Giving Thanks

1. For the men and women who have given their lives serving in our military over the past 244 years

2. Nadia has had at least one friend over for a sleepover the past two Friday nights and is planning to have another friend come over this Friday for her third sleepover this month. This was something that was forbidden in the red phase. We're thankful we've been in the yellow phase for a little over two weeks.

3. Tab, Micah, and Isaiah came over to our house for a few hours last Tuesday afternoon.

4. We were able to take advantage of the curbside service at our tiny local library as it reopened four days ago after being closed for more than two months. I'm hoping the bigger library we usually use will reopen in the near future.

5. Paul's mom was discharged from the hospital on Friday. We are continuing to pray for Paul's nephew who is still hospitalized due to infection from having his appendix removed three weeks ago.

6. The kids have been playing with other kids in the neighborhood every day that the weather permits. Oliver and Ian have gone swimming in the neighbor's heated swimming pool multiple times recently. The boys have also been enjoying a dirt bike road that has recently been developed in our neighborhood.

7. We have enjoyed watching five episodes of The Chosen so far on YouTube. We have three left to watch. I hope they are able to make season two!

8. The kids have made progress with their jigsaw puzzle skills lately. Oliver can do about 150 pieces on his own, Ian has been doing 300 piece puzzles on his own, and Nadia has been doing 500 piece puzzles on her own. I started a 750 piece puzzle today that I'm hoping either Nadia or Ian will finish tomorrow.

9. We've been spending quite a few hours listening to audio books. Last week we listened to two books by Katherine Applegate and three by Jennifer Bertman. Today we started one in the Mysterious Benedict Society series. The books we listened to last week were each around 5-6 hours long, but the ones in this series are each 11-14 hours long, which means we won't finish five audiobooks this week!

10. I went to CVS today and bought six 2 liters of Pepsi for Paul, eight boxes of cereal for the kids, and two candy bars for Paul, and I paid less than $2 total for those sixteen items! Even though it means wearing the mask, I'm grateful to be grocery shopping again after not doing so for about six weeks. 

11. Although the lockdowns have been devastating to our economy and created economic hardships for many individuals and many businesses, we haven't suffered in any way financially as a result of the government's response to COVID-19. In fact, quite the opposite has happened due to the stimulus check we received from the government (evidently they believe money grows on trees), a small rebate from our car insurance company, refunds for activities I had signed the kids up to do this summer that have been cancelled, and the fact that I have now gone more than two months without buying any gasoline for the minivan. If Paul hadn't used 1/4 of a tank when he drove the van to work one day last month (because he thought he'd be buying a freezer but that proved impossible), I could have gone several more weeks without buying gas. The price of some food items has gone up, but the price of gasoline has dropped significantly. Although I've missed attending church, going on field trips, etc. I have to say I have enjoyed driving far, far less than normal.

12. Seventeen counties are moving to the green phase this Friday. I had said that only one county in our area was going to green, but that was incorrect. Another county a little farther away that we sometimes spend time in is going green, but I don't think we'll be headed to that county this summer. Right now I have hope that our county will enter the green phase in June, possibly as early as June 5. I hope that most counties move to green by the end of June so that we can visit some national parks, museums, Reptiland, etc. Movie theatres and bowling alleys and such will be permissible in green as long as they don't allow the capacity to exceed 50%. I'm hoping that we will also be able to return to church, use playgrounds, and visit Knoebels in the green phase. Hoping to learn more about that this week.