Thankful Tuesday

1. Nadia earned second place in the Bible quizzing on February 17. Her goal is to earn a perfect score and first place next year.

2. Ian scored two baskets, and Nadia got one basket and a couple of steals in their games on February 18. Paul's parents came up to watch their games.

3. Paul and I enjoyed a married night out event at our church (that included child care for the kids) on February 18.

4. The kids sang in their choir on February 19. Nadia had a small solo, and Paul's parents came to the second service and then spent a few hours at our home. Ian has a small solo in the song they're singing in March, and both Nadia and Ian were assigned speaking parts in the musical they are doing in May. Ian is playing the part of a boy named Noah, and Nadia is pretending to be a GPS.

5. Claire and Sophie came over for four hours on February 20. The kids had a blast playing together!

6. We really enjoyed the

beautiful, warmer than usual weather we had for eight days. I was able to go for a three mile walk twice, and I also walked to the playground with the kids twice (which is about 2 miles round trip).

7. The kids did activities related to running a restaurant at the Children's Museum last Wednesday, and then we spent some time at the Bloomsburg town park.

8. We enjoyed a two hour hike at RB Winter state park on Friday, being outside for gym class that morning, and spending some time at the playground in Lewisburg in 75 degree temperature!

9. Ian's Sparky team came in first place (out of six teams) on Friday night. Nadia's T&T team came in second place on their circle (and fourth place out of six teams) in the Awana games.  Paul's parents came to cheer them on!

10. The kids and I enjoyed miniature golfing in the Milton library on Saturday morning.

11. My dad took us out to dinner at Bonanza on Sunday night. He and I had a great time taking Ian and Nadia skiing for the first time yesterday at Ski Sawmill.

12. Oliver had a great time with Grandma and Pop Pop yesterday. Paul didn't have to go in to work as early as usual yesterday, which was perfect timing because it meant Oliver was allowed to sleep until 7:15. When he woke up he went to the bathroom, I brushed his teeth, he got dressed, and then he left with Paul.

13. I typically don't watch the movies that I get for Paul from the library, but I did watch one with him recently called Sully. It was excellent!

14. We enjoyed having dinner at Dunkin Donuts on Thursday before ice skating lessons. We each had a sandwich and a donut. It's that wonderful time of year when they have brownie batter donuts, which happen to be my most favorite donut (and Nadia's). On Friday we had lunch at Wendy's. Both treats were made possible through gift cards we were given at

Christmas. Oliver and I enjoyed eating some chili. Yum!

15. We all seem to have survived our skiing adventures without any significant injuries. Nadia got smacked on her right cheek with a ski, but even that mark is very small this morning. We had a bit of sunburn on our cheeks yesterday (next time I need to remember sunscreen), but that has also faded already. Some of my muscles are sore, but otherwise I am doing fine. My dad used our Jacuzzi tub last night for his sore muscles. I can only hope that when I'm 73 years old I am still able to go skiing!

16. Picking a wedding date was rather stressful for my Dad and Margie. I am grateful a date has been picked that seems to work for their combined seven children. One perk of the stress was that I talked with my three siblings far more than usual. Yvonne commented that it was the silver lining in the situation. Agreed!

17. I am really enjoying seeing what the kids write about in their journals. When I gave Nadia the prompt of what would you ask for if someone would grant you three wishes, she wrote, "1. to be wise, 2. to be the President, and 3. to have all the American girl dolls." The first sounds like King Solomon. The second has been what she's been saying lately that she wants to be when she grows up, and I really hope the third never comes true because I have no idea where we'd put that many dolls, ha ha!

Skiing adventure with Grandpa!

The last time I went skiing was February 27, 1999 - exactly eighteen years ago. I skied at Roundtop (farther south in PA) with my Dad and my brother. On February 27, 2017 my dad and I took Nadia and Ian skiing at Ski Sawmill. The excursion was totally free except for the gas to get there and back because of a contribution I made to WVIA in December. It was the very first time Nadia or Ian ever were on skis. The three skills they needed to learn were how to use a T-bar to get up the slope, how to ski down the slope, and how to stop at the bottom. Nadia had a little bit of trouble learning how to use the T-bar. She had no problems learning how to ski, and she definitely had trouble at first with learning how to stop, but she definitely mastered all three skills. By the end of the day she was riding the chair lift to the top of the mountain and skiing down all by herself. She was ready to progress to the intermediate slopes. Ian had a lot of trouble learning how to use the T-bar. He got pretty good by the end at using it to get up the mountain, but he never mastered how to get off of it

gracefully. He usually ended up in the snow. He did learn how to ski down the mountain and how to stop. He went up the chair lift once, but that was too intimidating for him. Honestly he had the skills, but it was too scary for him. Maybe next year he'll be game for that. I was very glad we didn't bring Oliver this time. My dad and I had our hands full teaching two kids how to ski for the very first time. Next year I think we'll bring Oliver along. If we renew our membership with WVIA we can ski for free twice a year. Nadia and Ian didn't want to leave at the end, but my dad and I had enough, plus we needed to get home to have dinner. I had packed our lunch, but I hadn't brought anything for dinner. We were there for six hours, and we had a great time! The temps were in the high 40's, and when you are helping a child ski you really feel quite warm.

I took some pictures with my good camera and also some pictures and videos with my phone. I haven't gone through them all yet, but here are a few. I decided to take the plunge and shoot in Raw instead of jpeg, and then I found out that my 7 year old version of Lightroom wasn't compatible with raw files from my new camera. Oops. So that lead to me buying a new version of Lightroom, which I wasn't planning on doing. I will be the first to admit that photography isn't a cheap hobby. I had returned my Christmas gift from Paul so I hope he didn't mind that I bought this instead.

Vitamin D

We really enjoyed spending a lot more time outside over the past week. The kids and I walked to the playground on Monday and Thursday. We spent some time at the park in Bloomsburg after spending a couple of hours in the Children's Museum on Wednesday. While Nadia and Ian had their ice skating lesson on Thursday, Oliver and I hung out at  a playground close to the ice rink. It felt very strange to take them to ice skating lessons when it was 72 degrees outside. On Friday the kids played flag football outside during their 90 minute gym class, we went on a two hour hike at the state park, and then we spent about an hour at a playground in Lewisburg (and fed a few ducks) before going to the Awana games at our church. As an aside, the Sparks team that Ian was on won first place, and the T&T team that Nadia was on won second place last night. It got up to 76 degrees yesterday! All the fresh air and sunshine was heavenly. It started out warm this morning, but then a front passed through that brought rain and cooler temps. We did play nine holes of miniature golf inside a library this morning, but we ditched our plans to participate in the maple sugaring program at Montour Preserve this afternoon due to the rain. I am amazed that the ski resort is still open, but this means that Nadia, Ian, and I can keep our plans to ski with Grandpa on Monday.

This week was a big one for my dad and Margie as they settled on a wedding date. Many different options were considered over the past five weeks including getting married in Turkey in March and getting married in Virginia in July, but the current plan is for them to get married on August 12 in Lynchburg, Virginia, where Margie lives, which is about six hours from our home. I am very thankful they shifted the date about three weeks because the plan as of Wednesday was for them to get married on July 21, which would have been only 5 days after the date of my mom's funeral last year. Picking a date was a challenge given they were trying to accommodate the schedules of seven adult children. Yvonne is due to have her eighth baby next month and can't travel for a little while, Andrea (Margie's daughter) didn't want the wedding to be in May because that's when her parents got married, I was hoping the wedding wouldn't be in July because that's when my mom died last year, etc. It's still all rather surreal to me, but I have almost six months to adjust to the new reality.

President's Day play date

When the weather was so gorgeous this weekend I just assumed it was very temporary, but I was pleasantly surprised when I checked the weather forecast this morning and saw it's supposed to be warmer than usual the whole week! The high on Friday is supposed to be 69! Wow! This morning I did an art project with the kids that used oil pastels and Bombay ink. Then after lunch I went and picked up Claire and Sophie, and they spent four hours with us. They met the guinea pigs, played on our pianos,

and jumped on the trampoline. Then we walked to the playground. I let Oliver ride in the stroller although those days are coming to an end for him. It was heavenly out! I got exercise three days in a row. Yahoo!

One thing I've noticed about parenting is that it's very easy to feel like you are failing in some way. Not that I was a perfect teacher, principal, or professor, but I never wrestled with those feelings or thoughts when I was a educator. Sometimes they crop up because of the way the kids are behaving. I realize that even if I was a perfect parent, it wouldn't guarantee my children would behave perfectly. They bear responsibility for their behavior, but I also know that at times their ill behavior is because I have not done or said something I should have as their mother. Similarly, it's easy to see what others are doing with their kids and again think - I should be doing more of xyz with my kids. I'm not a very artsy, craftsy person for one thing.

One thing I recently felt compelled to do more of is inviting kids over to our house. The kids do play outside with some neighbors from time to time, but I haven't scheduled very many "play dates" over the years. Baylee is coming over in a couple of weeks, and Sophie and Claire came over today. Next, I am planning to invite a boy from Ian's soccer team over to our house. It hit me today that when the public school has a day off, like today for President's Day, that would be a great day to invite Claire and Sophie over to our house. Claire and Nadia are both in third grade. Claire turned nine in September. Sophie is in second grade; she'll turn eight in May. Ian is in first grade. The girls knew some of our neighbors from school. The boys were shooting them with a water gun when they were on the trampoline. At one point there were I think seven kids on the trampoline, and Oliver wasn't one of them. Today we're thankful for friends, warm weather in February, blue skies, fresh air, and exercise.

Full, warm weekend

On Saturday morning we headed out the door at 9:30 for Ian's basketball game. Paul's parents met us there. He got two baskets, and I actually got pictures of both of them! The picture of his first basket turned out better because I was right behind him when he shot the second one. After his game we made a quick run to McDonald's for lunch as we had about 40 minutes before we needed to head back for Nadia's game. She made a basket also! This was their sixth game of the season. Ian didn't score in two games, got one basket each in two games, got two baskets in one game, and got three baskets in one game. Nadia had a couple of steals this last game. All of the previous games her team has won by a landslide. According to the score board her team lost by three points, but that was because in the beginning they were up by more than ten points, and they don't allow the gap between the scores to be greater than ten points. If an accurate score had been kept during the whole game, they would have won by three points. There was one girl on the opposing team who was REALLY tall. Thus far Nadia didn't score any baskets in two of the games, and she scored one basket each in the other four games. They have a bye week next week, and then in the first two weeks of March they have their last two games.

After Nadia's game was over we went to the library. I also planned to take the kids to the playground near the library because it was in the SIXTIES in February, but for some odd reason they weren't interested. We stopped at Walmart on the way home, and wonder of wonders we only got the two things on my list - a lightbulb (funky kind) for Ian's light fixture in his bedroom and some socks for the kids. Usually when I enter Walmart with a short list I always come home with a lot of other items. Since we didn't go to the playground, it meant I had time to go for a run. I decided since I am horribly out of shape just to walk three miles. It felt heavenly to be out in the fresh air getting some exercise when it was so warm. I was wearing a t-shirt and capris in February! Wow! After we ate dinner we drove to church for a Married Night Out event that included child care for the kiddos. It lasted two hours and included some games, a devotional by one of the pastors, and some desserts. We were one of three couples at our table, and our table won one of the games.

This morning we were out the door at 8:15 for church. The kids sang in the 9:00 and 10:45 services. I didn't take any pictures, but I took a video of each service. I posted the one from the second service below. Nadia had a brief solo near the beginning of the song. Many different children had a little solo in it. Ian could have had one, but he declined. He said he accepted a solo for the next song. Oliver got some laughs. I think I'm giving him a break from the choir for the next seven months. I'll just let him stay in the airport (the class for four-year-olds) for both services on Sunday. That's what he'd prefer to do anyhow. Today he opted to stay in the service for the second service to sit with Grandma and Pop Pop rather than attend the choir rehearsal. Hopefully he'll be better behaved when he's five-years-old. Grandma and Pop Pop spent a few hours at our house this afternoon. I went for another three mile walk to take advantage of the opportunity to get exercise and to enjoy the gorgeous weather. I discovered I need to buy myself some new sneakers. These are going to become my lawn mowing shoes. We finished off our day by playing the board game Life and watching a VeggieTales dvd. Since Oliver was up past his bedtime the last two nights, I was glad we were able to tuck him in on-time tonight.

Second place!

Many weeks ago the AWANA director sent an email asking parents to sign their kids up if they were interested in participating in the AWANA games/ Sparks-O-Rama (which was called the AWANA Olympics when I was a child) and/or the Bible quizzing. I had signed Nadia up for both, and only Ian for the AWANA games as you have to be in at least third grade to do the quizzing. I heard more later about the games, and the kids had a practice recently on a Friday night to prepare for that event, but I hadn't heard much about the quizzing so I came to the false conclusion it wasn't happening. I had deleted it from our calendar, and then just a few days ago I heard about it again and put it back on the calendar. I thought there might be a team from the church and they would practice together. Having never attended such an event, I started feverishly drilling Nadia on her verses from the book. Well of course it wasn't a bad thing for her to review the verses she has learned thus far this year, but actually it wasn't necessary for the quizzing.

Now that I've sat through a quizzing event I'll know better how to help Nadia prepare next year, and we won't get so worked up about it because even though we didn't know how to prepare, she did a great job. She got a perfect score on the written test, and she got 9/10 right when using the paddles to answer oral multiple choice questions in the sanctuary. She got the first one wrong because she didn't understand how it worked, and then she got the next nine all right. She got a beautiful big red second place ribbon. If she had gotten a perfect score she would have gotten two big ribbons - a blue one for first place and a purple one for a perfect score. She said that's her goal for next year. Way to go, Nadia! Considering she doesn't take multiple choice tests at all as a homeschooler, I am pleased she figured out what to do. I have been concerned about that because she'll be taking a standardized test for the first time next month. I'm not concerned about her knowledge in reading, math, etc, but I am a little concerned about her test taking skills since I don't give her any tests  because I teach from a mastery approach. We keep doing the spelling words until she can get ALL of them right.

One thing that cracked me up today was her journal entry. I asked her to write about the best day ever. I said it could be a true story about a day that was really special OR it could be what she would like to happen that would make a perfect day in her mind. I was really surprised at what she wrote about. She said her perfect day was a Saturday when she had a basketball game and then after lunch her friend Claire came over to our house to play with her. That's it. She told me she really loves playing basketball. I am sure many kids would come up with something more extravagant like a day at Disney World, but her idea of a "perfect day" is a very simple one. I think that's great. I guess I need to invite her friend Claire over in the near future!