Thankful Tuesday

1. I found recently that one of the libraries in our system had several Adventures in Odyssey cd's. Considering listening to Adventures in Odyssey is one of Nadia's most favorite things to do, that has been a blessing.

2. For months the kids had been on a kick of watching Odd Squad via Amazon Prime. Now their latest craze has been 321 Penguins. I am so thankful for Christian videos for kids. I don't remember anything like that existing when I was a child.

3. Nadia got her haircut on Wednesday. I love it when her hair is shorter given she is a not a fan of having her hair brushed. I wanted to go before her birthday since the charge is the same as the child's age.

4. Oliver's coach provided pizza and such for his soccer team on Wednesday night. Ian's soccer coach took the team out to OIP for pizza after their practice on Thursday night. Paul went with Ian. The parents play against the kids during the second half of the last practice. He took part in Ian's last practice, and I played during Oliver's soccer practice.

Even though older siblings were helping on the kids' side (such as Nadia and Ian), the parents were scoring far more goals than the kids so they decided to form a wall in front of the goal. Would you believe I scored a goal when there were 4-5 kids lined up across the front of the goal? I couldn't believe it! I am not very athletic.

5. Oliver went to summer musical on Wednesday night without any hesitation at all. What a HUGE improvement. Thank you, Lord! Nadia was also very happy to find out that night she was given a part. They are doing the same musical they did at our church in the spring. She's not the GPS this time, but she got the part of Emma. Ian didn't get a part this time, but he's hoping he'll get a solo. Ian was Noah when they did it at our church. One of our neighbors has two kids in the musical and ironically their daughter is the GPS and their son is Noah. It cracks me up that both times those parts are being played by siblings.

6. On Thursday Nadia, Ian, and I enjoyed a wonderful 3.2 mile

hike at Ricketts Glen State Park. The weather was gorgeous and the waterfalls were beautiful.

7. On Thursday night Nadia helped out with a Little League fundraiser at the Turbotville Carnival. Oliver, Nadia, and I enjoyed eating some funnel cake and walking around the carnival. Nadia used some of her money to play two games.

8. On Friday we enjoyed swimming for free at Liberty Splashland and the horseback riding lessons for all three kids. We also got our family photo taken that night at church.

9. On Saturday morning some beautiful navy blue carpet was installed in our master bedroom. I love it! I smile every time I look at it.

10. On Saturday we had the last soccer game of the year. I am very grateful to have a break for two months from practices until flag football season starts.

11. On Saturday we enjoyed the trolley museum and Bees Backyard for Scranton. Both were free thanks to our WVIA

membership. We also enjoyed dinner at Subway thanks to a gift card.

12. Paul got a good report at the dermatologist on Friday.

13. We enjoyed attending Summerfest at the state park on Sunday afternoon. Activities included learning about snakes, kayaking, crafts, looking at the sun through a special telescope, etc. It was Maryann's last event. We will miss her very much! Hopefully not too many years will pass before they hire someone to replace her.

14. The kids and I attended a picnic at one of the pastor's houses on Sunday evening while Paul was at work. We ate some yummy food and played outside (Frisbee, corn hole, etc.).

15. We are getting an elliptical! I asked Paul's input regarding whether we should make another payment on the principal of the mortgage (I just made one last week), and he said he thought we should buy a piece of exercise equipment since I had to give up running when he went back to work at

Kennedy Concrete. I'm excited. Hopefully it will help me lose weight and get in better shape without causing any pain to my knees or back. I applied for a Sapphire credit card again. We've done it twice before. You get a $500 bonus after you use it for 3 months. I'm going to order the elliptical after we get the new credit card in the mail. I've decided at some point I want to get a 70-200mm lens. I am going to keep saving money (that I get from birthday and Christmas gifts, that I get from selling things, and this credit card bonus) until I have enough for it. I agree that it's smarter to get the elliptical now.

16. I started a Bible study on the names of God this evening. Afterward, the leader came up and said some really sweet things to me. Those words of affirmation really touched my heart and encouraged me.

17. This morning we saw an Alvin and the Chipmunks movie for $1 each at the theater. We hadn't seen the movie before. While we watched the movie Sears was changing the oil and rotating the tires on our minivan.

18. Our swimming pool opened on Saturday. Today was our first time going this season. The music pastor's wife and kids were there (who are Nadia and Ian's ages) when we arrived. Although I'm not a huge fan of 90+ degree weather in June, the upside is that it has helped warm the water up in the pool. They said the water temperature has gone up 9 degrees over the past two days! I swam some laps today. A few days ago I started on a diet of sorts, and I am planning on swimming laps every time we are at the pool as I need to lose some weight. I wish I had started months ago, but better late than never.

19. After the swimming pool we stopped at the library. One of the things we picked up was a set of 4 CD's for Jonathan Park, which is another radio drama like Adventures in Odyssey. I'm thankful for interlibrary loan!

20. We had a great time at Idlewild yesterday! Nadia's friend, Grace, joined us for this adventure. The amusement park is rated the number one amusement park for children. I had read about it in magazines and such a few years ago. I am glad we went, but I doubt we'll return as we personally wouldn't rate it as "the best." Since it was hot, we spent more time in the water area than on the dry rides. The lazy river and wave pool were their favorites yesterday. Nadia was the only one who went on a big water slide. We rode on Daniel Tiger's trolley through his "neighborhood." I haven't gone through all the pictures yet, but here are a few of them. The kids have now been to twelve different amusement parks thus far. This is the only "new" one planned for this year.