Thankful Tuesday

1. I thought I would be going on campus yesterday to meet with a student teacher, the department chair, and Dean, but then the department chair offered on Sunday night for me to participate by Zoom. This saved me about 90 minutes of driving time (round trip), gas and $20 that I would have given our neighbor to babysit the kids for two hours.

2. I thought that Oliver's sledding accident would cost us more than $500 in medical bills, but thus far the total is $385.78.

3. Paul has been playing board games with Ian, often from 8:00-8:30pm. I played Connect Four with him last night for 15 minutes. I can't wait until summer is here as I'll have far more time to play with the kids.

4. We enjoyed a yummy lunch at church on Sunday with other families who help teach the children's classes.

5. On Saturday Nadia had her last basketball game. We appreciate all the volunteers who make it possible - refs, coaches, those who give the devotions, concession stand workers, etc. At the moment the plan is to sign Nadia and Ian up for basketball next year and hope that their practices don't interfere with ice skating lessons.

6. The kids enjoyed their art class at the Children's museum on Saturday at 11:00 and the Amazing Inventors show put on by the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble at the library on Saturday at noon.

7. Paul has been helping with taking Nadia to gymnastics on Monday nights. It will be a little different the next four Mondays as I'll be taking all three kids for swimming lessons (right before her gymnastics class), but I have appreciated his help.

8. This week is a lighter week for me as far as visiting student teachers. Much appreciated! After this week just seven more to go! My math classes went really well today. I really enjoy teaching this class.  Hopefully, I'll be teaching two sections of this same class in the fall from 8:00-10:45am on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

9. On Sunday and Monday I wrote the final exam for the math class after I was totally caught up with student teaching evaluations, grading, etc. It's very encouraging to make progress on my to do list. I'm planning on starting to work on writing letters of recommendation for my student teachers this week. I'm trying to do anything I can to make the next seven weeks less overwhelming!

10. I'm very, very thankful for my mom. Today would have been her 73rd birthday. I miss her very much. I don't cry as often as I did the first 15 months after she passed, but she is still deeply missed. There are days I really, really want to be able to talk to her, let her hear Ian play the piano, etc. I would have loved to have had more years with her here on earth, but I am thankful for the 44 I did have. I'm very, very thankful I have the assurance I will be reunited with her one day in Glory. I cannot wait to give her another big hug and hear her voice again. Happy birthday, Mom! For the rest of my life, I will associate March 20 with the first day of spring and my Mom's birthday even if I can't do anything to make her birthday special any more.

Christ Church in Philadelphia (the Franklin's pew)

Summer Plans

My spring semester officially ends on May 10. I am planning to take the kids on a field trip on May 11. I am considering that to be the last day of our school year although I do plan to have them continue some things (such as math flashcards, practicing the piano, reading) at least some days between May 12- August 27. I haven't worked out all the details of what we'll be up to this summer. For example, I'm hoping to add at least one week of tennis lessons (for all three), one week of swimming lessons (Oliver), one week of diving lessons (Nadia), and a minor league baseball game to our schedule. In many cases it's a case of choosing what to do and at the same time what we are going to skip this summer because it's impossible to do everything! I asked Nadia if she'd rather skip going to Montage Mountain or the Lycoming County Fair. She said that was a tough choice, but she had to be willing to give up one of those two things if she wanted to do a week of Adventure Camp at Bloomsburg University. She really wants to do the camp because it includes kayaking, rafting, hiking, rock

wall climbing, high ropes/zip-line, etc. She ended up deciding to skip going to Montage Mountain. Because she's doing that camp, we're going to skip PA Wilds Child, which is a one day event at a state park on a Saturday in June. Ian surprised me and said he wanted to do the Adventure Camp, but considering how fearful he still is, I think it would be a big waste of money. If I see that he's more willing to try things like rock wall climbing, then maybe I'll send him next year. That particular camp is for kids ages 8-13.

The last two years Nadia and Ian were in an art camp (in other words a 3 hour art class that lasted for 5 days) at the Children's Museum, and last year they also did a one week maker camp there as well. The minimum age requirement for their camps is six. One of the art camps is from July 30-August 3, and she said he had to be six at the start of the camp. His birthday is August 7. Because Oliver wasn't allowed to join

and because Nadia and Ian have been in an art class at the Christian school this year, I decided we'd take a year off of art camp. Nadia and Ian really wanted to do art camp and Maker camp again, but it's impossible to fit everything they *want* to do into one summer. Two years ago Nadia and Ian did a week of horseback riding camp. Last year we skipped that. This year I am signing all three of them up for a week of horseback riding camp. That is an all day camp (9-3) for 5 days). The last two years Ian didn't want to go to Camp Susque for the 3 night Adventure Camp. When Nadia was eight she had her first full week of camp there. Eight year olds can choose either option. That's the oldest you can be to do the 3 night camp, and it's the youngest to be in the full week camp. So this year the choice I gave Ian was whether he wanted to go to camp for 3 nights or 7 nights. He picked 3 nights. He's going June 20-23, and Nadia will be going from July 21-28. I am hoping that all three kids will be able to participate in Camp Good News in July. It will be Oliver's first time,

Nadia's second time, and Ian's third time. The other camp Nadia and Ian might do is a History camp at a museum near us (9- noon for 5 days). They did a history camp at another site two years ago.

In addition to registering the kids for various camps, I've been planning other getaways. I contacted one of our Senators recently to request a tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in DC on June 14. They said requests had to be made at least three months in advance. I also want to buy our tickets to see Jesus at Sight and Sound in the near future so we can have more of a selection of seats than we did in December. With the full realization that plans change and what actually happens might be rather different than the current plan, here is what I have mapped out thus far for our Summer 2018:

May 12-27: one day at Knoebels, kids' choir presents their musical, Brothers Grimm play, tour the Pleasant Gap Fish hatchery, see the "Greatest Pirate Story never told," visit Sky Zone (trampoline park), and possibly take a 2 day trip to NYC to visit the Museum of Math, National Geographic's Ocean Odyssey, and the Bronx Zoo

Paymaster's office at the Iron Furnace

May 28- June 6: vacation to California! (highlights will include Sea World, Disneyland, LEGOLAND, San Diego Zoo, USS Midway, Maritime Museum, Fleet Science Center, and San Diego Natural History Museum)

June 7 -17: possibly Sesame Place, Jesus at Sight and Sound, one day in DC, one day in Baltimore, 3 nights of VBS

June 18-24: Nadia at Adventure Camp (9-4 for 5 days), Ian at Camp Susque (3 days/nights), attend a Pow Wow, Nadia's birthday!

June 25-30: Horseback riding camp for all 3 (9-3 for 5 days)

July 1-7: possibly go to Long Island to visit my Aunt Janet

July 8-14: 5 nights of VBS, Star Wars Day, Charlotte's Web play, Lycoming County Fair, one day of summer history camp (9-3) for all three kids at Buggy Museum

July 15-20: Camp Good News for all 3 (9-3 for 5 days); 5 nights of VBS

July 21-28: Pinkalicious

Cornwall Iron Furnace

musical, Nadia at Camp Susque for 7 nights, one day at DelGrosso's, concerts at Knoebels one night, Acorn Family Festival

July 29-August 5: roller skating, possibly a history camp for Nadia and Ian from 9-12 at the Taber Museum, Big Daddy Weave concert, weekend 2 day trip to Pittsburgh (Bushy Run Battlefield, Fort Pitt Museum, Pittsurgh Zoo, etc.)

August 6-17: Nadia theater camp from 12-3 for 10 days total, Oliver's birthday, West End Fair, National Night Out, Little League World Series game

August 18-27: 4 day trip to Niagara Falls, Rochester, and Buffalo, Building 429 concert at Grange Fair

Thinking about how Nadia will be turning ten this summer is a vivid reminder to make the most of our summers because we don't really get that many of them with our kids before they are grown and gone!

Philadelphia! (part two)

I thought I'd be able to write the second post about our trip on Tuesday night or Wednesday, but once I got home I had to hit the ground running in terms of doing school work. My original plan had been to visit a children's museum and aquarium in New Jersey on Tuesday. On Monday as I was looking up the directions I realized that the Garden State Discovery Center was about 20 minutes farther than the Aquarium. Knowing we'd already be driving home that day, I didn't really want to add a 40 minute round trip drive to a children's museum given I knew there was still so much we could see and do right in Philadelphia. Since we had free parking because of our hotel stay, we opted to walk to the Academy of Natural Sciences, which is run by Drexel University. It's located very close to the Franklin Institute. Ian didn't object to walking again, but Oliver and Nadia weren't too thrilled. The museum was about one mile from the hotel; one advantage of walking was we saw things we wouldn't have seen if we were driving such as statues and our walk through the gates of City Hall. The walking would have been more pleasant if it had been warmer out. You just never know at this time of year what to expect with the weather. The good news is we didn't have any snow, and it only sprinkled on us a little bit on Monday evening, but otherwise it didn't rain while we were out and about, which was good as I forgot to bring umbrellas!

We spent about two hours at the museum. Most of it was free for us due to our ASTC membership. There were two exhibits that had additional fees. We opted to skip the crocodile one because we already go to Reptiland once a year, and they were the ones who set up that temporary exhibit in Philadelphia. We paid $3 each to visit the butterfly exhibit. If I had to do it over again, we would skip that one also because we didn't even have enough time to see everything in the museum during the two hours we spent there, in part because there was a fire drill at one point. We attended one program that featured a Cooper's hawk and a Solomon island prehensile tailed skink. On the third floor that had a variety of animals that the children could ask a staff member to take out so they could touch it. They chose a legless lizard (looked like a snake). Unfortunately when I brought my camera to this museum I forgot to take the memory card out of the laptop so could only use my phone to take pictures. I made sure to put the memory card in before we went in the aquarium!

On our way back to the parking garage next to the hotel, we stopped and had breakfast sandwiches for lunch at Dunkin Donuts. Then we drove across the river into Camden, NJ. We spent the next few hours at the Adventure Aquarium. It's hard to say which is better when comparing that one and the one in Baltimore. They are both excellent. They have differing strengths. The kids enjoyed touching a variety of animals such as a cleaner shrimp, anemone, starfish, shark, stingray, etc. Oliver loved the hippos. All three of them loved walking over the rope walkway over the shark tank. They did that multiple times. We watched a short program featuring an African penguin. We watched two 3D movies that were each about 25 minutes long. One was about emperor penguins, and the other was titled 20,000 leagues under the sea. Altogether between our walk to and from the Academy of Natural Sciences plus our walking around the museum and the aquarium, we walked six miles total on Tuesday. Over the course of the three days we walked more than fifteen miles. Oliver fell asleep in the van as we were leaving Philadelphia. I had done all the driving on Sunday. We didn't drive at all on Monday. Paul did the majority of driving on Tuesday, although I drove the last hour of our trip home. We stopped at McDonald's on our way home for a later than usual dinner. During our car rides to and from Philadelphia we listened to a few chapters of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (via Audible and a Bluetooth speaker) and the kids watched a couple of Veggie Tales dvds.

If money were no object it would have been nicer to have two rooms, but for two nights we survived all sharing one bedroom. We were all glad to be back in our own beds on Tuesday night. Paul's first question was to ask for details about the sleeping arrangements for our trip to San Diego. We aren't all sharing one bedroom for that trip as I reserved a 3 bedroom condo through airbnb. I think the trip was a success! Because we had this outing, I cancelled two other field trips I had originally planned for this week. We skipped the homeschool hangout at the Children's museum on Wednesday morning as I needed to get work done and the last thing I wanted to do was get right back in the van, especially as I was going to drive almost two hours round trip to see a student teacher that afternoon. Also, I was going to take the kids to see a show about Harriet Tubman this morning, but I again opted to skip the drive. Skipping the show meant all three could go to gym class plus Ian and Nadia could go to art class. While they were in art, Oliver and I went to Walmart and the library. My goal is to finish my student teaching evaluations today, and when I complete that I will be totally caught up with grading. I'll have a little break from student teaching evaluations, and during that respite I want to work on writing the final exam for the math classes. Although I'd rather live in a warmer climate, I am grateful that we live in an area where within four hours or less we can be in NYC, Pittsburgh, Philadephia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC. This makes it feasible to go on SO many field trips to historical places like Gettysburg, Antietam, Saratoga, Valley Forge, etc. as well as many museums, aquariums, and zoos. Since we didn't go on as many field trips as usual this school year, I want to schedule more of those this summer, and I'm hoping next year we get back to doing more during the school year.

Thankful Thursday

1. Oliver was given permission to resume normal activity on March 9.

2. Nadia was able to participate in AWANA quizzing on March 9. She came in 6th place. They only gave ribbons to those in 1st-5th place.

3. Ian's basketball season came to an end on March 10. Nadia's will end this Saturday. Now we need to decide how many (0, 1, 2, or 3) to sign up for basketball for next year as the sign-up will be on March 24.

4. Nadia, Oliver, and I enjoyed seeing the Cinderella musical on Saturday afternoon.

5. I enjoyed teaching the first and second grade girls on Sunday morning.

6. We really enjoyed our getaway to Philadelphia. Aside from the one night in VA in August for my dad's wedding, Paul hadn't traveled overnight with us anywhere since September 2016. We got in for free at many of the places we toured due to Charter Day (Conrad Weiser Homestead and

Cornwall Iron Furnace), our ASTC membership (Franklin Institute and Academy of Natural Sciences), and our fourth grade National Park pass (Franklin Museum). The US Mint is always free to tour. We gave a donation for our tour at Christ Church. We packed food for one lunch and two breakfasts. We used gift cards for two other meals. This meant we only had to pay for one meal a day (three total). Our biggest expenses were the hotel (we got a good price through Priceline) and our tickets at Adventure Aquarium (which was outstanding). Because we walked 6-8 miles a day, we only paid parking once ($10 at the Aquarium). The kids enjoyed swimming in the pool at the hotel. Normally when we go to Philadelphia we drive there and back on the same day, but I think this is the better way to go as it's exhausting to do that round trip drive all in one day. I imagine we'll probably make a trip to Philadelphia once a year because there are so many things to see there. We've only scratched the surface!

7. The kids only needed to be at the babysitter's house for 8 hours this week due to the fact it was spring break on campus. It wasn't spring break for my student teachers, which is why I still had to work some this week. Aside from emailing some students and cooperating teachers, I actually took 2.5 days off of doing school work (Sunday through Tuesday) which was nice although what I really long for is a day off from school work that's just a relaxing day. I only have eight weeks left. The end is in sight!

8. I received an email today stating that the nominating committee at church has nominated me as a candidate for the election for the church board. That is an honor to be considered for that role.

9. The men cut the kids' cars on Wednesday night. We greatly appreciate the help! Ian's looks like a pencil, Nadia's like a piano, and Oliver's looks like a Batmobile.

10. I'm thankful for safety on the road. I drive a lot these days, Paul drives 100 miles a day to and from work, and we just went to Philadelphia and back.

11. Oliver finished his first Sparks book on Wednesday night! He has come a long way with memorizing verses over the last three years. It was a big struggle the first two years. Ian is on pace to finish his extra credit book. He passed five sections on Wednesday night. Nadia is on pace to finish her book; she passed two sections last night (which means she only has five sections left).

12. Paul's mom took excellent care of our guinea pigs for several days. The kids were very glad to be reunited with them on Wednesday evening.

13. The credit card company discovered today that someone was using one of our card numbers. They didn't have the physical card. Ironically we hadn't used the card at all for four months. They racked up over $300 charges through several small purchases at Taxify (whatever that is) and Uber. I'm glad we don't have to pay any of those bills. It's sad that credit card fraud is so common these days!

14. I had planned for the kids and I to read 1 and 2 Peter , and I discovered that on Right Now Media Phil Vischer had just released a new series for kids on 1 Peter. Perfect timing!!

Philadelphia! (part one)

Sunday after church we drove to the Cornwall Iron Furnace, which was built in 1742 and is the only one in North America to survive fully intact. Because it was Charter Day, admission was free, and they were giving free guided tours. Our next stop was the Conrad Weiser Homestead. We arrived after the free guided tours had ended, but we were able to interact with various costumed demonstrators and watch a reenactment of a skirmish from the time of the French and Indian War. Oliver spent a lot of time watching a man carving spoons out of blocks of wood. None of us had been at either of these places before. The event at the Conrad Weiser Homestead was very similar to the one we often go to in our town in September. We had packed our lunches, and we went through a Wendy's drive-thru for dinner on our way to Philadelphia. When we checked in at the hotel, I was told they don't have any cots here. I had asked for a room with two beds and had figured that Nadia would sleep on a cot. Since we couldn't use a cot, I shared a bed with Nadia, Paul shared a bed

with Ian, and we made a makeshift bed for Oliver on the floor that consisted of him sleeping on top of a few extra pillows.

After taking our suitcases to our room on the 18th floor, we changed into swimming suits and headed down to the 5th floor to swim. Unfortunately they had just added a lot of very cold water to the pool. I didn't get in. Nadia lasted the longest. Oliver was very fearful because it said it was 4 feet deep, but actually it was only about 3.5 feet deep as he could stand on his tippy toes, and he's only 46 inches tall. When we swam last night, we were thrilled that the water was warm. All five of us swam. Oliver loved to tell anyone and everyone we encountered on Sunday or Monday that we were going swimming. He invited quite a few people (park rangers, etc) to join us. No one can call him shy! He did a much better job of swimming on Monday. Hopefully the swimming lessons in the near future will help him even more.

Because we had free parking with our hotel, we ended up hoofing it yesterday. We walked more than 8 miles total. First we walked to the US Mint. I was the only one who had been there before. We spent about an hour there and then walked to the Christ Church where George Washington, Betsy Ross, etc. worshiped. England had built the church as an affront to William Penn (who was a Quaker and never worshiped there). Not long after it was changed to an Episcopalian church when they broke apart from the Church of England. The basin of the baptismal dates back to the Middle Ages. Nadia was concerned about the stability of the podium used by the readers. Then we toured the Franklin Museum, Post Office, and Printing Press. We got in free because Nadia is in fourth grade. After lunch at the Reading Terminal Market, we spent three hours at the Franklin Institute (science museum). We stopped and had dinner at an Applebees on our way back to our hotel. The only site that cost us money was the Christ Church (I gave a $10 donation because we received a private guided tour). The US Mint is free for everyone, and we got in free to the other

two locations because of our ASTC membership and the National Park Service program for fourth graders. The kids had their passports stamped for the first time. I gave them their passports at Christmas. I will write more later. It's time to head out to one more museum and an Aquarium before we head back home. 

Back to Normal

Friday morning I took Oliver back to the neurosurgeon, and she said Oliver could resume normal activity! I figured they weren't going to repeat the CT scan but just ask if he seemed to be back to normal. I actually considered cancelling the appointment as I figured it would last less than 5 minutes, which it did (and our specialist copay is now $45 since the kids and I switched to a different insurance on March 1), but it still was nice to get the official word that he can resume normal activities. I asked her about the malformation of his cerebellum, and she said that since children have to be sedated to have an MRI, they only do an MRI if there are symptoms. We're praying he never has any symptoms so he won't need that surgery. Paul's brother has the same condition, but he wasn't diagnosed until he was in his 40's. She also said to be really careful about putting sunscreen on his scar this summer to try and help the scar fade. Paul went into work later than usual on Friday so that he could take Nadia and Ian to art class while I was taking Oliver to the hospital. I then took Oliver to the playland for a few minutes, and then he went to gym class for the first time since February 2. While all three kids were in gym class, I met with one student teacher teaching science in a middle school located about 15 minutes from church. The kids had spent at least a little time at the babysitter's house the previous four consecutive days, so it was nice that I was able to fit my work into the time slot of their gym class on Friday.

Friday night Nadia participated in an AWANA quizzing event for clubbers in grades 3-6. Last year she won second place. This year I didn't have time to help her study, and she didn't do as well. Last year she had a perfect score on the written test and missed 1 of 10 multiple choice questions (when they use the paddles in the auditorium). This year she also got 9 out of 10 in the multiple choice portion. Both years she missed the first question. She didn't understand what they were asking. It was actually a very easy question, and she did actually know the answer but was confused by the way they asked it. I have no idea how she did this year on the written portion, but she definitely didn't do as well as last year. She was hoping to get 1st place this year (since she was one question away from first place last year) so she was very disappointed. I reminded her that she hadn't studied very much. I promised to help she and Ian study next year. Ian and Nadia will both be able to participate next year. It was another evidence of one more thing I have had to cut from my to do list due to taking on a FT job.

Ian had his last basketball game of the season yesterday. I wasn't able to attend because it overlapped with the performance of the Cinderella matinee at the Christian school at our church. I had never seen that musical, and we were surprised in the ways it differs from the movie. Oliver, Nadia, and I attended the musical. We were all able to attend Nadia's game. She *almost* made a basket (went off the rim). Her team won again. Thus far their record is 6-1, and their last game is next Saturday.

Yesterday I graded in every spare minute I had. Paul helped cook dinner, and I am almost done filling out forms and such for my student teachers. I was hoping to not need to do much work today through Tuesday on our little spring break getaway to Philadelphia. After church this morning (I'm teaching the 1st and 2nd grade girls' class today), we are headed first to the Cornwall Iron Furnace and then the Conrad Weiser Homestead on our way to Philadelphia. Today is Charter Day in PA - commemorating the day when Charles II gave this land to William Penn. This means many historical sites are free to enter today, which is why we're stopping at those two places today. Hoping the five of us enjoy these three days together!

Thankful Thursday

1. A couple of weeks ago Paul fixed the drain in my sink in the bathroom.  He also changed the battery on my cell phone. I purchased my phone four years ago, and I bought a refurbished one. I was thinking I might need to buy a new phone, but all I needed was a new battery. Paul felt like he was doing  brain surgery trying to replace the battery, but he was successful! Now if he could just repair the floor in our bathroom. We are still all sharing one bathtub/shower.

2. Oliver left his lasso (Christmas gift from my dad and Margie) in Maryland on January 1. Margie mailed it back to him a couple of weeks ago, and she also included a few other things in there which the kids appreciated.

3. After tomorrow there are just nine weeks left in the semester. Whenever I feel like I am drowning, I keep saying "I think I can, I think I can" (from the Little Engine that Could). I bought cookies at the grocery store this week. I usually make cookies from scratch, but I need to find ways to accomplish everything on my to do list. I am making progress. My goal is to finish my student teaching evaluations by Saturday night so that I

truly can have three days off (Sunday-Tuesday) while we are taking our trip to Philadelphia.

4. Paul's mom has agreed to take care of our guinea pigs while we're away. Paul will be transporting the beloved rodents to their house tomorrow morning in connection with going to work.

5. Ian's basketball team had a pizza party tonight. Tonight was his last practice, and Saturday will be his last game.

6. I paid off our mortgage on Tuesday! We had pizza Tuesday night, and I declared it to be our "mortgage burning party." Not that I actually set anything on fire. It's a nice feeling knowing that a bank doesn't own any part of our house. Now I just need to pay back my retirement account loan...

7. Maurice called me on Tuesday with the thrilling news that NYU had made him an offer! This is quite an honor as they make offers to less than 1% of their applicants. We're still praying that maybe Penn will

make him an offer. We should know in a little over a month where he'll be doing his doctorate (Austin, Philadelphia, or NYC). I'm very proud of my brother!

8. Over the last few weeks I purchased two dresses for myself from Sears (online). I paid about $25 total for the two dresses put together. The first one arrived in the mail yesterday. I was happy it fit as usually I prefer to try on a dress before buying it. I don't like it as much as the ones I bought at JcPenney last summer, but it still felt nice to wear something new. When Oliver saw me this morning he told me I looked beautiful and was very specific in giving additional compliments (he liked the polka dots, liked my necklace, etc.). Five year olds are honest. They don't give insincere compliments. It meant a lot to me. The dress had a price tag of $90 on it. I would never have paid that much for it, but it felt like a bargain to get it for about $14.

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.