Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for:

1.  Koen writing sentences.  He does not like writing or drawing so I don't make him do it. I don't want to turn him off of school as he still has at least another 12 years to go.  He was supposed to write a sentence for a school activity and I heard him sound out the words and write them down. So sweet. `I played baseball'.  You can see that he added the detail of freckles to his entire body.

2.  A job that is flexible and fun.  I used to work about 40-45 weekends a year.  Now that we only do weddings (including engagement sessions), we spend just 16 weekends per year doing photography.  So healthy for our family and sanity! 

3.  Siblings.  These two monkeys have so much fun together.  Koen loves to bug Nya which makes her scream.  This drives me crazy, but overall, a whole lot of love.

4.  Kai's gentleness with Nya.  He never bugs her and always helps her out.  He is sooooo sweet with her.  He's not a very sensitive boy, but when it comes to his sister, he sure is.  I remember I got mad at Nya once and Kai cried because he felt so bad for her.

5.  Winning a gift card from London Drugs.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to share this because I know I win a lot.  This was a big one I won on Tuesday through a Twitter photo contest.  It will cover the kids Christmas and birthday presents for the whole year :)

6.  Almost being done our Foster Parent preparation process.  We had our final safety inspection.  Our home study is in the hands of our social worker's supervisor.  It just needs to be signed and then we sign our contract and we're good to go!  We don't know when we will have a child placed with us.  It sounds like it could be a while as they really want it to be a good match.

7.  Having my story shared on the Good Mother Project.  I had so much amazing feedback from it, thank YOU.  Losing my mom was the hardest thing I've gone through and it has shaped so much of who I am and how I see the world.  The 9th anniversary of her passing is actually today.

{My mom meeting her first and only grandchild; Annika.  She passed away 3 months later.}

8.  YOU.  Seriously.  One year ago I was nominated as one of Vancouver Mom's Top Bloggers for 2014.  I wanted to keep my blog about our family but was interested in where it could lead to.  We've been given so many cool opportunities as a family to check out locations in the Lower Mainland and I'm thankful for that.  I'm still a `little fish' but I love where I'm at.   I love that YOU comment, YOU interact on facebook and/or instagram and YOU read.  Thank YOU.

{Remember I went flying with Redline Aerobatics ?!  That was definitely a highlight from the whole year.}

9. A massage therapist coming to my home! I'm blogging about this tomorrow but seriously, this was wonderful. Relaxing. Awesome. PS It's very hard to get appropriate pictures of this.

10. Healthy changes that we've made.  If you told me last year that I'd be drinking almond milk and eating quinoa chips, I'm not sure what I would have said.  The food is pricier but it's healthier, so in my opinion, it's worth it.

I hope that you've had a good week so far.  Please let me know what you are thankful for today!

Love,

Louise

PS I should add that I am thankful that my mother-in-law now has an email address and has sent me three emails!   This is a big step for her and I'm proud of her for taking the leap!  She'll be reading my blog in no time :)