Thankful Thursday

1. We had a wonderful whale cruise last Friday. It was a delight to see about 15 different whales (three different types of whales).

2. We had a safe trip home on Saturday night and enjoyed two museums on the way - one in Rhode Island and one in Connecticut. I am so thankful for the ASTC membership (which cost a whopping $40).

3. All three kids were in Soul Patrol for the first time on Sunday. I am so glad they can sing in a choir all year long (Sept-May at our church and May-August at a church closer to our house).

4. I was happy to go to choir rehearsal last night. I have missed it! I can't wait to listen to the CD's to hear all the anthems we will be singing this year. The music pastor picks a wide variety of styles of music, which means I usually am not crazy about a few of them, like a lot of them, and love some of them. Scanning the list I did see one that is one of my top five favorites of choir anthems I have song over the past 30 years - "The Majesty and Glory of Your Name" which actually the choir sang at my mom's funeral. I am thrilled we will be singing that oldie but goody.

5. Both of our football teams won on Sunday which means we're both starting out the season 2-0.  Yay! Since both of our games were on at 1:00 I deferred to Paul and let him watch his game (we only have one tv).

6. I'm thankful Paul was able to go to the doctor last night and get the antibiotics he needs to get over his strep throat. I had scarlet fever once as a child from strep throat so I know it's not good to let that go untreated. He also is feeling somewhat better this evening, which means he'll be going to work tomorrow. Over a period of 21 hours he slept for 19 of those hours.

7. Although I would have been able to spend a lot less if I had a free shipping code, I placed my first big order (in 6 months) on Shutterfly on Monday night. My total would have been over $400, but after using a bunch of coupon codes I got it down to $50. I was doing Christmas shopping for several people. I am very thankful for Shutterfly and all the coupons they give out. The canvas I ordered already came today, and I love it! I got that one totally free thanks to My Coke Rewards.

8. I was able to watch all of Ian's first U8 soccer game on Monday night. Oliver and I cheered him on in Milton while Nadia was at her practice on our home field. I dropped her off and then took Ian to his game.

9. On Sunday I started working on lining up rides for the kids to soccer games over the next 6 weeks, and I found all the rides I needed by Tuesday night. Now I just need to trade the time of one of my three snack shack duties, and I will be done with making arrangements. It's rather tricky considering I have three kids playing soccer and Paul works on Saturdays. None of the weeks are all three games on the same field. Every week they are on either 2 or 3 different locations. Sometimes all three games are at the same exact time such as this Saturday all at 9:00. I worked out a schedule so I would see about 1/2 of each child's games. I am thankful that others are willing to give my children rides and help me out in this way.

10. We were able to connect with the Towfighis by FaceTime on Tuesday. It was the first time we had talked in a month. I am thankful for technology that makes it possible!

11. I really enjoyed my Bible study on Tuesday night. We spent an hour discussing the homework lessons, and then we watched a dvd for an hour (Kay Arthur) on Hosea chapters 1-3. They just started offering Precepts Bible studies at our church a year ago, and without any advertising aside from word of mouth, it has grown to about 75 people being in studies this fall. Some of the people are doing all three studies (they are offering a different study on three different nights). They are going to start advertising in the future. I'm grateful for the opportunity to participate.

12. We had a wonderful field trip yesterday in Hershey (it was Homeschool Day at the museum), and we were able to do a little shopping on the way home at stores I don't get to very often (Aldi's, my favorite bread outlet, and a huge thrift store). The thrift store always has most everything 50% off on Wednesdays, which made it perfect timing. I bought mostly shoes and books for the kids (a lot of soccer cleats).

13. The older kids at church (which did include Nadia) were given life journals. It has a page every day for recording certain things about what you read in the Bible that day (observation, application, prayer, etc.). Nadia is very excited to start using this. I hope she will develop the habit of daily time in the Word!

14. The kids usually don't get up before 7:00. This wasn't true on vacation, but aside from Sunday morning when Oliver got up at 5:40 am (way too early!), I can often sleep until 7:00, which is the reason I have been staying up later than I have most of my life. My body is still programmed to wake up at 6:00, but most of the time I am able to go back to sleep.

15. The grass didn't grow much while we were on vacation, which was a blessing as I mowed the lawn several days before we left, and I usually mow once a week. I mowed today which meant I had definitely gone longer than usual without mowing. I ran two miles during the soccer practice in addition to mowing. I'm very grateful for the exercise.

16. When Paul emerged from the bedroom to eat breakfast (and then promptly went back to bed for another 4 hours), I took advantage of this and took my shower because on Tuesday while I was showering Oliver decided to color on a wall and a door. Lovely. That child is continually doing things his siblings have never done before. This too shall pass, right? Anyhow it was nice that he had adult supervision during my shower today (a very rare phenomenon).

17. Nadia ate her potato soup without any issues last night. This is major progress. Ian took a very long time, but he did finish it last night (whereas often he doesn't finish it until the next day). Of course Oliver asked for seconds. He loves soup!