Thankful Tuesday

1. I am so thankful our house is off the market. While I was mowing the lawn yesterday I took the sign out of the yard and left it on the porch for the realtor, who picked the sign and lock box up today. I enjoyed starting to put our house back to normal in some senses - putting some family photos back up on the walls, putting photo magnets back on the refrigerator, hanging our pocket calendar, etc. It is such a relief to know we will be living here at least one more year, and because I am determined to find a way to earn some money, I am assuming we will be living here for at least several more years. I wanted this shift to be evident when I look around the house so yesterday I broke down almost all the boxes I had saved in the basement (to use when moving) and took those and other packing supplies I had been saving (such as plastic bags) to the recycling center yesterday morning. I also donated a few things to their thrift store - three lamps I had been saving in the basement "in case we needed them in our next house". I had four lamps in the basement. I held on to one of them and donated the other three. I want to get OUT of the mindset that I have been in the past almost 8 years of thinking this is just a temporary house for us. I want to assume we will be living here for years to come. The biggest downside to this being where we live for a long time is Paul's commute. I have consoled myself with the reminders that #1 Paul doesn't mind a longer commute nearly as much as I do and #2 had he never pursued his Ph.D, he would have a very short commute to work right now. We moved to this house just for his benefit, and moving here involved a large financial investment. Of course on a day like today where Paul left for work at 3:30am and didn't get home until 6:45pm, a shorter commute would certainly be helpful.

2. On Saturday night after we tucked Ian and Oliver into their beds, Paul noticed two large rainbows across from our house. By the time I grabbed the camera one of the rainbows had faded, but I did get pictures of both ends of one of the rainbows. Rainbows are SO beautiful. What a creative God we serve!

3. Ian scored 11 goals on Saturday morning! Unfortunately he didn't play very well in last night's game. He seemed to be in another world, but he has shown remarkable improvements over the past year, and I look forward to seeing how he'll do when he is promoted to a U8 team in August.

4. It was rather cold on Sunday, but it was much nicer out yesterday. I took advantage of the pretty day by mowing the lawn and cutting down most of a tree that had been growing into our shed. Now that we know we are staying here I also want to do some work on the outside as well including planting strawberry plants, blueberry bushes, hosta plants, etc. In hindsight I should have done so years ago, but better late than never in terms of finally putting down some literal roots here. I also contacted a friend about helping me remove one of the two apple trees, and I am going to do some touch up painting on the shed. Paul is going to borrow his dad's truck to help haul away the tree branches I have cut down.

5. Paul helped me out this past weekend and got on our huge ladder to clean the chandelier in the foyer and the window that is way up high. Cathedral ceilings might be pretty, but they make it very, very difficult to clean!

6. Yesterday we cleaned out some stuff from Nadia's room. Some was taken to the donation center and the rest was put in the basement just until we finish painting her room. She picked a light purple paint yesterday morning. Well she would have picked a dark purple, but I steered her toward a lighter shade. Ironically her very first bedroom (that she was only in for 3 months before we moved here) had light purple walls (lighter than the shade she picked) and darker purple carpet. Her room in this house has been pink. We liked the color from the beginning, but even when we moved in it really needed some spackling and a fresh coat of paint, and that is even more true eight years later. I spackled the room yesterday, and Paul helped with sanding it last night. I painted half of the room today and plan to finish it tomorrow. Nadia is sleeping in a sleeping  bag in Oliver's room tonight. I am not doing anything in our room or Oliver's room, but I am also planning to make some changes in Ian's room in June. For the last 6 1/2 years the room has had light green walls (which is perfect because green is his favorite color) and a transportation theme in terms of the bedding, bookshelf, wall decor, valences, hamper, trash can, etc. The thing is Ian hasn't really been into cars or trains, etc. I decided it was time to do a makeover on his room. I was thinking of going with a Star Wars theme, but I decided to ask him, and he surprised me by saying he wanted Mario. I told him we weren't going to be changing it again any time soon so he needed to be sure he would like a Mario theme for say at least 7 years. He assured me he would. The upside of this choice is that it means I can keep some of the transportation themed stuff (such as the wallpaper border) because I picked a Mario kart comforter which features cars. I ordered the items yesterday and am going to give them to him next month. Since his birthday is so close to Christmas, we decided to try giving him the gifts from us at his half-birthday this year (the cake, balloons, birthday donuts and gifts from other relatives would still be on his actual birthday in December). I ordered a Mario sheet set, comforter, and curtains.


7. It's exciting to think about what we might do around the house. We need to be very careful how much we spend until I start making some money, but we can do a little before then. Painting isn't expensive so that is where I am starting. After that it will be a harder choice - which comes first replacing the refrigerator or new flooring in the kitchen, etc.

8. Last Tuesday we had an enjoyable field trip at Reptiland, and today we had another great trip. Today we went first to see a one hour theatrical production about Robin Hood. You

can see from two of the pics in this post that Nadia volunteered to participate in the play (during the archery contest she was introduced as Lady Nadia). Then we went on a boat tour of Penn's Cave.

9. Last Thursday Nadia spent the day with Grandma. Grandma treated her to lunch at Pizza Hut and took her shopping. Since Nadia was having a special day, I tried to make the day special for the boys by driving them to Lewisburg to go to the library, two playgrounds we hadn't been to in many months, and to Panera for dinner (thanks to a gift card). I love their strawberry salad, and I had a coupon for a free dessert so the three of us shared a cinnamon roll. Yum!

10. Paul's parents came up to watch the soccer games on Saturday and spent some time at our house after that. They always love to see their grandparents!

11. When I called recently they told me there wouldn't be any tennis lessons this summer, but that was incorrect information as I was given as they have now posted sign-ups for tennis lessons. Nadia and Ian will have them this summer. Yay! It will be Ian's first time and Nadia's second.