Sleepover

Yesterday was my niece Grace's sixth birthday. One of Nadia's friends from church (and art class at MCS), is also named Grace. This Grace will be turning 11 in four days. Because Micah and Isaiah came over for a sleepover in February, Nadia wanted to have another sleepover. So last month we scheduled the sleepover for March 29. MCS had a half day which meant their fifth grade class (plus Nadia) didn't have art yesterday. We picked Grace up around 11:30am yesterday, and she stayed until about 1:30pm today. The girls painted their fingernails and toenails, played outside, walked to a playground, played on Maurice's Nintendo switch (which is temporarily in our house - once we divide up his technology it might end up in one of their cousins' houses), and watched two movies. All four kids watched Paddington 2. After Oliver went to bed the girls watched Wonder. Paul and I went to bed after putting Ian to bed at 9pm. Now that the weather is getting nicer, it means their customers want their orders, which means Paul is working long hours. As in he leaves really early (3:30am

today) and got home at 7:45pm last night. He usually doesn't go to work on Sundays, but he said he needs to go to work tomorrow. I woke up at 1:15 and saw that the girls were asleep. This morning they told me the went to sleep around midnight and that Grace fell asleep first.

It was warm on March 14-15, but then it was cold again. Today it was warm again. Oliver and Ian rode their bikes while Nadia and I walked to the playground. I wasn't outside much on March 14-15; today was the first day I really enjoyed the warm weather. Spending time in the fresh air is definitely a blessing. When we were at the library yesterday, we checked out a few DVDs including the new Grinch and new Spiderman movies. We watched The Grinch today. Even though Oliver was actually in tears when the Grinch stole all the presents and decorations, I think they enjoyed seeing the new version of the movie for the first time.

In late December I joined a photography class that costs $12/ month. I hadn't spent any

time on it yet in 2019. I was determined to at least look at the content I already paid for before I cancelled my membership. I'm trying to do that in the next three weeks. Today I listened to content from January while I was doing some grading. My ability to concentrate has been very poor the past 3 weeks. It's hard for me to just sit for hours grading. The students in my assessment class submitted an assignment on Tuesday. I'm hoping to finish grading that tomorrow.

If you'd like to check out Maurice's life list of the 520 birds he had seen, here it is.

Although I hadn't listed it as one of my goals in my post on January 1, one I had in my mind was to do a better job of inviting the kids' friends over to our house. I've certainly not "arrived" in reaching that goal, but I'm headed in the right direction. Grace invited Nadia over to a sleepover at her house next weekend since it's her birthday.

 I have to keep telling myself there are only six weeks left in the semester as I feel rather overwhelmed with all I am juggling (FT job, homeschooling three kids, Maurice's estate, and housework) especially in light of the fact it's now crunch time for Paul at the plant, taxes are due soon (and neither of us have started that task yet), and the cars for AWANA are due soon(which always stresses me out as we rarely have them completed by the deadline). If I end up teaching an online course this summer, that will be added to my to do list in the near future as the course would start in May.