She got a basket!

When I teach a class on campus, the middle of the semester isn't a crunch time. It's a different story when supervising student teachers. Some of my student teachers will be moving to a different classroom two weeks from today, but even the ones staying in the same classroom are wrapping up the first six credit course next Thursday. There are many evaluations to complete during the last two weeks of each student teaching course (which means it happens twice each semester). I have been spending every possible spare minute working on these. For my 15 student teachers it worked out to 103 assessments to complete (the number varies based on what type of certification they are earning). I'm half-way done as I have completed 52 thus far. I need to have them all completed within the next ten days. I am meeting with each of my fifteen student teachers and cooperating teachers for a three-way conference between March 5-15. I had my first three conferences today, which means I have twelve left to complete. Next week is spring break, which means I won't be teaching my math classes next week. The student teachers don't get spring break. I only scheduled four of the fifteen conferences for next week because the five of us are planning to be in Philadelphia from Sunday through Tuesday. 

Yesterday Paul and I went on a date. We were looking forward to it because we went on only one date in all of 2017, and that was just to have dinner and go shopping at Lowe's. We were also looking forward to it because we had tickets to see the Broadway musical Amazing Grace. It had been 8.5 years since we had seen a Broadway show together. In August 2009 we celebrated our anniversary by seeing Wicked in NYC. I was pregnant with Ian, and Nadia was 13 months old. Several months ago I had looked into seeing Amazing Grace in December when it was playing at the Museum of the Bible in DC, but that plan was scratched when I learned Paul wasn't going to be joining us for the Christmas celebration with my side of the family in Maryland. Going in December would have been far less stressful for me because over the last six weeks I have been getting a lot of work done each Sunday afternoon and evening. I did some work yesterday but far less than I would have done if we hadn't gone on a date. To go on the date it meant I have been working until 10-11pm most nights and starting my work at 5-6 am most mornings.

Paul's parents met us at church yesterday. Paul and I left after the second service and got home about eight hours later. We had more than four hours (round trip) of driving plus a 3 hours at the theater plus went through drive-thru windows for our lunch and dinner. Paul's parents took the kids to McDonald's for lunch, then to Montour Preserve for a program on Maple Sugaring, and then spent the rest of the time at our house. We really appreciated their help! The kids were thrilled because they got to see their grandparents TWO days in a row. Paul's parents hadn't made it to any basketball games thus far this season, and the season is coming to a close soon. So they came up on Saturday for Nadia's 9:00am game and Ian's 2:00pm game and spent some time at our house in between the two games. The kids were in seventh heaven to be able to spend time with their grandparents two days in a row! The team Nadia's team was playing only had three girl's show up, and they play five-on-five. So that team recruited Hannah - a second grader who is the younger sister of one of Nadia's teammates, and then other girls from Nadia's team took turns playing on the other team. There are seven girls on Nadia's team, which has meant that usually she plays four of the six periods. This past Saturday was her first time playing all six periods. Five of those periods she was matched up against Hannah (the second grader who has thus far never played on any basketball team), and the sixth period she was matched up against a girl from her team who was helping the other team. Hannah and Nadia both scored a basket. It was Nadia's first basket this year, and I saw it (unlike Ian's the previous week that I missed even though I was in the gym when it happened). 

Today I am giving thanks:

1. That Nadia and Ian had a good time skiing with Paul last Monday.

2. That I was able to take the kids to both Children's museums, gymnastics, the library, and the playground last Wednesday. These pictures were all from last Wednesday. As you can tell by the fact the kids weren't wearing coats, it was a pretty day that day!

3. That Paul took Nadia to her gymnastics class this evening. The homeschool gym class ended last week. I could have signed them up for the next session, but instead of signing all of them up for a 2pm class on Wednesdays again, I only signed Nadia up for gymnastics. She's in a level 2 class (more challenging than the homeschool one) from 6:30-8:00. Paul said if I picked a 6:30-8:00 class he'd be willing to take her (yahoo!), and so I picked Monday nights because the library isn't open that late on Friday nights (those were the two nights they offered a Level 2 class from 6:30-8:00). The

session is eight weeks long. Four of those weeks all three kids will have indoor swimming lessons at Bucknell from 6:00-6:25.

4. Our piano was tuned this afternoon. It had been a few years since we had it done. It's nice to be able to afford expenditures like that.

5. Nadia made her first basket on Saturday! This was her first time making one with the basketball hoop at the full height. She came very close to making a second basket, and she also had two steals. She's the weakest player on her team, but she has definitely made progress over the past two months! It was wonderful that Paul's parents were able to see her make her first basket this year. 

6. We enjoyed our date yesterday. We need to go on more than one per year. The show was wonderful; it was about the life of John Newton (the author of the hymn "Amazing Grace"). The kids enjoyed spending time with Paul's parents, and they also helped me out by taking them on a field trip to learn about maple sugaring. 

7. Paul's mom's first cataract surgery went well. We also *think* she is done with chemo for the time being. We are thankful it seems that the latest medications have been effective. Here's to hoping and praying she won't need any more chemo or radiation. She's quite the trooper!

8. In March 2013 we began our venture in the world of team sports. Nadia played on a soccer team in the spring and fall of 2013, and in January 2014 we had our first experience with her being on a basketball team. From spring 2013 to the present we've had three seasons a year of team sports - mostly soccer and basketball with one season of softball (Nadia last spring) and one of flag football (all three kids last fall). I didn't sign anyone up for a spring team sport this year, and I'm not planning on signing any of them up for any team sports next fall. I'm looking forward to the reprieve of practices and games in the near future. We haven't decided about basketball next year whether to sign 0, 1, 2 ,or 3 kids up for it. Nadia says she really wants to play basketball again, but she also was really disappointed when she wasn't able to take ice skating lessons this year so I'm not sure what we should do. Nadia has two games left, Ian has one game left, and Oliver's season was cut short due to his concussion and fractured skull. I'm hoping to sign all three kids up for at least one week of tennis lessons this summer. 

9. I heard good things about swimming lessons at Bucknell University last summer. I decided to give it a whirl this year and then see which we like better. I was able to sign all three kids up for private lessons in the same time slot. I don't plan on signing Nadia and Ian up for additional lessons this summer, but I do plan on signing Oliver up for another class as I really want him to be swimming by the end of the summer. Ian is excited that these lessons will be indoors as sometimes he shivers in the outdoor pool in the summer.

10. Including this week there are ten weeks left this semester. I keep telling myself "I think I can, I think I can" because it's easy to feel like I'm in way over my head when I look at my to do list. Summer will be here before we know it. The kids and I can't wait!!! I am trying to do a little better and saying "yes" to the kids instead of always saying "no." For example, I painted Nadia's fingernails yesterday  morning and played Sorry with Ian this evening. I can't wait to greatly reduce the amount of multitasking I am doing. I've been grading at the children's museum, grading during Ian's basketball game (when he was sitting on the bench), grading during the intermission of Amazing Grace, etc. 

11. Tomorrow I'm going to pay off our mortgage!!! We technically won't be debt free yet as I borrowed some money from my retirement account to help pay it off, but it's still a great feeling! If we just make the required payments to the retirement account that loan will be paid off in 4 years. I had my first mortgage in January 2001 so a little over 17 years later, we are done with having a mortgage (I hope to never need another mortgage anyhow). Yay!!! At least we are no longer paying any interest to a bank. With the retirement loan I am just paying interest to my own retirement account.