I think this blog is over.

Well, it’s been almost a year since I started this blog.  Nearly a year since we left Portland and headed east.  We’ve made it through the first academic year and are 1/4 of the way through our seminary adventure.

I thought this blog would be a good place to keep in touch with people and let them know what we are doing.  But our lives are not so very different from before.  There’s not exciting stuff to say very often.   And, while the updates kept others informed on our lives, we weren’t getting informed on anyone else’s!

So, I’m closing up shop here at this blog.  I do keep another blog where you are welcome to visit.  It is not as personal as this blog was, or was meant to be.  It is more of a ranting and rambling, little of this, little of that sort of blog.  Sometimes a little political but not always.  And like this blog, comments are always welcome.  So if you like, come see me at Two Kid Schoolhouse.

If you do come by, please leave me a note so I know you were there!

Finals!

Right now Cris is taking his last final!   In about 2 hours or so he will be free, and we will have made it through 1/4 of our seminary time.

He starts back up again pretty quickly – summer Hebrew begins in late June.  But we will have a few weeks of rest, house projects, day trips, and more rest.

The kids had their homeschool evaluations done this week too.  We are not done with our official 180-day school year but we definitely have spring fever and have let down a little on our routines.   Today, in fact, we are spending much of our time preparing our end-of-finals celebration.

If anyone’s still here… I’ll try to update more frequently as we do more fun things this summer.  But, I can’t promise.  Our lives are not all that much different from when we lived in Beaverton… and I didn’t have much to say then either!

Finally! Something about Philly that is better than Portland!

In my backyard I have found some hostas.  I guess they were there when we moved here last August, but I didn’t really remember them. The other day I saw one way in the back of the yard; it had appeared so suddenly I thought maybe Cris had bought and planted it as a surprise.  Well, of course not.  It’s just the time when plants start to explode here.  All the little hostas are coming up so nicely.  And…

There are no slugs to eat holes in their leaves!

Yes, my dear Oregonian friends… there are no slugs here.  No slug holes in anything.  Not the hostas, hot the huge patch of daylilies (I am pretty sure they are daylilies) coming up in the front yard.  No where have I seen a slug!

Oh, don’t you wish you were here too?

Well, sorry

Is anyone still there?

Life is pretty normal here.  Our magnolia tree bloomed and lost its blossoms in the blink of an eye!  The dogwood tree is still blooming.  The daffodils planted last fall came up!  We’re getting ready to plant some irises, and are talking about getting a crabapple tree for the front yard.

Cris’s semester is winding down… and he will be gearing up for summer Hebrew in July!

James is doing great in Cub Scouts (Webelos) and Eleanor is enjoying her little homeschool Girl Scout troop.  Our troop is planning a garage sale this weekend to raise funds.  We skipped the cookie sales – one of our member’s moms objected to the unhealthy nature of the cookies.  Two weeks later, she quit anyway!  Oh well.  I’m taking the opportunity to unload some books.

James has informed us that we are not doing enough fun things – he’s right – so today the kids, Max the dog, and I went to Valley Forge.  What a gorgeous place this time of year!  Some trees are still in bloom.  We had a good hike; the experience was slightly marred by the appearance of ticks on us and on Max!  Ours were on our clothing, so no harm done, and Cris is getting good at extracting them from the dog.    Next week we’ll go to one of the other dog-friendly parks around.

We are still missing our friends but things are coming along pretty well here!

Weekend update

1. Max the dog got a clean bill of health from the vet following his “procedure.” He was ecstatic when he got home and was finally allowed out in the backyard without the leash! We are looking into obedience training and are starting to think about agility training for him – he loves to run and jump; we think it’d be fun for everyone to get involved in that. We’ve decided he feels really at home here now because he’s leaving evidence of lounging on the couch when he is alone in the house…

2. James and Eleanor took a one-day class on maple sugaring at nearby Fairmount Park. While they were there Max and I walked. And walked. I had envisioned a nice walk, then we’d find a bench, he’d curl up at my feet and I’d read for a bit. Hahaha. Silly me. We just walked.

3. Eleanor’s Girl Scout troop took a trip to the Water Works, a museum in a gorgeous old building in Fairmount Park, on the banks of the Schuylkill (say skookle) River.

4. James starts little league baseball today. His team is the Dodgers. This is annoying to this old-time Giants fan.

5. Cris finally got his grade report from the fall semester. He did great. Are you surprised?

6.  James got his expander installed.  This is an orthodontic device similar to a retainer, but is designed to expand the upper jaw.  So every morning and every night we have to use a little tool to open it up a little more.  It’s thrilling for James.  He’s only had it 3 days and can almost speak normally again.  Back in my day, when a person had too many teeth for the jaw, they just pulled the teeth.  (I had 9 taken out – you never knew I had a small mouth, did you?)  Now, they make the jaw bigger.

7. The crocuses are starting to bloom!

How to keep a dog from playing?

So our dog Max is not supposed to run or play for the next 7 days. The poor guy is so bored. He doesn’t understand that if he runs he might rip his stitches. He just wants to go out and chase squirrels. He is a very polite dog but once in a while, when the squirrels are just taunting him too much, he can’t help but jump up on the back door in an effort to get through it. Going out on the leash is not so much fun.

Last night we bought him a new toy – a stuffed, squeaky squirrel. Up to now he has not really cared about any toys. Even the Kong, which every dog owner we know swears by, does not interest him much. But this stuffed squirrel! Oh my, does he ever love it.

Still, it’s going to be a mighty long week till we can just let him go running outside on his own.

The kong toys are not a total loss, though. One is hanging in a tree right now, attached to a garbage-bag parachute that James made. Guess it worked pretty well!

Signs of spring

It seems too early for spring.  We haven’t had much snow yet!  People say there could be a big snow but it doesn’t feel that way.   The crocuses and daffodils we planted last fall are poking out now.  Today it was nearly 60 and a little overcast.  At about the kids’ bedtime the rain started pouring down.  The back yard will be swampy again tomorrow;  Cris has a drainage project to work on this summer.  Along with summer Hebrew class!

Our dog Max spent yesterday at the vet’s – the normal adult dog procedure.  James was so worried that he’d be different afterwards – lazy, no fun anymore.  Well, when we picked him up he was certainly happy to see us but a little groggy.  Today he was pretty much back to normal but he cannot run or play rough for 10 days!  He’s ready to go already.  It’s going to be tough to keep him slowed down so long.

Well, that’s our excitement.  What’s yours?

Pinewood Derby

Today was the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. For those unfamiliar with scouts, this is a Big Day in the life of a Cub. Several weeks before the big day, the boys get a car-making kit – a block of wood, some axles and wheels, and they (um, and their Dads) design a car to race. There are some exact specifications that must be followed. The only one I am sure of is the 5-ounce weight limit.

So James (with lots of help) made his car; I think Cris had as much fun as he did. Last night they had to take them to the meeting place to be weighed and impounded for the night. This was to prevent any funny business to make that car go faster down the ramp.

James’s races was scheduled for 11 am today. We arrived shortly before 11, to be told that they were running a few minutes behind. At one point I realized I’d forgotten to remind him not to cry or get mad if he lost. (If you know James you understand this.) At another point Cris (ever the optimist) realized he’d forgotten to remind him not to gloat if he won. At noon his den’s turn came. He won all 6 races!  Which meant he advanced to the finals.

Talk about mixed emotions. Eleanor was bored. (I admit it – I was too.)  We had lunch waiting at home. And a dog, trapped in the house.

Oh well, the hotdogs were cheap and everything was going so late we didn’t have much longer to wait. The finals came up. James made it through the first round. Now we could see he was getting tense.  The final round was not like the others; there was no clear winner showing up. Then there had to be a tie-breaker! Oh, the suspense!

Finally it was all over. James had won third place! He was very happy and very relieved. He has a nice little trophy and, of course, his car. He and Cris are going to build a special shelf for it. (That’s because his dresser and bookcase are all covered with stuff and it just seems easier to build something new than clean them up.)

Four hours later we got home to a very happy (and ready to go outside) dog. James is tired but happy.

Spring classes

School started a few weeks ago. Cris got right back into Greek with a test the first day. I think its purpose was to shake out the cobwebs that grew over the nearly-nonexistent winter break. His other classes are Orientation to Pastoral Counseling, Doctrine of God, Evangelism, Gospel Communications, and Medieval Church History. Whew! It seems to be going a bit better than last semester, if only because he is getting to be a better student.

And I am taking a class too, auditing Elements of Biblical Change; part of the counseling curriculum. You might not know that Westminster is associated with the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation, which is located right across the street. I am thinking of registering as a “real” student and working toward a certificate in the counseling area, or even my Master’s. I wouldn’t have time to finish any kind of program while we are here, but it’d be nice to get something started and carry on via distance learning later. We’ll see how that goes. So far I am not doing such a great job keeping up with the reading, and I haven’t even attempted to do any of the assigned writing (which I could not turn in anyway, as an auditor). More about that class another time.

The kids are in only one class right now: a reading group run by one of the moms in our homeschool group. Once a month they meet to present a book on a particular topic, chosen at the beginning of the “term” by vote. This month the topic was rocks and minerals, so they did a little research on a few of their favorite rocks and did an oral presentation. I had to miss it – the group meets when I am in class, so Cris took them. He caused a bit of a stir there in the room full of moms.

James is enjoying Cub Scouts and is signed up for Little League which starts in April. Eleanor is in a homeschool Girl Scout troop and is enjoying that too. She’s thinking of signing up for soccer when the time comes. It could get really interesting around here with all these activities if we continue as a one-car family (which probably won’t be much longer).

Catching up…

First, a reminder for those of you who are still checking in here… blogs that are not updated frequently are annoying, aren’t they?  Who wants to keep checking in only to find a 3-week old post?  Yeah, I know.

Use a reader, like google reader or bloglines.  There are others.  You can plug in all your favorite blogs and when they are updated, you’ll know.  No more checking in to find there’s nothing going on in PA!

So let’s see…  our friends’ Russian adoption went through, they are all home, including the big dog we were babysitting!   That was quite an experience.  It felt calmer and quieter in the house within minutes.  So far, our little Max does not seem to be upset about the loss of his pal.  He is still vigilant, watching out the back door for those pesky squirrels.  Oh, he loves to chase!   We are all enjoying him, and when the rain stops we’ll start heading out to the local dog park and taking him hiking with us.

We did have about 5 inches of snow last week, and enough of an incline in the back yard for a little sledding.  The kids and I also walked over to a local church with a big hill and got some runs in there.  Now, it’s raining so the snow will be gone soon.  Hoping for one more big snow before spring!

OK, that’s enough for one night; I’ll save the school update for tomorrow.