Thankful Thursday

1. I am SO thankful that on June 24, 2008, I became a mom! Technically I've been a mom since 2005, but since I never met our first baby, I didn't really feel like a mom until 2008. Although motherhood has been far more physically exhausting at times than I had imagined, it has been absolutely as amazing as I had dreamed it would be since I was a child myself. I am eternally grateful that the Lord gave us our most precious Nadia Renee, whose name means "hope reborn." She has been SUCH a delight to us these past seven years and added so much joy to our lives. I look forward to watching her continue to grow and learn new things in the coming years!

2. Paul has been an outstanding father these past seven years. I am VERY thankful for him as well. I am also thankful for my dad and Paul's dad and their influence in our lives and the lives of their grandchildren.

3. Nadia had a fabulous time at Camp Susque last week! We received a letter that she mailed from camp on Monday. She enjoyed receiving two letters from me and three emails from Grandma while she was at camp.

4. Ian finished the Level One reading curriculum! He showed an incredible amount of diligence and perseverance to accomplish that goal. We need to spend some time reinforcing what he learned, but wow he came a long way in about ten days!

5. My eyes are back to normal, and no one else in the family caught my pink eye. My hearing is also gradually coming back in my right ear. Yay!

6. I absolutely loved the anthem the choir sang on Sunday morning. It was about God's love for us, and I had tears in my eyes by the end of the song in both services. Gorgeous song and what a beautiful reminder of His amazing love.

7. We greatly appreciated Paul's parents, brother, and sister-in-law coming up to celebrate Fathers' Day and Nadia's 7th birthday with us on Sunday afternoon! The cake Millie brought was delicious as were the baked beans and deviled eggs that Grandma brought. Nadia loved all her presents!

8. We enjoyed chatting with the Towfighis on the phone yesterday (thanks to their Magic Jack). Yvonne has come up with some excellent ideas as to how our kids can share some experiences together regarding the countries our kids will be studying over the course of the year. I've had fun selecting resources from the library that I plan to use (chapter books, picture books, music cd's, dvd's, etc.). My list already contains 250 items the library owns, and I have another list of books I plan to request through interlibrary loan. Yvonne and I both plan to cook at least one food a week from the country we are studying that week. It will be fun to try new recipes. Hopefully we'll find some new foods that we like that we'll make again in the future. Nadia also enjoyed talking with some of her cousins and being serenaded by them even though the live on another continent.

9.  Even though they aren't selling brownie batter donuts right now (which is the favorite kind of everyone except for Paul), we did enjoy having donuts for Nadia's birthday breakfast yesterday morning!

10. Paul took Nadia to her Annie rehearsal yesterday. This enabled the boys and I to enjoy the absolutely gorgeous weather, and I got some exercise as we walked to the playground.

11. I'm thankful for yard sales, clearance racks, and a great online sale at the Disney store that together  enabled me to buy Nadia a nice assortment of gifts without spending too much money. She received from us a 300 piece puzzle about Egypt, 5 princess Barbie dolls, a Frozen t-shirt, a loom kit, some things to paint, a Sound of Music cd, Anastasia figurines, a headband, some princess themed jewelry, and a Frozen digital watch.

12. Yesterday we picked a little less than 4 pounds of blueberries. This was a first for all of us. All three kids did some taste testing as we picked. The temperature was cooler than it was when we picked strawberries, which was appreciated. Nadia LOVES blueberries, so this was part of our birthday celebration for her. I usually only buy a pint at a time.

13. We also had a nice dinner at Friendly's. It only cost $11 for the five of us because we were able to pay for part of our meal with the remainder of the the gift card Ian got at Valentine's Day. I think our princess had a great birthday!

14. The kids really enjoyed the K9 program at the library on Tuesday evening.

15. Oliver is healthy at the moment (not even receiving nebulizer treatments). PTL!