Thankful Tuesday

1. I had a very nice chat with a homeschooling mom during the kids' gym class on Friday morning. Adult conversation is a rare treat for me.

2. Nadia and Ian enjoyed their practice for the upcoming AWANA games on Friday night. They also enjoyed the pizza, chips, and cookies the church provided. We look forward to cheering them on next week!

3. I am aware of our President's character flaws, but I have been praying for him to make wise decisions. I am very certain I won't like all of his decisions, but the one I had been praying about the most was his nominee for the Supreme Court. Time will tell (as we learned from John Roberts who was supposed to be conservative but has actually proven to be a swing vote), but it seems that Gorsuch is a good replacement for Scalia, and those are very BIG shoes to fill. There is no way that Hillary would have nominated someone like Gorsuch.

4. I placed a big order with Shutterfly on Saturday night. It was my first big order in two months, and I wasn't expecting to be able to do one so soon, but it turns out that one type of free shipping code that in the past was only good for one item is now in 2018 good for your whole order! So I ordered $230.89 worth of products with free shipping and paid not one penny. I love how you can stack many coupons in one order with Shutterfly! One of the items I ordered was a photobook of pictures of my mom - some I had taken and some ones I had scanned from her childhood and such.

5. I also hadn't done a couponing trip to CVS since December. On Saturday while Nadia was getting her team picture for basketball, the boys and I went to the CVS near that church and got three 2 liters of Pepsi, 2 big bags of M&Ms, 12 boxes of cereal, 3 boxes of Kleenex, and 36 rolls of toilet paper for a grand total of $23.78!

6. Nadia and Ian each scored a basket on Saturday!

7. We are really enjoying reading The Green Ember. I give it two thumbs up!!! There are three books in the series. We'll read the other two sometime this year.

8. Last year on this day I was with my mom for Valentine's Day. I certainly have no regret for the trips I made to be with her last year. I do have regret that I let her talk me out of coming down in May for Mother's Day. I should have followed Wendy's example and gone even when Mom tried to talk her out of coming. I wish so badly I had spent my mom's last Mother's Day with her, but at least I was there for her last birthday and last Valentine's Day. I love you forever, Mom!

9.Last year I got back from Maryland and just a couple of days later Oliver ended up in the hospital. I'm thankful that he is healthy right now.

10. I am so thankful for my three little Valentines. Although I cook breakfast food about once a week on average, I almost never serve it at breakfast. Valentine's Day is the exception. I usually try to make the kids a hot breakfast for Valentine's Day. This morning Nadia and I had toast with a heart shaped fried egg in the center, and the boys had heart shaped chocolate chip pancakes. Just one little way of trying to show them how much I love them. I gave them their gifts early this year. I got Paul a 2 pound bag of Hershey's cookies and cream candy bars, but he finished those off several days before Valentine's Day, so I got him a big bag of peanut M&M's on Saturday.

11. Nadia made a new friend in the kids choir, and I have invited Baylee to come to our house in a couple of weeks. I definitely don't win the prize when it comes to scheduling play dates for my kids, but I'm thankful that every once in a while I get around to making those type of plans.

12. The kids got Valentine's Day cards and gifts from my dad and Paul's parents. They are much appreciated!

13. The two Bible studies I was in had been meeting from 7-9pm, and they both switched recently to 6:30-8:30. I like the earlier ending time since I'm not a night owl. The kids have been getting up earlier so I've been going to bed earlier. I went to bed at 9pm the last two nights, and that's not possible if I'm at church at 9:00!

14. Nadia was really disappointed we didn't go on our scheduled field trip yesterday, but I was thankful my friend, Della called me to let me know most of the schools in that area had a two hour delay or were closed due to icy roads. We had planned to meet her for lunch on our way back home. I haven't seen Della in years, but we are determined to make plans again and hopefully get together sometime this year. She was the first grade teacher in the school where I was principal from 1996-2003. I think we hired her in 1997, if my memory serves me correctly, and she was a fabulous teacher!

15. On Sunday morning I had gathered all the snow gear so we could go to R. B. Winter State Park for their annual Snowfest after church. Then Paul pointed out that it was raining. I checked the forecast and discovered it was supposed to rain until 4pm. The idea of being outside in 34 degree weather with rain wasn't appealing so we didn't go. Ian was looking forward to ice fishing, Oliver was excited about the search and rescue program with dogs, etc. We went two years ago, and it was the first time the kids rode a snowmobile. I had bought sleds a couple of weeks ago with Snowfest in mind as we discovered two years ago that was a good idea as it's on a mountain and they had a great place to sled. I had planned on taking the kids last year, but then I ended up going to Maryland, and Paul didn't feel comfortable taking the kids there by himself. There won't be a Snowfest there next year because the woman is retiring in June and there's a state wide freeze on all FT positions. She was telling us about a state park where her daughter is the naturalist, but I looked online and it's about 2.5 hours away. I might take the kids there once, but I certainly wouldn't travel that far on a regular basis, but in my searching I found another state park that is near Penn State (a little more than an hour from us), and if their naturalist offers programs for homeschoolers I might give that a whirl at least once, particularly if it's a 3-4 hour program, which would make it easier for me to justify the drive. I discovered they offer some nice programs for kids in the summer. Nadia was disappointed the archery camp was already full (in February- for a camp in August!), but I signed her up for a 2 day (a few hours each day) kayak camp in June, and I signed Ian and Nadia up for a one day all day Wild Child program that involves fishing, kayaking, archery, how to build a fire safely, and much more. So I'm excited about trying out a new state park since the one closest to us won't have any programs after the middle of June for at least a couple of years.

16. I am glad the kids love their guinea pigs so much. I had a fear of chasing these creatures through the house, but that was totally unfounded. First of all, if they "escape" they run TO the cage, and secondly they rarely try to escape. They will sit in one spot for quite awhile whether that's on a child's lap or on a spot on the floor next to where they are playing. Now if we could only litter train these creatures. It is super easy to get Patches to purr, which is also a treat. Jenna purrs also but not as often as Patches. I never would have pictured myself owning two rodents, but they are much more cuddly than a gerbil or mouse (in my opinion), and none of us are allergic to them. I have a mild allergy to both cats and dogs, and Paul has a more significant allergy to cats.

17. The kids often say things that just crack me up. Yesterday they were into measuring things around the house with a tape measure. Ian was accurately telling me how many inches high, wide, and long the guinea pig cage was, and then Oliver came over and measured me with the tape measure while I was seated and said, "Mommy you are four pounds!" HA HA HA! Four is naturally his favorite number since that's his age.

18. Speaking of four-year-olds, today we had super quick FaceTime call with the Towfighis because Julianna turned four today. With the time difference it's her bedtime when we're eating lunch, which makes chatting with cousins a bit trickier to schedule. We hadn't talked to them much since November, but we had a longer chat last week. So grateful for technology that makes this possible! We also FaceTimed with the Benners a little on Friday because it was Adam's tenth birthday. We are looking forward to visiting them in two months hopefully. Nadia wrote Susie an email this week, and she was so happy to get a response back right away. It was good practice for her keyboarding skills also, plus it's nice for the cousins to have more communication than just at Christmas each year. I wish their cousins didn't live so far away, but I'm thankful for things like email, texting, and FaceTime to help bridge the gap.