Uganda

At one point I considered buying a ticket to a concert at our church tonight featuring Big Daddy Weave and two other artists. I'm glad I didn't do so for at least two reasons. First, Paul and his dad were on a business trip in New York. He is spending the night at his parent's house, and we'll see him tomorrow evening when he comes home from the plant. Secondly, I later learned about a (free) concert at the church I went to before we moved here in 2008, and I thought the kids and I would enjoy it. We did! It was the Watoto Children's Choir from Uganda. I had heard them before, but I knew it would be a new experience for the kids. They loved it although the concert started at 7:00, which was a tad late for Oliver who usually goes to bed at 8:00. Oliver actually fell asleep on the drive to the church, and it was very hard to wake him up. He had awakened an hour earlier than normal this morning, plus it gets dark so very early these days, and I think that threw him off as well. Anyhow in addition to enjoying beautiful music and hearing what the Lord has been doing in the lives of these orphans in Uganda, I thought it was great for the kids to actually see and hear some children from Africa. In addition to the Watoto choir, I had previously heard the African Children's Choir, and I went on their website this evening only to discover they will be at a church in OUR (small) town in just 12 days. The only problem is that to attend that concert will mean the kids missing AWANA and me missing a choir rehearsal. I will have to give it more thought (and talk to the kids about it), but I'm leaning towards attending the concert even though I usually work very hard to never have the kids miss AWANA.

Giving Thanks....

1. Yesterday we stayed home all day, aside from a quick trip to the grocery store (located 5 minutes from our house). I like having days like that after a day like Tuesday when we are gone for most of the day.

2. As always the kids love homeschool gym class on Fridays. Today was the last class for 2016. It will start back up in January. I'm so grateful our church makes this possible. This fall the kids have played baseball, kickball, basketball, volleyball, soccer, glow in the dark dodgeball, hockey, etc.

3. On Monday I received a postcard in the mail advertising the Samson show, and it included a free code for a free souvenir program, which are normally $14,99. I would never pay that much for a program, but I will admit it is very nice and will be an excellent way to remember the show in the years to come, and we got it for free because the postcard came *just* in time.

4. The concert this evening was fabulous. Ian really wanted us to sponsor one of the babies. I love his compassionate heart. I told him right now we sponsor three kids and are not in the position to sponsor more, but I hope when he's older he will still have this desire and do something about it.

5. About six months ago I signed up for Panera's reward card because my friend, Cheri, said she receives many special coupons and offers through that program. Well I am very glad I did. Recently I got an email saying I could take $5 off any order if I did my order online. Last night I went on the website to see if there were any meals in that price range and discovered I could get one of the breakfast bagel sandwiches for $5.09, which meant it would only cost me 9 cents after the $5 coupon. Usually these days 9 cents does not get you anything, but it was enough to pay for my lunch today! I have to say that I like the breakfast bagel and Dunkin Donuts a little better (and it's usually much cheaper), but I definitely felt the sandwich was worth a lot more than the 9 cents I paid for it.

6. All the kids ate dinner in a very reasonable amount of time tonight. The boys often struggle with this, but not tonight (Thank you, Lord!). The boys had sausage and pumpkin pancakes, and Nadia had a pasta casserole (leftovers). Maybe some day this will be the norm instead of the exception.

7. I made my first "Black Friday" purchase (it was labeled as a Black Friday sale). Two years ago we had plans to go to Idlewild (amusement park for young children near Pittsburgh), but we didn't go. This year we even had a specific date in mind, but we didn't go. So when I saw a special to buy 6 tickets (to be used either in June or September next year) for $99, I took the plunge. Hopefully this means we WILL be going there next year since I already bought the tickets. Last year we tried Dutch Wonderland for the first time instead, and this year we returned to Sesame Place after taking a year off from visiting that park. This year we didn't go to DelGrosso's as we usually do so next summer I'm hoping that instead of Sesame Place or Dutch Wonderland we will go to DelGrosso's and Idlewild.

P.S. The boys were looking super handsome today, but I forgot to take any pics. Sometimes if I don't have any new pics I feel like I can't write a blog post, but I decided not to let that stop me today, and I did find a pic I had taken last week that I hadn't posted yet.