Many Blessings

Since this is the last day of November, I thought I'd give thanks for a few more of our blessings.

1. Considering Paul's mom was in the ICU for a couple of weeks and on a ventilator for more than a week last month, we are very thankful that she had the strength to come up to our house twice this month. The kids are looking forward to spending Christmas day at Grandma and Pop Pop's house!

2. My computer had issues for quite awhile (more than a year) related to a Windows update. I kept undoing the updates until finally I was forced to go back to Windows 10. Thankfully the most recent update actually fixed the problems! Technology is a huge blessing in our lives, but it also can lead to a lot of frustration when it doesn't work properly!

3. I bought a used iPhone in June 2015; it was the

first time either Paul or I owned a smartphone. I don't know exactly how old the phone is. It could be up to six years old. Phones aren't cheap. I am grateful mine is still working. We shall see how many years I can get out of it!

4. I'm very thankful that the five of us are healthy. I had many, many surgeries, doctor appointments, and hospitalizations during the first 22 years of my life. Aside from well child visits, Nadia has been to a doctor fewer than five times in her life. Ian saw many doctors the first three years of his life, but over the past seven years the only times he's seen a doctor has been for his annual well check-up. Oliver had the roughest start of my three kiddos for the first four years of his life, but aside from his fractured skull in February 2018, he has been very healthy the past three years. I'm very thankful that it seems my kids are much healthier than I was when I was a child!

5. We love our ASTC membership. The kids get a LOT of enjoyment from the various science museums we get

into for free thanks to that $40 annual expenditure. The Virginia Science Museum in Richmond was their favorite part of our recent three day getaway

6. We have several traditions when it comes to Christmas including a trip to Corning Museum of Glass (next Saturday) and making a candy cane at Purity Candy. Nadia wasn't thrilled about going, but Oliver was VERY excited. They watch the candy maker start with 25 pounds of candy that is 320 degrees and watch him turn that into candy canes. The kids are each given a piece that they can shape and eat. Nadia turned hers into the traditional candy cane shape, and she also used some of her own money to buy some Harry Potter candy. Almost all the candy in the store is made on those premises, but she picked one of the few things they sell that they don't make. The candy canes they let the kids shape are free. Today at 12:00 they were making cherry flavored candy canes. Nadia and Ian shared part of their candy canes with me. Yum!

7. Sometimes a LONG wait can

be involved at the Walmart Auto Center, even when you have an appointment. Today thankfully it only took a little more than an hour (fast by Walmart standards) for them to put three new tires on our minivan. I'm thankful we got new tires prior to what is supposed to be our first big snow/ice storm (tomorrow and Monday). We're praying this doesn't interfere with our ability to travel to Great Wolf Lodge. Discover is giving 10% rebate at Walmart.com but only 1% if you shop in person at the store. I solved this problem by purchasing a $350 gift card online and using it to pay for my tires.

8. We love Christmas music! I confess we started listening to it some of the time a little before Thanksgiving.

9. I knew that our new furnace and air conditioner are more energy efficient, but I wasn't 100% sure that would translate to saving us money. I knew that we'd pay less for natural gas, but I figured we'd pay more for electricity during the colder months because our new system uses the AC whenever the temps are above 35 degrees. Sure enough our electric bill was a little higher than usual (for this time of year) but our natural gas bill was much less than usual so altogether we saved about $30 the first month. Hoping that trend will continue in the coming months!