Thankful Thursday

Oliver feeds Grover some chocolate ice cream

1. The kids had a lot of fun playing dodgeball for the first time in their lives at the homeschool gym class on Friday morning. There won't be any gym class this Friday or next Friday, but they're starting up a six week session on March 20. This time it will be 2 weeks of basketball, 2 weeks of kickball, 1 week of soccer, and 1 week of dodgeball. My kids will probably miss the class on March 20 because we're planning to meet my parents in Harrisburg at the State Museum that day (which happens to be my mom's 70th birthday), but we should be able to attend the other five classes. I am very grateful our church is offering these classes!

2. On Sunday evening I made a trip to CVS. The original prices of my 22 items would have totaled $70.46, but I paid only $3.74 (and received $6.87 back in Extra Care Bucks to use on a future purchase).  The kids were excited because I got Mini Wheats (one of Nadia's favorite cereals) and M&Ms that I used to make a batch of cookies on Tuesday night. Paul was happy about that because I made oatmeal raisin cookies last week (which he won't eat), and he likes M&M cookies. The kids are also enjoying some Valentine's candy I got for 90% off (such as conversation hearts).

Cookie Monster gets strawberry ice cream!

3. Last night I attended a fabulous concert at our church that was put on by a chorale from a university in Indiana. Six people who work at our church (or the Christian school at our church) were in this chorale in the past, including our music pastor and his wife (who is the music teacher at the school). The 80+ members of the choir did an outstanding job last night. My two favorite songs were "A Mighty Fortress" and "When I Survey." Absolutely gorgeous!! I was tempted to have Nadia skip AWANA and join me for the concert. If they are back next year, I think I'll do that. This week is their spring break. Their tour is concluding with a performance at Carnegie Hall this weekend (a requiem). Two young men from the chorale spent the night at our house last night. One of the young men grew up as a missionary kid in Namibia.

4. Oliver hasn't had any accidents while awake for over two weeks! He got his pants wet at church once last week when he was on the potty because they didn't take his pants completely off like I do, and sometimes he still makes a mess on the toilet seat because he doesn't wait for me to come and wipe him after he poops, but it's nice to feel that we are nearing the end of accidents while he's awake. As for sleeping, he has been averaging 1-2 accidents a week. Last week he wet the bed once during a nap, and this week he wet the bed once early in the morning (6:15 am). Last week and this week he also peed on the carpet one time early in the morning right by his door. He woke up before wetting the bed but didn't make it to the potty in time. Overall, he is making progress.

5. I love watching Nadia and Ian play together. Last week Nadia told Ian she was going to teach him how to play the piano. They sat down and she went back to the first pages of her piano book and started teaching him. And several other days in the week she told him it was time for him to practice. Cracked me up and melted my heart all at the same time. I guess you only need to play the piano for about 2 months to be ready to take on your own students, ha ha! They say one of the best ways to learn is to teach someone else (I talked about that in my dissertation on cross-age tutoring) so I am not going to interfere with his piano lessons even though in reality I don't think he's really ready to start. I am very pleased though with Nadia's progress. She's moving quite quickly through the book. Next week she's going to start learning to read music! This week she's shown progress in particular with holding notes for the proper length (ex. a dotted half note for three beats).

6. We are so thankful for BOOKS. Nadia is absolutely LOVING Anne of Green Gables. I thought it would take awhile to get through the almost 300 page book (with small print), but we are flying through it because she cannot get enough of it. I adored that series when I was a child. It is my pleasure to read it again! Ian is crazy about The book with no pictures, and both kids are enjoying Mix it Up by Tullet. It's not as funny as his book, Press Here, but it's similar and does a fantastic job of teaching the kids what colors result from mixing other colors.

7. Oliver came down with a cold a week ago. Thankfully this cold has been much milder for him, and it hasn't spread to the whole family like it usually does (although Nadia woke up with a 102 degree fever this morning). I am thankful that the nebulizer and Singulair seem to be doing the trick for Oliver. I have noticed that exercise is what sets off his worst asthma attacks. When he doesn't have a cold, he can run all he wants, but if he runs while he has even a mild cold, he has a bad asthma attack. It's hard to explain to a two-year-old that he shouldn't run.