Giving Thanks

1. Paul was supposed to have jury duty in August. They postponed it to November because of our trip to Alaska. He had to check on Friday night four weeks in a row to see if he needed to report the following Monday or not. Thankfully, all four weeks he received the message that he didn't need to report for duty! We both are happy to perform this civic duty at some point, but we'd prefer to do so either in the summer or at least 7 years from now when we're empty nesters. Although I do most of the homeschooling, Paul does chemistry experiments on Tuesdays at co-op, and he helps Nadia and Ian with chemistry and math when they ask for help. 

2. The kids enjoyed a retreat at Camp Susque with their youth group the weekend of November 8-10.

3. Cheri and I attended a women's ministry dinner at my church on November 8.

4. I struggled to come up with something special to do on Tuesday since it's our final day of co-op for the fall session. Thankfully, I finally had the idea to take the kids to see the movie The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Their parents will pick them up later than usual from our house on Tuesday. I've never taken eleven kids to the movies before, ha ha! Thankfully, Ben has his driver's license so between his vehicle and our van everyone will have a ride. 

5. Nadia was given a small speaking part in the Wizard of Oz! She will be the barrister of Munchkinland.

6. Two nights ago, Cheri and I attended a Philips, Craig, and Dean concert. It was amazing. It was definitely my favorite concert from 2024. I love how the three men harmonize together. I first started listening to them in the early 90s. I'm not sure if I had ever been to one of their concerts before. 

7. I purchased a new game recently - Telestrations, and we enjoyed playing it for a family fun night once and also the kids at co-op played it last Tuesday. We certainly don't have a family fun night every week, but we try to have one once a week as often as possible, and we certainly have plenty of time together as a family almost every week since we homeschool, and Paul works from home! 

8. Nadia earned an A in Evangelism and an A- in Old Testament Survey this semester. Her art history class doesn't wrap up until December 13. As of this moment, she's earned 24 college credits so far. As of December 13, that will increase to 27 credits. She could technically receive a HS diploma from the state of Pennsylvania in the spring as they will issue one once you've earned 30 college credits, but we're going to wait until the spring of 2026 because the tuition at Liberty is much cheaper if you're in high school. Also, I want her to at least take Physics and Literature when she's in twelfth grade. When I went to register her for her spring classes, I found out that they have additional prerequisites for some classes if you are enrolled as a high schooler. This means she can't take three of the classes I thought she could take through dual enrollment. Thankfully, I found three other classes that I believe she can take instead (astronomy, earth science, and developmental psychology).  

9. Paul and I have talked about going to Hawaii for over 20 years. Lord willing, it looks like we'll be going there next August. I purchased the airfare today because the price had dropped, and I had codes to get two of the tickets for $99 each. The plan is that we'll fly from the DC area to Honolulu and then fly back from Maui to the DC area. At a later time, I'll need to book flights in between the islands. Rachel might be joining us for the trip, or her family might overlap with us for part of our trip. We plan to spend 4 nights on Oahu, 7 nights on the Big Island, and 2 nights on Maui. I know some people visit Hawaii regularly (like my Aunt Janet), but Paul and I view this as a once in a lifetime trip. I'm planning to use credit card points to pay for most of our lodging and rental car expenses. If all goes as planned, we'll be on Oahu on Oliver's 13th birthday and on Big Island on our 24th anniversary. So far, I paid about $1800 for round trip tickets for the five of us and paid a whopping $36 for a five-night reservation on the Big Island. We're excited about seeing more of God's beautiful creation! 

10. This weekend Paul installed the sink faucet I recently got for the kids' bathroom. Our house is 25 years old. We haven't done any big projects on the house this year, but we've done some very small things like replacing two faucets. I'm not handy *at all* so I'm very grateful for Paul's help!

11. A couple from our Sunday School class took our family out to lunch today because they wanted to hear more about our trip to Alaska as they are planning to go there next year. We had an enjoyable time!

12. The Newsboys are one of Ian's top two favorite bands. They performed at a venue less than 30 minutes from our house last night. Cheri joined the five of us. The concert Friday night was definitely more up my alley, but I was thankful we could make a memory together! 

13. Paul had a cough for two months. He finally went to the doctor on Monday. Thankfully the antibiotic plus steroid seems to be working as he's much better now than he was a week ago. 

14. They had said it would take 3-4 weeks to get the results of Ian's sleep study. Thankfully it actually only took a couple of days. He has mild sleep apnea. The pulmonologist recommended he see another ENT to have surgery on his nose. He has an appointment with an ENT on December 3. Ian said he doesn't want to wait until he's 18 to be able to breathe through his nose. We shall see if the ENT agrees. They won't fix a deviated septum on a minor, but they can address the hypertrophy turbinates. Ian had four surgeries before he turned three years old, but he hasn't had one since then.