Thankful Thursday

1. The kids enjoyed painting their popcorn bowls at Centered Earth last Friday. We picked up their finished products today (they were fired in the kiln), and of course they had to eat popcorn while watching Nanny McPhee Returns this evening so they could use their new bowls!

2. Oliver, Nadia, and I enjoyed the Big Daddy Weave concert. Well Oliver enjoyed part of it and slept through a lot of it.

3. If the sump pumps had to break, I am glad it happened while we were home so that we only had 5 inches instead of 2+ feet of water. Although we were sad to put some of the destroyed things in the trash pile, we were also forced to purge some things we definitely didn't need. I have strong minimalist tendencies. Sorting through his college papers had been on the to do list for 6 years, but now it's scratched off the list. I also got rid of the puppet stage that had been broken for 5  years, and that took another thing off the list. The to do list shrank a lot the past few weeks, which is always good because invariably new things keep being added to the list (such as I discovered yesterday morning that the glass in one of our kitchen windows is broken).

4. Because we didn't go to Pittsburgh for the weekend, Nadia was able to go to the Middles event for girls on Saturday night. She enjoyed it!

5. Paul mowed the lawn for me on Sunday/Monday. It wasn't easy with how much rain we've had lately.

6. Oliver enjoyed his water balloon birthday party on Monday. I'm thankful that Adalayde, Westyn, Grandma, Pop Pop, Uncle Al, and Aunt Millie were all able to attend! We also appreciated the birthday calls from Aunt Janet and my Dad/Margie as well as the birthday video from Tab, Isaiah, and Micah.

7. The kids love the Echo dot. Yay for coming up with a good gift idea!

8. Although they like Camp Good News better (run by the CEF of Northumberland County), the boys are enjoying Good News Camp (run by the CEF of Union/Snyder County) this week. This camp is about 8 minutes from our house which is appreciated by me. They are learning about missionaries, memorizing Bible verses, learning about Esther, playing games, making crafts, etc.

9. Nadia is enjoying her sixth consecutive year in a theater camp. When she was 5, 6, and 10 she did a camp at the Community Theatre League in Williamsport. They will be performing A Kid's Life musical next Friday afternoon. She is in a trio that is singing several songs. When she was 7 and 8 she was in Annie and A Little Mermaid with the Kids Theatre Experience. When she was 9 she was in Madagascar with the Millbrook Playhouse and also an acting class with the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble.

10. A couple of weeks ago while Paul was with us he saw a New Mexico license plate. In July 2017 I had started looking for all of the states. For months I have been down to needing just two more - New Mexico and Hawaii. I was very happy he spotted New Mexico! We've also seen Washington, DC plus several Canadian provinces. Years ago we spotted a Hawaii license plate in the Home Depot parking lot in Bloomsburg. We shall see how long it takes us to find Hawaii again. I hoped we would when we were in San Diego but that didn't happen.

11. I'm ever so thankful for Oliver! Every life is a miracle, but when it involves IVF plus fetal transfusions due to fetal anemia plus a very risky pregnancy due to complete placenta previa plus being born two months early, it REALLY seems like a miracle that he is alive and well. I'm very thankful the Lord spared his life. I vividly remember when they were about to take him at 22 weeks even though they didn't view him as being viable. I'm so thankful the bleeding slowed enough at that point that I was able to convince them not to do a C-section to spare my life (at the expense of his). I'm also very thankful that he's been much healthier the past 2 years (aside from the concussion and skull fracture in February).

12. I received access to the final course on BOLT (my student teachers). I still don't know what school district(s) they will be in, but I was able to set the course up online yesterday. I *think* I am ready for the fall semester to begin. So that should mean I will get a break for the next 18 days from doing work for the university!

13. Our new dehumidifier arrived on our doorstep yesterday. Thank you, Amazon!

14. The kids and I tackled one more big "spring cleaning" project yesterday - the toy bins in the family room. We purged (more than usual - way to go, kids!!!!) and organized the bins. I am hoping they will see that they will spend less time cleaning toys in the family room if the bins aren't overflowing with toys.

15. I'm enjoying having my mornings with just Nadia this week. It's a rare treat! Yesterday we worked together to repair a seam in one of her shirts and one of her stuffed animals. She had asked me to teach her how to sew. My sewing skills are VERY limited, but I can teach her how to sew a button on and such like that.

16. The host of the home where we were going to stay on Saturday night through Airbnb refunded almost our entire payment even though she didn't have to. I really appreciated her kindness!