Back to the Beginning

The kids had a theatre workshop this week from 8:15-12:30pm each day in Montoursville. The musical was called "Back to the Beginning." Paul's dad, Paul, and I attended their program at noon today. Ian did a great job of singing, smiling, and doing the motions. He had auditioned for a speaking part, but he didn't audition for a solo. Next year I told him that he MUST audition for a solo. He has a beautiful voice. Oliver tried to do the motions, and he did sing a little bit. Learning that many songs in less than five days was very challenging for him. Nadia did a good job with her small speaking part and solo. After their show, we went to a bowling alley where the kids can bowl two games for free. Paul, Ian, and Oliver have bowling shoes. I want to get Nadia bowling shoes for Christmas this year. I paid for Paul's two games plus Nadia's shoe rental. We also bought a pitcher of root beer and pizza for the six of us to share. The bowling alley gives a $5 credit towards their arcade games when you pay for a shoe rental for a child. The kids used the credit and earned a few pieces of candy. The first game they all bowled without bumpers. Paul had two strikes and four spares in the first game and ended with a score of 137. Nadia had a "strike on the second ball". That was the only spare for any of the kids in the first game. She beat her brothers with a final score of 72. Ian had 54 and Oliver had 36. After the first two frames of the second game, the kids decided to use bumpers, Paul, even though he didn't use bumpers, improved to 152 in the second game. Ian had the highest score of the three kids with 100 points. Nadia was in second with 70, and Oliver was in third with 66. Pop Pop and I just cheered on the bowlers. The worst part of this camp is the fact that we need to be out the door by 7:50 each morning. We're looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow and not needing to rush out the door. I'm planning to mow the lawn tomorrow morning.

I also took the kids bowling yesterday. Monday through Wednesday we went straight home for lunch after I picked the kids up. I took them swimming in the afternoon on Tuesday and Wednesday. Yesterday I took the kids to McDonald's and Rita's before they bowled two games. I imagine Milo will be grateful the theatre workshop is over because he spent more time in his crate than he usually does this week. Yesterday the kids bowled one game with bumpers and one without. The first game Oliver had one spare, and Nadia had two consecutive strikes. She won with 93, Oliver had 88, and Ian had 75. Their scores were much lower without bumpers yesterday. Ian had 38, Oliver had 35, and Nadia had 30. Nadia didn't go bowling in 2020 so when she bowled yesterday it had probably been about two years since she had gone bowling. The boys have gone bowling more often than she has this year. As of yesterday, VBS is done for our family for 2021, and as of today all classes/camps for summer 2021 are done, but we still have 16 days left of summer break. 

Thankful Tuesday

1. Nadia had a great week a Camp Susque! She made some new friends, two of whom attend a Christian school about 25 minutes from our home. She is hoping to go to Camp Susque the same week as the one who is also entering 8th grade so they can be in the same cabin or tent next summer. The weather was great, and her only physical ailment was a hefty collection of mosquito bites. I'm not sure if this link is shareable, but here is a link to a 5 minute video the camp made of that week of camp. During the closing ceremony, the campers and parents sang several verses of two hymns. Tears streamed down my face as we sang "And Can it Be." I wasn't familiar with the second hymn. I also shed tears while watching the video during the part when the girls were singing "Wonderful Grace of Jesus," which was my most favorite hymn when I was Nadia's age. My mom got goosebumps when she really like a song. That was embarrassing to her. I think tears streaming down one's face is more noticeable than goosebumps. We don't sing many hymns at our church, and when we sing we can rarely hear the congregation singing, which is a bummer to me. So I really savored singing hymns on Saturday morning with only two acoustic guitars. 

2. Micah and Isaiah came over for a play date on Tuesday. They played at home with Ian and Oliver and also played at the playground before eating tacos and drinking root beer floats at Kid's Café. They also painted pottery at Centered Earth and went roller skating at Trout Pond Park where it's free to skate on the first Wednesday night of every month. We are thankful for our friendship with their family!

3. Addi and Westyn joined us on Thursday for a free game of bowling followed by arcade games, laser tag, and the trampolines at Kaos for $10 each. Our night out concluded with sharing a large pizza. 

4. The boys enjoyed having pizza with me at OIP and then spending four hours at Knoebels on Friday night. Their wristbands only cost $12. Paul joined us for the last two hours at Knoebels.

5. I'm very thankful for the nine years that Oliver has been a part of our family! He liked all of his presents; his favorite was definitely the electric scooter that Pop Pop gave him. My dad called him on the phone, and Paul's dad spent several hours with us on his birthday.

6. The kids and I plus three kids in the neighborhood have been enjoying eating the chocolate cake with peanut butter icing that Aunt Millie made Oliver.

7. Two weeks ago FedEx delivered a package to our house that was for the previous owner who sold us this house 13 years ago. I called the sender (Walter Reed), and they told me to take the package to a FedEx store. Thankfully I was able to find a phone number for the man, and he came to get his package the same day it was delivered to our house. He was thankful I helped him receive his prosthetic. 

8. I'm thankful that Ian and Oliver can participate in VBS for four nights this week at the Alliance Church. Ian has gone to VBS there since he was three years old, and this is his last year as they only do it through 5th grade. Oliver will, Lord willing, be able to go for two more summers provided there are no more closures like we experienced last year.

9. Even though I didn't intend to go to Panera yesterday, I did really enjoy the strawberry salad. I hadn't had one since Cheri took me out for my birthday in April. Today I opted to buy a $2 egg McMuffin at McDonald's instead because the salads at Panera are expensive. Most fast food restaurants in our area are still drive thru only, but thankfully the one in Williamsport is allowing people to eat in their restaurant which meant I had a place to plug in my laptop and use their Wi-Fi.

10. Although it was frustrating that due to "social distancing" I wasn't allowed to sit in the library in a room by myself yesterday, I'm thankful that for the most part things are closer to normal than they were at this point a year ago. It's wonderful not to need to wear masks, the kids don't have to have their temperatures taken each day at camp like they did last year, and VBS is being offered again.

11. We enjoyed watching the second season of The Chosen and the first season of The Benedict Society. We are eagerly anticipating watching new seasons of both shows in 2022. On Sunday we watched a video of the 2005 production of Ruth at Sight and Sound. We're looking forward to watching "David" in person in 2022 as we aren't going to Sight and Sound in 2021. The boys and Paul have also been enjoying watch Bad Batch on Disney+. The last episode of the first season will air this Friday. The kids enjoyed watching the Olympics on Locast and also the Peacock app. They learned about some sports they had never seen before. Did you see the speed rock climbing? Unbelievable!

12. I'm very thankful I have finally taken the plunge with creating some nicer videos. I hope they will be something our family can enjoy for years to come. I'm thankful I'm learning how to use a stabilizer for my cell phone and a tripod for my DSLR. Hopefully my skills will improve over the years.

13. Although Nadia was disappointed that she didn't get one of the five main parts especially considering there's only one participant older than her and none are her same age, I'm thankful that all three kids can participate in the theatre workshop this week. I'm looking forward to seeing the musical on Friday.

14. I wrote Nadia emails that they printed out and delivered to her at dinner M-F last week at Camp Susque. It made me think about all the letters I wrote my parents and received from them when I was at camp as a child and teenager. My mom wrote me thousands of emails from 1990-2016. I got an email from her almost every day, and many days I received multiple emails from her. And these were lengthy emails. I almost quit the blog after she died because one of the main reasons I started the blog was for my mom. She used to write me an email after reading almost every blog post responding to what I had said in that particular post. Unless my children at some point in their lives develop the habit of frequently emailing me, I highly doubt that anyone will ever come close to sending me even half as many emails as my mom sent me. I miss her, and I'm grateful for the time she invested in talking to me on the phone and sending me letters and emails.

15. Paul, his brother, and one other employee are on the company's health insurance policy. The premium went up recently more than 50% so Paul is discontinuing offering that as a benefit. Thankfully today I signed us up for a plan that costs less than $500 a month (which is about 1/5th of what the company had to pay for our insurance per month). The plan seems to be good in general with the exception that we'll have to pay 30% of any hospitalization or surgery. Hopefully we can stay out of the hospitals as there isn't a maximum out of pocket for this plan. 

16. I'm also VERY thankful that my phone has a feature to automatically silence phone calls that come from numbers not in my contact list because ever since I started shopping around for private health insurance I've been deluged with MANY phone calls and texts each day regarding health insurance. 

Last week of camp and VBS

The word "camp" is overused in my opinion these days. For example, our church calls their VBS "Kidzway camp." They are the rare exception in that instance. Every other church around here still seems to call it VBS. The word "class" is almost never used if it happens in the summer. For example, Ian and Nadia were in what I would call an art class for 3.5 hours a day for 4 mornings, and it was called an art camp. The kids have technically been in 5 camps this summer: overnight camp for the boys at PMBC, overnight camp for Nadia at Camp Susque, a two week afternoon theatre camp for Nadia, Camp Good News for all three kids, and art camp for Nadia and Ian. Last summer Ian and Nadia participated in a theatre workshop (evidently Family Life Network goes against the grain in terms of not using the word "camp") at a church about 25 minutes north of us. I actually held off on signing the kids up this year just because all the chauffeuring in the summer is exhausting for me, but then Nadia asked if they could do it again. I didn't see how I could say "no" considering they will be putting on a musical, and Nadia, Ian, and Oliver haven't been in a choir for the last 18 months with the exception of this same workshop last August. The workshop is for ages 8-15. Since Oliver was just turning 8 when the camp was being held and said he didn't want to do it, I didn't sign him up last summer. I didn't give him a choice this year. Ian and Nadia loved it last year. Hopefully Oliver will also have a good time! I did tell Oliver he didn't need to try to audition for one of the main parts. Ian opted out of that last year. I told him this year I did expect him to audition for a part. Nadia has never needed encouragement to audition for anything. The camp is put on by a Christian radio station located in New York. 

One perk of all three kids participating in the camp is that it means I don't have to make two round trips each morning. I'm sure Milo would rather that I did make two trips, but he can handle being in his crate for the 5+ hours we'll be away from home. This is my second time this summer to have some hours without any kids, and I don't think it will happen again until July 2022. The workshop is from 8:15-12:30. I thought I'd run a couple of errands and work on the Duolingo app (Spanish) on my phone until the library in Montoursville opened at 10:00am. The kids are at a church in Montoursville. I walked in with my laptop and sat down in a room where there were zero patrons. A librarian came up to me and said that due to social distancing they don't allow patrons to bring laptops into the library. There was ONE other patron in the entire library, and I picked a different room than she was in. I asked what if I promised to leave if anyone else came in the room. Nope. At our library (which is in the same county system as this one), they have totally gone back to normal. They even took down the plexiglass partition that was in between the librarian and patron at the check out desk. I couldn't believe I wasn't allowed to sit in the library even if I was the only person in that room. Ugh. I drove to Panera, brought my laptop in, and treated myself to my most favorite salad. Now to figure out what I will do the next four days. I toyed with getting a manicure. I got one in 2019 which was my first in probably about ten years. If it were a little cooler out, it would be a good time to take a nice long walk. One project I have this week is trying to find a new health insurance plan for our family as Paul isn't going to offer it anymore at work as the premiums went up too much recently. Well we shall see what I will do since the library in that town won't be an option this week. I'm looking forward to seeing their musical at noon on Friday!

Tonight the kids will also start their second and final week of VBS this summer. Usually they participate in more than two weeks of VBS, but last year they weren't in any so two is a big improvement! Nadia is too old to participate in this one, but she has volunteered to be a helper. Usually this VBS lasts five days, but they are only having it for four days this summer. They are using a different curriculum than the kids had at another church last month, and the church is only 1 mile from our house. 

We were going to swimming this afternoon after theatre camp, but due to a shortage of lifeguards, the pool doesn't open until 4pm today. When will all these employee shortages come to an end?!?!? I took the boys to Knoebels on Friday night, and roughly 40% of the rides were closed due to not having enough employees. The park had a hiring event recently, and they actually were raffling away a CAR to entice people to work at the park! As the signs say at Dunkin and Subway, being short staffed is the "new pandemic." 

I didn't finish Nadia's 13th birthday interview until 6 weeks after her birthday. I finished Oliver's 1 day after his birthday. I think his is better than hers although I think it's too long. I will be more selective in the future as to which photos I include to make them shorter. I included pictures from the last 12 months. If I continue to make videos throughout the year, then I won't include so many in their birthday videos in the future. And I still need to begin to follow the guidelines I learned in the videography course. I haven't done that yet, but at least I've started making videos. 

It's now less than one month until we go on vacation!  That statement puts a big smile on my face and the kids' faces, and it inspires fear in Paul that he doesn't have enough time to finish what he needs to at work. We usually go to Long Island in July, but for a variety of reasons we're going the last full week of August this year. This means our school year won't begin until August 30. We will have seven whopping days of school before we take 3.5 weeks off. So in some ways our school year won't really start in earnest until October 4. Next year we are planning to go to Georgia and Florida for our family vacation. I asked Paul whether the end of April or sometime in September would be better for him, and he said September. So we might be taking our family vacation in September again next year.

Nine Years Old!

My baby, who hates for me to use that word, turned nine years old before he woke up today. This will be my last year of having a child whose age is a single digit. Here are nine ways that I would describe Oliver Elliot:

1. Friendly - he easily talks with strangers whether they are adults or children. He absolutely loves to play with other kids whether they are his age, younger than him, or several years older than him. He absolutely needs to work on always being kind and walking away if someone is being unkind to him. 

2. Generous - he's the kind of person who would absolutely give you the shirt off his back. Oliver loves to share. Of the five people in our family, he is definitely the most generous. 

3. Loves to be outdoors and be active - it doesn't matter what time of day it is or what the weather is like, Oliver loves to be outside, especially if he can play with other kids in the neighborhood. He also is more attentive to nature (such as birds) than his siblings. We have a tree growing in a cup in our kitchen from a seed he planted. Considering how much time he spends outside, it is a blessing that he is the least prone toward getting sunburned of my three kids. Oliver is almost always on the go. He rarely chooses to do a sedentary activity in contrast to Ian and Nadia who enjoy things like playing with Legos, Barbie dolls, drawing, coloring, and reading. He has been rather accident prone most of his life. Thankfully the frequency of him needing a band-aid has gone down over the last year with the exception of him needing 4 stitches last month. 

4. Eats almost anything - The list of foods he doesn't like is rather short - cantaloupe, broccoli, or raspberries. A few foods that used to be on his dislike list in the past (ex. bananas and tomatoes) he will eat now. Sometimes he eats very quickly (such as when he sees friends are playing outside), and other times he takes F O R E V E R to finish a small meal. He is never tempted to overeat. He's 4.5 feet tall (74th percentile) and weighs 60 pounds (40th percentile) which puts his BMI at the 13th percentile. In other words he's closer to being underweight than overweight (if he lost 2 pounds he'd be underweight). He still enjoys cooking and baking. Maybe he'll be a chef someday?

5. Loves to listen to music - he uses his Echo dot, discman, and cd player to listen to music. His taste in music isn't the same as mine. He wears headphones so I don't have to listen to his music. I absolutely love hearing him sing at church. He sings more loudly in church than his siblings do. I also enjoy hearing him sing along with the radio when we're in the van. Some of his favorite artists include Toby Mac, Skillet, and Lecrae. 

6. Affectionate - Oliver loves to give and receive hugs and kisses. He loves to snuggle, and he often brushes my hair because he knows I like that. He uses the least Spanish of anyone in the family, but he has switched to calling me "Mamasita" all the time. 

7. Talkative - Oliver talks almost nonstop every minute of the day that he is awake. There are times I long for a bit of silence, but I know some day in the future I'm going to miss hearing his voice! I'm hoping over the next year he can learn to do a better job of listening to audiobooks, what I read aloud, sermons, etc. He has started taking notes during the sermons at church. He also needs to work on being careful regarding the tone of his voice when he's talking. 

8. Brave - In general he takes after his big sister in terms of never being afraid of trying new experiences such as zip lining, climbing a rock wall, etc. He's looking forward to the daring experiences we're planning to do at Snowbird resort in Utah and Riversport in Oklahoma City in September. The notable exception would be rides at amusement parks. When he was younger he would ride anything that he was tall enough to ride - even roller coasters. Last summer and this summer he has decided not to ride many dry rides that he's tall enough to ride. He still will ride all of the water slides. 

9. Easy going - Oliver is usually very flexible and willing to defer to the wishes of others. Although this is in general a wonderful trait, I do wish that he would be more motivated/competitive at times. For example, I found out that he didn't learn ANY of the Bible verses last week at Camp Good News which hurt his team. The kids wore headbands and received one bead for each verse they said plus an extra feather if they said five extra verses. Every year that Ian and Nadia have attended this camp they've always received all five beads, and they've almost always earned the second feather for learning the extra Scripture passage. I told Oliver that he wasn't going to Knoebels this Friday unless he at least learned the five verses that were for the beads last week. He learned two of them on Monday and one each day on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. It's great to be content, but it's also important to be motivated to do one's best.

Birthday Eve

Oliver has eagerly anticipated this birthday for months.  I had planned 5 special events for his birthday. The trip to DelGrosso's Amusement Park with Karyss and Maddox had to be cancelled since he got four stitches the day before we planned to go. He started wearing his birthday shirts on Monday; he really likes the "Birthday Dude" shirt. This week Micah and Isaiah came over at 10:15 on Wednesday. The boys played at our house, and then I took them to the playground where the played and had tacos and root beer floats compliments of Kid's Cafe. Then they played some more at our house before I took them to Centered Earth. They each picked out a piece of pottery and what color paints they wanted to use. Ian painted an owl cup that he plans to use as a pencil holder in his bedroom, Oliver painted an ice cream bowl, Isaiah painted a dolphin, and Micah painted a gingerbread house. Our next stop was to get breakfast sandwiches from Dunkin'. Because they are still not allowing any customers inside the restaurant, we ate outside on some grass. Then the boys went roller skating; It's free to skate on the first Wednesday night at that rink. I bought them each a slushie. The boys gave Oliver a light for his bicycle tire, fruit snacks, and Goldfish crackers. We got home around 8pm so the boys had almost ten hours together that day.

Yesterday Westyn and Addi joined us for an outing. We would have left a little earlier than we did, but they were attending another Good News Camp. We left around 2:45 and headed to the bowling alley. The kids could have each bowled 2 games for free, but we only had time for 1 game. Ian and Oliver wore bowling shoes that we own. I paid to rent shoes for Addi and Westyn. Because we paid for their skate rental, they gave us two $5 cards to use on the arcades. The kids each got one small piece of candy from the points they earned on the games. The kids used bumpers when they bowled. Addi had two strikes and came in first place (99), Ian got a spare on his first frame and ended up in 2nd place (81), Westyn didn't have any spares or strikes but he came in third place (80), and Oliver had three spares and came in last place (78). Next we drove to Kaos where I paid a total of $40 for the four kids to play for a little less than 2 hours. First they played on arcade games, then they did two games of laser tag, and they ended with 20 minutes on the trampolines. Our excursion ended with sharing a large cheese pizza at Long Island Pizza. We got home around 7:15pm. Paul spent the night at his dad's apartment last night.

Oliver went on a date with Paul in February for his half birthday, which meant his birthday date would be with me. Since Nadia is at overnight camp this week and Paul has been working extremely long hours (ex. on one of the nights he came home this week he got home after 8pm and left for work again at 2:30am), Ian is joining Oliver and I on our date. Oliver picked to go to Knoebels. On Wednesday and Friday nights you can get a handstamp for $12 that is valid from 5-9pm. I'm going to buy the boys each a handstamp this evening. Oliver wanted to bring Milo along as Milo loved being at Knoebels in May, but Ian really wanted to have pizza once more this week. So Oliver agreed that we would share a pizza at OIP in Elysburg prior to arriving at Knoebels at 5pm. Tomorrow, his actual birthday, will bring his four day birthday celebration to a close. 

Oliver will be getting donuts for breakfast tomorrow morning while we are on our way to pick up Nadia at Camp Susque. I can't wait to hear all about her week at camp! Pop Pop is coming to our house tomorrow, and he's bringing a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing that Oliver requested from Aunt Millie and Uncle Al. He asked for macaroni and cheese with grilled hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner tomorrow night, and he invited one of the neighbors (Maddox) over to join us for his birthday dinner.

For the first several years of his life it was very hard to come up with ideas of what to buy him for Christmas or his birthday because #1 he didn't have any particular interests, #2 we already had a lot of toys, and #3 he never asked for things. Last year was the first time he actually gave a few suggestions for a wish list. Over the past year he's told me MANY things he would like to receive such as: table and chairs for our deck, a tent, a swimming pool for our backyard, a treehouse, a minibike or electric dirt bike, an electric scooter, a skateboard, an Edison robot, Paw Patrol toys, a snowboard, Fritos, Goldfish crackers, gummies, a new slide for the play set in the backyard, a knight costume, a subscription to Amazon Music Unlimited, and Super Mario 3D World + Bower's Fury, which is a Nintendo Switch game. He also asks me very, very often if we can adopt another child. I tell him it's Daddy he has to get to agree to that request. I got him a skateboard and a few toys that he picked out at yard sales the last three months, and my Dad and Margie got him the Edison robot. He's not getting even half of the things he's asked for, but hopefully he will have a great birthday tomorrow! 

Speaking of birthdays, I finally finished Nadia's birthday interview video. I didn't record many videos over the past year. I included pictures of her from July 2020 to June 2021, her video interview, two short videos from white water rafting, and short interviews of Ian, Oliver, and Paul. It's definitely an improvement over the videos I've done over the past 13 years as I've never done any editing before - just hit record (mostly with a camcorder) and uploaded whatever I recorded. However, I utilized very little of what I've learned in the video course. In the future I hope to record short video clips FAR more often with either my phone or DSLR. I also hope to improve my skills both with recording videos and also with putting everything together with video editing software. I hope that I will improve with each video I make, but I especially hope that I can do MUCH better with my video of our vacation in September. I've learned that it's better to record interviews indoors (to avoid background noises of birds and such), to use the tripod when I'm recording a video with my DSLR camera, and to use the stabilizer when I'm recording videos with my cell phone. The stabilizer has been a big help for almost every occasion. I got a good video of Oliver doing the limbo at the roller skating rink on Thursday, but I couldn't figure out how to use the stabilizer when I was taking videos of the kids bowling yesterday. I'm sure it's my lack of knowledge that was the problem. Ian and Oliver have already seen Nadia's birthday video. I hope Nadia likes it when she sees it tomorrow. Just like I have to say "I'm done" when making a photo book (or I could spend an absurd amount of hours making one), I had to say "I'm done" with her video. It's the type of project that I could keep tweaking for hours on end. 

Four weeks from today

We are starting our school year a bit later than usual this year because we are headed to Long Island later than usual. Four weeks from today will be our first day of school for the new school year. We started logging some days of school for 2021-22 in July and will continue to do so this month, but those days have been or will be filled with things like field trips, art camp, and theatre camp. On August 30 we'll resume spelling, math, history, etc. Oliver is back to working on his multiplication tables after taking a break for part of the summer. Knowing that our summer break is drawing to a close and that we'll be on Long Island one of those four weeks, I decided to turn my attention toward projects around the house and creating videos. I'm also still working on learning more Spanish. Yesterday I power washed the fence, one side of the house, and the van. I also trimmed two trees and several bushes, did some cleaning and straightening up in the shed, and did some organizing of bookshelves and one kitchen cabinet. Today the boys and I hauled the branches I had cut down last night to the tree farm. It's nice to have a place where we are allowed to dispose of natural waste. Today I mopped the floors and also worked with the boys on doing some organizing and purging in their bedrooms and the basement.

Nadia with her cabin mates and counselor

Growing up I remember my mom would regularly call Ray to come and clean our carpets and/or upholstery. I've owned a home for 20.5 years, but I've never paid anyone to clean any flooring or furniture before. Having a puppy hasn't been good for our flooring. Last week I placed an order for new flooring in our dining room so I certainly didn't pay for that carpet to be cleaned. I figured that paying for the family room and upstairs hallway carpets to be cleaned was a lot cheaper than replacing the flooring. It looks so much better! There was one stain in the hallway they couldn't remove, but overall it looks much better. I also asked them to do the carpet on the stairs. One of the men suggested also doing the tile and grout in the entryway. What a difference! If it wasn't so expensive, I'd also have had them do the kitchen. The tile in the entryway is 22 years old, whereas the kitchen flooring is only 5 years old so I opted just to do that area. I think at some point in the future I'll have them do the kitchen. We've lived in this house for 13 years. I'm not sure how often I'll have them come back, but I doubt I'll wait 13 more years! Last week I tried to get a window repaired, but it seems that's not possible with Pella windows. For now I'm just keeping the blinds down somewhat to cover up the cracks in the glass. Fixing or replacing our front door is more important to me than repairing that window, and our shed is also literally falling apart. Owning a home seems to involve constant repairs of some sort or another. Last week I also framed three pieces of art work from art camp (two of Nadia's and one of Ian's). 

I haven't started actually working on creating a video yet, but I have been taking videos lately that I hope to use in the projects. I'm not a perfectionist by nature, but I feel myself holding back because I know it's going to take time and practice until I reach the skill level that I am hoping at attain as a videographer. I keep telling myself I have to start somewhere! Not that I have "arrived" as a photographer, but I'm certainly a better photographer now than I was 10 years ago. My goal is to create seven videos over the next four months: Nadia's 13th birthday interview, Oliver's 9th birthday interview, Milo's first year, a recap of our 5 trips to Long Island, a recap of summer 2021, a recap of our 25 day vacation, and Ian's 12th birthday interview. Learning this new skill has involved using new equipment. Over the last few days I've been using the cell phone stabilizer my Dad got me for my birthday, a tripod that my parents got me years ago but I haven't used much in the past, and wireless microphones. I've also been using my DSLR to record videos whereas in the past I've only used it for taking pictures. I'm hoping that at least my skills at recording videos will improve over the next few weeks so that I can take some good clips on Long Island at the end of this month and on our 25 day vacation out west in September.

Camp Susque Week 3 of Girl's Camp 2021

Today I'm giving thanks:

1. That the kids had a great week at Camp Good News. Ian won first prize for the week in archery!

2. That we were able to get some of our floors cleaned today. What a difference! Praying that Milo won't ever pee on the carpet again.

3. That Paul can spend the night at his Dad's apartment tonight. He's working really long hours this week while his brother is on vacation. Spending a couple of nights at his dad's place cuts down on his commuting time which means he can get more sleep and we can save money on gas.

4. That the weather was nice on Sunday. Work is being done in the room where we have worship services at church on Sunday, which means we're having church outdoors for two Sundays. Ian was inside as the youth service was held indoors, but Olive, Paul, and I sat outdoors for church on Sunday. Nadia also had a service outdoors at Camp Susque as they use the "chapel in the pines" on Sundays.

5. I enjoyed having dinner with my friend, Cheri, at a restaurant neither of us had ever been to before on Friday prior to attending free concerts on our church's property that were put on by the local Christian radio station. Mostly I just enjoyed being able to spend time with her in person. They had food trucks at the event, and Cheri and I got some Bruster's ice cream. I tried "Graham Central Station." It was delicious!! Someone handed Cheri a pizza from Domino's, and she gave it to me. Paul had some of it for dinner that night, and the kids had some at lunch the next day. We won't object to free pizza!

6. From the pictures I've seen of her, it looks like Nadia is having a good week at Camp Susque so far! She was disappointed it was cancelled last year. I'm so glad she can attend this year and not need to wear masks, etc. 

7. We have been accumulating gift cards for restaurants from credit card points for what Oliver calls our "big field trip." HA HA! You know you're a homeschooler when your child thinks a 25 day vacation is a field trip. We even got a couple for treats (ex. Cold Stone Creamery and Krispy Kreme). I just have to figure out if I can get gift cards for two more dinners, and I'll be done with that project. There are a few times we will eat out and not use a gift card (ex. dinner in Yellowstone National Park), but we shouldn't need to spend that much on meals during our trip provided the prices of food doesn't jump up too drastically. Even when I was at dinner on Friday they had a copy of a handwritten paper that had updates to the prices of the menu which they said was due to inflation. In 6 days I'll be able to see only one month until we leave on vacation!

Chapel in the Pines on 8/1/21

Camp Susque take 6

Today the boys and I took Nadia to Camp Susque for a week of girl's camp. This is her 6th time attending a week of camp there. It would have been her 7th time, but they were closed last year due to COVID. She attended one week of Young Explorers camp (co-ed), and this is her fifth year of attending a week of girl's camp. The girls are in three sections - jays (entering grades 3-5), doves (entering grades 6-8), and hawks (entering grades 9-11). She's planning on being a hawk the next three summers and considering possibly being a counselor there for 6 weeks in 2025. She was very happy that she was assigned a cabin this year because most years she's been in a tent. She likes to be on a top bunk, and that's only possible in a cabin. We got there early enough that she was able to claim one of the top bunks. I always pay for access to the pictures. In the past they've given me a thumb drive at the end. This time they are giving us digital access. Nadia has lately been a saver rather than a spender, but she did decide to buy a blue tie dyed Camp Susque hooded sweatshirt today. I think Ian and I will miss her the most this week, but one perk of overnight camp is that I only have to drive there twice. We will pick her up next Saturday morning. The tie dyed t-shirt she's wearing in the picture above is one of the shirts she tie-dyed at Camp Good News this week.

Paul came home from work just as we were getting in the van a little after 3pm to take her to camp. Milo was appreciative that he didn't have to be locked up for the 3 hours we were gone. It hit me on our way there that I should have left Ian and Oliver at home. I wasn't expecting Paul to get home before we left. After dropping Nadia off at camp, we picked up pizza for dinner, picked up some supplies at the party store for Oliver's and Ian's birthday (yes, I know Ian's isn't until December but I thought I'd just take care of it at the same time), got Oliver a balloon at the Dollar Tree, and got some groceries at Surplus Outlet. I had planned to also stop at Lowe's but decided to just come home sooner since Paul was already at home. Time will tell if the boys spend another week at Camp Susque at some point in the future. 

Can't do it all

 

Today is the kids' last day at Camp Good News. They left at 8:00 this morning and won't be getting home until probably about 9:30pm because they have a campfire tonight. I still can't believe the camp cost only $15 for the week, and that included a free t-shirt (see above photo) plus snacks from the Sugar Shack each afternoon. They have had such a great time that Ian and Oliver told me they want to go to Camp Good News' overnight camp at this location (Mountain View Bible Camp) next summer instead of PMBC or Camp Susque. Nadia said that she wants to be a junior counselor at that overnight camp next year and attend Camp Susque as a camper. I have to say I am ready for camp to be done. Usually if I'm ready for a camp to end it's because I'm weary of the driving. In all the years of the kids attending camp, I believe this is the least amount of driving I've done for a camp. I'm very, very grateful that our neighbor and Paul have been able to do  almost all of the chauffeuring this week. I am ready to trade vehicles though as I prefer driving the Odyssey over Paul's Mazda. However mostly I just really miss my kids!!! I am extremely grateful that I homeschool them. I can't imagine spending so many days apart from them. I'll have about 8 hours with Nadia tomorrow and then we'll be driving her to Camp Susque for a week of overnight camp. I'm very thankful I'll be with my boys next week. Oliver's birthday is next Saturday so I've planned special outings for next week on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I'm taking four boys (mine plus Micah and Isaiah) for a pottery painting experience and roller skating on Wednesday evening. On Thursday I'm taking my boys plus Addi and Westyn bowling and then to Kaos for arcades, trampolines, and laser tag. I'm planning to take the boys to Knoebels for bargain night at 5pm next Friday. I'm hoping Pop Pop will come to our house next Saturday on Oliver's actual birthday.

Something else Nadia painted at art camp last week

Nadia wanted to attend a retreat from Tuesday through Friday this week with the youth group at FBC. She couldn't since I had already signed her up for Camp Good News M-F. She was able to attend most of the sleepover at Jill's house on Tuesday night. I dropped her off about 2 hours after it started and picked her up 2 hours early the next morning. Similarly, she would have loved to have gone on the mission trip with the FBC youth group in June, but the dates partially overlapped with the Bible Bowl event in Oklahoma. That trip was also the reason she couldn't be in Alice in Wonderland. She's also missed several youth group events at our church due to theatre camp, Camp Good News, and Camp Susque. I think her choices will become more complicated in the coming years. She could be a junior camp counselor with Camp Good News for one or more weeks next summer, and she's also considering being a junior life guard next summer. She wants to start working at a petcare center near us when she's 16. She could be a full fledged life guard in two years when she's 15. She always likes to be in theatre productions. I'm sure in future years she'd really like to go on this Glory Barn youth retreat that she missed this week. She wants to continue spending one week at Camp Susque for the next 3 years.  She'd like to go on missions trips and continue participating in Bible quizzing. The national competition will be in South Carolina next year. Nadia likes having a BUSY schedule in the summer. We shall see what all manages to "make the cut" in the future and what isn't possible due to schedule conflicts.

One of Ian's paintings from art camp last week

I talked to my friend, Joyce, yesterday for about 90 minutes on the phone. We probably talk on the phone about three times a year on average. We've been friends for 25 years. She asked me what did I do this week since I had so many hours without the kids (a very rare occurrence). I had a lengthy to do list. Some items were quick and only took a few minutes such as updating our E-ZPass information with our new license plate or contacting Six Flags again to find out when our membership expires. I finally got an answer! It expires on August 4, which means we're not going to go again this summer. The kids and I visited a Six Flags park 8 times over the past 13 months, and Paul went 4 times. We also received free parking and unlimited free drinks each time plus some other random benefits. I'd say we got our money's worth as it cost us about $360  altogether which works out to $10 per person per day we spent at Six Flags. I'd continue our membership if we lived closer to a Six Flags, but it's at least a 3 hour drive to any Six Flags park. 

Nadia's flower

Other things I accomplished this week took more time such as getting caught up on the videography course, lesson planning, and working on learning more Spanish. I am now in Unit 3. There are 9 units altogether. The first unit is VERY short compared to the others. If I keep at my current pace, I will finish unit 3 sometime in August. I did a load of dishes, mowed the lawn, did three loads of laundry, tried a new recipe for s'mores cookies, took Milo on a longer than usual walk every day, and made chicken parmesan with spaghetti. Usually when I have a chunk of time without the kids I focus on projects around the house. That wasn't the case this week, but I am hoping to do some cleaning, decluttering, and organizing over the next three weeks. I also had more time to spend with friends this week, which is a VERY rare treat for me. I had lengthy phone conversations with Aunt Tina, Tab, and Joyce. I met Carol for lunch on Tuesday, and I'm meeting Cheri for dinner and concerts at our church tonight. I asked the boys for LOTS of hugs when they came home at night "necesito un abrazo, por favor" is what I said. I didn't do any reading, and I missed listening to audio books with the kids this week. We listened for a VERY tiny bit each morning while they were eating breakfast, but that was it. I will enjoy listening to books for a bigger chunk of time again starting tomorrow! I loved camp when I was a kid so I'm very grateful that my kids get to go to camp.

Ian's artwork

Choir

 

Nadia painted this during art camp last week

"The only constant in life is change." From September 1986 to February 2020, I sang in an adult church choir. I lived in three different states during those years (Ohio, Maryland, and Pennsylvania) and attended churches from five different denominations (Baptist, Evangelical Free, Presbyterian, Evangelical Congregational, and Wesleyan). When I would consider churches to visit after I moved to a new area, I had a few things I wanted to know about the church before I'd visit it. One of those was whether the church had a choir. My favorite choir was the one I sang in from 1986-1990 and 1992-94. I loved the music the music pastor selected, the choir was large (around 100 people), and we were accompanied by a full orchestra (woodwinds, brass, strings, timpani drums, etc.). Most of the choirs have been much smaller than that. At one point I actually was the director of an adult church choir, but the vast majority of the time I've sung alto (first alto when the altos split). There have been many differences in how the conductors have lead each choir. Some included a time for sharing prayer requests and some haven't. The worship arts pastor who has been my director for the past 7 years had two choir members alternate sharing a devotional at the end of the rehearsal. Some directors spend almost the whole rehearsal working on just one or maybe two pieces of music. Others (such as the woman who was my director from January 2009 to May 2014) had us practice MANY different pieces of music in each rehearsal. Each director has had something different that they spent a lot of time focusing on. The woman I just mentioned really focused on "messy s's" meaning words that ended with an "s" - making sure we cut off at the same time or attaching the final sound of one word to the first sound of the next word. My current director often mentions unifying our vowels (which sound to emphasize in diphthongs). I've been accustomed to singing once a week on a Sunday morning during the school year, having a rehearsal on Wednesday night, and presenting a cantata of some sort at Christmas and Easter. That was something I've missed the past 7 years as we've only sung one song on Sunday mornings - no special programs (cantatas). 

Oliver in the Friends' church building in Sturbridge

It seems at least for now that my time singing in a choir has come to an end. I have confidence that I will be able to do it again in the future, but I think it might not be for another nine years. Sob! Our senior pastor retired two months ago. Our new senior pastor decided that the choir would only sing once a month. There have been many Bible studies I've been interested in joining on a Wednesday night over the past 7 years, but I didn't because it conflicted with choir rehearsal. If the choir is only singing once a month, I would rather be in a Bible study on Wednesday nights. From 2004-2008 I played in a handbell choir and sang in a choir. From 2004-2012 I was asked to play my flute many times at church either to accompany the handbell choir or the choir or as a soloist. I've never played the flute at our current church. Singing in the choir was something I enjoyed musically, spiritually, and emotionally. It also was one of the ways that I could serve in a ministry. I'm trying to figure out how to fill those voids - a musical outlet of some sort and also another ministry to serve in. I considered offering to teach an adult Sunday School class starting in October, but then I found out that Bruce, who had been my SS teacher from 2012 until COVID, is going to resume his class in September. My areas of ministry the past 7 years had been helping in the children's ministry and singing in the choir. I stepped down from the children's ministry in February for another reason. If our kids were younger, I think we would be switching churches right now. That's how highly I value being able to sing in a choir, but Nadia's friends are almost all at this church. Presuming that Ian and Oliver develop friendships with kids at church over the coming years, I don't think we'll switch churches until Oliver graduates from high school. If that doesn't happen, then maybe we'll switch in five years when Nadia graduates. I really, really hope that church choirs don't become a thing of the past.

My observations have been that #1 governments almost always only get bigger over time and #2 when churches eliminate or decrease a program in some way, it rarely ever comes back. One of the reasons that Coolidge is one of Paul's most favorite Presidents is because he actually did take actions to reduce the size of the government. When I was growing up, we went to church on Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, and Wednesday nights on a weekly basis. Over the years I've noticed that many churches have eliminated Sunday nights and Wednesday nights, and also many people only go to the worship service on Sunday morning rather than Sunday School and the worship service on Sunday morning. I haven't attended Sunday School for 17 months due to COVID. I'm grateful that will be resuming in the fall. We've been attending the second service, but I think we'll switch back to attending the first service in the fall and then the kids go to the youth service (N/I) and Oliver can go to Kidzway during the second service while I attend Sunday School. Nadia and Ian attend youth group at a different church on Sunday night and at our church on Wednesday night. Whether Oliver attends AWANA at the Alliance Church or the midweek Kidzway program at our church will depend on where I end up attending a Bible study on Wednesday night. Speaking of choirs, my kids sang in choirs since they were four until COVID. Nadia and Ian sang in the Susquehanna Valley Youth Chorale in the fall of 2019. When COVID hit, Nadia was in the middle school chorus at Meadowbrook Christian School, I was in our church's adult choir, and Ian and Oliver were in the kids' choir at our church. Ian is now too old for our church's kids' choir. I haven't heard if the kids' choir will be resuming at our church or not. If it does, Oliver might be the only member of our family in a choir. 

Thankful Tuesday

1. We are still enjoying our new van. It gets a little bit better gas mileage, it's far easier to listen to audiobooks, and the front seats are far more comfortable. The color continues to grow on me. I'm very glad we didn't try to hold out for a different color.

2. We were offered trial subscriptions to Sirius in the past (such as 9 years ago when we bought the Sienna), but we didn't actually give it a whirl until last week. I figured that the three month free trial would come in handy during the weekend getaway to Massachusetts, our trip to Long Island, and our vacation out west in September. That has absolutely been the case. It's so nice to not need to try and find another station when driving through different areas of a state or different states. They've offered to extend the subscription for 3 additional months for a grand total of $2. I haven't decided about that yet, but I'm very grateful for the three month trial.

3. I had a lovely lunch with my friend today! The restaurant we had picked wasn't actually open today, but we found a diner in that small town that was open. We weren't there for the food but rather to talk and enjoy each other's company. I hadn't seen her in two years, and her husband passed away in November. We've been friends for 27 years, but we haven't lived near each other for 25 years so our visits tend to be few and far between. I drove a little over an hour to get to the diner, which is not something I'm usually willing to do for a meal, but it was definitely worth it as we chatted for 3 hours (part of the time sitting outside). That is a very rare treat for me.

4. I'm thankful for ice cream. I know it's not a healthy food, but let me tell you it's one of my most favorite foods. Currently my four most favorite flavors are Cherry Vanilla (Weis), Blueberry Crisp (Weis), Chocolate Fudge Brownie (Stone Ridge Creamery), and Maple Caramel (Stone Ridge Creamery). YUM!

5. I'm thankful for safety as we traveled to and from Massachusetts. I'm also thankful that in our area we don't encounter the traffic we encountered on an Interstate in Connecticut on Sunday. I'm thankful we were able to stream the last sermon in our new senior pastor's 8 week series on Nehemiah while we were driving home. I prefer to worship in person, but it is nice to be able to attend online when we are away.

6. I'm very thankful the Springfield Armory recently reopened and that we were also able to visit the Springfield Museums and Six Flags New England for free on July 23-24. We also were very grateful that a gentleman secretly paid for our large pizza. I'm also thankful that kids are able to visit the Sturbridge Village for free in July and that we were able to use gift cards to pay for our breakfast and dinner on Sunday (we skipped lunch).

7. We're grateful that our friends took care of Milo .I wish he hadn't been such a handful for them. Tab called me on our way home and said she thought we might need to take him to the vet, but he's fine. I think it was a combination of separation anxiety plus adjusting to a transition from puppy to adult dog food. 

8. Oliver is very grateful that his four sutures were removed on Monday morning as that has meant he can SWIM again!

9. I'm getting a new (to me) lens for my camera! I haven't gotten a new lens in five years. I'm really looking forward to using this wide angle lens on our vacation in September. Almost all of my lenses are Canon lenses, but to save money I got a used Sigma lens; however, it's from their Art series which are supposed to be excellent lenses. 

10. My cousin, Brent, who turned 47 years old ten days ago became a Dad today! This means that my Aunt Janet (age 78) became a Grandma today!!! Woohoo!!!! We're hoping to meet her grandson at some point in the future when we take a trip to Lake Tahoe.

11. We've been looking forward to our annual trip to visit Aunt Janet, but now we have even more reasons to be excited about it. First, my niece Rachel will be spending a week with us (part of that will be in NY), and secondly my sister, Wendy, is flying to Long Island to spend 3 days with us. It will have been two years since I have seen either of them, and I've never gone that long without seeing Wendy before. We are thrilled, and Aunt Janet is also very excited!

12. I'm so thankful that Dee (our neighbor) is taking the kids to camp, and Paul is picking them up at night. I am very, very grateful for the reprieve from chauffeuring. As much as I love spending time with my kids and do NOT look forward to being an empty nester in potentially 9 years, I have to say having a few days a year when I can have several hours of quiet time by myself is also greatly appreciated. I'm also thankful that the kids are having a great time and that this camp was practically free. We only had to pay a tiny fee to cover a t-shirt and their snacks at the Sugar Shack. As much as my kids enjoy these camps, they also give me a renewed appreciation for one of the benefits of homeschooling - not needing to get the kids up and out the door before 8:00am. I really don't like having to wake the kids up, and I don't enjoy a rushed morning, which is what is happening this week. Thankfully it's a rare occurrence in our household as during the school year we very rarely leave the house before lunch. 

13. We found a way to watch the Olympics even though we don't have cable. It turns out there is an app to use to watch local channels for free.

14. I placed an order today for new flooring for our dining room. I remember 13 years ago telling my mom that if we stayed in this house after Paul graduated from PSU, the first thing I was going to do was replace the flooring in the dining room as I thought off-white carpet didn't make sense in a dining room. We have changed the flooring in five other rooms in this house over the years, but the dining room still has the 22 year old carpeting. In hindsight I wish I had done both the dining room and kitchen five years ago, but it seemed like too much money at the time. I say that because now it's impossible to get the same flooring. So I tried to pick something out that looked okay next to hardwood (what is in the living room) and what is in the kitchen. Milo's accidents have left stains in that room, the family room, and the upstairs hallway. We keep all the bedroom doors closed so he hasn't damaged those carpets. We've never had our carpets cleaned before. I made an appointment today for someone to come on Monday to clean the family room and upstairs hallway carpets. Hopefully that will do the trick, and I really, really hope that Milo is done having accidents in our house.