Thankful Thursday

1. Paul had his third phone interview yesterday (for a one year position in MA) and will be having his fourth one (for a permanent position in NC) next week.  Praying for more interviews and more importantly a job offer. As of last Friday, he had applied for 43 jobs. So far this week there haven't been any posted that he wanted to pursue. He's very interested in the position in NC. It would be so lovely if he landed a permanent position rather than one that will only last 1-3 years. I am hoping that within the next 6 weeks we'll find out where we'll be moving this summer. I assume most schools will want to have their searches wrapped up by the end of the spring semester.

2. Paul never got the cold the rest of us had. Ian, Nadia, and I are back to full health. Oliver's nose isn't as runny, but now he's had a cough since Sunday. Poor guy! He's been under the weather for almost 3 weeks now. I hope he feels better asap! In light of his illness, I've been wishing he was more interested in nursing so he could get the antibodies from me. At least he still is getting some of my milk. Some is better than none, right?

3. Nadia and Ian rode down to work with Paul today because they are spending the day with their grandparents. They love their Grandma and Pop Pop soooo much! I got an incredible amount of work done today. Only having an infant at home during the day is incredibly different from having 3 kids age 4 and under. In a typical day I have 2 hours a day with just Oliver (3-4am and 1-2pm) and 1 hour without any kids (8:30-9:30pm). Oliver and I went grocery shopping, and I also picked up some empty boxes. I cooked dinner and was able to do the dishes right after cooking! Normally it's a challenge to have enough time to cook dinner, and the dishes (I hand wash mixing bowls, pots, and pans) usually have to wait until the kids are in bed. I also did some spackling and packing. Oliver's first two naps were only 40-45 minutes long (whereas they average about 2 hours each). I put him down for a third nap (which is very rare for him), and that nap finally was a good one.

4. We had a some caramel bits left over that weren't needed for the cookies we made so yesterday I melted them and cut up some Granny Smith apples to dip in the caramel. Nadia and I thoroughly enjoyed that treat! It was her first time having a caramel apple.