Black Friday.

We are staying home. We did go out briefly, but not to a store where Black Friday was an issue. (More on that in a minute.) Now we're going to paint a wall. But. Before I forget...here's a list of things I'm presently thankful for...(in no particular order)...

• Getting to go to our "local" IKEA finally (yes, by "local" I mean south Denver, so like more than an hour away, lol)...We spent last Sunday afternoon wandering the entire place. Asher surprised us with his insistence on looking inside EVERY cabinet/drawer/appliance in the kitchen section. We weren't even looking for anything in the kitchen section, folks. But he got perturbed with us for "going too fast" and attempting to curb his obsession and simply had to open every cupboard, drawer, refrigerator, microwave, dishwasher, closet, etc along the way. I asked him if he was looking for something in particular. He claims he was just curious. Beyond the fact that it dramatically slowed our visit down, it was actually pretty entertaining to see his delight.
• Getting to go to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science with Noah and Asher earlier this week. A friend set up a mini homeschool group entrance, so we were able to get in as a tour group and see the special exhibit. Micah was able to stay home with Nathan for the day...which was good. Because the boy is terrified of animatronics and of dinosaurs...so the T-Rex animatronic exhibit was not going to work for him. ;) (Seriously, I don't think he'd have made it past the door.) The other two had a blast and it was a lovely reminder to me of just how fast they're growing up on me...seeing how independent they can be. (Oh, and Asher's obsession with stopping for every kitchen display? Yeah, it carries over apparently to every exhibit in museums, lol.)
• Having a dishwasher that works...Yes, it's temperamental and will probably die soon. But. Yesterday, during Thanksgiving, it worked and was definitely something to be thankful for. ;)
• Having a brother who lives nearby...Yup, not something folks might have guessed I'd ever say if they knew me growing up, lol, but having Zach live here in CO also is good. :) He came up yesterday and hung out with us most of the day...kept boys entertained shooting him with Nerf guns, tossing a football around outside, folding origami dragons and boomerangs for them and letting Micah jump all over him. The boys made him watch Punkin Chunkin with them instead of football and he agreed, even though he really just wanted to go home and watch football. ;) 
• The beautiful necklace that my sweet husband gave me yesterday...because he's thankful for me. ;) 
• Having a fabulous husband who would think to give me a necklace on Thanksgiving. ;)
• Oh, and that store I mentioned that we visited this morning? It was Rocky Mountain Archery. The boys were invited to join the local JOAD team (Junior Olympic Archery Development). They've been darn thrilled with their archery sessions, so I'm fairly confident that this will be something they'll love. So. Today (after a week or two of debating heavily between recurve bows (which they've been shooting in their classes) or compound bows (which the boys think are awesome and dearly want) or some combination thereof), we went and invested in three compound bows. Oy. It would have been great if this hadn't coincided with Christmas. But. It's good. Based on what we've already seen and what we know of our boys, we feel that this experience will serve them well...help with self-discipline...potentially curb some of their competitiveness with each other (as they'll need to learn to feel that they're competing against themselves)...provide a pastime that they can all enjoy together for years to come...stuff like that. :) 
• Having a neighbor (who is also our optomotrist who happens to also have three boys) who happily just loaned us a box of more than 30 Star Wars books for the boys to read...woohoo!
• Knowing that I have the next few days "off" from our "regular" routine, as this'll be our "off" week on the homeschool schedule...looking forward to the extra time, though I already know it'll be filled with holiday decorations and shopping and projects and all. ;) Still. Nice to have the flexibility.

Okay, I need to go help Nathan paint that wall now. Hopefully we'll get that project finished up in the next week or two and I'll post pictures then. ;) Hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving and an enjoyable Black Friday...however you chose to spend it. ;)