Thankful Tuesday

 

1. The belly bands are a huge blessing. Most of Milo's attempts to mark the territory inside our home are thwarted. The only time we've had to clean up a puddle over the last nine days has been when he hasn't been wearing a diaper. The kids are learning the hard way that they need to carry Milo inside the house otherwise he'll lift his leg the very moment his feet hit the kitchen floor. It's been more than a week since he pooped in the house, and that has nothing to do with his belly band.

2. Nadia's weekly voice lessons resumed via Zoom on February 9. None of us can sing in a choir due to COVID, but Ian is making great progress on the piano (he's almost ready to move to Alfred Level 6), and Nadia is taking voice lessons and practicing at least four times a week.

3. Nadia also is participating in a play with other middle schoolers via Zoom called Nancy Blue (a spin off of Nancy Drew). One perk of voice lessons and play practices being conducted on Zoom is I do a lot less driving. In a typical week I drive to church on Sunday morning and Wednesday night and also make one trip to the library + grocery store. Aside from church, in all of February we only had three other things on the calendar that took place outside of our house - Milo at the groomer once, Ian at the orthodontist once, and I had one doctor appointment. Two of those appointments took place about 1 mile from our house, and Paul took Ian to the orthodontist because it had snowed some that day. The price of gas has gone up 50% over the last year, but I'm not buying as much gas as I used to before COVID. 

4. Nadia is also enjoying a bi-weekly ASL class on Zoom through one of the libraries in our area.

5. Everyone in Yvonne's family came down with COVID recently (they have 8 kids), but thankfully they only had a mild case of the virus. Andrew was the first one to catch it, and his only symptom was a headache.

6. Paul finished repairing a hole in the drywall behind the refrigerator that had been there for years, and he also got the glass back in the door in our entertainment center. Next up is to finish the master bathroom project so we can resume using that shower. 

7. Paul has been at home more lately because of the snow. We've gotten more snow than usual this year. We got at least 4 inches yesterday morning. He had a VERY short work day yesterday as he sent the crew home very early because of the snow. He had a very, very hard time making it home in his Mazda. We are very thankful he made it home without getting in an accident.

8. Margie and my dad are having a good time in Cancun. She's receiving alternative treatments for her cancer.

9. Although we couldn't even make ourselves finish the acai bowls or pao de queijo that I had prepared, we have found some "winners" this month including Belgian waffles, challah, and strawberry crepes. Oliver really loved the pan de coco. Today is the Emperor's Birthday holiday in Japan. I bought the kids cotton candy (wata-ame). I can't remember the last time I did that. Look up cotton candy in Japan and you will see images of how BIG their rainbow cotton candy is. Oliver wants to go to Japan just for the cotton candy, ha ha! We're also having jaga bata (a Japanese buttered potato recipe) and kasutera (a Japanese sponge cake) tonight. We shall see if either of those are "winners." On Friday we'll be celebrating Purim by eating Serbian potato moussaka and Hamantaschen cookies. I ordered chopsticks today because Oliver said he wanted to try eating with chopsticks. Now I need to figure out where I'm going to buy color powder for when we celebrate Holi next month. 

10. When Nadia came home from youth group on Valentine's Day she came with a bag filled with many lovely gifts. Our friend, Tab, had organized the project that several ladies in the church had worked together to gather the goodies for each of the girls in the youth group. Her bag contained socks, a mug, hot chocolate bombs, candy, jewelry, etc. What a sweet surprise!

11. The kids and I enjoyed eating our brownie batter donuts. We only get them once a year, and they're our favorite kind of donut. Yum! 

12. Over the last couple of months I had my annual mammogram and also the less frequent pap smear. I'm thankful for negative results on both.

13. Sometime last month I bought a charging stand that holds and charges our 5 electronic devices (two phones, one Kindle, and two iPads). It now sits on the fireplace mantle. The cords are SUPER short. It's a small thing but let me tell you I really appreciate that the devices and all their longer cords are no longer on the kitchen counter. Woohoo! 

14. We had taken a bit of a break from doing Junior Ranger badges, but now the kids have resumed earning them. As of today, each child has earned 76 badges! We received some badges in the mail today from New Orleans, and I have some packets I need to take the Post Office to mail to some national parks.