Thankful Tuesday

I haven't written n a gratitude list since October 22, and for the last few years I've tried to write at least a short gratitude list in every post in November. Here's my first list for November 2020.

1. We had fun on October 23rd at the Christmas tree farm  - a hayride, corn maze, and other games with some other families from our homeschool group.

2. The show Nadia was in was recorded on Zoom on October 23. I watched it online on October 25. She didn't have very many lines in the play, but I'm grateful she had some additional coaching and experience with being in a play.

3. We returned to the service project on October 24 and helped with sealing meal bags and bundling seed packets. We also enjoyed the lunch they served after our session was done.

4. The kids were thankful that the Methodist Church near our home still held their annual Trunk or Treat on October 25 albeit it was definitely different due to COVID-19. Our church held a drive-thru Trunk or Treat on October 30. We didn't attend the one at our church, but because their attendance was lower than what they anticipated, they were passing out bags of candy to the kids and youth at church this past Sunday. We also took the kids trick or treating on Halloween so they got plenty of candy over the course of eight days. Ian sold a good deal of his candy to Nadia so she definitely has the largest stash of candy.

5. I enjoyed teaching a preschool class on October 25. Normally they have me in an elementary class (grades 1/2 or 2-5), but that Sunday I taught the class that currently has from ages 2 through Kindergarten. Due to the decreased attendance in person due to COVID, they have combined what used to be four different classes into one class. 

6. I got my haircut last week. She cut it shorter than I wanted her to, but the upside is that I should be able to last longer before I get it cut again. Nadia was happy that I got it cut because she earned some money babysitting Oliver.

7. Nadia enjoyed participating in a "Cartooning on Broadway" art class via Zoom that the Berks Youth Chorus offered online twice last week. 

8. Nadia enjoyed attending a cast party on the 30th. They played Mafia and Guesstures. The party was 30 minutes from our house. The boys and I dropped her off at 6:00pm, and I was thankful Paul agreed to pick her up at 9:30pm. 

9. I'm thankful for the freedom we have in our country to vote for those who will represent us in the government. I had to wait in line for 90 minutes to vote today, and I showed up at 1:30, which I thought might be a "down" time. Typically we have almost no wait to vote. I am happy that the voter turnout seems to be higher than usual. I am hoping and praying that the outcome won't involve the Supreme Court like it did with the "hanging chads" years ago. I'm also hoping and praying that no matter who wins, people will not view this as an excuse to engage in illegal behavior that harms individuals and businesses. We've had ENOUGH of that behavior already this year. At times like these, I am very grateful we live in a rural area where businesses don't feel they need to board up their windows just because some people might decide to riot the election results. 

10. Our freezer was delivered today! We got one that was bigger than I was planning to get because the size I wanted wasn't available due to COVID. The one we got is a kind that is made to be in a garage, but since we have two vehicles, three bicycles, garbage can, recycling bin, and lawn mower in our garage, I really don't think there's room for a freezer in there! The guys who delivered the freezer took it to the basement for us. I think this will be a blessing for us in the years to come.

11. I'm thankful that I've been taking the time to find new recipes and try many new foods, and thankfully some of the new foods have been well received. I have definitely been buying some ingredients I've never purchased before (ex. farmer's cheese) as well as buying some things I need for to make these foods (ex. a soufflé dish). It's easy to get in a rut with cooking, but I definitely haven't been in a rut for the past two months, and I have more than 70 new recipes on our list that we haven't tried yet.

12. The kids are enjoying the art classes through our membership with Creating a Masterpiece. Since art is not my forte, I'm grateful for this resource!

13. Our Echo dot notified me when some items in Oliver's wish list were on sale for 30-40% for only one day. I bought some of the Paw Patrol toys for Oliver and also for a nephew. I appreciated the notification! 

14. I absolutely love listening to Ian play the piano. I wish my mom could hear him. I'm thankful she taught me how to play and now I have the privilege of teaching Ian how to play.

15. We've really enjoyed listening to two books by Katie Davis (Majors) and her work in Uganda. We will finish Daring to Hope tomorrow. Lately we've gotten in the habit of having one biography that we only listen to when Paul is here (which usually translates to Saturday evening plus all day Sunday). The last two weekends we've been listening to one about Ernest Shackleton. I can say with assurance that exploring Antarctica would be just about the last job I'd ever sign up for! Knowing my aversion to being cold, Paul has often teased that our next vacation will be to the Ross Ice Shelf. No, thank you!!!!

Big Day

In April Margie and my Dad said that they would give us a chest freezer for my birthday. It was impossible to buy one in April due to the fact people had purchased them like crazy all over the USA in February and March due to COVID-19. In July I placed an order with Lowe's. Most stores were still not accepting any orders, but Lowe's had a few that could be ordered online. Originally, they said it would be delivered in October, but not long after I placed the order they moved the delivery date to November 3. They called today to confirm that they are actually planning to deliver the freezer tomorrow morning! This means we'll be able to keep our meat in our own basement instead of at Millie's bakery, which is 80 minutes from our house. I'm looking forward to having a place to store food when I find a good sale and want to stock up on something that is perishable. 

I don't win any prizes for being an artsy/craftsy mom, but the boys did have fun with some model magic yesterday morning before we went to church. We discussed All Saint's Day and Day of the Dead this weekend as we're learning about holidays around the world this year. In honor of Mexico's Day of the Dead, we had pan de Muertos (bread) last week, made sugar skulls yesterday afternoon, and ate churros today. We talked about Grandma and Uncle Maurice when making the skulls as that is the point of the holiday - to remember relatives who have passed away. This summer I ordered a deep fryer. I had never owned or used one before, but I saw some of the international recipes I was planning to try included frying. I contemplated buying an air fryer (certainly would be healthier) but ended up buying a deep fryer after reading many reviews. I used it for the first time today when making the churros. Between making the churros, Norwegian waffles, sausage, scrambled eggs, and also some rigatoni noodles as Paul doesn't eat waffles, I spent a little more than two hours cooking dinner plus cleaning up the dishes. Whew. Normally when I make waffles, I just use a buttermilk pancake mix. I have made waffles from scratch before when making something special such as pumpkin waffles. Nadia takes after Paul and isn't a fan of pancakes. French toast, or waffles. She will eat them (whereas he totally avoids them), but she prefers to eat leftovers if possible. The boys and I agreed that the Norwegian waffles were tastier than our usual ones; I think I'll make these again but not necessarily every time I make waffles. I definitely will not make churros very often, but Nadia said she might ask me to make them for her birthday. Yesterday I made chicken gyros, a Kenyan banana dish, and a Vietnamese sweet potato recipe. I'm taking it easy tomorrow in terms of food preparation and picking up pizza from a restaurant in our town! The kids really liked the pita bread, but they weren't fans of the dressing that was used in the gyro. I don't think I'll ever make gyros again, but at least they all know what a gyro tastes like now. It was also Paul's first time eating a gyro. There were peanuts on the sweet potatoes and bananas. Nadia and Oliver picked all the peanuts off. Paul didn't try the bananas or sweet potatoes. Ian and Nadia  ate a tiny bit of sweet potatoes only because I required them to do so. Oliver and I LOVE sweet potatoes. Paul and Ian love peanuts, but if the others are going to pick them all off I think I'll add peanuts to the list of ingredients I will try to avoid when cooking. Speaking of Kenya, one of the five kids we sponsor lives in Kenya. We just received new pictures of Morgan (see above). He's the youngest child that we are currently sponsoring. Isn't he adorable? We've been praying fervently that the kids we sponsor and their families will not contract COVID-19. 

Our getting a freezer tomorrow might be a big deal to us, but it is trivial compared to the election tomorrow. Every year I always look forward to when the election will be behind us. I never like seeing all the political signs up all over the place, even if those signs are for the candidate I am going to vote for. It also means an end to all the junk mail related to the election, and this year it means an end to the incessant text messages I've gotten regarding voting. I never like being in suspense. Sometimes I would get annoyed with how I let myself get too emotionally involved in a football game, for example. The first year I was old enough to vote, it was an off year election. I was twenty years old when I voted in a Presidential election for the first time in 1992. I can't recall whom I voted for in 2000. If I voted for Bush, that is the only time the Presidential candidate I voted for in a general election won. I didn't vote for Bush in 2004. I voted for a third party candidate, which is also what I did in 2016. Although I didn't vote for Trump four years ago, I am voting for him tomorrow. Do I think he's the ideal candidate? Absolutely not. None of us are perfect, but some of our character flaws are more noticeable than others. I wince at times over the things Trump says or tweets. I had very, very low expectations for him after I found out he won the election four years ago. I have been pleasantly surprised by the majority of his actions, and actions are more important than words (albeit it would be heavenly if he could better control his tongue). I have opinions on a wide range of political issues - the environment, taxes, gun control, the size of the deficit, etc., but I think if I had to boil it down to the TWO most important issues to me, they would be #1 is the candidate pro-life and #2 are they going to try to grow the size of the government? My ideal candidate would work to SHRINK the size of the government, but I doubt that will ever happen. I want government to preserve our liberties - freedom of speech, press, religion, right to bear arms, etc., and otherwise I'd like them to create as few regulations as possible. For example, in one place in the US they recently enacted a regulation that grocery stores must display fruits/vegetables in the checkout lines (not candy). Seriously?!? I can't see our founding fathers thinking that is the role of government.

Because I have always voted pro-life, that means if I am voting for someone from one of the two major parties, I'm going to end up voting Republican almost all the time. There was one time when I did vote for a Democrat because he was pro-life and the Republican running against him was pro-choice. Four years ago I was certain that Pence was pro-life, but I wasn't sure if Trump was actually pro-life. Now I am convinced that he is pro-life. His most recent Supreme Court nomination greatly impressed me. If I asked my kids who is one of the worst people ever, I am quite certain they would say Hitler. Hitler was obviously a very evil man - responsible for the death of at least 6 million Jews. However, our "Ally" - Stalin, was responsible for the deaths of between 20-60 million, and the Cultural Revolution in China (Mao) was responsible for the deaths of 20-30 million. Hitler doesn't seem like he'd win the prize for "the worst" if those numbers are accurate. But what about the USA? I think most people view slavery as our worst crime. Slavery was and is very, very awful. 10-12 million slaves were brought to our country. I wish that wasn't a part of our history. I wish that women didn't have to wait so long to be given the right to vote. I wish that blacks weren't treated so terribly (especially in the south) for almost 100 years after the Civil War ended. The list could go on. People aren't perfect, and if you study the history of any country or civilization, you are going to read about atrocities. As awful as slavery was/is, murdering babies is even worse to me. In less than 50 years more than 62 million babies have been killed in our country, which even tops the high estimate for Stalin. People recognize that what is inside an eagle's egg is a baby eagle because there are serious penalties for interfering with an eagle's egg, but some say that if a baby is inside a woman's body, that baby has zero rights. In fact some (ex. the Governor of Virginia) say if the abortion is botched and the baby is born alive, they still don't consider it infanticide to just let the baby starve to death. So we shall see if I actually vote for a Presidential candidate who wins an election for possibly the first time in my life. The bottom line is that God is in control no matter who lives in the White House or which party has the majority in the Senate. Hopefully our country doesn't become a socialistic country. A look at the history of various countries over the past 80 years shows what a train wreck socialism is - Venezuela being one of the most recent casualties. It's easy to feel anxiety over the election and the direction our country might be heading, but I keep reminding myself that God is our sovereign El Elyon.

I'll end on a lighter note. Naturally we all make mistakes when learning a second language. I made a funny mistake today. I was trying to say "please turn off the bluetooth" in Spanish, and I actually said "please hug the bluetooth." LOL! Ian was the one who recognized my error. In my defense the verbs "hug" and "turn off" both start with the letter "a." OOPS! 

La Leche

Of my three kids, I would say Ian has been using Spanish the most, and Oliver by far uses it the least. In fact there are phrases I've been using EVERY day such as "put the forks on the table, please," and he has no idea what I'm saying. So it caught me by surprise earlier this week when I was doing spelling with him, and a sentence he was supposed to spell contained the word "milk," and he proceeded to begin spelling the word "la leche." That definitely earned a pompom for our jar! I still required him to spell "milk" in Ingles, but that definitely put a smile on my face! It is fitting that he knows how to say "milk" in Spanish because he definitely consumes more milk that anyone else in the family! 

Nadia's drawing of Alice in Wonderland

I haven't listed it on my gratitude lists recently, but I have to say again how thankful I am that I am able to stay home and homeschool our kids. Did I enjoy being a professor? Absolutely! However, it is such an incredible blessing to have life slow down to a far more manageable pace. I remember in the fall of 2016 how I was so exhausted and I was really struggling with Paul's long hours as he had just transitioned from higher education back to the concrete plant. It's pretty funny at the moment, but at that time I felt overwhelmed by how few hours he was at home each week. I find it funny because little did I know that one year later I would be adding a FT job to my load! My workload from August 2017 through May 2019 was just insane - doing all the housework, yard work, cooking, a FT job at BU, writing lesson plans for my three kids for the two days they spent with the babysitter, and homeschooling the kids three days a week. In August 2019 the pace of my life returned to what it was in August 2016, but three years later I didn't find my workload to be exhausting even though Paul's hours at work hadn't changed. I think in part it's the context. In the fall the first time it's 50 degrees out, it feels SO, SO cold because you're accustomed to warmer weather, but if it reaches 50 degrees in February, you think it's a downright balmy day out and wonder if you even need to wear a coat. From August 2013-May 2016 Paul had been a professor and gone to work about 3 days a week on average, and those days he was at work were much shorter days than when he works at the concrete plant. Plus there were MANY weeks during the year he didn't go to the university at all, whereas he works almost every week of the year at the plant. This meant I could go for a run in the morning at say 6AM because he was at home, we ate far more meals together as a family each week, and we spent our evenings together as a family. In contrast, in the fall of 2016 I felt like a single parent from Monday morning until late Saturday afternoon each week. Now I'm accustomed to this schedule. It also helps that the kids are older, and I can leave them at home when I run short errands. I can make it to our new library and back in twenty minutes, for example. So all this to say I am very grateful that I no longer feel like I am drowning. I have down time, which is something I didn't have those two years. This week I read John Grisham's newest book, and I also put a lot of time into reading international cookbooks from the library and selecting recipes for us to try in the coming weeks and months. These are things I definitely didn't have time for when I was also juggling a FT job. Yes, our income was much greater when I was employed, but my sanity is also a valuable commodity! 

Speaking of recipes, we've tried thirty-one "new" foods so far over the past two months. I say "new" because some foods Paul and I had already eaten or the kids had eaten once five years ago. I would say that about ten of those foods we'd like to have again. I made jerk chicken this week. Paul and I have eaten it before in the Caribbean, but it was my first time ever making it. The kids really, really liked it. My list of recipes to try is growing, but I've also eliminated a few because when I first made the list I was forgetting about Ian's allergies to nuts. For example, I had baklava on the list. Nope. I used a green pepper in one dish that I made this fall, and all the rest of my family let me know how much they do not like green peppers. I had planned to make fajitas for the first time as well as chicken cacciatore, but I've also scratched those off the list considering how averse they are to mushrooms, onions, red peppers, and green peppers. The ingredient that I really, really, really wish others in my family liked was a tomato. Oh how I love tomatoes, but I'm the only one who does, so I also try to select recipes that don't include tomatoes. Tonight I made two things I had never cooked before - Hasselback potatoes (origin - Sweden) and French onion soup. I have had French onion soup at restaurants, but Paul and the kids had never had French onion soup before. I took the onions out of their soup before serving it to them. Although I thought the soup was delicious, I won't be making it again. It's not hard to find desserts that the kids like, so finding new dessert recipes that they enjoy isn't nearly as exciting as finding main dishes that they like. Jerk chicken, Swedish meatballs, and croque Monsieur are three main dishes I'm going to add to our meal rotation. Hopefully over the coming months we'll discover some other main dishes that can be added to the list. I think our biggest "fail" this far was the tamales. I have made most of the new foods, but a few I purchased. This worked out well when it came to cannoli and blintzes, but the tamales I bought at the grocery store were downright awful. The kids had never eaten a tamale before. I have eaten them at restaurants, but I wasn't sure I could make them myself. In hindsight, I should have given it a whirl. Yesterday I made pan de Muertos, which is a Mexican yeast bread. I thought of my Grandma when I made it because she was the one who taught me to make yeast bread. In December Ian will start helping me cook one meal a week. I want all of my kids to be able to cook a variety of dishes before they graduate from high school. Nadia made rigatoni and meatballs earlier this week. 

The activities that kept me busy today were mowing the lawn (wearing a winter coat!), washing/drying our sheets and towels, vacuuming, cooking dinner, and taking the kids trick or treating. Nadia wore her Hermione costume to a party last night, but she went as the juice box again tonight and received many compliments. Ian was Spiderman again tonight, and Oliver went as Buzz Lightyear. Nadia wore a face shield at the party last night, but we didn't wear shields or face masks this evening. She enjoyed playing Guesstures (a game we also own) and Mafia last night. Between mowing the lawn and trick or treating, I walked about 5 1/2 miles today, which is far more exercise than I have been getting in one day lately. Did you know today was a "blue moon"? That refers to a month in which there are two full moons. It happens only once every 2.5 years.

 

Pumpkin Time

 

Peppa often licks Nadia's face - so sweet!

While we were on vacation I got Nadia a pumpkin at Aldi for her to carve. The kids are generally NOT fans of scooping the pulp and seeds out of the pumpkins, and so I thought maybe we'd just do one pumpkin this year. Nadia is supposed to bring a carved pumpkin to the cast party this Friday night. Amazon delivered the goodies I ordered last week for our Christmas shoe boxes - stuffed animals, calculators, glue sticks, soap, marbles, jump ropes, etc. As we started filling our five boxes, we realized we needed to buy some more things. We thankfully had finished our schoolwork before lunch today. Usually there is at least one child still doing schoolwork until about 2pm. So we headed to the Dollar Tree after lunch to buy more things for our shoe boxes. I also went across the street to the grocery store to buy a couple of things and saw they had all their pumpkins on sale for $2. I asked the boys if they wanted to carve a pumpkin this year. Ian wasn't interested, but Oliver wanted one. So after we finished packing our shoe boxes, we worked on carving two pumpkins. Since Oliver really, really likes

Paw Patrol, Ian suggested a Paw Patrol badge. Nadia made a scared face on her pumpkin. She carved the mouth. I carved her eyes and the paw print on Oliver's pumpkin. They both helped with scooping out the pulp and seeds. 

I don't create report cards for my kids. I will probably start keeping track of Nadia's grades next year, which is one year earlier than I am required to do so. If I was making report cards, I think we would have completed our first marking period because we started school a little over two months ago. Today was technically our 71st day out of the 180, but some of those were from this summer or field trips so we we're only about 1/4th of the way through the curriculum. I'm not going to record an analysis of each child in every subject but rather I thought I'd make a list of some of my favorite resources (in no particular order):

1. Audiobooks -We use either Audible, Hoopla, or Overdrive every day to listen to audiobooks. Right now we're listening to The Brooklyn Bridge by Karen Hesse and Daring to Hope by Katie

Davis Majors. 

2. World Watch News - We watch this about 10 minute news broadcast once a day M-F. I think it's great!

3. Seterra Geography - This is a website that the kids use to learn the countries of the world and the capitals of some of the countries. They have a wide assortment of map quizzes. So far Nadia and Ian have passed the ones for the provinces of Canada, all of the countries of North and South America, and the capitals of most of the countries in the western Hemisphere (didn't have them learn the capitals of the islands in the Caribbean) 

4. Life of Fred - We love this series of math books! Math is the subject we have been spending the most time on this year. Nadia has been doing two math lessons a day through Teaching Textbooks because she wants to work through both Math 7 and Pre-Algebra this year. We use Life of Fred as a supplement. We're in the Fractions book now, and I really like the extra problems they give in what

he calls the Bridge. After completing five lessons they have to pass a bridge to move on to the next lesson. The books are very humorous and include concepts from many other facets of life.

5. Beast Academy - Oliver is currently in 2A, and Ian recently started 5B. This is a challenging curriculum but really excellent at fostering creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving skills.

6. Creating a Masterpiece - I'm thankful I signed up for another subscription that gives us access to a wide array of art lessons. This week Nadia is taking two art classes by Zoom through the Berks Youth Chorus, but most weeks our art will be through Creating a Masterpiece. 

7. Sermon on the Mount - I'm glad the kids have been able to participate in AWANA in the past, but I have to say I prefer memorizing one bigger chunk of Scripture over memorizing a verse here and another verse there. So far we've memorized Matthew 5:1-18 together. We're planning to

memorize chapters 5-7 by the end of our school year. 

8. Talkbox.mom - This is a fun way to learn another language! For example, today we played a memory game about the sounds that animals make in Spanish. We are actually making progress with using Spanish throughout the day. When we were doing the service project last week, I was counting "uno, dos, tres" many times as we were putting the rice, beans, and vegetables into the meal bags, and then after the third one I'd say "bien hecho" (good job). All three kids definitely learned that phrase that day! Each day I try to add at least one phrase to my repertoire. Yesterday I worked on using "ven aqui" or "vengan aqui" (come here in both singular and plural).  

9. Public libraries - In addition to getting audiobooks for free, we also check out books from two different library systems - picture books, chapter books for the kids, and books for me as well. I'm really, really hoping that the libraries don't shut down again due to COVID-19. 

10. All About Spelling - Some of the resources on this list are ones we are using for the first time this year such as World Watch News, Talkbox.mom, and Seterra's website. Others on this list we've been using since I began homeschooling Nadia in 2013. AAS is one of the resources we've been using the entire time. Nadia finished the curriculum in the spring, but Ian is in Level 6, and Oliver is in Level 3.

11. Fix It Grammar - I think this is a quick and excellent way to cover a little grammar each day. Nadia and Ian are in the third book (Frog Prince). Today for example we talked about the difference between affect and effect. 

Trunk or Treat

When Paul and I were kids, we went trick-or-treating on October 31. Paul went all around the town of Gordon. My siblings and I just went to a small number of homes in our neighborhood. We didn't do anything for Halloween the first three years we were parents. In 2011 we took Nadia and Ian to a trunk or treat event at the Methodist Church that is about 1 mile from our house. In 2013 we took the kids trick or treating for the first time in addition to the trunk or treat events that we had been taking them to the previous two years. Some years they have gone to as many as four trunk or treat events (3 at churches and 1 at the McCann School of Business) plus trick or treating in our town. That translates to a LOT of candy. Sometimes they've exchanged some of their candy for $1 coins at one of the dentists in our town. Sometimes the kids would wear a different costume to each event. I took the kids to a trunk or treat tonight at the same church where we went to our first trunk or treat nine years ago. It was very different because of COVID-19, but the kids were able to wear their costumes and receive a bag filled with candy, chips, juice, fruit, etc.

Because so much was eliminated, we were only there for about 5 minutes, but since it's so close to our home, I was fine with that. I saw that Lowe's stores are doing a drive thru trunk or treat this year, but I'm not going to drive as far as we would have to drive to get to a Lowe's just to receive three bags of candy. I believe that will be our only trunk or treat event this year unless I end up taking the boys to our church's drive-thru trunk or treat on Friday night. Nadia is attending a Halloween party on Friday night that is a cast party for the kids who were in the play that was recorded on Zoom this past Friday night. Nadia is supposed to come in costume and bring a carved pumpkin to the party. We're also planning to take the kids trick or treating in our town on Saturday night. I'm guessing that fewer people will be passing out candy due to COVID. We shall see.

Nadia made her costume for the first time this year. She went as a box of Juicy Juice apple juice. I bought Ian's costume at Walmart; it was the first time I bought him a costume from a store when it wasn't on sale. I did the same for

Nadia last year, but all the other costumes came from yard sales, thrift stores, or after Halloween sales. Ian is going as Spiderman this year. He had other characters in mind, but they didn't have those available at Walmart. Oliver wore the same Batman costume he wore last year. It's a bit small on him so I'm going to ask him to pick a different costume for Saturday night. We own some other that would fit him better. 

At this time of year you NEVER know what the weather will be like in Pennsylvania. We had a big snowstorm in 2011 at the end of October - enough that the kids built a big snowman. A few days ago it was over 80 degrees! It was in the 70's on Friday. I wish I had mowed the lawn on Friday afternoon. A cold front came through yesterday and BRRR it was about 40 degrees when we went to church this morning. I think it's going to be COLD on Saturday night when we take the kids trick-or-treating. We will have to bundle up before we head out!

Pet research

This morning the kids and I returned to the site of the Missions Expo. We helped with packing more meals. There were only 5,000 left to do this morning as the other 95,000 had been completed the past three days. We also helped with the seed packing project (a total of 50,000 packets of collared greens seeds were packed this week). The whole project cost $48,000 as far as what was spent to buy all the rice, lentils, beans, seeds, items that VOM requested, shipping, etc. Six large Gaylord boxes were filled with Christian literature and packed to ship to a ministry in Illinois that will distribute them around the world, and another Gaylord was filled with Bibles to send to a ministry in Georgia. Since today was the last day of the project, they ended the session with a lunch. No, we didn't eat the lentils/rice/vegetable meals that we packed for the Haitians. We had pizza, salad, chips, desserts, etc. The meal packets did not look big enough to feed six people, especially since the people who are eating those meals are often only eating one meal a day. I had planned to make Swedish meatballs and egg noodles for dinner tonight, but the kids and I only want a light meal in light of how much we ate at lunch today. Since we were out and about the last several days I would have liked to just stay at home all day today, but I am thankful we helped at the service project again today. It's not often that we can participate in a project of this magnitude this close to our home. 

It's just two months until Christmas, which means it's time to start thinking about Christmas gifts. I don't like doing it at the last minute. Today I ordered four Christmas ornaments on Shutterfly and had them shipped to family members. I also started buying things to fill our five Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. I bought one Christmas gift for a nephew from an Amazon wish list. It's a start. Nadia wants another pet for Christmas. At first she asked for a turtle. After I did more research about reptiles that like to be handled, I discovered that the top two choices would probably be either a bearded dragon or leopard gecko. Susie has a corn snake, and those were also high on that list, but neither Nadia or I are interested in having a snake in our house. Bearded dragons are evidently very friendly, but the thought of keeping crickets alive just so we can feed them to the bearded dragon is rather unappealing for one thing. There are other drawbacks. I think the bottom line is that the kids REALLY want a cat or a dog. Cats are out of the question due to Paul's allergies. So I find myself trying to contemplate how we could care for a dog. This year we have been home more than usual - so this year it wouldn't have been as challenging, but even this year we went skiing twice, spent a day at Refreshing Mountain, went to Six Flags five times, spent a week at Aunt Janet's, took field trips to Hershey, Gettysburg, and Scranton, and took a vacation for a week. Who would take the dog for walks on those days like that? I know the kids would really enjoy a dog, but I don't think they want to give up field trips, skiing, amusement parks, and vacations just so we can have a dog. I think for now the kids need to be content with two fish and three guinea pigs. I'd like to see Nadia and Ian take over responsibility of cleaning the guinea pig cage. 

P.S. I actually was yellow and won the Connect Four game. Nadia wanted it to seem like she had won, so she held a yellow checker when I got out my camera, ha ha! On the other hand, although we didn't finish the game, Ian was beating me at "billiards."

Fall Fun

A very large "operation" type game

Almost every year I've taken the kids to a pumpkin patch and/or corn maze; some years Paul and my parents or his parents joined us. Most of the years we've gone to Ard's Farm. Today we went with a homeschool group to Kohl's; it was our second time at this location as we also went there in 2017. Last year was their favorite trip to Ard's because four of their cousins were with us when we went. For many years I've had a tradition of having the kids wear pumpkin shirts for this outing. I didn't buy any pumpkin shirts this year. The size 10/12 shirt that Nadia had worn was not one I could pass on to Ian because even though the shirt was orange, the pumpkin was definitely feminine. Nadia has decided she has outgrown wearing shirts like that. We had two shirts in size 8 so both boys wore them today even though it was warm enough out to wear a short sleeve shirt. Thank you, boys!! This was definitely our warmest trip to a pumpkin patch. Thankfully it wasn't as hot as it was yesterday. It got into the low 80's yesterday. I wouldn't have asked the boys to wear a long sleeve shirt today if it was as warm as yesterday. I'll have to remember to buy the boys new pumpkin shirts next fall. I can usually get them for less than $5 each on the Children's Place website. The hay ride at Ard's is very short but includes a free pumpkin of your choosing. The hay ride at Kohl's was more than 30 minutes long, but the $$ we paid for the corn maze, games, and hay ride didn't include a pumpkin. We spent almost 3 hours playing the games/ going through the corn maze. The kids asked me a few minutes before we were about to leave if they could do the 2.5 mile corn maze. We had done the 1 mile one earlier. I would have been willing to do it, but not at that time. It was a beautiful day, and due to COVID we hadn't seen people from this homeschool group since February. Although the kids missed the slide they have at Ard's, they did really enjoy the wide variety of games that Kohl's has.

Ian in the small corn maze

Paul's typical schedule is that he leaves for work sometime between 5-6am and gets home between 7-8pm (M-F). On Saturdays he usually gets home between 2-3pm. I say typical because sometimes he leaves for work earlier than 5am and gets home from work after 8pm. He usually doesn't work at the plant on Sundays. If he does, he's only there in the morning. His time at the plant plus his commute to and from work add up to around 80 hours in a typical week. So far this year he took off one day of work to go skiing with us, one day off to go to Six Flags, and seven days off for our family vacation. This year he's taken far more days off for medical appointments than he usually does. He went back to his PCP as a follow-up earlier this month to discuss the results of the upper and lower EMG tests and stress test. All those results were normal except he has carpal tunnel. At the follow-up appointment the PCP advised him to see the eye doctor because he thought Paul had a cataract. Paul went into work later than usual this morning because he had an eye appointment at 7:40am. Nope. He doesn't have a cataract. Paul has known for 20+ years that he has keratoconus, and the eye doctor guessed that's probably what the PCP misdiagnosed as a cataract. He also wanted to remove another one of Paul's moles. Personally, I can't picture ever having a PCP do any kind of surgery on me. This PCP removed a mole from Paul in 2017. It became infected, and at that point I strongly urged Paul to see a dermatologist rather than to return to the PCP, which is what he did. I reminded him of this when he told me earlier this month that the PCP had scheduled him for a procedure to remove another mole. I think he's going to reschedule the appointment with a dermatologist instead. I wonder sometimes if doctors take the cost of procedures and blood work into account when they order them. It seems like good news to get the report that the results of a test are normal (if truly you don't have a medical problem that needs to be addressed), but it also feels like we wasted money when we are spending $500+ per test and all the results are negative. Hopefully the mole removal will go smoothly this time around, and hopefully Paul can stay away from the doctors, ER, hospital, etc. next year. At least he knows he can wait 10 years until his next colonoscopy! Thankfully aside from one trip to the eye doctor for Ian because his glasses were broken and annual well child appointments, the kids and I haven't needed to see any doctors this year. 

The boys spent a TON of time in these!

It was a good thing I didn't agree to the idea of starting the large corn maze at 2:15, as shortly after we got home Paul's parents surprised us with a brief visit in our driveway. They had been shopping for a cabinet at a store less than a mile from our house. The last time Grandma was in our house was for Ian's birthday last December, and the last time we were in their house was Christmas Day. It's yet another way that 2020 has been a very strange year for us. In 2020 we've seen her twice so far- on June 24 for a few minutes in my friend's driveway and today in our driveway for a few minutes. We're planning to go to their home for Thanksgiving this year. Last year Al and Millie joined us for Thanksgiving dinner at our house, but we didn't see Paul's parents at Thanksgiving last year. This year we had Easter dinner with only our immediate family - so Thanksgiving Dinner will be our first holiday celebrated with others in 2020.

Nadia played  game of checkers with another girl. At one point Nadia was WAY behind the other girl, and the other girl asked if she wanted to end the game early. Nadia said she wanted to finish the game, and surprisingly, Nadia ended up winning the game!

Thankful Thursday

1. One goal I've had the last few years has been to participate in more service projects. So many times when I've found one, we have had a scheduling conflict. For example, there was a food packing event near us at the beginning on October, but it took place while we were on vacation. Thankfully I found another one that was taking place this week. I had invited Tab and her boys to join us, and the session that worked for them was this morning at 10:00. Ironically, they had to back out at the last minute, but we were very glad we were able to help today. We're planning on helping once more on Saturday morning. They started the projects yesterday and are wrapping them up on Saturday morning. This Missions Expo is being held at a Methodist Church about 15 minutes from our home. They are packing 100,000 meals that will be sent to Haiti through the organization Kids Around the World, packing 600 family medical packs and 225 action packs for refugees in the Middle East through Voice of the Martyrs, raising money for BioSand water filters through Samaritan's Purse, packing bags of school supplies, and packing boxes of Bible and other Christian literature. We packed food from 10:00-12:15, and during that time 12,000 meals were packed. The kids and I packed a little more than 400 bags in about 2 hours, which accounts for a little more than 2,400 meals! Each bag contained lentils, rice, and vitamins. The bag of food didn't seem very large considering it was supposed to provide six meals. We are so very spoiled here in the USA. Hopefully I will be be able to find more service projects for us to participate in during the coming months and years. It is better to give than to receive!

2. Isaiah and Micah came over to our house last Friday for a few hours, and Tab and their two dogs joined us for part of that time. Face-to-face time with a friend is a rare treat for me. I don't take it for granted! 

3. Tonight is Nadia's last rehearsal for Bad Auditions by Bad Actors. The performance will be aired live tomorrow night via Zoom and aired on Demand on Saturday. Although putting on a theatre performance by Zoom is certainly not ideal, one perk is that we haven't had to drive anywhere for the rehearsals.

4. We have chosen an orthodontist for Ian! I'm thankful he charges a bit less and won't require Ian to wear a headgear. Hoping this will be a beneficial experience and go as smoothly as possible. I had braces for 8 years, and my teeth are still messed up! Hopefully he will have a better experience than I did.

5. Margie saw two different surgeons on Tuesday, and yesterday they chose the one closest to their home. Her surgery has been scheduled for early November. We're thankful she doesn't have to wait a long time to have the surgery and praying all the cancer will be successfully removed.

6. The boys enjoyed playing in the Lewisburg Children's Museum for about an hour yesterday while the van was being serviced across the street. I had asked them to do the annual inspection plus rotate the tires. They also ended up patching one tire that had a screw in it. I'm thankful we didn't have a flat tire!

7. I recently ordered some photo books, Christmas cards, and calendars on Shutterfly. I can't get things totally for free as I used to be able to do a few years ago, but I still can get things for a very low price (I only pay for the shipping). I used to make 20 page photo books, but for the past 3 years I've been making 111 page photo books for less than $10 including shipping. The kids love looking through photo books. For example, today I ordered 11 tri-fold 5x7 Christmas cards for a grand total of $2.07. 

8. Pastor Branden, who will likely become our senior pastor in the spring when Pastor Arlie retires, preached an outstanding sermon on I John 2 on Sunday. I enjoyed teaching a lesson on Moses to the 1st/2nd grade boys during the second service. 

9. I'm thankful I finally buckled down and got the kids started in an online art curriculum. I'm looking forward to seeing what all the kids will create in the coming months!

10. We've continued to make progress with trying new recipes. So far this week I've made egg and bacon pie (a recipe from New Zealand), beef tostadas, tres leches cake, empanadas de pollo, and empanadas abiertas de humita. The boys really liked the egg and bacon pie. Paul hasn't come home from work yet, but the kids and I all liked the cake. The kids struggled to eat the empanadas that had corn in them. My favorite of the new foods we tried this week was the tostadas. I had made tres leches cake once five years ago, but it still seemed like a new food. 

11. The kids and I enjoyed watching the new Secret Garden movie last night. I rarely watch tv, but that was a treat! We thought we'd see it in the theatre, but I don't think we'll be going to see a movie at a theater in 2020. Maybe in 2021?