Thankful Thursday

1. Ian and Nadia started their homeschooling gymnastics class last Wednesday. Ian did MUCH better than he did a year ago. I enjoyed talking with the other mom who has a child in the class.

2. Nadia and Ian started their ice skating lessons last Thursday. I can tell already that they are going to make a lot of progress!

3. We sang the beautiful anthem "Timeless One" on Sunday. There was one point in the anthem where I kept thinking, if my mom were here, she would have goosebumps right now. That's a good thing! Also, the music pastor and another man sang a beautiful duet of the song "Your grace still amazes me."

4. I really enjoyed visiting with other homeschooling moms during Nadia and Ian's basketball class on Friday morning. What a treat!

5. It was SOOOOOO nice to have 47 hours with my hubby without the kids! It was also nice to be able to sleep in until 7:30 two days in a row and not to need to do any cooking for 2 days! I am so glad the kids had such a great time with their grandparents.

6. Paul's classes began yesterday. It was SO nice seeing more of him the past almost four weeks. I'm also thankful he could help out with the kids yesterday in light of Oliver's doctor appointment.

7. We are all healthy!

8. My brother and sister made it back safely to Brazil and Turkey.

9. I recently restarted giving Nadia piano lessons. It's going MUCH better than when she was five years old. We have gotten in the habit of including practicing the piano as part of her "school work" that she accomplishes before eating lunch every day.

10. I'm so glad that Nadia has a CD player in her bedroom. Sometimes we get the "pleasure" of listening to her Frozen CD downstairs, but most of the time she plays it in her room, which is great because I tire of it far more quickly than she does.

11. A ministry my dad was involved with for more than 30 years sold their property on Tuesday, which was a BIG answer to a long standing prayer request. Now they can pay off all their debts. PTL!

12. I'm thankful for a new plan of action regarding Oliver's asthma (technically called RAD due to his age).

13. Paul has a phone interview with the University of Tampa on Friday for a tenure track position in physical chemistry! Things have been very slow going this time around in terms of interview invitations, so this was very encouraging. Given the high temperatures have been less than 30 degrees lately (sometimes less than 20), Florida sounds really good right about now! Also, his department chair told him that if his teaching evaluations are satisfactory, he could stay at Bucknell one more year if he so desired. We shall see what happens!

14. Last week Oliver had six consecutive days without any accidents! He broke that string by having a #2 accident at Paul's parents' house on Saturday and a #1 accident on our couch on Sunday. I found it rather ironic that we started potty training four months ago and this was the first time he peed on the couch. Go figure. He didn't have any accidents on Monday or Tuesday, but he had a poop accident yesterday. Hopefully today we can start a string that lasts at least one week. Potty training Oliver has definitely been harder than it was with the other two, but we are going in the right direction.