Thankful Tuesday

 1. Last Wednesday through Friday morning I used my laptop in the church's lobby while the kids were in the theatre workshop. I wish I had thought of that on Monday instead of trying in vain to go in the public library! Getting the kids out the door at 7:50 each morning isn't ideal in my opinion, but they must have had a good week because on Friday they were already talking about doing this workshop again next year. 

2. On Thursday I took the kids to McDonald's, Rita's, and bowling after their theatre workshop. 

3. Paul intended to go to work on Friday morning and come home a few hours later to attend the kids' musical which was at noon. When I woke up at 6am, I was surprised to see Paul still in bed. I'm accustomed to being the only person in our bed when I go to bed and when I get up in the morning. When I woke him up and told him the time, he was upset with himself, but at that point it was too late to go to work if he was going to attend the kids' program. Milo was thankful Paul overslept because it meant he wasn't in his crate as many hours as Paul left the house a few hours after the kids and I did. Usually we see him on Saturday evening. We only saw him for maybe two minutes on Saturday evening just before we went to bed, but we saw him FAR more on Friday than we usually do. Paul's dad also joined us for the musical and ate pizza with us at the bowling alley.

4. Paul and I repaired the screen on one window on Friday evening. I am always SO thankful when a project is accomplished from the to do list. 

5. On August 6 our apple tree split. In the past I've always trimmed the branches to make it easier for me to mow. The tree had SO many apples on it this year, I had just been dealing with branches touching down very low when I mowed. I wish I had trimmed the branches like I usually do. In my defense, our next door neighbor's apple tree branches are also bowed down to the ground, and their tree hasn't split. Anyhow on August 7 we started cutting some branches and carrying them to the tree farm in our development. One of our neighbors came over and started to help. They were a HUGE help. They used a chain and one of their vehicles to drag large branches to the tree farm. Their kids helped pick up apples, put them in buckets, and carry the buckets to the tree farm. The deer must have had an apple feast! It was so very kind of our neighbors to help. I gave each of their kids a few dollars and told their parents that I'd love to babysit their kids the next time they want to go on a date as my way of saying thanks for their help. We are trying to save the tree. Paul has a plan of what he is going to do to try to help the tree, and he's been buying the things he thinks he needs for that task. 

6. Oliver "finished" learning his times tables yesterday! We'll obviously need to keep on reviewing them over the next year, but he definitely made progress this summer.

7. One neighbor will be taking care of our guinea pigs during our lengthy vacation. Another family is watching Milo for 24 of the 25 days. Two days ago her in-laws agreed to watch Milo the last day of our trip. I'm paying one of Oliver's friends to mow our lawn once when we're on vacation. I'm thankful for each one who is helping us with our home and pets while we're away.

8. I have become friends with a mom we met at our pool. She is homeschooling two of her children - a boy who is in 6th grade (same as Ian) and a girl who is in 7th grade (one grade below Nadia).The kids have enjoyed swimming together a few times this summer, and I have enjoyed chatting with the mom. Hoping we'll find other opportunities to get together over the next year as they don't live too far from us.

9. I had thought it would be free to visit the Lowell Observatory on our trip with our ASTC membership. They haven't opened for general admission yet, but they are giving tours. The tours are rather expensive, but I found out that if we paid for a membership there, we could take a tour for free. The membership cost only a tiny bit more than paying for one person to take the tour. So I joined the Lowell Observatory yesterday as that will be a much cheaper way to have five people take the tour. I also booked our Mammoth Cave tours recently. The kids and I are excited that it's just three weeks until our trip! That thought stresses Paul out. Later this week I'm planning to book the Lowell Observatory tour and the Timpanogos Cave tour (they cannot be booked more than 30 days in advance). Then on the first day of our vacation I'm planning to book our cliff dwelling tour at Mesa Verde as they can only be booked 14 days in advance. I've put much more time into planning this vacation than any other we've ever taken. Hopefully we will have a great time!

10. I took the kids to see a free production of The Tempest on Saturday night. It was their first exposure to Shakespeare. I can't say they loved it, but they did think there were some funny parts. The next play we plan to see there is Secret Garden in February. I predict they will like that one a lot more. The Tempest won't be their last exposure to Shakespeare! The actors were all vaccinated and didn't wear masks. Everyone in the audience was required to wear a mask regardless of vaccination status, and they were very careful to keep everyone spread out in the auditorium.

11.As of August 11, Paul and I have been married for twenty years. They say opposites attract. There are of course some ways in which we are very similar or can usually easily come to an agreement. In our case some of those would be finances (we rarely disagree when it comes to money), our faith, and our kids. I'm extremely grateful that Paul encouraged me to consider IVF in 2007 and then homeschooling our kids, and I'm very, very thankful that he supports our family financially so that I can be a stay-at-home homeschooling mom. They say that money and infidelity are two of the top three reasons for divorce in the US. I've never had any reason to question that Paul would be faithful to me, and most of the time we've been on the same page with finances over the years. There are naturally many ways in which we are very different. I was freezing in church this past Sunday morning, and Paul was very comfortable. The three areas where I think we differ the most that can lead to conflict are saving things (him) vs. decluttering (me), his choice of employment (because of how little time he can spend with the family most weeks), and the length of time it takes to complete projects around the house. I have been waiting, for example, for three months now for him to hang one picture on the wall. I usually do that type of task myself, but it's heavier than anything else we have on any of our walls, and my attempt was a failure. Anyhow, I am thankful for the 20 years of marriage we've enjoyed thus far. We loved traveling to the Caribbean and Europe together during the first 5 years of marriage, and we've enjoyed being parents the last 13 years. My favorite three years of the past twenty were from August 2012 - August 2015, and that's because I was at home with our three kids AND we spent FAR more time with Paul those three years. Paul's parents were married 54 years. I doubt we'll both live to make it that far, but maybe we'll make it another 20 years if the Lord doesn't return before then! One area we could definitely do better in would be to go on dates more often. Our last date was on May 4, 2018 for Pete's sake! We have one scheduled for this November. I had thought we might go on a getaway without the kids for our 20th anniversary, but it's really hard for Paul to get time off in the summer. I am very, very thankful though that he's agreed to go on a 25 day trip in September. I used our 20th anniversary as one of the reasons when I was trying to get him to agree to the length of the road trip. 

12. I contacted Nadia's pen pal's mom yesterday, and she said that we should be able to work something out for the girls to meet in person (they've been corresponding faithfully for 2 years) in early September during our vacation in Illinois or Wisconsin! 

13. The kids have been able to sleep in the past few days! I know they won't sleep in on Friday or Saturday morning as they never sleep in when cousins are in the house, but I'm enjoying a few quieter mornings at the moment.