Thankful Thursday

1. A new homeschooling bill was signed into law by the Governor on Friday. Prior to this Pennsylvania was ranked as the second worst of the 50 states in terms of home schooling laws (NY being the worst). The BEST states for home schooling include: Michigan, Alaska, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Texas, Idaho, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Oklahoma. In that sense it would be nice if Paul got a job in one of those states. I am glad that PA made some progress with improving this law.

 2. As we walked into the grocery store on Thursday afternoon, another customer entering the store pointed to my kids and asked me if they were all mine. After I said "yes," he asked if it was okay if he gave each of them a $2 bill. Sure! The kids had never seen a $2 bill before (well Oliver is oblivious to any kind of money), and it was neat timing because last week we were studying Thomas Jefferson (who is pictured on the front). Nadia immediately recognized that the picture on the back was of the Declaration being signed. What a kind thing for this man to give my kids $6! Part way through the store we ran into him again, and he asked if they had already spent it or not. LOL!

3. The kids had fun trick or treating on Friday night. Although the weather was much cooler than it had been the previous weekend, it was still pleasant enough for the kids to go without jackets on. We lasted much longer than we did last year. Most people gave the kids small pieces of candy or bags of fruit snacks. Some of the more unique gifts were glow in the dark bracelets, a package of two Pop Tarts for every child (they each ate theirs for breakfast on Saturday morning), and at one house they were giving out FULL size candy bars (ex. Snickers). The kids enjoyed seeing all the other costumes.

4. I've completed twelve applications for Paul, and there are two more on my list to be done. All of them are for tenure track jobs at four year colleges, and twelve of them are for either physical or computational chemistry (his areas of specialty); this never happened the past two years! Only one of them is just for teaching general chemistry. Applications 11-14 have gone or are going to KY, GA, WV, and IN.

5. We had a great time with six cousins on Saturday at Six Flags! On one ride that Oliver and Julianna (age 20 months) were riding together, she looked a little scared to me so I was making a point to wave and say "Hi, Julie!" every time she came around to try to calm her fears. Oliver felt a little left out, and after they passed he'd yell "Hi, Oliver!" to remind me that I shouldn't just be talking to his cousin. Thanks to Oliver wearing his bee costume, his hair was not accessible. She pulled on his wings (which he didn't like but it certainly didn't hurt him one iota), but she never pulled his hair! We also got to catch our first glimpse of Micah as Yvonne and Micah came to Chocolate World at the end (he was asleep in his car seat but we saw a little bit of his face).

6. The kids keep learning new skills. Nadia has recently learned how to whistle (something I have never been able to do!) and climb all the way across the monkey bars.

7. On Sunday morning we had guest speakers - Christopher Yuan and his parents. He's currently a professor at Moody Bible Institute. He and his parents had a very powerful story to tell of how they each came to the Lord and the changes He was brought about in their lives. They had many other sessions on Saturday and Sunday night that I wasn't able to attend, but I've ordered a CD of all the sessions that I missed.

8. On Sunday I was handed the names and contact information for NINE people who babysit from our church. WOOHOO! I've never had anywhere near that many names to draw upon, and up until I was handed that sheet I had zero. It's been three months since we've been on a date, but we are planning to go on the 15th, and I have a babysitter lined up for that date!

9. This morning we are attending a "Terrific Turkeys" program at a state park, and my friend Nikki (whom I met at ladies Bible study) is also planning to come with her two boys.

10. On Saturday morning we stopped at a mall on our way to Hershey. I used two coupons to get some great bargains at Bon Ton and JcPenney (at JCP I was buying things at 90% off the original price), and Paul also got himself a jacket! It's the first coat he's bought that wasn't a hoodie over the past 17 years that I've known him. He (finally) decided he needed something more professional to wear to the university. Yay!

11. The weather was GORGEOUS on Tuesday. It doesn't usually get to 70 degrees in November in PA, and my petunias aren't still usually blooming!

12. We live in a free country where we experience peaceful elections. PTL!

13. Potty training has had it's ups and downs - like the fact he had his first two accidents at church the past two Wednesday nights even though he peed at home right before we left for church. The positives would be that aside from one incident of diarrhea, he hasn't had any #2 accidents in more than 2 weeks. Also he had two more days in the past week that were accident free, which brings his total to nine accident free days.

14. Yesterday morning Ian didn't wake up until 6:15. WOOHOO! This was the first indication of his body making the one hour switch. Proof the kids haven't fully made the switch is that ALL three of them were asleep in the van on the way home from AWANA last night even though we only have a 15 minute drive home, and they had never fallen asleep in the van on another Wednesday night this fall. Oliver also has been taking longer than usual naps, which is wonderful.