Shopping helpers

The AWANA club where the kids have attended since 2011 (Nadia) purchases gifts for the kids to "buy" with their AWANA shares (which they earn through saying verses, bringing friends, etc). Adults wrap the gifts for the youngest children, and the older kids wrap the gifts themselves. The AWANA commander asked if our kids could help her shop today. One of the advantages of being homeschooled is they could go on this shopping trip to Walmart at 9:00 this morning. She invited all three kids, but we felt Oliver would be more of a hindrance than a help. The church no longer has a 15 passenger van, so I let her borrow our minivan. Oliver and I came back around 12:30 to help carry the shopping bags into the church. As a thank you to Nadia and Ian, they were treated to lunch at McDonald's. She wanted input from kids as to what to buy. They have items for children, men, and women in the "store." Now to see if Oliver can restrain himself from telling us what he got us, ha ha! While they are at AWANA tonight, I'll be at choir. The rehearsal will be brief as starting at 7pm everyone in Worship Arts is invited to attend a Christmas party that includes a white elephant gift exchange.

Because of the shopping trip, I did Nadia and Ian's homeschooling first, and then I worked with Oliver after dropping them off at the church. It was nice just being able to focus on one first grader since I am usually teaching three kids in three different grades at the same time. I also exercised for 45 minutes. After we finished all the schoolwork for everyone, I switched to working on my to do list. In addition to usual tasks like the laundry and dishes, I also vacuumed out the van, swept out the garage, removed some leaves from the flower beds, sewed a tear in my coat, and cleaned the basement. I also did Ian's birthday interview one week late. I had wanted to do it earlier, but I had to wait until my voice returned.