Thankful Tuesday

1. I am thankful for those who have given their lives serving in our country's military, and I am thankful for the many freedoms we enjoy in this country.

2. We had a great time at Hersheypark last Thursday.

3. It rained yesterday, for the first time in quite awhile. The grass was starting to turn brown in some areas, which is very unusual for the month of May, and I was grateful to have a one day reprieve from watering the flowers.

4. Paul borrowed his dad's truck the last two nights and also borrowed his dad's chain saw. We've loaded the truck three times thus far and have taken away the tree growing into the shed plus half of one of the apple trees. Aesthetically I liked the tree (especially when it hid the trampoline), but I am grateful we will only have ONE apple tree this fall because I have been very overwhelmed with the amount we had from two trees.

5. My mom should hopefully be having her last (6th) chemo treatment tomorrow and also getting the catheter out which has been used to drain fluid from below her lung the last few months.

6. I am so happy with the improvements around the house. Thus far I painted Nadia's bedroom, the kitchen, family room, trim on the shed door, and the master bathroom. I finished painting the master bathroom today. That was a lot more time consuming than I expected. It took almost an entire gallon of paint to do one coat! I used paint Paul bought 3 years ago but had never been used. It wasn't my first choice of color, but it didn't involve spending any more money. Today we bought some pretty blue paint for the half bathroom. I bought the paint and a few other things (such as a new bath rug for our bathroom and a new hand towel for the half bathroom) without spending a penny because I returned three Christmas gifts today at Walmart (three games we were given that we already owned).

7. We enjoyed the chemistry program and picnic in the park last Monday and art day on the 19th.

8. Oliver has been waking up dry again. Whew. He also has been getting himself dressed after he goes to the bathroom. Progress!

Slogans

I have been completely out of the loop when it comes to television commercials the last few years because we've only had cable tv during the NFL season (September - December or January depending on how our teams have done), and during those 4-5 months I usually don't watch anything except for 1-2 football games a week. Normally if the tv is on we are either watching a DVD, playing the Wii, or using the Roku to watch something on Amazon Prime or Right Now Media - neither of which have any commercials. The kids have watched so few commercials in their lives that they get really annoyed by them on the rare occasion they watch something via cable TV. I still remember some of the jingles from commercials I watched when I was a child. Paul's mom bought the kids some candy at Hersheypark on Thursday night, and today we opened Oliver's little package of mini Kit Kat bars. Immediately I found myself singing the tune "What would you do for a Kit Kat bar?". What I had my kids do for a Kit Kat bar was take some pictures at the park (see below).

I am pleased with the progress being made on my "to do" list that I created of projects around the house for the summer. Thus far I cut down one tree, started cutting down a second tree, planted some annuals and perennials, re-organized the bookshelves in the living room and dining room, painted the trim on the shed door, Nadia's bedroom, the kitchen, and the family room. I also have selected a light blue for the half bathroom. Although I would enjoy picking something other than white for the master bathroom, I think I'm just going to go with white because a few years ago Paul purchased two gallons of white paint for the living room, and the cans were never opened. I feel like I shouldn't waste those two gallons. I will use those before buying any more paint. I kept the kitchen and family room the same color they already were (not white) to make the painting job easier. Yesterday I purchased some supplies so Paul could replace the screen on the sliding screen door in the kitchen, and he started working on that today. There has been a big hole in that door since before we bought this house. Today we worked on reorganizing the Legos, which was no small feat.

I know this is a long weekend for most people, but for us it has been a very quiet weekend. The only plans the kids and I had for Saturday, Sunday, or Monday was going to church and Sunday School this morning. Because he missed work on Thursday when we were at Hersheypark, Paul worked at the plant all day yesterday and all day today. The only outing I have planned for tomorrow is to go to a flooring store in our town to schedule a free estimate on replacing some flooring. Paul is planning on bringing home his dad's truck when he comes home from work tomorrow night, and then we can load it up with the branches I've cut down thus far from the apple tree. We'll need to borrow a chainsaw to finish that project. I can only do so much with the little saw we own. I am really enjoying no longer viewing this home as temporary.

Hersheypark Happy!

On Thursday morning we left the house at 7:40 to drive to Hersheypark. We first went on the free ride in Chocolate World where they show you how they make their chocolates. Nadia says the best part is that they give each person a small piece of candy at the end. That morning they were giving out Hershey bars (small ones). We then walked to the entrance gates about 10 minutes after the park had opened. The gates were mobbed. I have never seen it so packed, but the good news is that actually the crowd level was very reasonable that day. The majority of those in attendance came via school buses (from PA, NY, MD, etc.). This meant that #1 the kiddie rides were practically empty the entire day. Oliver usually could just get on the ride immediately. Some ride operators were sitting there doing nothing at various points in the day, and sometimes Oliver was the only child on a ride. It also meant #2 that the park really cleared out around 4pm as many of the kids had gotten back on their buses. Even the "bigger" rides had no wait in the evening. For example, we rode the flume and didn't even get off but just stayed on a second time, and we could have stayed on a third time in a row if we had wanted to. We also just walked right on to the Super Duper Looper rollercoaster with zero wait. Earlier in the day we had waited for some of the bigger rides, especially the brand new roller coaster "Laff Track." At least the majority of the lines for that ride were inside an air conditioned building, and they had mirrors along the way that distorted your body, which also helped to pass the time.

It was really hot that day, and I only found out on Wednesday that the water slides and wave pool weren't opening until May 28 even though the rest of the park had been open for a few weeks. None of the shows were running yet either. I didn't really care about missing the shows, but on such a hot day it would have been nice to go down a few water slides. Thankfully the two water rides not in the water park were operating (ex. the flume), and three of us chose to get soaked on the other one. Nadia kept going in the splash zone near the ride while we were eating lunch. She definitely got soaked more than the rest of us. The temperature cooled off a bit later in the day, which was also greatly appreciated. Considering our home school tickets cost less than half of a normal ticket, I'd say we definitely got our money's worth even though the water part wasn't open.

Nadia was a "Hershey bar" for the first time (minimum of 48 inches) which meant she could ride several rides she couldn't in the past including the bumper cars, the claw (which was one of her three most favorite rides at the park), and a few roller coasters she hadn't been able to ride before. She actually only rode two new roller coasters yesterday  - the Wildcat (which Ian couldn't ride yet) and the Laff Track (which Ian also rode). That means the next time we go there will still be some new rides for her even though I imagine she'll still be a "Hershey bar" next year. Ian was a "PB cup" which meant he was able to ride five roller coasters - 3 for the first time. His favorite was the Super Duper Looper. It was his first time going upside down on a roller coaster. Oliver was a "Hershey Kiss" for the first time, which was much better than being a "Miniature" because they are very limited in what they can ride. He was able to ride two kiddie roller coasters, the flume, tea cups (first time he could ride them at this park), and many kiddie rides.

The park was open until 8pm that day. The kids would have been in favor of staying until it closed, but the adults were ready to leave before that. As it was, we ate a VERY late dinner. Oliver actually fell asleep in the stroller on the way to the parking lot, which was unfortunate because he hadn't gone to the bathroom lately. I had to wake him up when we stopped at McDonald's for dinner not that much later, and he didn't go back asleep. If I hadn't awakened him, he would have slept the whole way home. Lesson learned. Have him go potty before putting him in the stroller. We tucked the kids in bed a little before 9pm, which was later than usual for all of them, but it would have been even later than that if we had stayed until the park closed. All in all I think we all had a fabulous day! I would definitely go in May again in the future. If we had waited until May 31 to go we could have gone on the water slides and such also, but the kids can do water slides at other parks so actually if I had to do it over again I think I would have picked last Friday when the temps were in the 70's (much more pleasant out), but we survived the heat and had a great day.

As usual, I took quite a few pictures. I haven't finished sorting through them yet because I was busy today with taking the kids to gym class, buying paint, going to the library, going to the grocery store, cooking dinner, doing laundry, doing the dishes, and painting the kitchen and family room. Whew. I hope to finish painting those rooms tomorrow and also finish going through the pictures from Hershey. I kept the paint the same color so I am not taking "after" pictures, but let me tell you it is a big improvement already. I shouldn't have waited this long to do this project. It cost me less than $30 and what a difference it makes! I am very pleased, but now I really do want to get new flooring in that room. We shall see about that.... I do realize that if we spend less money then it lengthens the amount of time before I need to start making money, but I have wanted to replace that flooring for almost eight years, and it certainly looks worse now than it did eight years ago. For right now I will start with painting walls, since that's very cheap.

Baseball

Nadia and Ian took a t-ball class three years ago at a YMCA, but they've never played on Little League team yet. When I found out they could have as many as three games a week, I decided we'd just stick with soccer and basketball. One of the homeschooling moms told me about a church that has a baseball and softball clinic every July. I thought the dates might conflict with camp or VBS, but I found out yesterday they don't! I am going to sign Ian up for baseball and Nadia up for softball. The clinic lasts 2.5 hours a night for 4 nights. We'll probably skip the 4th night due to a trip to DelGrosso's, One of the people leading the clinic is Doug Simons who previously played for the NY Mets, Montreal Expos, and Minnesota Twins. They have a break from soccer this summer but they'll be taking tennis lessons, the participating in the baseball/softball clinic, going to horseback riding camp,  (Ian and Nadia), and swimming lessons (all three kids). I haven't been able to run for a few weeks, but I did get some exercise today as I started cutting down branches from one of the two apple trees.

Yesterday I weeded and then planted one flat of annuals, two hosta plants, and one rhododendron bush. I also have been reorganizing the bookshelves this week. I brought up a lot of things from the basement and put them places where they will be more accessible. I think my next project will be to paint the kitchen and family room. I plan to buy the paint while the kids are in gym class on Friday. I am just going to keep it the same color it is now to make the painting project easier for me. I do need to spackle first though.

My mom was scheduled to have her last (6th) chemo treatment today, but it was postponed as her platelets were too low. Hopefully those numbers will come up in the next week.

Fun in the Sun

Yesterday we spent more than three hours at a park in Lewisburg. In addition to playing on the equipment with other homeschoolers, we enjoyed a 45 minute chemistry program  called "Burble, fizz, kaboom: Chemistry for K-6" and ate a potluck lunch in the pavilion. We all had a great time, and the weather was perfect. Before we came home we stopped at the eye doctor and got an adjustment (and replacement nose pads) for Ian's glasses. They are staying up better on his nose since we did that. When we got home the kids played outside some more while I mowed the lawn. Although we had a great time yesterday, I am glad that there is nothing on our agenda today that will take us away from home aside from walking to the playground and and buying some plants and flowers. We are planning to go to Hershey Park on Thursday so it's nice to have a quiet day before that adventure. We are excited about that trip because the kids have never been to Hershey Park in the spring or summer, and I haven't been there in those seasons for more than 20 years. All but one time they've been to Hershey Park it has been for Christmas Candylane, and one time we also went in October. We didn't go to the park at all in 2015 so it's been almost 18 months since our last trip, and the last two times we went with my sister Yvonne and her family. Wish we could do it with them this week as well!

Regression

After going many months (maybe a year?) without having any accidents, Oliver has been having some trouble with wetting the bed over the past month. Previously I could let him sleep as long as he wanted (as late as 9:00 am) and could let him have a drink whenever he asked for one without it causing any problems, but that has not been the case over the past month. We have gone back to not letting him have anything to drink after 6:00 pm. Last night I wasn't aware he was drinking Grandma's water during the program (7:00-7:30), and I was pretty certain that he was going to wet the bed this morning since he drank so late even though he went to bed 30 minutes later than usual. Sure enough he soaked through his clothes, the fitted sheet, the mattress cover, and even soaked part of the mattress itself. In hindsight, I should have had Paul wake him up and take him to the bathroom at 3:15 am when he got up to go to work. That might have prevented the problem. I had said previously that Oliver was by far the hardest to potty train of the three kids, and that has certainly proved true once again because

the other two kids didn't have accidents when they were 3 years (plus 9 months) old. He is starting to make a little progress with putting his clothes back on by himself after he goes potty. I wish I had never let him sit backward on the potty. He sits facing the tank and his aim is not always perfect. Again, Ian and Nadia never had this problem, but Ian never sat that direction. I need to get him to turn around the normal way (or stand up) and work more on his aim because I am very tired of cleaning urine off the floor and other parts of the toilet. Hopefully in the near future he'll be going forward instead of backward in this area.

Paul hung the letters to spell Nadia's name on the wall on Saturday evening. I had done everything else. I took a few more pictures this morning so the Grandmas will know what her room looks like. I also posted the video below of Ian's duet. He has come such a long way!

Now it's time to head to the playground for a homeschool picnic!

Play date and a play

Our schedule this weekend was jam packed. Yesterday morning the kids and I were out the door around 8:00 am to go to church for the second dress rehearsal. Oliver and I hung out in the Well (playland) for about 2 hours while Nadia and Ian were rehearsing. I pulled them from the rehearsal early because Nadia had a soccer game at 11:00. Because it was raining, I opted to take the boys home rather than staying to watch her game after I dropped her off. As soon as Paul brought her home, the kids and I got back in the van and headed to a birthday party for someone the kids know from homeschool gym class. It was the fourth birthday party that Nadia has gone to in her life. I have known this mom for more than 10 years from ladies Bible study and such.

This morning we were out the door at 8:00 am again to go to church, and we didn't leave until about 1:40 because there was a picnic after the 2nd service for the families of kids going into grades 3, 6, or 9. I absolutely loved the choral anthem we sang this morning. The arrangement of the Lord's prayer would have given my mom goosebumps (meaning she would have loved it), and we sang "It is Well" (one of my favorite hymns) this morning. I came home with five kids because we had invited two of Nadia's friends over. Nadia and Claire have known each other for almost 7 years although they don't recall those early interactions at the story time at the library. They have been in AWANA together for five years, and they have been going to church and singing in the Soul Patrol choir together for two years. Claire is 10.5 months older than Nadia, but since she has an early September birthday and Nadia has a June birthday, they are both in the same grade, which means they're in the same class in Sunday School, same group in AWANA, etc. Nadia has known Grace for a little less than two years. Grace is also eight years old and in second grade. Nadia knows Grace from Sunday School and Soul Patrol choir. The really exciting thing we learned today is that Claire's family is moving on Tuesday from a town which is about a 10 minute drive from our house to a house that is about a 10 minute walk from our house. Nadia could ride her bike to Claire's house after they move! The girls are very excited about living closer together, and this again makes me really glad we aren't moving. Each of the three families has three kids. Claire has one older brother and one younger sister, and Grace is the oldest of three girls. Claire goes to the public school, and Grace goes to the Christian school at our church. I think this summer that Nadia and Claire will be spending a lot more time at each other's houses.

The girls played in Nadia's room awhile, then they came down and put on a few "shows" for me wearing a variety of Nadia's costumes, and then the played outside on the swing set and trampoline. After dinner they played outside some more until it was time to head back to church for their program, and after the program they had make your own ice cream sundaes so we didn't leave the church until 8pm. They both did a great job of singing, doing the motions, etc. Nadia was so pleased that she had a major role in the play for the first time. I recorded one of the scenes to give a taste of that (see video below). Ian also had his first duet. It was supposed to be a quartet, but two of the girls were sick so it ended up being a duet. I was very proud of him. He has come a LONG way in the past 3 years. He used to cry and not being willing to be on stage, and now he enjoyed singing a duet. I found out yesterday that Oliver also learned part of this song as I heard him singing it at home by himself. He'll be joining the Soul Patrol choir in September! The internet is being really slow this evening so I will post the video of Ian's duet tomorrow.

I finally am posting pictures of Nadia's room to show the new wall color and the new arrangement of her furniture. I'll try to take a couple more pictures tomorrow.

Saturday

I have made a list of about 20 things that it would be nice to do around the house at some point or another. Some don't involve spending any money (ex. cutting down one apple tree), some involve a very small amount of money (painting rooms, planting plants), and some involve more money (replacing flooring, etc.). Paul said he wants to wait until the appliances actually die before we replace them so we are holding off on buying a new refrigerator (ours is 19 years old) or dryer (20 years old). I completed three things off that list this week when I repainted Nadia's room, cut down a tree growing over the shed, and repainted the trim on the doors of the shed. Up until yesterday the shed was all one color. The paint on most of the shed isn't that bad, but the paint on the trim of the doors was really bad. It was peeling all over the place. Several times this week I went out there and scraped off as much paint as I could from the trim (Oliver helped a little with that), and yesterday on the way home from the kids' gym class, I stopped at the hardware store and bought a quart of exterior green paint. That is the color used on our house for the shutters and doors so I thought it was the best choice for the accent color on the shed. It is by no means a perfect job, but I think for a shed it was an adequate job. If you had seen what it looked like "before," I think you would concur that this "after" photo represents a big improvement.

This morning the kids had their second dress rehearsal for their musical, which they will be presenting tomorrow night at church. Last Sunday they sang one of the songs in both services. I used my cell phone to record it, which is not the same quality as the video camera, and then when the phone compresses it to upload to youtube the quality goes down a lot more, but I figured at least the two grandmas would want to see it since they weren't there. I am going to be sure to bring the video camera on Sunday night so the quality will be better when I record some of Nadia's speaking parts and Ian's quartet. I used it to record Nadia and Ian singing 'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus this morning, which is Ian's special song (the part he sings by himself is where his quartet is). If my mom was healthier she would be coming tomorrow. She had a transfusion yesterday and will have another on Monday. She will have her last chemo treatment sometime in the next 11 days. I took the photo at right at breakfast this morning. The kids still have their stuffed animals join us at meals. Ian served them pancakes this morning.

Art Day

In the past we hadn't joined in the homeschooling group's annual Art Days (there are two of them each May) because #1 sometimes we were in Florida when they took place and #2 they have been held at someone's home who lives one hour from our home. But since we were not on vacation, and I had heard such great things about Art Day, I decided we'd participate, and I chose today because tomorrow morning the kids have gym class. The woman who organizes and hosts this event (let me tell you she must put in many, many hours preparing) is moving, and next year she'll only live 25 minutes from our home. Yahoo! It was worth the drive though. We stayed for four hours. I would estimate she had about 30 or 40 stations set up - some in her house and some outdoors. They included a very wide variety of activities for different ages - making masks, henna, working with clay on a pottery wheel, painting, shooting watercolor out of water guns, symmetry, optical illusions, making a Mona Lisa, sidewalk chalk, using bleach on a colored t-shirt, fern pounding on a white t-shirt, origami, and much more. We also enjoyed a potluck lunch together, and the kids also enjoyed their rope swing, hammock, playing with their large chess pieces, climbing a tree, etc. All three kids had a blast. As soon as we got home we changed clothes, and the boys took a bath.

The weather was great for Art day, as it was about 72 degrees and sunny out. Some of the activities were inside, but I didn't take any photos of those because I favor natural light. I hadn't spent much time outside on Tuesday or Wednesday due to painting Nadia's room. I hadn't painted a room since 2004. That was my "art" project for the week. I spackled on Monday and painted her room purple on Tuesday and Wednesday. Nadia and I think it is beautiful! I rearranged her furniture as she wanted a new look for her room. I hung almost everything back on the walls except for the the letters that spelled her name. I've asked Paul to do that. Paul left for work at 3:30 am the last three days. He came home at 6:45 pm on Tuesday, and I asked him to be home by 6:15 pm last night so I could go to choir. He got home at 6:30 this evening but didn't come in the house until 8:00 pm because he was cutting the tree branches of the tree I cut down on Monday to make them small enough and then loading them on his dad's truck. He must be exhausted!