Thankful Tuesday

1. The kids enjoyed building bunny baskets at Home Depot on Saturday morning. Nadia can now do the projects independently.

2. The kids also participated in an art class focused on Andy Warhol at the Children's Museum on Saturday morning. Nadia and Ian completed the project that involved coloring nine soup can labels with complementary colors. Oliver listened to the introduction and brief biography of the artist, and then he opted to play in the museum instead of completing the art project.

3. The weather has turned warmer again. Yay! I was able to go for a 3 mile walk on Sunday afternoon while the kids watched something on Right Now Media while I was gone (and Paul was home). Yesterday the kids and I walked to the playground. It was Oliver's very first time walking there as I have declared he is too old to go there by stroller any more. It is so wonderful to get some fresh air and exercise!

4. Paul had a doctor's appointment yesterday to have a mole removed, and this meant he came home from work a few hours earlier than normal, which meant he was able to have dinner with us (yay!) and also take Nadia to her softball practice for the first time. The boys went with him as there's a playground there, which meant I had the extremely rare treat of having the house to myself for a little more than an hour. I watched part of a movie (that Paul would consider a chick flick) that I had gotten from the library. I had read the book previously so I wasn't surprised by the plot twists, but still it was a nice movie (Light Between Oceans).

5. Nadia hasn't been too thankful for the rain lately because some of our field trips have been postponed or cancelled, but I am thankful that the grass is turning green and the flowers will be blooming soon. The rain has also delayed the start of the soccer season, but I haven't minded that either.

6. Saturday afternoon the five of us drove down to Harrisburg to meet my Dad at Perkins for dinner and then to see a Passion play at Christian Life Assembly. The story was told from the viewpoint of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. The church offers free child care for those under the age of five so we took advantage of that for Oliver because the performance was more than two hours long and naturally the crucifixion scene might have been too scary for him. The church our family attended starting when I was in high school put on Passion plays and I was in those for many years, but it had been quite a few years since I had seen a Passion play. I was glad Nadia and Ian were able to experience this for the first time. It's one thing to read the description in the Bible, but it's even more powerful to see it enacted and be reminded once again what an incredible act of love it was for Jesus to go through all that torture on our behalf. The evening was even more special because Grandpa was with us. Thankfully the kids slept almost the whole way home.

7. Nadia enjoyed her first sleepover on Friday night with Grace and Claire. She stayed up a little past midnight! I am thankful that she has made friends at church.

8. Our field trip to Camp Susque last Thursday afternoon wasn't cancelled. The two hour program was about weather and during that time Nadia and Ian each constructed a thermometer, anemometer, and barometer.

9. I am so, so, so, so glad we don't use bedding in the guinea pig cage any longer. Some hay still spills out of the cage, but that only happens in a small area whereas the bedding was ending up ALL over the house. I no longer have to vacuum the family room every single day. Yahoo! One yard of fleece was enough to make three liners for the cage, which is more than enough as I do a load of laundry at least a couple of times a week.

10. Oliver has been choosing to do 100 piece puzzles lately. He likes some help, but I'm glad he's trying more challenging puzzles. I also found out

recently that he *has* already learned the sounds that many of the letters make. I didn't know he had learned any of those so that was a pleasant surprise. Last week there was a funny moment when Paul asked Ian, "What's 64 divided by 8?" and before Ian could answer, Oliver said, "8 times 8 is 64". I wish I had that on video. I was laughing my head off because it seems like Oliver is very advanced in his math skills, but actually it was just 100% luck. He doesn't know any math facts, but he has a knack for shouting out answers that are correct periodically.

11. Our church was giving out copies of the book The Blessed Life. I haven't finished reading it yet, but I highly recommend it.

12. Ian and Nadia are enjoying the vocabulary portion of the writing curriculum we started recently.

13. I am thankful I am able to attend Bible studies at my church. I usually have it one night a week, but this week I have it twice because of a night we missed due to the snow.