300 piece Toy Story 3 puzzle and then Ian took it apart and did the same puzzle himself. The 12 puzzles range in size from 150 pieces to 750 pieces each. Altogether the 12 puzzles have 4,750 pieces! We have two puzzles left to try for the first time. Both are 1,000 piece puzzles. The hardest puzzle by far was one of the 500 piece Snow White puzzles. I thought the Harry Potter puzzle would be harder because so many of the pieces were some shade of black, but that one took far less time than the one in the bottom right corner.

I'm hoping we won't still be wearing face masks in twelve months, but who knows. This is Nadia's self-portrait that she drew on Thursday. I enjoy comparing their self portraits over the years. 

Today we spent about five hours with our friends. The kids swam, ate homemade strawberry shortcake with homemade ice cream, and played outside. It was a great way to celebrate the start of a new school year! The kids are 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12 years old at the moment. Tab also sent me home with a jar of her homemade spaghetti sauce that she canned this week. I was grateful that I made dinner this morning so we could spend the afternoon with friends. I made the meat and a dressing for a taco salad as well as a new recipe called chicken spaghetti. My kids generally avoid spaghetti noodles. They prefer just about any other shape of noodle to spaghetti, but Oliver and Nadia liked the dish, as did Paul. Ian didn't try it but opted to have the taco salad. I am always happy when I find a new recipe that several members of the family like to add to the rotation.

Tomorrow we're planning to stay home sweet home all day just as we did on Tuesday and Thursday. Sometime this weekend I want to watch the movie version of Sight and Sound's production of Jonah. I'm guessing it's not as good as seeing it live in person, but considering we saw Jonah in June of 2012 I think we should see it again as I was pregnant with Oliver, we were celebrating Nadia's 4th birthday, and Ian was only 2 1/2 years old. I also want to see The One and Only Ivan on Disney+ sometime in the near future as that became available today on Disney+. We've definitely appreciated having Disney+ for the last almost 9 months. The kids are already lobbying for us to extend our subscription when it expires, and since we are going without cable tv all year this year, I think we can justify paying for that in addition to Amazon Prime. 

Thankful Thursday

 

1. Paul, Oliver, Pop Pop, and I were able to watch the musical that Nadia and Ian were in last Friday.

2. Paul passed the COVID screening on Saturday, and his colonoscopy went smoothly on Monday. He doesn't have to have another one until he turns 60. His upper EMG also went well yesterday afternoon. It showed he has carpal tunnel. He has a lower EMG scheduled for next week.

3. We've seen more of Paul than usual because he came home very early on Friday to see their performance, stayed home on Monday for the colonoscopy, came home earlier than usual on Saturday for the COVID test, and came home earlier than usual yesterday for the EMG.

4. I had paid $699 for the lodging for our family vacation that was supposed to begin tomorrow. As of yesterday we received the final refund. It's disappointing that three vacations were cancelled so far this year, but I'm very thankful that we have received refunds for everything except the tickets to go up the Washington Monument in May. 

5. We are thankful for the food the Methodist Church provided kids with this summer. We picked up meals for the last time this year on Monday. I hadn't purchased milk in almost two months!

6. It seems that Paul and I have escaped the cold the kids had recently. Oliver came down sick first, and it was very stressful due to COVID. Once we became convinced that was not what he had, we didn't get worked up when the other two came down with it. Nadia and Oliver were each sick for only about 24 hours. Nadia didn't come down with it until Monday. Ian never had a fever, but his other symptoms lasted longer. I said I wasn't taking him ANY where until he stopped coughing as having a cold in 2020 is likely akin to having leprosy due to fears over COVID. If he had been healthy, we would have gone swimming with the Schrecks on Tuesday, but we postponed it to tomorrow to make sure we weren't spreading any germs to them. This worked out well because Tab has a dentist appointment tomorrow so I can watch the five kids swim at her in law's house during her appointment. Thankfully Ian is doing much better today!

7. Oliver's doctor appointment went well yesterday although the doctor probably wishes Oliver wore knee pads in light of how many scabs he has on his knees right now. I'm very, very thankful that the only time the kids go to the doctor is for their annual physicals. I'm also thankful Oliver doesn't actually need to wear glasses.

8. I'm thankful I am able to homeschool the kids again this year! This year we have one more advantage to homeschooling - not having to wear a mask. We had a good first day of school today. I like to ease the kids back into school so we didn't do every subject. Every child was done with their schoolwork AND had already finished eating lunch before noon. Speaking of masks, I have a tradition of asking each child to draw a self portrait on the first day of school each year. Ian drew himself with a facemask. Nadia liked that idea because then she didn't have to finish drawing the nose or mouth. Hopefully when they draw their self portraits next year they won't draw themselves with masks because hopefully we won't have to wear them next fall. Time will tell how long masks will be required. I almost didn't bother having them put the date on their portrait this year because I thought the mask should be a dead give away that they were drawn in 2020, but it might be we are still wearing them in August 2021 so I had them write the date on their pictures as I usually do. Considering our school year ended in the middle of April, I was ready for us to go "back to school" (which seems like a misnomer since they don't actually GO to a school). 

9. We walked to the playground today! Oliver asked to do that yesterday, but I didn't want to because of Ian's cough. Since he was coughing far less today, we did walk to the playground today. Oliver rode his bike there, but he had to walk his bike back home because he got a flat tire at the playground. He's thankful Grandma and Pop Pop are already trying to get him a new bike. I haven't been getting much exercise lately, but now that we've stopped swimming on a regular basis and the temperatures have dropped a little, I'm hoping to get back to going on walks on a regular basis.

10. So far our two zebra danios seem to be doing well. We have the tank on the kitchen table, and although I had never had a desire to own fish, I will say it is enjoyable to watch them swim around when we're sitting at the kitchen table.

Back to School

I thought we'd be starting our family vacation tomorrow, but since that vacation was cancelled (finally got the last approval for a refund of hotel charges yesterday so at least this trip that didn't happen didn't end up costing us any money) and the swimming pool closed for the season, I decided that today would be our first day of school. Now technically it's our 21st day of school this year, but in terms of more traditional schoolwork, today is the first day. I decided to ease the kids in gradually so I'm considering Thursday/Friday to just be one day of school. Next week we'll be going to Six Flags on Tuesday and we're going on a field trip in Hershey on September 2. This means the next two weeks we'll just have four days of school per week. The week of September 7 will be our first full week of school. Today is the first day of school for our local school district. I typically wait until the Monday of the last full week of school (August 24 this year), but because we ended earlier than usual (middle of April) and the swimming pool closed on Sunday, I decided to start on the same day as our local school district. Last year we also started on the same day as the local school district (August 22) because we took off some time at the end of August to spend with Wendy and her kids.

This year I have a child in grades three, five, and seven. Oliver has participated in some science instruction in the past, but this will be the first year he will be expected to fully participate. Ian and Nadia have been doing science together for several years, but this year Nadia will be doing science independently and the boys will be doing it with me. Nadia will not be doing spelling for the first time. Nadia and Ian will be doing Life of Fred (math supplement) and Robin Hood (grammar) together. All four of us will be working through four Spanish boxes from Talkbox.mom, watching a ten minute episode of World Watch News each day, and reading through half of the Old Testament. Oliver will be learning to write in cursive, and Ian will be completing his final cursive textbook. Nadia already finished the Personal Finance Class. She's also going to be completing a photography course online. Both boys will be using Beast Academy for math, and Nadia plans to complete two online math textbooks through Teaching Textbooks. Oliver has only partially participated in social studies in the past, but this year he will be full participating. Most of the time all three of them will do it together. In some instances (such as when Nadia and Ian are reading Whatever happened to Penny Candy?) I will have him read something more appropriate for his age. Although we already homeschooled our children and thus are less effected by COVID-19, the main way our school year will be different will be all the things we typically do outside our home. I think field trips will be few and far between, and I expect we'll be taking a year off from extra curriculars, which is why I counted "swimming" as part of our school day for the "unschooling" days I counted this summer because that might end up being their PE for the year instead of homeschool gym class, playing on an Upward basketball team, ice skating lessons, etc. I doubt they will be participating in any choirs this year, but Nadia and Ian were in a musical last week. Time will tell what is permitted over the next nine months. In March I signed Ian up for the next season of basketball, but I'm feeling dubious that will actually take place. It might be that our only commitment outside the house this school year will be church on Sundays, presuming those aren't also shut down again at some point.

Every year I take back to school pictures with my mom's grandmother's slate chalkboard. Last year Oliver said he first choice was to be a scientist, his second was to be a police officer, and his third was to clean windows on sky scrapers. In Kindergarten he said he wanted to be a police officer, and in first grade he said he wanted to be in the military. This year he said his first choice was to be a police officer. Ian again said he wants to work for the Lego company which is also what he said at the start of Kindergarten, first, and fourth grade. At the start of K4 he wanted to be a police officer, and at the beginning of second grade he said he wanted to be an inventor. In third grade he said he wanted to be a missionary in Papua New Guinea. I didn't ask Nadia what she wanted to be when she was starting Kindergarten. She said astronaut in 1st grade and 2nd grade, teacher in 3rd grade, and missionary in 4th and 5th grade. Last year she said she had no idea. This year she said she wants a job that involves working with dogs. When she turns sixteen she wants to work at a pet care place near our home that is owned by someone from our church. They primarily provide boarding and grooming for cats and dogs. I fully realize that the kids will likely change their minds many more times before they graduate from high school. What type of job they choose to have when they are adults is really not that important to me. I hope that each of them will be in a close relationship with the Lord and be striving to show love to all the people God puts in their paths. That's what really matters to me..  

Although many parents were unexpectedly thrown into the role of homeschooling parent in March, I'm very thankful that Paul had the idea for me to homeschool our children and that I am able to stay home with them. These years with my kiddos are priceless. Hoping all three of them have a great school year!

Birthday Interview

Oliver turned eight 12 days ago. He had his annual physical this morning; I recorded his birthday interview before we left for his appointment. In July I was given grief for bringing all three kids to Nadia's annual appointment, but this time I left Nadia and Ian at home for 90 minutes while we went to the Pediatrician's office and the library. Ian has a cough so there was NO way I was taking him with me given everyone's fears about COVID-19. Paul is at work now, but he'll be coming home very early as he has an EMG at the hospital that is very close to the Pediatrician's office. Last August he weighed 56 pounds (75th percentile) and today he weighs 55 1/2 pounds (44th percentile). Last year he was 49 inches tall (68th percentile), and today with flip flops on he was 52 inches tall (75th percentile). This makes me think that sometime in 2021 he should hit 54 inches, which is the number needed to be able to ride ANY ride. From August 2018- August 2019 he gained 11 pounds and grew three inches. This past year he again grew 3 inches, but this time he didn't gain any weight, which caused his BMI to drop to the 16th percentile. He's still on track to be our tallest child. Time will tell! He passed his hearing screening, and he also passed his vision screening even though he wasn't wearing his glasses. He's been telling me he doesn't need to wear his glasses, and it seems he's correct. Considering it's much more challenging to take pictures of someone with eyeglasses on, I am happy that he doesn't need glasses at this point in time. Ian does need them, primarily for reading, and Nadia has never needed glasses.

Colonoscopy

Women are supposed to start having annual mammograms once they turn 40. I was 3 months shy of 42 before I had my first one. Men and women are supposed to have their first colonoscopy once they turn 50. Paul is having his first colonoscopy tomorrow. I knew that Paul couldn't drive after the procedure, and so I planned to drop him off and pick him up, but he was told they expect someone to wait in the hospital. Nadia is thankful Paul was told this because it means I'll be paying her to babysit for the first time. Although I have paid other babysitters $10/hr, I really don't think others would pay a twelve-year-old that much to babysit. I said I'll pay her $4-5/hr. They said Paul will be there for 2.5 hours tomorrow, and we will be spending one hour on the road. I told Nadia I'd pay her $15 to babysit Oliver tomorrow. I'm thankful that she can call me on my cell phone via the Echo dot if needed. Since tomorrow is the last day of the Kids' Café program, I asked our neighbor if she was planning to take her kids to the park to pick up their meals tomorrow. She's going to take my three kids with her two kids for that errand. I appreciate her assistance! Paul hasn't been able to eat anything today. Usually turning older doesn't phase me, but knowing I will have to go through this in 2022 doesn't make me exactly excited about turning 50. At least you usually only have to have a colonoscopy every ten years rather than every year like the mammograms. Hopefully Paul's procedure will go smoothly tomorrow and he will be allowed to go 10 years before he has one again. He's having an EMG on Wednesday and another EMG next week. We're hoping they determine the cause of his numbness and tingling. Oliver hasn't been to a doctor in a full year. He is scheduled to have his annual physical on Wednesday. I'm very thankful that the frequency of Paul's medical appointments over the last two months is an aberration from the norm for our family. Paul was tested for COVID-19 yesterday in preparation for the colonoscopy, and today we received the good report that his result was negative.

Nadia objected to Paul taking our picture because our outfits weren't coordinated, ha ha!

We took a break from jigsaw puzzles while we were at Aunt Janet's house, but we've been doing them again since we got home. I looked through all the puzzles we own to figure out which ones we had never done. Nadia did two 500 piece puzzles by herself (Winnie the Pooh and Snow White). Paul, Nadia, and I did a very, very hard 500 piece Snow White puzzle (not the same as the one she did herself). Today Nadia finished a 750 piece Toy Story puzzle that I started yesterday. Paul did some of that one. There are three puzzles left to attempt for the first time - a 750 piece Incredibles puzzle, a 1,000 piece tiger puzzle, and a 550 piece Harry Potter puzzle that looks very hard as almost all the pieces are black. Prior to the pandemic Nadia was never willing to attempt a 750 piece puzzle, but she's done two of them so far this summer (with some help), and now she routinely does 500 piece puzzles completely by herself, if it's not one that is harder than usual. Oliver has done up to 150 pieces by himself, and Ian has done up to 300 piece puzzles by himself. I can say with assurance that I spent more time doing puzzles over the past 5 months than I have ever spent on puzzles in entire year in the past. Listening to audiobooks while putting the puzzles together greatly improves the experience in my opinion. Chris Grabenstein is one of Nadia's favorite authors. We listened to two of his books last week - Stuck and Riley Mack and the Other Known Troublemakers. Today we finished an Anna Hibiscus book and began When the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. Nadia is greatly anticipating the release of the newest Mr. Lemoncello book later this month, which is also by Grabenstein.