1. the freedom of religion that we have in our country. On Sunday we prayed for the persecuted church and a prayer guide from the Voice of the Martyrs was in our church bulletin.
2. the freedom to vote. We'll be studying the suffrage movement in the very near future. I exercised this right today.
3. the opportunity to stay-at-home with my kids. My schedule went from frantic (past two years) to far more manageable. Honestly there are moments when I ask myself how on earth did I add a FT job to my to do list?!?
4. the fun the kids had going trick-or-treating on Saturday night. Our community usually does it on October 31, but given the forecast for that night included not only rain but wind, thunderstorms, and a tornado watch, most of the boroughs in our area rescheduled. If trick-or-
5. the Saturday Science program at Susquehanna University. Tab and her boys went for the first time ever and took my kids along as well so that I could attend a Grief Share program at church. One of the activities during the three hour program was to design something to protect an egg when dropped from the second story of the building. Three kids and one adult succeeded in this challenge, and three of those four kids were the ones Tab brought - Oliver, Isaiah, and Nadia each received a rock with some crystals in it as the prize for their achievement! A dad who was there was the fourth winner.
6. the progress that my mother-in-law has been experiencing lately. She has finally been able to sleep in her own bed and take a shower. Progress! She'll be seeing the oncologist on Thursday, which happens to be her 75th birthday.
7. the fun the kids and I had carving pumpkins last Friday. To be honest, I was tired and could have just skipped it, but Oliver asked, and so we did it. There are times when I'm grateful that I've said no to doing certain activities or field trips and have opted to just stay home, and there are also times when I'm grateful that I did something even though I felt like skipping it.
8. very delicious apple cake. Yummmm!!!
9. the free grocery service Walmart provides. You place your order online, they gather everything you ordered, and your purchases are brought to your vehicle at the time and day you choose. Since Discover is giving 10% back this quarter for those purchases, I have been using this service more often than usual. I typically only did an order after they would send me a $10 off $50 coupon.
10. the progress Oliver is making in math. We skipped the multiplication chapter in his textbook. He's working on telling time on an analog clock, and I'm now doing addition and subtraction flashcards with him for five minutes a day to help him with learning those facts. So far we're working on adding/subtracting 1 or 2, adding 10, problems where the answer is 0, and adding 9.
11. that Oliver really enjoyed the last chapter book I read to the kids (Prairie Thief). He asked if there was another book in the series. Getting him to be quiet and listen during chapter books has been challenging, but it's not hard when he really likes the book!
12. that my kids have a good attitude about visiting historical homes and museums. (Although Nadia is not crazy about visiting battlefields.) When we read a book today about the Smith sisters who lived in CT in the 1800's, Oliver asked if we could visit a museum to learn more about them. I'm not sure if one even exists, but I love his interest!
13. that Paul was able to watch the Monday night football game at his parent's house last night. We don't get ESPN so I suggested he spend the night at his parent's house last night so he could watch the game (albeit his team lost). This also saved him 2 hours of driving time. I'm thankful that we don't have cable all year long. The brochure said it would cost $11 more to have the local channels compared to what we pay only for the internet. But in reality we also had to pay $5 a month for a little box and $20 a month for taxes. Seriously how can an $11 service add $20 in taxes?!?! We'll be going back to just having the internet the beginning of January. The only time we use the local channels is for football, and I haven't been watching the Steelers and not all of the Giants' games are aired here so we aren't using the tv that much. My nephews were grateful we had it when they were here as they were able to watch the Eagles game. I very rarely watch anything on tv, and the kids and Paul watch things via Hulu or Amazon Prime.
14. it's a very rare occasion when I sit alone in church these days. For the first 13 years of our marriage I sat in the worship service alone almost all the time although for some of those months I was holding a sweet baby in my arms during the service. I took each of my three babies with me until they got to the point I knew it was better to put them in the nursery. Paul has been attending church regularly for the past five years. The last couple of years if he worked on a Sunday I was still able to sit with Ian. Nadia and Oliver usually were up in Kidzway during the first service. This year Ian has been opting to attend Kidzway during the first service, but Nadia is now attending the first service with Paul and I as the middle school class meets during the second service. Paul worked this past Sunday, but I didn't sit alone as Nadia was with me. I greatly prefer having a family member sit beside me during church.
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