Thankful Thursday

1. Paul came home early from work last Friday so I could run and take advantage of the weather being unseasonably warm that day. The kids and I also tackled one of the apple trees that day. I would say we have now gotten down about half the apples off the one tree and 95% off the other tree. Even though it was much cooler on Sunday afternoon, it was a very sunny day so I ran 5.5 miles while Oliver napped and Paul watched football. I hadn't run much lately and figured it was good timing due to eating things like pecan pie (got one for $2.50 at the grocery store the day after Thanksgiving -yum!).

2. Paul was able to come home from school earlier than usual on Tuesday, which meant he was able to take Nadia to her art class, which I greatly appreciated because it's a challenge to keep the boys occupied for 90 minutes during her class since the children's museum is closed at that time and it is dark outside.

3. Paul took Nadia and Ian to Home Depot on Saturday morning for a building project.

4. We are studying France this week including the art work of Monet and Renoir. I started making some French recipes last week and continued this week. They loved the Croque Monsouir (Ian in particular) and chocolate mousse. They were not fans of the crepes (Nadia took almost 20 hours to eat hers). Nadia loved the cheese omelette Paul made. Next up is creme brulee.

5. Some FB friends responded to my request for Kellogg's codes, and they gave me enough to help me reach my goal of 5,500 points for a Frozen personalized placemat for a Christmas gift for Paul's great niece. Coupon codes for Shutterfly plus codes from Coke and Kellogg's points and also using credit card points on Amazon have enabled me to save literally hundreds of dollars on Christmas gifts this year. I am almost done shopping, and everything that has arrived has been wrapped. Yay!

6. My dad had a significant hearing loss in one of his ears for a few weeks but thankfully his hearing is finally coming back. PTL! Paul and I went to the dentist on Tuesday and got good reports, and my pap results also came back normal.

7. The grocery store is having a four day meat sale starting today. They are selling boneless skinless chicken breast for $1.29 a pound. Wow! I am going to stock up that is for sure. Last week the extent of my Black Friday shopping was a trip to CVS for some deals there (many freebies) and one online order at Rainbow Resources. Cyber Monday I made two purchases - some freebies on Shutterfly and I bought a gift card for Sight and Sound because if you bought one they gave you a $25 gift card for free. I will use these for when we buy our Samson tickets next year.

8. Ian's soccer team will be practicing on Tuesday nights from 5-6 starting next week! His coach is a man who sings in choir with me, and his son is my choir director (music pastor). Small world! I am grateful they can play Upward basketball this year. It will be Ian's first year and Nadia's third. I don't know who Nadia's coach is, but her practices are also going to be on Tuesdays, which is very nice (although hers will be from 6-7). She will miss half of her first two practices due to art class, but after that it will be fine.

9. Paul doesn't have any labs left this semester. He only has 2 lectures (today and next Tuesday) and a final exam, and he's done until January 19th!

10. From January through mid August the plan had been that both Paul and I would apply for academic jobs this fall (that would start in August 2016). I had started looking at job postings in August, and Paul had given me guidance as to what exactly he was open to in terms of type of school, location, etc. Then on August 20 he informed me of his new plan, and since it didn't involve any job applications, I also stopped looking for jobs for myself. Two weeks ago I decided to see what had been posted in my field over the past three months..
When I saw there were two tenure track jobs posted at schools within the state system I taught in for 10 years, I decided to apply for those two jobs. Later I talked with Paul as I considered applying for one in North Carolina, but he told me he was not willing to move out of Pennsylvania. Previously he wanted to trade places with me and be a stay-at-home homeschooling dad, but now he wants to work at least part-time at Kennedy Concrete. The reason I was excited about jobs being posted at PASSHE schools was that a couple of years ago when I contacted the union they said that those schools *could* honor my tenure and promotion (albeit they don't automatically have to do so). If I end up going back to work, it would be really wonderful not to have to start over back at the beginning. Last week I submitted two more applications. Two of the four schools are 90 minutes from KCI and the other two are 105 minutes from KCI. Our current house is pretty close to being in the middle for one of the four jobs. The one that interests Paul the most is East Stroudsburg.
For me the top two are that one and Millersville (near Lancaster). I have mixed feelings about it. I absolutely loved being a professor. I definitely miss it. In an ideal world, I would like to be an adjunct professor (part-time) at this stage of my kids' life. My mom was a stay-at-home mom, and for as long as I can remember that was my goal, and while we were dating Paul said he was 100% in agreement with that. The plan was changed when he decided to go back to school as I had to be the primary (and at times exclusive) breadwinner while he was a FT graduate student for 7 years (half of our marriage thus far). The two universities closest to KCI aren't hiring right now (the two where I taught previously). I am thankful that my references are helping me out (one even placed a call on my behalf prior to me submitting the application), and I am just waiting to see how the Lord leads. Three of the applications are due this month (the fourth isn't due until March) so I am hoping that next month I will start to have an indication whether or not I will be selected for an interview. I still wish that Paul was keeping his promise to me (from 10 years ago) and submitting applications for a job in his field (industry or academia), but he is unwilling to pursue anything other than Kennedy Concrete (ironically his desire NOT to work there was the whole reason he went to graduate school for seven years). We shall see what God has in store as far as the timing of selling our house and whether or not I return to being the primary breadwinner of the family.