So much to be thankful for!

I love the song Thankful by Josh Groban. I listen to it many times during the year & it reminds me of how blessed I am. I also love my busy, crazy, hectic life & when it starts to stress me out, Stephen will say, "we are so blessed by all this, there is so much to be thankful for!"

The usual has been going around here. Term 1 of the school year finished up a few weeks ago. Kaitlyn had the highest grades, but the other children did very well also.

Last post I wrote told you that Kaitlyn had been very sick for several weeks & it took many weeks to regain her energy. I am happy to report that she has made a full recovery, although she still falls into bed exhausted most nights. Her weekly routine of homework, play rehearsals, & piano practice is much easier for her to accomplish. We are thankful for her health.

Jonathan has been a busy boy! He has been working on his Eagle project for the past few months. It is a set of bean bag toss games for the children's unit at the Utah State Hospital. It was a lot of work to build the boards, draw & paint the games onto them, cut the holes, & make the bean bags. He finished & with his scout team, delivered the project to the children's unit last Tuesday! We are thankful for all the helping hands in our family & neighborhood that worked many hours to complete the project.

Jonathan is in California right now. He is at a national debate with his high school debate team. This is a very expensive trip (nearly $700!) There was no way we could afford to pay for it on our own. Jonathan had to earn the money through fundraising to go. I was very impressed with his efforts. He had to keep his grades up, finish his eagle project, & spend hours going door to door selling Lehi Rolling Mills Baking Mixes. There were times he was discouraged, & I told him to pray about it. He did. He said the Lord told him to work as hard as he could, & if he was supposed to go, it would work out. He worked very hard, made it there, & he was successful at his first national debate. He won 3, lost 3. We are thankful for a prayerful, hardworking son.

This trip has hit me between the eyes. Jonathan will be 16 years old in two months. He is becoming more independent with each passing day. I find myself thinking, where did all the time go by? It seems like yesterday he was a little boy sitting on my lap, begging me to read Green Eggs & Ham, or wanting to go on a walk. I miss those days, & it feels like the days until he is a full fledged man are numbered. I am thankful for years I've had to raise him, & for the few more left before he spreads his wings completely & flies out of here.

Emily is busy with her after school choir & worked up the nerve to do a solo part in their upcoming Christmas concert. She practices quite a bit. She is also trying to master the bar routine in gymnastics so she can move up the next level. We are thankful for her quite courage & determination to achieve the goals she sets for herself.

Hannah is preparing for her dance recital in December. She has discovered that dance is not her "thing." She doesn't enjoy it as much as she thought she would. But, she has agreed to stick it out until the recital. We are thankful for this time in her life that she has to explore & find out what she enjoys & what her talents are.

In October, I entered a scrapbooking contest with four other women who are on the same Creative Team as I am at Brownie Scraps. We were given a theme each week & had to submit a layout. The contest proved to be rather complicated, but I enjoyed working with the team & watching their scrapping abilities improve. Mine did also. This month, I am taking a class on learning to design my own kits using Photoshop. I am having a blast. I am thankful for the opportunity to learn new skills.

And the big news of the month is..... Stephen was accepted into BYU-Idaho's online RN to BSN program. I admit, I haven't been a fan of him going back to school. I've had a sour attitude about it. But once the acceptance letter came, I realized that he is really going back & I can either suffer through it with a bad attitude, or embrace it and just be thankful that he has the opportunity for more education that will eventually put our family in a better financial situation. I am thankful for the ability to choose my attitude, & I choose to embrace his decision to go back & to help him in any way I can.

Well, that's the news for the month. We are looking forward to Thanksgiving & Christmas breaks!