Thankful Thursday - 165

This week I am thankful for...

1. Creating memories. Dom got a giant candy cane for Christmas this year. When I was his age, I also got a giant candy cane so clearly there was a photo-op coming! Dom would not really cooperate for the photo, and then he broke the candy cane, but that's okay. The effort was there! Photo of me at age 2 and Dom at age 2!

Still happy after breaking the candy cane.

2. Reading. I like to read, but I hardly ever do it; I don't have time to myself to read! This week finally, Emilia went to bed at 6pm and David had been working all day, so I went upstairs for a couple hours and let him do Dom's bedtime and go back down to the office. I read that whole time, and then when we went to bed I read for another couple hours. I (basically) started and finished a book in one day. I had read about 50 pages a previous day when we had a power outage. 
Rain by Tim Antonides. He was one of the grade 6 teachers when I was in grade 6, although he did not teach me. The book was very well written. I couldn't put it down. I like books that have an element of realism to them. The book is about a couple's struggle with infertility, which I know he and his wife did before having their twin boys. I wouldn't describe it as a feel-good book. More as a... raw emotion, feel-all-the-things book. Nevertheless, I'd recommend, especially if you or someone you know has struggled with infertility. 

3. Home Line of Credit. We applied back in November, and it's just finally gone through. We took out a line of credit against our house and were approved for MUCH more than we thought we were applying for. We just wanted to use it to pay off our car loans and then have a lower interest rate (4.25% vs. 8% for now) and pay it back as we can. I'm grateful we're responsible and good with money so the LOC won't be a temptation for us. It will be nice to have that buffer though, especially if/when I don't go back to work. I'm starting to bank my maternity leave payments starting this month as well to see if it's even possible for us to survive. 

4. "Busy Toddler" on Instagram. If you have a toddler and do not follow this lady, drop everything and follow her. She is FULL of great ideas for kids. I have some saved and every so often I get inspired and actually do one. This Tuesday we did some car painting. Dom just showed interest in painting and art the last time we went to Storytime, so I thought it might be a good time to try. He was super excited about it which was a nice surprise. He painted quietly by himself for a solid 30 minutes, and then I moved the cars he was painting over to a soapy sink and he spent another 20 minutes washing them. That's reason enough to follow this account!

Started out easy with an old makeup brush because I couldn't find the paint brushes.

Moved up to a little sponge painting. That's the face he made when I asked him to smile. Clearly he was too focused.

And then on to the car; roll it through the paint and then roll it on the paper.

Wanted me to draw a jeep for him to colour. He actually stayed in the lines pretty well considering.

Clean up time!

5. Getting Braver. With David being home throughout the day, I've had the luxury of doing outings with just one of the kids while the other one naps. Now that work is picking up a bit and the kids are both awake longer, I have to start branching out and tackling the stress of two on my own. I went to the grocery store the other day, outnumbered, and it was actually a great first experience. 

6. The Winter 2019 List holding me accountable. At the beginning of the season I made a Winter 2019 list of things to do with the family (or with Dom in particular) so that I'd do more than just the usual around the house stuff. We tackled a couple in one day recently with the car painting mentioned above, and a trip to the library!