Dinner for two

Although we usually only eat dinner with Paul 1-2 times a week, I am usually cooking for five people. I got a break from cooking the past three days while we were in Massachusetts, and for the next five days (including today), I'm only cooking for two. I'll be eating dinner alone four of the five nights, and Paul will eat sometime after he brings the kids home. He usually waits to eat until after 9pm. I made a list of things to try and accomplish this week as the kids will be leaving for camp around 8:00am and getting home around 7:15pm M-Th and not until 9:15pm on Friday. I crossed many things off the list today, but I still didn't start the videography course. I really, really hope I make some progress on that tomorrow!!! 

We spent Saturday at Six Flags New England. Before I knew how long of a walk it was from the parking lot to the park entrance, I thought that we'd leave the park for dinner and then come back to ride more rides until 9pm. Instead we opted to eat dinner later than usual and went back to the motel after dinner. We went to another pizzeria. I am accustomed (in PA) to a large pizza being a 16" round pizza. Well on Saturday night I should have requested a medium pizza because the large rectangular pizza was GIGANTIC. I saw other people ordered a small pizza, and I would say their small pizza looked like it was a 14" round pizza. That's the biggest small I've ever seen! Their calzones were also the biggest I've ever seen. Paul finished the last slice of that pizza at lunch today. Paul and I made a stupid mistake on Saturday morning. We took Nadia and Ian to the water park, and I took Oliver to the dry rides. We failed to pick a time and place to meet, and he gave me his cell phone. We were in a large, extremely crowded amusement park without any plan for how to reconnect. I prayed, and Oliver and I searched the water park. I then decided to wait and see if Paul would use someone else's

phone to call me. Paul prayed and found us a few minutes later. Whew! I failed to use our five skip the line passes last year. We made use of them on Saturday. We also redeemed some reward points for a free Icee and redeemed a free print of a ride photo for the first time. I put our belongings in a locker for a couple of hours so that I could ride a couple of rides with Oliver. We had almost no wait for a river rapids ride and a wait of more than an hour for a ride Oliver asked me to ride with him.

It was a very hot day on Saturday. It rained a little bit while we were at the Science Museum on Friday, but otherwise we didn't experience any rain on Friday or Saturday. On Sunday it was a different story. It rained off and on in the morning, and it was much cooler out. We were actually a bit chilly, which was quite a contrast to how much we sweated on Saturday. We had breakfast at Dunkin before we drove 40 minutes to Old Sturbridge Village. I didn't order any drinks with our breakfast sandwiches. Then I asked for two cups of tap water. I was in shock when I was told I owed $2.12 for tap water. Seriously?!? We spent about five hours at Old Sturbridge Village

which depicts life from 1790-1840. We visited almost all of the buildings that were open. A small minority were closed due to COVID. We did accidentally miss the cooper shop. We didn't have time to attend many of the programs offered throughout the day, but we did attend a presentation by a 19th century Irish Immigrant named Mary Culligan, rode a horse-drawn carryall, and attended a demonstration on making butter and soft cheese. One of our favorite reenactors worked with the animals in a barn. We learned how he has been training two fourteen month old steers to follow verbal commands when they are yoked together. 

Usually we eat in the van when we're on a road trip. We did eat our lunches in the van on Friday, but otherwise we opted to eat in restaurants, our motel room, or at a travel stop for the other meals. We're trying to keep our new van as clean as possible for the time being. We didn't eat lunch on Sunday so we ate our dinner at Subway a little earlier than usual. Here are some inflation rates I've noticed lately - it used to cost $19.99 before tax for 2 large pizzas in our town. Now it's $23.99 before

tax (20% increase). It used to cost $5 for two breakfast sandwiches at Dunkin'. Now it's $6 for two (20% increase). It used to cost $5 for a footlong at Subway. The price of those has gone up 50%. Ouch! The cost of pizza may have gone up, but it's still by far the cheapest meal to purchase from a restaurant. I've never paid for a cup of tap water at Subway, but at the Subway in MA they wouldn't give any cups for water. We were thankful we still had our $1.06 cups from Dunkin. We refilled them with water at Subway. Water is the healthiest drink, but the other reason the kids and I usually get water at a restaurant is to save money. If we have to start paying $1 for a cup of tap water, maybe I'll have to rethink that choice. 

We drove 5 hours and then picked Milo up around 9pm. He had unfortunately been a challenge for our dog sitters. He was VERY happy to see us!!! The kids went straight to bed when we got home. The kids had to get up earlier than usual this morning. Our neighbor left at 8:00am with Nadia, Ian, and her two kids. At 8:30 I drove Oliver to the Urgent Care so they could remove his sutures. He arrived at camp around 10:00 whereas the others arrived at 8:40. The kids had a great first day of camp! Oliver and Ian picked archery as their elective, and Nadia picked tie dying. They liked the food they were served for lunch and dinner and enjoyed swimming, playing games, etc. Oliver and Ian are in the same "cabin." Paul picked all five kids up at 6:30. Their Bible lessons are focused on spiritual armor. The kids find it a little challenging to relearn some of the verses in KJV that they've previously learned in NIV. This is Ian's fifth and next to last time attending Camp Good News as he attended for the first time in 2016. I remember my mom passed away the week he attended Camp Good News for the first time. They didn't hold any camps last year due to COVID. Nadia attended for the first time in 2017, and this is her last time attending as she'll be too old to attend next year. The boys are planning to attend overnight camp at Camp Good News next summer instead of PMBC, and that is held at the same place where they are having extended day camp this summer. Oliver said he really likes the slide in the swimming pool. He was glad he was able to swim today! Hopefully they will all have a great week!

Day 1 in Springfield

Usually the kids have been sleeping in this summer. The kids had to get up earlier than normal this week (M-TH) because art camp started at 8:30; Oliver also had to get up earlier because he rode with us to take Nadia and Ian to the middle school. Yesterday morning they got up even earlier because we were attempting to be out the door at 6:45. We didn't actually leave until closer to 7:15. After dropping Milo off at our friend's house, we drove 5 hours to Springfield, Massachusetts. Probably the most well known attraction here is the Basketball Hall of Fame. Our first stop was Springfield Armory where the kids each earned a Junior Ranger badge and patch. We spent a little over two hours there. Paul could definitely have spent more time there, but we wanted to have enough time to spend at the Springfield Museums. Everyone gets into the Springfield Armory for free. We got into the Springfield Museums for free because of our ASTC membership. The kids enjoyed the Dr. Seuss museum the best. Usually they love science museums, but this one wasn't much to write home about so to speak. We skipped the history and art museums there. We ate breakfast at home and had packed lunches to eat during our drive, when we arrived at the pizzeria I had selected for dinner we found out it was closed for a couple of weeks for a vacation. We found another pizzeria en route to Six Flags. We ordered a large (18") cheese pizza and five glasses of water. The pizza was delicious, and at the end we found out that another customer had paid for our pizza! We paid it forward for someone in the drive thru behind us at Dunkin' earlier this summer, but this was the first time we ever experienced a stranger paying for our meal. It was very kind of him! He left before we found out what he had done so we were unable to thank him. 

Lastly we spent about three hours at Six Flags New England. The parking lot is GIGANTIC. We literally had to walk almost a mile to get from our vehicle to the park entrance. Since we're planning on arriving at Six Flags shortly before it opens this morning, hopefully we won't have to park quite as far away. Paul and the kids rode a wooden roller coaster. Next, Nadia and I rode the Superman (a metal coaster) while the boys rode something else. After that Nadia rode two other metal roller coasters by herself while the boys rode the swings four times in a row. When we first got there, the lines were longer, but as we got closer to the closing time the lines became nonexistent.

Our only expenses yesterday were gasoline and one night at Red Roof. It was very challenging to find affordable lodging in this area. We usually stay at places that have two queen beds, free breakfast, and a swimming pool. This place doesn't offer breakfast or have a pool, and we slept on two double beds. Nadia slept on an air mattress we brought from home. Because we don't plan to purchase lunch and the motel doesn't offer breakfast, we walked across the street to Donut Dip to purchase breakfast sandwiches and donuts for our brunch. Paul, Ian, and Nadia are planning on spending time in the water park at Six Flags today. Oliver can't get wet because of his stitches. This morning we didn't need to get up early because Six Flags doesn't open until 10:30, but when we all share a bedroom the boys usually get up very early. We watched some Olympics on TV after we ate our breakfast and had our devotions. Yesterday we all had to wear masks inside the Dr. Seuss museum. The kids had to wear masks in Springfield Armory because they aren't vaccinated. The rest of the day we were all mask free, and we won't need to wear masks at all today. The Springfield Armory had been closed for t he past 16 months. Paul was very glad they recently reopened!

Thankful Thursday

 

1. I took the boys to the orthodontist on Monday. It was a very quick appointment, and he said that I don't need to return for 6 months because Ian needs to wear his retainer longer before the next step and Oliver isn't ready to begin. 

2. I used to shop the clearance racks at department stores several times a year (primarily JCPenney or Sears), but since malls have pretty much become a thing of the past, I haven't done that in several years. On Monday I used a $5 off coupon at Kohl's to get a winter dress for Nadia for $7.41 that was originally $68. I get most of the kids' clothes at yard sales, but it's not always easy to find dresses for Nadia now that she's older. It was very easy to get dresses for her at yard sales when she was younger.

3. Nadia and Ian really enjoyed the color war event at youth group the previous Wednesday night as well roller skating with the youth group last night. They also attended youth group at FBC on Sunday night. 

4. All three kids enjoyed VBS last week. Ian was thrilled to be one of the eleven children picked to "plaster the pastor" with paint on Thursday night. 

5. We bought a lot of fruit on Monday at ALDI. Eating plums, grapes, cherries, nectarines, peaches, and other types of fresh fruit is something Nadia and I really, really enjoy about the summer! Oliver has discovered he likes honeydew as much as I do. His obsession with watermelon has waned some this year.

6. Peppa's eye healed on its own. Whew! So glad we didn't need to take her to the vet, and also thankful she seems fine now.

7. We are thankful we were able to purchase a minivan during this time when it's challenging to do so. The kids and I like it a lot more than the Sienna for a variety of reasons. I'm also thankful for the 9 years we have been able to use the Sienna.

8. The kids enjoyed going to Dairy Queen on Tuesday night. It wasn't a cheap dinner! Unfortunately they didn't have any brownies as Nadia and I wanted to get a Blizzard that had brownie in it, but we still enjoyed what we selected. It brought back memories as I remember going to DQ when I was a child in Texas. When I was a principal, DQ actually delivered school lunches to our students once a week. Those school meals were FAR cheaper than what we paid on Tuesday night. 

9. Helen joined us for lunch and swimming yesterday after art camp. 

10. I installed 60 Dig Defence barriers around the fence yesterday morning so that Milo *hopefully* won't be able to escape. He wants to spend more time outside than he usually does. Paul needs to put something on the bottom of the two gates, and then Milo can have free reign in the backyard without a leash when he wants to go outside!

11. Paul is generally very good at rolling with the punches. He had a lot of practice with that this week. On Monday he drove to Reading for naught, he had to drive to Stroudsburg on Tuesday evening to sign the title, and I entered the wrong month for his dentist appointment. He showed up on Tuesday morning when actually his appointment is in August. OOPS! He was very gracious about my error. Thanks, honey! Would you believe the woman who failed to tell me on Monday that the van had been sold on Saturday night texted me on Tuesday asking if Paul had come down on Monday and said the vehicle was still there. What in the world?!? I told her that Paul had left work early and driven two hours in vain only to be told the van had been sold on Saturday evening. Oi vey!

12. Nadia and Ian have been enjoying the art camp this week. I want to frame at least one of Nadia's paintings. All of the projects have been with watercolor. It's the first time I've ever dropped my kids off at a public school! There are only eight kids in the art class - Helen, Ian, and Nadia are three of the eight.

13. Oliver's chin collided with a wall in the swimming pool yesterday. At first I thought only his lip was bleeding, but there was also a gash under his chin. Thankfully, our neighbor was also at the pool. She said Nadia, Ian, and Helen could stay for another hour. Helen's mom came an hour later to pick her up, and our  neighbor took Nadia and Ian home along with her two kids and a friend of her daughter. Years ago when Ian had a gash under his chin at the ice skating rink, I took him to the Urgent Care, and they said the only could treat with glue. Since his wound required sutures, I had to then take him to the ER. Thankfully the policy has changed over the years as they did stitch Oliver's wound at the Urgent Care this afternoon. We had a very small wait. Oliver was a trooper because wow it looked very painful to receive the injection in his face to numb the area. He screamed but was in the words of the doctor "very compliant." Unfortunately, the stitches meant we had to cancel our plans to visit DelGrosso's today (and we had invited four other people to join us). He can't swim until they come out. Hopefully he will be more careful in the future! I'll attempt to reschedule the DelGrosso's trip for sometime in August. The tickets will cost more then as today they were on sale for only $16 (half off). 

So Long, Sienna!

I started driving in January 1988. My first vehicle was a manual silver Toyota Tercel. The car didn't have air conditioning, and when I was working on my master's degree in South Carolina in the summer of 1994 I decided it was time to trade the car in for one that did have a/c. My parents had picked the first car out, and I bought it from them in 1991. I knew exactly what color car I wanted in 1994. I bought a mint green Tercel which I owned for several years. While I was working on my doctorate I traded my second Tercel in for a beige Toyota Corolla. In 2009 I traded the Corolla for a red Prius (hybrid). When Paul and I got married 20 years ago, he had a Honda Civic. Over the past 20 years he's purchased two vehicles. The first was another Honda Civic, and the second was a grey 2016 Mazda 3 which he bought in May 2018. It didn't have many miles on it when he bought it, but he drives 600 miles a week to and from work so the car already has 113,000 miles on it only three years later. In 2012 we traded his Civic in for our first minivan. The red Prius became his car at that point, and for the past almost nine years I've been driving a grey 2012 Toyota Sienna. That was the first time either of us ever purchased a brand new vehicle. We planned to buy a used light blue minivan with heated seats, but Oliver came home from the NICU in a car bed because he was too small to use a car seat, and we had to buy a van the same day he was discharged or I would have been at home the next day with three kids who couldn't fit in the Civic or Prius while Paul was at PSU. We weren't able to shop around for that vehicle purchase. 

For the past 30 years I've traded in my car once it's hit about 100K miles. The van has 152,000 miles, which means it's the most miles I've ever put on one vehicle. Over the past 33.5 years I've purchased five different Toyotas - three of which I wasn't really crazy about the color and two I did really like the color (mint green Tercel and red Prius). The color I disliked the most of the five is the grey I've been driving for 9 years. To add insult to injury, Paul bought a grey car 3 years ago. The color of a vehicle is unimportant to Paul, but the kids and I have been really looking forward to trading in the van for another van or SUV that we liked the color. We considered a red Sienna, but the kids preferred the Obsidian Blue Pearl Odyssey. It's a really pretty color - even prettier than the light blue we considered getting in 2012. We were planning on buying a used one this time, but considering the very small discount for a used minivan, we decided it was better to buy a new one. A dealership that had one in the color we wanted was south of where Paul works so he drove the Sienna to work on Monday morning, and I drove his Mazda when I took the kids to art camp, orthodontist, library, grocery store, and such today. Paul owned two Hondas, but the Odyssey is the first Honda that I've owned and our first vehicle with heated seats. As a person who doesn't like being cold, I am really excited about the heated seats! If we own this one as long as we owned the Sienna, we'll have it until Oliver graduates from high school. I had thought that Paul's Mazda could become our third car once Nadia started driving in 2024, but at the pace he's going there will be over 200K miles on it at that point. We shall see how long we keep the Mazda. While I was a FT adjunct at BU from 2017-2019 I set some money I made aside for a few big purchases, and we are using most of that money this summer to buy this van and replace our roof in September. Usually when you earn money it goes towards things you can't really "see" such as paying for gasoline, property taxes, life insurance, utilities, car insurance, etc. 

Paul was at work on Saturday and wasn't able to go to the dealer that day, so on Saturday I made an appointment for him to come down on Monday evening. I confirmed the appointment on Monday morning as I knew there was a chance it had been sold since I made the appointment. The confirmed the appointment, Paul drove down there, and they told him they sold it on Saturday night and weren't expecting more until September. Ugh! He left work early and drove an extra two hours for nothing. The only Obsidian Blue Pearl ones that we found within a 2 hour radius of our house were of a more expensive model. Paul knew how much I had disliked the grey color the last 9 years and was willing to splurge on one that had more bells and whistles, but I wanted to see if there were other options. Although I've never been a person who was really interested in vehicles, liking the color did make it a more exciting purchase. I found a 2020 blue one in Stroudsburg that only had 201 miles on it (seemed new even though it was listed as used), and I made an appointment to see it at 1:30 today. As soon as I picked Nadia and Ian up from art camp at noon, we started driving to the dealership. The blue one was still there, but I quickly learned it was missing many features that I wanted such as it only had 7 seats (we've had 8 seats the past 9 years), didn't have the magic slide for the middle row (which I was eagerly anticipating as it will make it easier for people to get into the back row), didn't have heated seats, etc. I asked if they had any 2022 Odysseys, and they had one white one in stock which was thankfully not the more expensive model. In the end I decided that it was more important to get the features we wanted than a color I wanted. I would rank white as fifth in terms of my favorite colors for vehicles. It's not as pretty as the Obsidian Blue Pearl, but it's much better than grey. 

The Bluetooth was truly a royal pain to use in the 2012 Sienna. It is a billion times easier to listen to audiobooks and use any other feature of my phone via the vehicle's touch screen in the 2022 Odyssey. It has heated seats, and I can set the temperature for three different parts of the vehicle (can be three different temps) - drive, passenger, and rear. The driver's seat is far more comfortable than it was in the Sienna. It also has blind spot information system, adaptive cruise control (ex. if the vehicle in front of us is going slower than what I've set the cruise control to then the vehicle adjusts the cruise control setting accordingly), the car brakes on its own if we are too close to another vehicle, the car also has a lane keeping assist system. In other words the car literally drives itself by controlling the steering wheel and brakes at some points! The only feature it didn't have that I was hoping our next vehicle would have was a power tailgate. When we buy groceries, many times employees are waiting for me to hit a button that I don't have. That's not changing even though we have a new vehicle as we'd have to have gotten a more expensive model to have that feature. It does have a remote starter which I've never had before. It's not plain white - sort of a pearl color. It's growing on me, but I still hope that our next vehicle is a color I prefer. I realize it might be another 9-10 years before we trade this in. If there wasn't such a shortage of vehicles at the moment, I would have held out for blue, green, or red, but I contacted quite a few dealerships and many of them had ZERO Siennas or Odysseys in stock. 

It took almost two hours to drive there, and we were at the dealer for three hours. Milo was a very good boy during the 8 hours he was alone in his crate during our car buying adventure. Since we didn't leave the dealership until 5pm, I treated the kids to dinner at Dairy Queen as going to to DQ was on our bucket list and we hadn't been there yet. Because both my name and Paul's was on the title for the Sienna, they needed Paul's signature. They wanted both of us to sign it in the presence of a notary tomorrow. Paul wasn't sure how to accomplish that in light of his work hours. So Paul drove to the dealership this evening. I certainly hope the next time we buy a vehicle we don't have to drive so far to find one! The kids and I drove about 3.5 hours round trip, and Paul drove a total of 5+ hours to dealerships the past two days (just what he drove to the dealership, I'm not counting the time he spent driving to work). Nadia said she hopes she doesn't want to be around the next time we buy a vehicle, and she said if she's married she'll have her husband do it as she doesn't want to go to a car dealer again. LOL! She might change her mind in the future, but I agree car shopping is not exactly pleasant! Usually we try to negotiate the price, but I figured it was pointless in the current market where there is a shortage of vehicles available for buyers. I asked if they would give us $400 more for the trade in than they initially offered, and they gave us $200 more than what they initially offered. That's not much but considering places are requiring people to make offers that are HIGHER than the sticker price, I was thankful we "only" had to pay the sticker price and that he gave us what I thought was a reasonable amount for the Sienna. Here's to hoping and praying for many years of safely driving our new white Odyssey! 

Nadia and her new friend, Helen

What a difference!

 

Our lives this summer are VERY different than last summer. We got our first dog seven months ago; having a dog has changed our lives far more than owning guinea pigs has over the last 4.5 years. We lost another family member when Paul's mom passed away in May. I still have moments when something happens and I think I need to call her and tell her, and then I remember that's not possible. Last year was a very unusual year. I've had plenty of times in my life when I was sick and looked forward to feeling normal again. I'll be turning 50 in 9 months, and I don't recall any other time in my life when life in general was so abnormal that I was longing for life to return to normal. Comparing our calendar for last from April - June with this year's would be one way to see that life has drastically changed over the past year. Today and tomorrow I actually had nothing on the calendar. That was the norm in 2020 but that hasn't been the case lately. I almost took the kids swimming this afternoon, but a thunderstorm changed those plans. I like having some days when I don't drive anywhere, and it's been awhile since that happened.

Our budget is another indication that life is very different. I've been tracking expenses for three decades. The Excel document I am currently using contains data from 2005 to the present. This past month we hit a record as to the most money spent on gas in a month - $633.19. Ouch! The previous record had been in the fall of 2008 when we spent $523 in one month. There were months over the past 17 years that we spent less than $100 on gasoline in a month. Over the past five years, we've spent an average of $303 per month on gas, which means $633 is a lot more than usual. I attribute this to the increase in the price of gas in addition to an increase in how much driving I've been doing. There was a month in the spring of 2020 when we spent less than $150 on gasoline. The kids and I were at home all the time, and the price of gas dropped lower than it had been it quite awhile. Gas hasn't reached the highest price I've ever paid yet, it would have to go up another 80 cents a gallon for that to be true. One of our credit cards often has a quarterly bonus of 5% on gasoline, but none of them do this quarter which is bad timing because we're planning to drive a LOT more than usual in September. I recently applied for a credit card for myself that will give us 3% off of gas all year and applied for a different one for Paul that gives  5% off each month in the category you spend the most in that month. I'm planning on having Paul use that one for gas for his car. Gasoline isn't the only thing that has gone up in price lately. For example, I picked up pizza this evening at a restaurant in our town, and the price of a large pizza has recently gone up 20%. Speaking of driving, the kids and I decided that when we trade in our grey 2012 Sienna, we'd like to get an Obsidian Blue Pearl Honda Odyssey. After driving a vehicle that I didn't like the color of for nine years, I'm looking forward to enjoying the color of our next vehicle. 

A positive change has been that more places we hoped to go over the next two months have reopened over the last two weeks. Today I booked reservations for a tour of Sagamore Hill on Long Island for August 28, and I learned today that we will be able to visit Springfield Armory next week!! We'll save Weir Farm for 2023. Two of the four National Park sites I had hoped to visit in the Lake George area recently reopened. We haven't decided if we'll schedule a trip to that area before our Six Flags' membership expires. I was also thrilled to learn that the Navajo Nation recently reopened. I had already found a replacement slot canyon tour. I'm not going to add Antelope Canyon to the schedule, but I did delete two National Park sites in Flagstaff so that I could add the Four Corners Monument to our itinerary. We shall see if Lowell Observatory moves to phase three (general admission) before September 20.

Oliver attended five nights of VBS. Nadia and Ian chose to attend the color war event at youth group on Wednesday night instead of VBS. Last night Ian was one of eleven children chosen to "plaster the pastor" with paint as a reward for the children bringing in a little over $550 in the offering over the five nights. He had a blast spraying the pastor with paint! 

Thankful Tuesday

 1. I started feeling under the weather in the evening on Thursday. I went to bed very early hoping this would nip it in the bud. Paul was feeling very poorly by the middle of the night on Friday night. We both didn't feel well At All on Saturday. He went to work at 3am that day so that he could come home early to attend Nadia's play. He slept through part of the play. I felt miserable on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Thankfully, I feel much better today primarily because the fever is gone. Oliver and Nadia appear to have dodged the bullet. Ian still has a little bit of a cough, but he's doing much better than he was 8 days ago. I wouldn't take the kids to the pool on Sunday or Monday because of how icky I felt. They were very thankful I took them swimming today!

2. We enjoyed watching the performance of Snow White that Nadia was in on Saturday, and the kids enjoyed swimming in the Lewisburg pool afterward (not our usual pool). I also scored a free large chocolate milk flavored cotton candy that they shared.

3. We enjoyed watching the season two finale of The Chosen on Sunday evening which focused on the Sermon on the Mount.

4.After a hiatus in 2020, the kids are enjoying attending VBS this week. Tonight is their third night. 

5. The kids got a good report at their dentist appointments yesterday. I was told to schedule an orthodontic consultation for Oliver. I was hoping Ian might be the only child who needed to wear braces, but I guess I was wrong! Paul never needed braces. I was surprised that we ALL had to wear masks at the dentist even if we've been vaccinated. I wonder when the mask requirements might totally go away. Sometime in 2022? We shall see. Thankfully the times we need to wear them are VERY few and far between at this point.

6. Nadia made a new friend at theatre camp. I signed Nadia and Ian up for an art camp at the local middle school next week, and it turns out her friend, Helen, will also be in that camp! 

7. I finished my lesson plans for social studies for the next school year today! That subject takes me the longest to do of any of them as it also entails selecting many books some that I'll read to the kids, some that we'll listen to together via Overdrive or Audible, and some that they'll read independently. I purchased some of the books through Amazon and thriftbooks, will check out some from the library system, and will request others through inter library loan. The subjects I still need to plan for next school year include: Spelling (Oliver), Science (Oliver), Math (all three), and Writing (all three). 

8. There are usually three times per year we visit several yard sales on one day. We will miss one of those this year because it takes place in September, when we plan to be on vacation. I was very, very thankful that two of our neighbors had yard sales last Friday. I bought a LOT of winter and summer clothes for the boys and Nadia - some they are already wearing and some for the future. It's nice to buy, for example, an Under Armor shirt that is in great condition for $1.00! 

9. Our church's youth pastor has planned a LOT of fun activities for the youth this summer. Nadia and Ian have missed several due to schedule conflicts, but they are very excited about the Color Wars event tomorrow night. The previous youth pastor didn't plan many activities, and of course the new youth pastor couldn't do so last year due to COVID. I'm hoping that this will become the "norm" for the summer. Oliver really, really wishes he was already old enough to be in the youth group. I for one am very thankful he's not. Kids grow up fast enough as it is! Speaking of time flying by, yesterday was the 5th anniversary of my mom's passing. I can't believe it's already been 5 years since I've been able to talk to her or hug her. That just reminds me once again that the next 5 years until Nadia graduates are also going to fly by. 

10. Kid's Café has returned to being offered in person as of July 5 rather than a drive-thru event. I give the kids the choice as to whether they want to eat lunch at home or at Kid's Café, and the last several days they've consistently picked Kid's Café. We appreciate all the volunteers who make that possible!

11. We had been using the free version of Duolingo. I did a free trial of the paid version and decided I liked that a lot better. A family plan (up to 6 accounts) cost $120 for the year so that seemed reasonable. Oliver hasn't been using it, but the other four of us each have an account and have been working through the units. It's a lot cheaper than Talkbox.mom, which is what we used last year. 

12. I believe I found a solution for our fence problem. We had a fence installed 11.5 years ago, and I've viewed it as a waste of money that has created more work for me because #1 I have to clean it and #2 I have to weed whack under it. I hoped that some day we'd get some benefit from it. I thought that would be true when we had a dog, but we got a small dog. If we had gotten a bigger dog, the fence would already be a blessing. I was hoping to find a way to solve the problem of the gap between the bottom of the fence and the ground. Once we install what I've ordered today, we should be able to let Milo spend time in the backyard without a leash which I think will make him VERY happy. 

VBS

Nadia attended VBS for the first time in 2011. Most years the kids have attended multiple weeks of VBS as they have attended VBS at five different churches that are located within 15 minutes of our house. Last year was the notable exception - no VBS due to COVID. Ian and Oliver could have attended VBS at our church for four mornings in June while Nadia was in Oklahoma, but that particular week I wasn't interested in adding anything more to our calendar. Next week three of the five churches where the kids have attended VBS in the past are all having VBS. I think Nadia would have preferred if I had chosen the Rocky Railway one at FBC because she's in that youth group, but I picked the Go Fish one at the Methodist Church. I picked that one primarily because it's only 1.5 miles from our house. The kids have always enjoyed that VBS, and their program is also for teens. The Alliance Church usually has their VBS in June, but because of COVID they are having it in August this year. I don't believe Nadia will be able to participate in that one. Hopefully Ian isn't also too old. We shall see! At least Oliver should be able to attend two weeks of VBS this summer.

Nadia has attended a theatre camp the past two weeks. The camp has been held at a park 20 minutes from our house which sounds like no big deal, but that translated to Oliver and I spending at least 80 minutes a day in the car every day. On Tuesday I also took the kids swimming after we ate dinner, and on Wednesday night we also took her to youth group. Her performance is tomorrow. She's enjoyed the camp and made a new friend (Helen). I'm very thankful that next week the only things on the calendar are VBS in the evening and a dentist appointment. We'll probably go swimming on whatever days the weather permits that. Nadia has also been preparing this week for her audition for Tuck Everlasting that is taking place on Sunday afternoon. She's memorized a passage from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for the monologue portion of the audition, and she's singing a patriotic medley (with me as her accompanist) for the singing portion.

Sometimes I wonder why I haven't made more progress through my summer to do list, and then I stop and think about my day. The kids and I went yard sale  shopping for a couple of hours this morning. I spent $74.50 at the first yard sale. One toy (birthday gift for Oliver) cost $10, but almost all the items were $1 or $1.50, which means I bought a LOT of clothing. That family's yard sale has been my favorite for years because they have one girl who is one year older than Nadia, and one boy who is a few months older than Ian. They had their yard sale in 2019 when we were in Myrtle Beach, and they didn't have one in 2020 due to COVID so it had been a little over three years since I last shopped at their yard sale. We came home and put away some of the new purchases before heading out to the park so the kids could have lunch at Kids' Café before taking Nadia to theatre camp. Milo went yard sale shopping with us. I walked him around the park while the kids ate, and he was in the van when we took Nadia to camp. On our way home from camp we stopped at Weis and the library. After I trimmed Milo's hair, I mowed the lawn. Next Ian and I worked together to make dinner before Oliver, Milo, and I returned to pick Nadia up from camp. I did spend a little bit of time working on learning Spanish before the kids got up and working on lesson plans for a little bit this morning while the kids were listening to an audiobook, but that was about it. This evening we all watched an episode of The Mysterious Benedict Society together. 

Thankful Tuesday

1. We've enjoyed watching the first three episodes of Mysterious Benedict Society. There will be five more episodes this summer. So far they are following the book pretty closely! Oliver isn't a huge fan, but the other four of us enjoy it. The girl who plays the part of Constance Contraire really cracks Paul up.

2. I took Nadia to her annual physical on June 25. I dropped the boys off at a skate park near the doctor's office because they still weren't allowing other children to be present if they don't have an appointment. Thankfully the appointment was quicker than usual. I'm very thankful that Nadia only goes to the doctor once a year. She was thankful she didn't need to get any shots. Over the past year she grew 3.25 inches, which moved her from the 29th percentile for height last year to the 41st percentile this year at 5ft 1.25 inches.

3. We enjoyed spending some time with Yvonne and her kids on June 25-26. Eleven of us (including Jenna's boyfriend) went white water rafting in Jim Thorpe and had dinner together before they headed back to Maryland.

4. Nadia enjoyed spending time with some of her friends at church in the evening on June 27. I was very thankful that our neighbors drove her home after the fireworks as I didn't want to stay the whole time. She also enjoyed having three of her friends join us at the pool for swimming and pizza on the 29th. The girls spent the night here.  I made Belgian waffles for breakfast and dropped the girls off at their homes around noon the next day. 

5. Nadia and I had more one-on-one time last week while the boys were at camp. I treated her to frozen yogurt from Sweet Frog on Monday, lunch at Olive Garden on Tuesday, and took her to Red Robin for dinner on Wednesday before we went shopping. On our way home from shopping we used a coupon for a free hot chocolate from Dunkin that the two of us shared.

6. I finished making the reservations for our 25 day vacation on Saturday. Whew! I've never invested this much time in planning a vacation before, but this one is longer than usual and also involves driving much farther. We're planning to do at least one thing in 24 different states - five of which the kids have already been to before (PA, OH, KY, IL, and WV) and nineteen "new" states. There are only two times we're spending two nights in the same place - two nights in Dearborn, MI and two nights in Chicago, IL. We will be spending at least one night in seventeen different states: MI, IL, MN, SD, MT, WY, UT, AZ, CO, NM, TX, OK, AR, AL, TN, KY, and WV. Indiana is the only state we'll be driving through but not actually doing anything in it. 

7. I'm very thankful that Nadia's theatre camp is only 20 minutes from our house as I've driven much farther than that to take her to theatre camp some years, and her camp only cost $50 for 40 hours of theatre camp, which is definitely the cheapest theatre camp she's ever attended. I'm looking forward to seeing their performance on Saturday. I'm also thankful the kids aren't wearing masks at camp, don't need to have their temperatures taken, and our whole family can watch her performance. Last year only one parent (and no siblings) were allowed to attend the performance. 

8. Our apple tree is REALLY laden with fruit this year. Hopefully they will ripen before we begin our vacation on September 8. 

9. I enjoyed playing a patriotic flute solo at FBC on Sunday morning. 

10. The boys had a great week at overnight camp last week!

11. Nadia and I picked some blueberries at a farm about one mile from our house. We used some of them to make a VERY delicious fruit pizza!

PMBC take two

 

Previously our kids had always gone to Camp Susque for overnight camp. We had planned to have the boys try Camp Good News last summer, but both Camp Susque and Camp Good News weren't offered last summer due to COVID. Camp Susque offers three weeks of boys camp (grades 3-11) and three weeks of girls camp. Nadia is going to Camp Susque the first week of August. All three kids went to PMBC for a six night overnight camp last year. PMBC is twice as far from our home, but they charge half as much. I let the kids choose which camp they wanted to attend this year, and the boys picked PMBC. PMBC offers a co-ed camp but in narrower age ranges. Last week the camp was supposed to be for kids ages 8-10. I wanted the boys to attend camp the same week, and the director was fine with Ian attending last week even though he's eleven years old. Camp Susque's camp lasts one night more than PMBC. Ian and Oliver were in different cabins. He wasn't the only eleven  year old in his cabin. The friend he spent the most time with was Johann (pictured in the middle). Ian serenaded me with many silly camp songs on the way home on Saturday morning. The electives he chose were swimming and target practice. Target practice included archery, riflery, and hatchet throwing. His favorite was the hatchet throwing. Ian didn't spend all of the money we had put in his snack shack account. Unfortunately he came back with an unwanted souvenir. When I picked him up his voice sounded hoarse, but I thought that was from straining his voice from singing all those silly songs. Then he started coughing later on Saturday. We let him go to church but had him wear a mask. Paul took Nadia and Oliver swimming yesterday afternoon, but he stayed home with me. Until his cough and fever go away, he'll be staying at home as we don't want to spread his germs to anyone else. We're praying that he'll feel better soon and that none of the rest of us will catch whatever he has. 

Oliver also had a great week at camp. He went swimming and also did target practice, but he spent more time kayaking. His favorite part of target practice was using the BB guns. He didn't sing me any songs, but he told me about some of the Voice of the Martyr's videos they watched during Bible class. He also told me he wanted to watch Pilgrim's Progress again so he watched part of it on Sunday morning before we went to church. Oliver's cabin won first place in the competition between all of the cabins. They would earn or lose points based on their behavior, how clean their cabin was, etc. Oliver didn't have any money left from his snack shack account. He said he used some of his money to buy snacks for some of his friends. He said he usually bought cotton candy, Skittles, or sweet tea. I'm guessing they probably won't go to PMBC next summer because of the age groupings. In 2023 they would both be able to attend the week for ages 11-13. I'm guessing that next year they'll either attend a week of boys camp at Camp Susque or a week at Camp Good News. We have several months to figure that out! Although they had fun last year, they definitely preferred the way things are normally done at PMBC compared to how things were done in light of COVID last summer. We were very thankful though that this camp DID offer overnight camp last summer as most camps were closed last summer. The boys experienced REALLY hot dry days the first few days of camp and then experienced cooler than normal and very wet weather the last few days. I am glad the boys both had a great week at camp, and I'm also very glad to have them back at home. 

Hump Week

 

If Wednesday is the middle of a work week for those who work M-F, then this week is the hump week of our summer. Our summer began on May 2 and will be ending on August 29 which is a grand total of 17 weeks. This week is our ninth week, which means we have eight weeks left of summer break. In terms of our summer bucket list, we have 24 items left to accomplish from the list of 73 experiences, which means we're definitely more than half way through that list. The pool was closed yesterday because it was a cooler, rainier day so instead of swimming we stopped at a blueberry farm very close to our house on the way home from theatre camp. We only picked a little less than one pound of blueberries because she was getting hungry for dinner plus we already had cherries, strawberries, and raspberries at home. I decided it was the perfect time to make fruit pizza for the first time. I hadn't eaten it in at least 30 years, and Nadia had never had it before. Oh my goodness. We both thought it was heavenly. I used some strawberries, blueberries (we had just picked), and cherries on our pizza. YUM! I won't be waiting 30 years before I made it again!!

Nadia usually chooses to play Minecraft over watching something or she watches something from Disney+ on the iPad in her bedroom. Since we declared this to be a girl's week while the boys are at camp, the only time she's used the iPad this week has been to work on Duolingo (Spanish). We watched "I Still Believe" via a DVD from the library on Monday, livestreamed the 7th episode from the 2nd season of The Chosen on Wednesday night, and "I Can Only Imagine" via a DVD from the library last night. Tonight she wants to watch the new episode of Mysterious Benedict Society (Disney+) and also one episode of Monk (Amazon Prime). She likes the Mysterious Benedict Society show so much that she watched the first two episodes a second time on Tuesday night when her three friends were here for a sleepover. I'm very thankful for the one-on-one time I've had with Nadia this week. It's very sobering to think she might be leaving the house in only five years. I want to seize the moments while I still can! As for audiobooks this week, we had to take a break from Arlo Finch and also from Davy Crocket while the boys weren't here. Nadia and I listened to The Christmas Doll by Elvira Woodruff, and now we're in the middle of Mary Poppins in the Park, both are available through Audible's Plus catalog. I'm trying to take advantage of that during our four month subscription.

Our state's mask mandate was lifted (one year + 73 days after it had been enacted) at the beginning of this week. As of last week more than 75% of adults in our state had received at least one dose of the vaccine and about 60% are fully vaccinated (Paul and I are in that group). Of course businesses still have the option to require that masks be worn regardless of whether you've been vaccinated or not. I'm on the email list of the children's museum closest to our home, and they said they are still requiring masks for everyone over the age of two even if you've been vaccinated. Our membership expired there last year, and we don't plan to return. The library I've been using since September has never been particular about masks, but I picked up a DVD from the library near where Nadia is having theatre camp this week. What a contrast. That library still isn't even letting anyone in to browse, which isn't a big deal as I've always been a fan of requesting books/DVDs online ahead of time. But I was shocked when I stopped in to pick the DVD up earlier this week and was told that masks are still required for everyone even if you've been vaccinated. This was AFTER the Governor ended the mask mandate. The only other place I've worn a mask since I've been vaccinated was when I took Nadia to her physical. They required it of everyone. I'm not sure if they've changed their policy since the mask mandate was lifted. We shall see when I take Oliver for his annual physical in August. I didn't have a mask with me when I ran into the library so I just pulled my shirt up over my nose and mouth. Time will tell if the need to have a mask in my purse or in the vehicle ever truly goes away. I'm very, very thankful though that it's a much rarer instance to need a mask at this point. Last year when Nadia had theatre camp her temperature was taken every day, I had to sign her in and sign her out, everyone wore masks, hardly anyone was allowed to see the performance, they stayed far apart from each other, etc. This summer theatre camp is pretty much back to normal - no masks, no social distancing, no temperature taking, no limit of a total of only ten people in the audience, etc.

Most of the places I had hoped to visit during our vacation our west have reopened. Yahoo! The biggest exception would be Four Corners as the Navajos haven't begun reopening things yet. I'm just assuming we won't go there. The other exception would be the Lowell Observatory. They have partially reopened, but it's VERY expensive to go there right now. I'm hoping that in two more months they will be farther along in their reopening process and we can go there without paying an arm and a leg. One other uncertainty is whether Toyota will have resumed giving tours of their plant in Kentucky. As for National Park sites we planned to visit in July and August, that is still a problem. I've given up on visiting Martin van Buren and the three sites in Hyde Park, which might mean we'll never visit those places. We're still planning to spend a weekend in Massachusetts in two weeks. It's frustrating that we'll be in Springfield and can't visit the Springfield Armory as it hasn't reopened, but Paul really wants to go there so even though it will not be as convenient, I'm planning on including that in our New England vacation in 2023. Because of adding that in 2023, I moved the Weir Farm to this summer because it has partially reopened, and I've deleted the PEZ tour from the 2023 trip, which probably means we'll never go there. Coltstville is a new national park that is in the process of opening in CT that I think would also be up Paul's alley. I'm hoping they are open in two years. I'm also still not certain what sites we'll be able to see near the end of August in conjunction with our trip to Long Island. Ideally I'd like to stop at the Thomas Edison NHP and Sagamore Hill NHS (one on the way there and one on the way home), but neither have reopened yet. Closer to the time we're leaving I'll make plans once I see what's open at that time. The good news is that Fire Island National Seashore has reopened so we can visit that with Aunt Janet during our week there. 

As for MY goals for the summer, thus far I've read some books and listened to some audiobooks, made progress with learning Spanish, done a little bit of lesson planning, and made significant progress on planning the details out for our vacation in September. Over the next eight weeks I'd like to take walks more regularly (only happened when the kids had tennis lessons in May), begin working on the videography course, make a photobook, keep working on learning Spanish, and finish my lesson planning for the upcoming school year. All three kids are attending a 9 hour long day camp for five days the last week of July so that should be helpful in giving me more time to accomplish my goals for the summer. I never lack for things to do!