Thankful Thursday

1. We had a safe trip down to Maryland on December 28 and a safe trip back on January 1. We didn't hit any traffic or bad weather on either trip. The kids slept during part of the trip home, which was one of the reasons I opted to leave on Monday evening instead of Tuesday morning. Although we enjoyed seeing Coco at the theater, opening presents, and going bowling, the highlight for the kids of their trip was playing with their cousins. Ian mostly played with Adam, Oliver played with Grace, and Nadia usually played with Susie and/or Rachel. At one point they played Spyfall for two hours via FaceTime with their cousins in Turkey. Other activities included doing a puzzle (Wendy, Margie, and Grandpa did the vast majority of it), playing Boggle, playing Samurai Sword (our gift to Adam), and playing Labyrinth (Ian's gift from Wendy). I won the game of Boggle, and I did a little better than I had lately with bowling.

2. Ian and I are still healthy. Paul, Oliver, and Nadia each have a respiratory bug. Paul ended his birthday last night by helping me clean up Oliver and his bedding when he threw up at 11:40pm in his bed (we had all been asleep when it happened). I'm hoping and praying Ian and I can continue to escape the bug. I've been healthy for the past four months, for which I am grateful! Oliver didn't feel up to attending his basketball practice this evening, but Ian was able to go to his, and Nadia wants to go to hers tomorrow night. Even though Oliver is rather sick, I'm also grateful that it doesn't seem like this will result in a hospitalization as it did from 2013-2016.

3. I used a coupon at Sears on Tuesday to get Paul a shirt that was originally $30 for $2.80. I am trying to take advantage of my last few opportunities since the store will be closing by the end of this month.

4. The orthodontist said yesterday that Nadia's not ready for braces yet. He asked us to come back in 8 months. He said she doesn't have any wisdom teeth. That will be one less problem for her to deal with in the future since it seems many people have to have those extracted at one point or another.

5. As always, I'm thankful for the library. We check out books, audio books, and DVDs on a regular basis. For example, this week we've watched two DVDs from the library on oceanography in preparation for what we'll be studying in science starting next week.

6. We have NOTHING planned for Saturday. Paul's aunt's annual Christmas party was rescheduled for this Saturday because of snow last week, but Paul can't go because he needs to be at work finalizing things for the trade show in Baltimore next week. I am hoping to make significant progress in my course preparation for the spring semester on Saturday and Sunday as I am starting to feel a bit panicked about my ability to have everything completed by January 21.

7. We're thankful for the gifts we received in Maryland. Yvonne gave us a gift card to Amazon. Ian and Nadia spent their portions and are excited about receiving what they picked!

8. The gymnastics center is offering a homeschool class. They tried this once a few years ago, but there wasn't enough interest to actually complete a session. I was planning on signing them up for gymnastics again in March when basketball was over, but I decided to sign them up for the homeschool class in case our enrollment might make a difference as to whether they continue to offer the class. No one can say my kids are gipped in any way when it comes to physical education as they have a 90 minute gym class on Fridays, 2 hours of basketball a week (between the practice and the game), and now 60 minutes of gymnastics on Wednesday afternoon. I thought this might be a consolation for Nadia since we can't do ice skating lessons this year (although ice skating lessons are cheaper than gymnastics). I'm thankful that due to my job we have the money to pay for gymnastics. The biggest bonus of going the homeschool class route is that all three kids are in the same class so we'll only be there one hour (compared to 2.5 hours in November and December). My only hesitation as that I hope this won't be a problem with scheduling my visits to see student teachers. I'm hoping I can schedule all their visits to take place on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.