Thankful Tuesday

 

1. Our basement stayed dry last week during the rain from Ida. 

2. The kids played arcade games and jumped on the trampolines at Kaos with Micah and Isaiah last Thursday. Unfortunately due to the shortage of employees they weren't able to play laser tag. I enjoyed being able to chat with Tab, and we were able to give Micah and Isaiah the pottery they had painted about a month ago as it had been fired in the kiln. 

3. We stayed at home sweet home on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Monday. The only place we went on Sunday was to church in the morning. It's been nice to have several days with little or no driving. Because it was "promotion Sunday" for the kids moving up to a different class, we all received free Rita's ice. Oliver chose cotton candy, Ian chose root beer, Nadia chose blue raspberry, I chose Georgia peach, and Paul didn't want any. Although it was a little chilly that morning to be eating ice, it was a yummy treat!

4. The kids are excited about their first classes at co-op this afternoon. Nadia is already talking about next year at the co-op. I'm definitely ready to contemplate whether we'll do it next year or not, but hopefully the kids will have a good semester. Oliver is taking bells, baking, and YWAM (biographies), and he has free time for one period. Nadia is taking home economics, painting, a physical education elective, and drama. Ian is taking painting, a physical education elective, and drama with Nadia, and he has one free period. I am the aide for the 3rd-5th grade class and am supervising a study hall, and I have the same free period that Oliver has. I am thankful that these opportunities are out there.

5. Paul worked a shorter day yesterday because of Labor Day, which meant the five of us had dinner together!

6. I've enjoyed the cooler weather the last several days, which has meant I've taken some walks with Milo.

7. Yesterday we completed our sixth day of school in terms of days with our textbooks. It was day 14 of 180 for the school year. We have gotten off to a pretty good start. Yes, I see evidence of the "summer slide" especially with Oliver in spelling and math. He made a lot of progress this summer with multiplying and dividing but grew rusty with adding and subtracting. Oliver is enjoying learning to play the piano, Nadia is proud of her progress on the flute, and Ian really likes using Teaching Textbooks Math 7 for his sixth grade math. Nadia and Ian have begun working on learning Javascript. We memorized the first six verses of James chapter 1 and will learn verse 7 today. They all seem to be enjoying writing and drawing in their copy of the Book of Centuries. 

8. We're all very excited about our trip that starts bright and early tomorrow morning! We're taking Milo to the dog sitter's house this evening. We did most of our packing yesterday and plan to finish and load up the van before we go to bed tonight. I'm very thankful we have the opportunity to travel around the USA for the next 25 days! It's definitely going to be very different from every other vacation we've gone on together over the past 20 years, hopefully it will be a good one! Praying that COVID won't cause TOO many bumps in the road during our travels. Hoping that the hotel pools will be open, the hotels that say they offer breakfast really will offer breakfast, etc. We have had experience rolling with the punches over the past 18 months so hopefully we can adapt easily if we do experience some COVID related curve balls along the way.

9. I made a small batch of applesauce last night using apples from our tree. After all the work we've done hauling away hundreds of pounds of apples and tree branches over the past month, it's nice to receive SOME positive benefit from our tree. Thankfully Paul brought home a truck on Friday night and we were able to clear away a lot which meant I was able to mow the whole lawn this past weekend.