Happy Thanksgiving!

It has been a while since my last post. I have been busy as well as lazy. Last weekend was really great. Brian and I had dinner with a couple we have recently met. They happen to be the parents of Jaden's new best friend, Jahmen. The youth at their church were hosting a free parent's night out, yes, I said FREE!!! WoooHooo! So, Angie and Eric had invited us to dinner. Also, they wanted to, in their words, honor Brian for his service to our country by paying for dinner. What a blessing! We had a lovely dinner and enjoyed conversation and fireside s'mores at our table. If you have never tried this, you definitely should. After dinner we still had a bit of time so they came back to our house and we talked for a bit more and listened to music. It was a lovely evening and the kids, apparently, behaved well. On Saturday, Brian had to work so we didn't do much, just go to hockey practice. On Sunday, the Lord once again spoke to my heart through the sermon Pastor Scott was preaching at Grace Evangelical Free Church (Grace E Free for short). Of course, the kiddos weren't as well behaved this go round, but they did ok. Sunday night brought chaos and fighting as Alix decided she didn't want to participate in Figure Skating that night. Monday, I was exhausted and beaten up from the chaos and fighting, and still battling the ferrocious headache that hit me Sunday morning so not much got accomplished. On Tuesday I was able to go to work, a place I can feel good about myself because there, I don't feel inept, at least not completely as I do as a parent. Yesterday afternoon, however, the kids and I went to the library. We were there for two hours. It was great that they were behaving well enough to stay that long. I found a book entitled ScreamFree Parenting and so far, it is so relevant to where I am. I am enjoying it. Today I am off because I told work that with the kids being out of school, it would cost me money to work that day, and that is just not good business. So I have been trying to tidy and get ready for the big meal prep, I haven't made an extreme amount of progress as I did have some work to do from home this morning and then there was a battle with Alix that to say it didn't end well would not do justice. But I am not giving up. I did catch myself praying for guidance during the middle of the battle today. That was encouraging. Anyway, just catching you up, perhaps more than you needed to know. Happy Thanksgiving to all. And to my extended family, I will truly miss being with you tomorrow and I love you!