Thankful Tuesday

1. Today was the court case for man who flipped his truck on December 26. Wendy and I had been subpoenaed, but since she is flying back from Malta today on a business trip, she was excused. We left the house at 1:40 so that I could drive the kids to someone's house and then drive to the court house. I got there about five minutes early, but it turned out the man had already worked out a deal with the police officer. He pled guilty and they reduced the charges and also the fine involved. I was in the building for less than five minutes. The man was working out a payment plan when the receptionist reminded the officer that his witness was still there. He thanked me for coming and said they didn't need me. I was relieved, but I was wishing there had been a way for them to figure that out earlier. Thank goodness Wendy didn't travel all the way from Chicago for it! I spent more than an hour driving today to spend 5 minutes in the court house (would have been half of that if I had just brought the kids with me but I thought I'd be there longer), but I am glad it's all behind me because I was nervous about needing to testify. I was also very thankful Kathie agreed to watch my kids.

2. Last Thursday we ran a few errands prior to their ice skating lesson. Paul had gotten me a jewelry armoire for Christmas, but he didn't realize that several years ago I got something else to organize my jewelry that hangs in the closet which I really like. So it was a sweet idea, but I didn't want it. He bought it at a store I don't usually visit, and that was the reason we headed down there. I decided to use a gift card I had gotten a couple of months ago from credit card points. The kids and I enjoyed dinner at Red Robin.  Oliver picked baby carrots as his side dish (whereas his siblings picked French fries), way to go Oliver! We hadn't been there since April last year. Nadia said Thursdays are now her second favorite day of the week because we eat dinner out before ice skating. The three closest restaurants to the rink are Subway, Dunkin Donuts, and Dominos so I am sure most weeks we'll go to one of those thanks to gift cards. :)

3. Ian and Nadia both got a basket on Saturday. Paul got to see their games!

4. I became a member of our church on Sunday.

5. The kids are able to enjoy their guinea pigs while they do schoolwork. This is one of the many perks of homeschooling!

6. Nadia almost always eats in a very reasonable time frame, but the boys are all over the map with how long they take to eat. On Mondays we need to be in the van at 4:45 to go to Ian's basketball practice. Last night all three of them finished eating dinner by then. WOOHOO! We had pulled pork, oven roasted potatoes, and green beans. The meal Ian takes the longest with is usually lunch. The yogurt, sandwich, etc. are not the problem. The mandatory fruit or vegetable is the problem. So today I instituted a policy that he must eat the fruit or vegetable first, and that he only gets one hour for lunch. If it takes him an hour or longer then that fruit or vegetable becomes his entire lunch. That happened today. He took more than an hour to eat a clementine. So he ate a very large dinner  because he was hungry. I'm hoping eventually he'll learn to eat the fruit or
vegetable in a reasonable amount of time. Today he had the choice of an apple, banana, baby carrots or clementine. He picked a clementine. I peeled it for him, and it took him more than an hour to eat it. Hopefully we can see improvements with this in the near future.

7. I talked to my Aunt Janet this evening, which is always nice, and she told me she is planning a trip to Pittsburgh in early June and wanted to stay one night at our house both on the way out and on the way back to break up her drive. That would be fabulous! I am looking forward to that. The kids and I are also planning a trip out to spend some time with her in the summer and go to her beach. She lives on Long Island. Nadia has been wanting to go to the Statue of Liberty and such so I figured we could do a little bit in NYC on the way out to her house and the way back home.