Thankful Thursday

Well. Middle of September already. Weird. We had a taste of fall last weekend but mostly it's been a continuation of summer here, weather-wise. Since last week, here are some things I'm thankful for...

1. This little guy. Asher and I found this praying mantis on our front door last Friday. I just think he's cool. :)

2. New tree. Remember awhile back when I told you about the new tree I ordered? Saturday was pick up day and the weather was perfect for it! Nathan and I picked up our nice little skyline honeylocust and managed to get it planted in the front yard... 

We've been taking good care of it and think it's a lovely addition to our front yard. Hoping it grows sturdy and strong (and quickly). We're pretty sure our other trees will need to be removed in the coming years (based on similar trees in our neighborhood planted at the same time) so are trying to be proactive. Thankful for this program for providing an affordable incentive to take action.

3. Campus Repair. Sadly, our Nissan Pathfinder's radiator neck broke on Tuesday, spewing coolant everywhere. Thankfully, Nathan was driving it at the time, not in traffic, and was able to get off the road safely. We had it towed to Campus Repair. We've worked with them before and so appreciate their excellent communication. Got Reg (that's the Pathfinder's name) back today, having replaced the radiator, thermostat and drive belt. Bleh. Thankful for the service and communication...and that we're in a position to just get things fixed and shuffle vehicles in the meantime.

4. Movie night. Now that we're settling into more of a routine here with all five of us home again, we're instituting a family movie night each week. Our first one was earlier this week and seems like it was a success. To avoid the inevitable staring at each other pondering what to watch, we actually made a list...starting from an IMBD best 250 list. Everyone got some input so there are definitely compromises but it's mostly agreed upon. Right now, we have about 40 movies on our list. We have our list broken down somewhat by type of movie (drama, comedy, etc), length of movie, and availability on our streaming services. You're probably laughing but this made choosing SOOOO much easier. (Only four were currently streaming for free and three of those were about 3 hour movies, which left just one that met our criteria/wants for that particular evening.) We ended up watching The Breakfast Club. Obviously not the world's best movie, but it was useful for cultural references and we appreciated the time/experience together.

That's my list for now. Noah and Asher seem to be enjoying their new jobs. Micah's enjoying at least some of his classes this semester and is busy with college application stuff. (One of the classes is pretty dry/boring but at least he has some friends in the class, lol.) We've been plugging away at homeowner type stuff (Nathan's partially through sorting out the garage and is oh-so-excited about it, lol) and will be tackling some campus visits this weekend and next month with Micah. Yup, life is good. So thankful.