Last week was one of those weeks that I would gladly live again and again and again. Monday started a little rough due to my busy weekend and inability to plan school and meals but all things considered it went very well.
On Tuesday is when things started going all haywire....in a wonderful way. I have school with my children every day. The oldest is in 2nd grade and the middle is in Kindergarten (although doing 1st grade level work). The little guy is in preschool and honestly is just doing his own thing for the most part. They do this work every day and often with much weeping and gnashing of teeth. There are meltdowns over math, tears over handwriting (although the program is called "handwriting without tears"- go figure) and sighs over Social Studies. Science they usually like. On most days we begin school at 9. But last week, they all got up got dressed (shock!), brushed their teeth (seriously?) and made their beds! Wait! I have to pick myself up off the floor again! It totally surprised me too. Then while I was making breakfast (which is at 8 most of the time) the oldest came in the school room and STARTED DOING HIS SCHOOL WORK WITHOUT BEING TOLD, THREATENED, OR OTHERWISE CONVINCED!!!!! I did check his temperature a couple times and he was not sick. The awesome thing...when he did that, the others followed suit. All their deskwork was DONE (really it was DONE) BEFORE school was even "started" at 9. It was wonderful!!!!!
Our church also had a revival going on that we were able to attend a couple times. And we got to go without the children. It was so nice to be able to really listen to the sermon and I even took notes a couple times. Especially on the sermon about not becoming discouraged (which is so easy to do when you are in the midst of waiting with no visible light at the end of the tunnel). What a blessing that was!!!!!
Then on Thursday, I had a dreaded chore....grocery shopping....with all three children...during nap time Ack! I try to avoid this exact situation at all costs. The only thing that was in my favor that it wasn't a Saturday...but it was exactly one week before Thanksgiving. This had the potential of going very very very badly. But I decided that I was going to stay positive and I was NOT going to get grouchy! And it worked. We hit a couple resale shops (and found some cute baby girl sleepers on the cheap), then went to Aldi where the boys helped pick out merchandise and convinced me to make a couple impulse buys (who doesn't cave when their children BEG for broccoli and cantelope -seriously?) Then they helped me bag all the groceries (and didn't smash or break anything - not even the glass bottle of olives little guy dropped on the floor twice). Then we went to Walmart....things went a little south there. But really that store would irritate a saint. After wandering around several times and asking for help several more, I was getting grumpy and the kids picked up on it. Then the little guy ran into a pole and I had a hard time not laughing (but I did NOT laugh till we got home and he was asleep). But that lightened the mood again and we got done. I never yelled ONCE in the WHOLE afternoon of grocery shopping! I don't think that has ever ever ever happened before.
So as a treat, when the King got off work, we went to Cracker Barrel. The kids all picked their meals and were sitting and waiting nicely (another first it seems like) and when the waitress brought us our meal, she said "Since they have left, an older couple picked up your tab this evening. They asked that I not say anything until after they were gone." WOW! I didn't even know that happened. I was speechless (and I can assure you that does not happen often)! So we told the boys what a wonderful nice thing that was and we picked another table to pay for and paid it forward. We did not pick a family of five. Instead there was a little older lady eating all alone. She was wearing purple. And she reminded the King of his mom (who passed away 11 years ago). We waited for her to get her dessert and then we paid and left and came home. The friendly gesture of having our meal paid for was so great and I am truly thankful for that. But the fun and the blessing of paying it forward made it so much better.
On Friday, my best friend had her baby and I got to go to the hospital and get a fix on newborn baby girl. She is so so so sweet. And she makes me even more ready to meet our own little princess. sigh! And on a less "aaaaaawwww!" note, the king and the oldest boy got 3 deer between them on the opening day of shotgun season. So our freezer is soon to be full of meat for the year and shotgun season lasted less than 24 hours. Can I get a hallelujah?
The only thing that could have made last week better would have been a phone call! I am so ready for that phone call! But even without it, it was wonderful and I am blessed and thankful this Thanksgiving season for the many blessing big and small that have been given to my family and I!!!
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