Giving Thanks

1. Our county and other counties near us are going green next Friday! Time will tell what exactly life will be like in the green phase (when will our church reopen? when will Knoebels open? when will the kids be allowed to play on playground equipment?), but most businesses will be reopening, which is a very good thing for the business owners and overall economy. You'd think it would be a very good thing for the employees also, but the government's extra $600 a week has created a myriad of problems. Entering the green phase also means Yvonne's family can come up to visit us next weekend for Andrew's birthday! My kids are very excited about seeing their cousins!

2. We went on a FIELD TRIP yesterday! Woohoo! I never dreamt that government intervention might make that impossible for three months, but we were very glad to go to Reptiland yesterday. Hopefully we'll be able to go on some more field trips over the next three months. I'm also thankful I was able to see my friend, Cheri, yesterday for the first time since December.

3. We live in a small development, but thankfully children live in most of the homes. One family moved out during the lockdown. They didn't use a realtor to sell their home. The family that moved out had one preschool boy (whom Oliver played with), and the family that moved in has a nine-year-old girl and a twelve-year-old boy. After Nadia turns 12 (in 18 days), there will be 5 twelve-year-olds in our development! Most of the children are between the ages of 7-14. The family that has an inground pool also has a nice slip and slide, hoverboard, and mini Segway. Oliver has enjoyed using all of the above. He asked for a hoverboard for his birthday after he found out they are much cheaper than a mini Segway. I'm very thankful the kids have other kids to play with and that Camden's family has allowed all three of our kids to swim in their heated pool. In the picture below Nadia and Addi (who just turned 10 three days ago) were making business cards to advertise their pet sitting and baby sitting business. We will be pet sitting Evanna's two gerbils this month while she's on vacation in Montana with her mom.

4. Nadia's friend, Grace, came over for a sleepover last weekend.

5. Nadia is going to a youth group meeting IN PERSON tomorrow night for the first time in almost three months. Tomorrow *should* be our last Sunday of church taking place in our family room staring at our TV. We plan to begin attending church services IN PERSON at FBC on June 14.

6. Shawn came home from the hospital. He was hospitalized for three weeks following having his appendix removed. We're still praying for him. 

7. We've picked up meals at the public school four times so far. These meals have really increased the amount of containers going in the garbage and recycling bin. We threw away one PBJ sandwich, but otherwise everything has been consumed. The kids have eaten almost everything. None of us like broccoli, but the guinea pigs gladly gobbled that up. I've cut back how much milk, bread, and fresh fruit I am buying because of what we're receiving at the school. This Wednesday one of the things we received was a bag of Starbucks coffee. We shared that with Paul's mom and brother because none of us drink coffee. In the summer the kids have participated in the Kid's Café that the Methodist church usually puts on in our town's park five days a week when school isn't in session. Because of social distancing, they won't be offering the program in the way they usually do but instead will be offering a "to go" curbside lunch program two days a week. We'll give it a whirl once that begins on July 1 to see if the kids want to pick up meals there or not this summer. 

8. Millie was able to buy a box of jumbo shells for us. Thanks, Milllie! That was something I hadn't been able to purchase at Walmart or Weis around here. I'm planning to make stuffed shells next week.

9. The library we usually use reopened for curbside service this week. There have been serious glitches to this new system, which I didn't anticipate because they've had a way to place holds online for years. I had been waiting all week for the books I requested on Monday to be ready for me to pickup. The items were on the shelves and no one else had requested them, but for some unknown reason some of them weren't pulled from the shelves until today. I was at the library on Monday, but some things that came in that day which they didn't give to me were checked out to me that day. In other words some things I picked up today are due in two days even though they always let you have things for at least seven days. Unfortunately, the same thing happened today!!! I got home and checked my account versus what was in the bag they gave me, and there are three books listed in my account as being checked out to me that they didn't actually give me. Two of the books were for Nadia and are ones that they give you 14 days to read, but the book for me is one that you can only check out for seven days. It's frustrating, but at least the library is open and we did get some books and DVDs. Hopefully in time they will work out the bugs to this system. If they don't, we will try to use the library as sparingly as possible this summer as I don't want to start driving there multiple times a week given the library is 20 minutes from our house.

Nadia really enjoyed the book I got for her on Monday (Absolutely Almost), so I got her another book by the same author today. It's very easy to tell when she loves a book because she finishes it MUCH, much faster. Nadia is very thankful the libraries have reopened as she isn't a fan of reading on the Kindle.

10. Speaking of books, the kids and I are thankful for free audiobooks! We finished our 600th chapter book on May 6, and as of June 6 we are in the middle of Rufus M, which will be our 615th book, and two of the fifteen books were each over 500 pages long! The series we are enjoying right now is the Mysterious Benedict Society. We've listened to the prequel and the first book so far. We're in line on Overdrive for books two and three, and I'm planning to pay around $8 for the fourth book on Audible because I can't find a way to listen to that one for free. I figure paying $8 for something that we'll enjoy for 12 hours is a reasonable use of money.

11. The kids love water balloons, and I'm thankful for the Bunch O Balloons that Grandma and Pop Pop gave the kids recently. It is SO much easier than filling and typing balloons one by one. The kids are also very thankful I included freeze pops in my Walmart grocery order on Monday. Little things like a water balloon and a freeze pop can put a smile on a child's face!

12. After the stress of owning two rabbits, I'm thankful for three guinea pigs that bring enjoyment to the kids (mostly Nadia) without stress. Since Nadia has had extra time on her hands recently, she's been setting the guinea pigs up for photo shoots by having them wear doll clothing or using props like old cell phones and plastic sun glasses. 

13. I unfortunately had gained back some of the weight I lost last year. I really hope I do a better job keeping it off this time!!!!! Anyhow the good news is that over the past couple of weeks I've lost 5 pounds. I'm on a plateau right now, but hopefully I'll see some progress again n the near future. I'm hoping to reach my goal by the end of July. At least I'm going in the right direction at the moment....