Day 254: 5 Gratitudes for Friday, 32

1. Without trying to jinx myself or my daughter, we have, thankfully, gone the entire week without K calling home. I knew she would be fine, but apart of me wondered if she would be homesick while at girl's camp (although honestly, how can you be homesick when every hour is so fun filled?). Steve was very worried that she wouldn't make friends or girls would be mean to her (along with being worried about her safety). Of course, we won't know for sure how her week went, but....no phone calls. I am going with the no news is good news. And I am thankful for that!

2. Having a great week with my other two children. We have strived to do something fun each day, but not having any kind of fun that K would be jealous that she missed (the children suggested this). We have watched "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" at the library, a slumber party with junk food & movies in our family room, a friend over to play, and our normal Friday library trip followed by movie and pizza. We also balanced all the fun with one-on-one learning with mom (something that they don't always get). And I even played the baby game with S (not my favorite game because she pretends to be a highly mobile baby & I am the clueless  mother that can't find her nor control her) - she was so happy.

3. This is a odd thing to be grateful for, but I am thankful I had bed bugs & am willing to talk about it with everyone. A friend discovered yesterday that she has bed bugs - I have been able to provide a good shoulder to cry on and good information on how to deal with her problem. I didn't like going through it at the time, but I am appreciate Heavenly Father uses my experiences & my big mouth to help others.

4. The children and came up with the "game plan" strategy of cleaning the house. We tried it yesterday & today - it worked really well. They want to clean like this from now on. I am just excited we cleaned & I didn't hear once, "can we be done now?". First, we listed on the white board the goal for cleaning that day. ex: downstairs. We then prioritized each room & listed each job that needed to happen in that room. ex: 1 - Family Room: dust, pick up, vacuum. The children chose which jobs they wanted, I took the left over jobs. ex. dust - S, pick up - M, vacuum - Z. Once we had our list & assigned jobs, I set the timer. Yesterday we set it for 1 hour. Today was 2 hours, but the length of time varies based on how long it has been since we have cleaned & how much is "priority". Anyway, we start at the top, mark off as we go and then move on. We work until the timer dings. Both days we beat the timer, which Z loved. I liked it because we were all working together and, like I said, no one complained.

5. A wonderful friend has offered to drive with me tomorrow to girl's camp to pick up my share of girls to drive home. It is about a 2 hour drive & I didn't really want to go by myself - so  much more fun to have a friend to chat with. We are also leaving early enough to see the award presentation - which I am looking forward to seeing....along with seeing my "so not a baby" girl!