Thankful Thursday

1. Teaching a teenager to drive is definitely not my favorite thing to do, and letting a teenager drive independently, especially when all my children are in the vehicle, is a bit nerve wracking at first. Thankfully, all has gone smoothly over the first almost three weeks of driving solo.to both of her jobs, picked up pizza for our family for dinner, and driven herself and her brothers to art class at our church. Three of those places are located 5-15 minutes from our home. Camp Susque is about 40 minutes away. The first time she drove there, she took the wrong exit and then got back on the highway headed the wrong direction. Thankfully, she had left early enough that she wasn't late for work despite the drive taking longer than normal. She had no trouble coming back home from Camp Susque. Hopefully things will continue to go as smoothly as possible when she's driving in the days, weeks, months, and years to come. 

2. On October 3, Tab met me at Ian's piano teacher's house so that we could walk and talk during his 45-minute lesson. What a treat that was!

3. Paul, Ian, Oliver, and I were able to pack meals at Experience Missions on October 4, and all five of us were able to help pack meals at our church on October 11. 

4. Jenna and Toby joined us for dinner at Applebee's in Hershey on October 5. 

5. Our family really enjoyed a Matthew West, MercyMe, and TobyMac concert on October 5. Paul said it was one of the best concerts he's ever attended in his life. Knowing that Nadia is a senior, it's possible that concert might end up being the last one the five of us attend together. Time will tell, but the days are numbered. 

6. The past two Mondays we found out Ian was scheduled to play the keyboard with the youth praise team on Wednesday night. His piano teacher moved his lesson from Friday to Tuesday both weeks so that she could work with him on the songs. 

7. I am thankful for the ability to be flexible with homeschool curriculum. I decided that Fix It Grammar wasn't sufficient for Oliver. So, I purchased a used copy of Giggly Grammar that I'm using with him this year. Also, since he hasn't listened to or read nearly as many books as his siblings had at his age, I decided he needed a vocabulary textbook. We've added that to his daily schedule. 

8. Since Nadia is a senior, I decided to go a different direction in the resources used for Bible class/ family devotions this year. The first book wasn't a big hit (The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges), but the family really enjoyed the last three books - The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus by Nabeel Qureshi, and Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman.

9. Ian and Oliver attended Xandir's 13th birthday party on October 12. Birthday party invitations are a rare treat for my kiddos, so they are greatly appreciated. 

10. I think that finding deals for our trip to Europe will be few and far between, but I used some leftover Alaskan airline miles to reserve two free nights of lodging in the United Kingdom in May. I realize you get more bang for the buck if you use miles for a flight, but after using Alaksa Airlines for multiple trips from August 2024- August 2025, I don't think that will be the case in the next few years so getting anything for the miles we had seemed to be the wisest course of action. I've begun the lengthy process of planning out the nitty gritty details for the trip. I bought tickets for our flight from Scotland to Northern Ireland, and I've booked our lodging for eight out of fifteen nights so far. I'm trying not to think about how much I paid for one night at the Holiday Inn at the Glasgow Airport! Getting two other nights for free helps to compensate for that expensive night. I did book two inexpensive nights (about £100 total each night including the hefty VAT). 

11. Our tradition we started a few years ago of having dates with the kids has mostly fallen by the wayside. Oliver is the only one who still requests to have dates with Paul or I. Paul took him to see the new Tron movie on Tuesday night. Tickets are 50% off at that theatre on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and I had a gift card, so he paid less than $5 total for their tickets. Now the popcorn and soda they shared were another story although they did use a $10 off coupon to bring down the price of that also. It was the first time any of us had been in a movie theatre this year, so it was a special treat. 

12. We really enjoyed our last audiobook - Boys without Names by Kashmira Sheth, and I am quite certain that will be true for the one we started today, Ms. Pennypickle's Puzzle Quest because we have loved many books by Chris Grabenstein in the past. 

13. We dog sat Cooper for eight days recently. At one point we were concerned about how he was doing physically, but thankfully he bounced back the last day he was with us. 

14. I can go months without watching anything on tv, but Paul and I watched a good movie recently on Prime called Last Breath. Movies based on true stories are typically my favorite type of movie.