Thankful Tuesday

1. We enjoyed spending 4 1/2 days with my sister and her family last week! Spending time with cousins is something my kids really, really enjoy. Because Wendy drove her van, she was able to take back a painting my mom had loved of a violin maker, an ant painting that Wendy had helped Maurice with many years ago, Maurice's walrus cookie jar (that he used to store writing utensils), and Maurice's desktop computer.

2. We had safety in our travels to and from New Jersey. Wendy and her kids ran into car trouble about 100 miles away from Chicago on Sunday night. Drayton was able to borrow another vehicle and come get them.

3. It was an inexpensive getaway as Drayton's points covered our lodging, the hotel provided a free hot breakfast, we packed our lunches, and through our ASTC membership we got into two museums for free. Our only expenditures were three dinners, two bus rides, two train rides, admission to the American Museum of Natural History, and four trips on the Subway.

4. In general the temperature has been a bit cooler outside which has helped keep our house at a reasonable temperature. Hopefully the new air conditioner will be installed in the near future.

5. The new lawnmower is very easy to use. It's definitely taking me less time to mow the lawn these days.

6. Nadia has been enjoying some of my dolls. When I was a child I was told not to play with the dolls that were given to me for my doll collection, and I followed instructions. Nadia asked for some of my dolls, and I decided why not let some of them be enjoyed. In the past 30-40 years I've spent VERY little time looking at the dolls. I'm happy that she is getting some enjoyment out of some of them. One of them is the same size as her American girl doll so she can put other clothes on that doll. I told Wendy it's rather ironic that the child who was given a collection (my Grandpa started my doll collection in 1980) is the one (compared to my three siblings) who ended up having the most aversion to

clutter as an adult.  I'm really not into collecting things that are just for looking at with the exception of photographs of my kids. So my doll cabinets aren't as jam packed these days.

7. Last week (8//26-9/1) was a typical week in that Paul only ate one meal with us - dinner on Sunday. This week will NOT be a typical week in that regard, thankfully! Paul worked a shorter day on Monday since it was Labor Day. He still left for work before we got up in the morning, but he was home at 2pm, which was 5-6 hours earlier than usual! This meant we had dinner together two days in a row! It also meant he had time to play Connect Four with Oliver, work on the bathroom floor project, etc. He's taking off work this Thursday-Saturday to join us on our trip to  Ticonderoga and Saratoga. This means instead of eating 1/21 meals with us, he'll probably be eating 11/21 meals with us this week!

8. Paul said he doesn't think we should move. That is an extremely HUGE relief to me.

9. We have had a Dollar General and Family Dollar store in our town for years. I rarely have shopped at either. I prefer Dollar Tree, and the Family Dollar store closed last month and a few days ago a Dollar Tree opened in its place!

10. Nadia received her third letter from her new pen pal today. She is always excited to check the mail because she's hoping to receive a letter from Stella, who lives in Illinois. She also was glad to receive the fourth season of Brady Bunch via Amazon Prime. Nadia also enjoyed having a lengthy FaceTime conversation with Rachel this evening.

11. WVIA (our local PBS channel) added three more places recently where our kids can get in free once a year because we are members - the Pioneer Coal Tunnel (near Paul's parents), Bloomsburg Children's Museum, and an aqurium in Scranton. We've never been to that coal mine or aquarium. I'm hoping to take the kids to the coal mine in October and the aquarium in February. We've been to the children's museum

many times, but we haven't been members for more than a year. It will be nice to visit it once in the next year if we only have to pay for my admission.

12. I haven't been using websites that give you a rebate for shopping online via their website that regularly, but I am trying to get back into the habit. I received a $10 gift card for Walmart in the mail last week which was the first bonus I earned for clicking on their website before completing a purchase elsewhere. I also haven't been entering Coke codes very often lately. Today I entered Coke cap codes and earned 2 free large drinks, 1 large popcorn, and 2 free movie tickets for AMC.

13. Today was our first full day of school this year. Ian used Beast Academy for math for the first time ever. He told me he likes it! It was Oliver's turn to pick the game. He picked Trouble, and Ian won! Today was our first time reading poetry instead of picture books. I am sure we'll make some modifications to the plan as the year progresses, but so far I

have to say so far so good in terms of homeschool lesson plans, Tody (chore app I'm using), and the meal plan I've been using. I'm definitely cooking more often, but it's far more feasible now that I'm not also juggling a FT job. I even had time to walk to the playground with Ian and Oliver this afternoon! I planned to start exercising regularly this summer. I was succeeding in May but that fell to the wayside the rest of the summer aside from a few walks with Cheri and Tab. So here's to hoping I can start walking a few times a week until the weather gets too chilly for me to enjoy being outside. It's painful when a lady asked me the innocent question, "how has your first week of the fall semester been at BU?" at church on Sunday or when I got a text today from a math coordinator at a local public school asking why her email to me was returned as undeliverable. But the truth is that my schedule is SO much more manageable. The last two years I was doing "just enough" to survive. Now I can do things well, and I don't feel frazzled. The kids slept until almost 8am this morning, and

that was fine with me. We are not in a rush. I let Oliver play some this morning while I was working with his siblings on their school work. That meant he didn't finish his schoolwork until later that we used to end our school day in the past, but it was fine because I didn't need to switch gears to my university job after I finished homeschooling.

14. We used the library some this summer, but once we go back to school then we really make good use of the library. I'm very thankful for public libraries and also for books I can get for free through Amazon for the Kindle. We have been using a 3 month free subscription to Kindle Unlimited. Ian is reading the fourth book in the Prince Martin series on the Kindle. Unfortunately the Pediatrician thought he was playing a video game during Oliver's appointment. It's just a Kindle Paperwhite - the kind of Kindle that is ONLY used for reading (no other apps). I am actually strict with the kids and their screen time. I didn't think I'd be chastised for my son reading a chapter book during his brother's appointment. Man looks at the outward appearance. God looks at our hearts!