Giving Thanks

I am not one to do a thankful post, like a lot of people. Just me. I am thankful every day for my family and friends and my life and I make the time to tell God that. But there have been some really great points since my last post.

The kids are doing an amazing job with their school work. The baby is adding like a fiend. I have started to reinforce the basic facts, starting with 0, 1, and 2. She knows that any number added to 0 is that number. She has gotten the fact that adding 1 goes one number up. She has even started skip counting by 5s. We are going to work on skip counting by 2s and 3s. She reads amazingly. She sits with us through bible, history, and science. We do shared reading, which is where everybody reads a little. She struggles with some really big words, but some she just reels off like she's been reading them for years.

The big girl is starting to have more confidence in her math skills. She is very good at math, but has not had the best self confidence. The thing I like about her math curriculum this year is that it explains things very simply. She needs that. She doesn't need to be bogged down in complexities that will undermine her. There is a book that I have requested from the library for her that hopefully will help her as well. She has started reading her next book for her language arts. She will start that after our Thanksgiving break. She loves to read, but doesn't really like her grammar workbook. Me, too. Grammar seems to me to be a waste of time. Most of it is so convulted and hard to follow, but we do it anyway.

The boy. That should be all I need to say about him. He loves his curriculum. I realized I hadn't been doing the spelling test like I needed to. So now he takes a practice test, practices his words in cursive, and then he has a spelling test on Fridays. Like many boys I know, he is a great reader, but a not so great speller. I don't understand how you can read a word, but not know how to spell it, but that's me. I was the sixth grade spelling champ. I know, that was me, this is him. His math skills have improved so much. He has even started doing three digit addition in his head. Hubby said something to him the other day and he added 360+360 and got 720. I was so proud.

Hubby and I were supposed to have a date the other night. The girls had a birthday party, the boy was going to my in laws. Long story short, the boy ended up not going. So I got to go out with two handsome men. We went to see Planet 51, and went to dinner. It was nice to be able to spend quality time with my men. My kids don't get much one on one time with us, so this was a huge blessing to us all. Now the girls want their turn. I think they just want dinner and a movie, but I'll take that excuse for a date night with them.

Hubby got his missing paycheck. That was fantastic. We were able to pay some bills that had been waiting, and got to them in the nick of time. It still irritates me that it took so long, but it was a lesson in patience and humility. I don't really like those lessons, but sometimes they are necessary. It has still thrown us off our schedule, but we'll get back to it.

God has still been blessing us with overtime and extra shifts or oncalls. He has been faithful and true to us and we are doing our best to honor him. We are continuing to pay off debt that has been haunting us, and have been able to do some little projects around the house that needed to be done. We have been able to lower some of our utility bills as well, which has helped with the financial situation. He has led and guided us through every step. There were some things that I wasn't sure we were doing the right way, but He has shown us that we are following the right path for our family. I am thankful for that.

That is just a quick run down on how we're doing. I know, you want more kid info and what we've been doing lately. I'll get to that later. For now, that's what you get and you need to be thankful.

Have a great day!