Thankful Thursday

The heat wave is over in the Lower Mainland – yeehaw! I'm fine with sun on holidays when there's a pool or lake but when you're sweating it out in your home with a million kids it's not as enjoyable. Every single one of these photos is from my phone and I'm just going to be cool with that. I sort of can't believe that July is over which sort of scares me because I'm going to work in three weeks but at the same time I'm thankful for the trips we've taken and all that we've gotten done over the past month. 

Here are a few things I am thankful for this week:

1. Blackberry season!  I love having fresh fruit crumble for dessert free berries makes it even better. I grew up having apple crisp several times a week so there's great memories associated with it. Did you have a special dessert growing up?

2. Getting recipe books from the library. We're trying to find a few new recipes to add to our rotation. These baked beans have blackstrap molasses which is high in iron and we enjoyed it.

3. Nya Bear is riding her bike! She has been so hesitant to do so because she is scared of falling and bleeding (it did happen last year with her training wheels). With a lot of positive self talk (I can do this!) and my encouragement and the promise of ice cream for trying her best, she did it. We're practicing every day so that she feels more and more confident. She loves words of affirmation. After she finishes each ride she asks "Are you proud of me? What do you give me out of ten?" Ha.

4. Our ensuite being done. For now. Gary repainted it from grey to a falling snow white, put in new lights and a new mirror cabinet. We were going to change the vanity but due to the plumbing it would've been a lot of work and so we are going to leave it as is. This is also likely best for our marriage as I tend to notice every single thing that isn't perfect.

5. Books. Okay, this was recommended to me by a friend and if you are an influencer in any way social media wise, you may want to read it. I'm only 1/5 through it and it's making me think a lot about how silly it (social media) can be and how our minds work.

6. A good summer for Koen. Of our kids, Koen enjoys school the least. We're really not doing anything academic over the summer other than making the kids read each day. He only reads three different series (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Dog Man and Captain Underpants–did you know the author Dav Pilkey has ADHD and dyslexia?) and so I'm hoping he will fall in love with something else to add to the repertoire. I love this kid as I can never predict what will come out of his mouth as he thinks about things so differently. He often has us laughing or...not.

7. If you have not yet used the SkyView Lite app, you might want to. So cool seeing Mars last night (and the other planets).

8. Swimming Lessons. My kids are at the age where they get changed by themselves and follow instructions in the pool. It was actually enjoyable!!!! Yeehaw. Life is good. This is the same pool where I did all of my swimming lessons so it holds great memories for me.

9. A "new" bag for Gary's drone. I found it at Talize for $4.99 and it was in brand new condition! It's regular $45.99 so great savings. He can also use it for his DSRL when hiking as I don't like to share my bag because his stuff smells like campfire from his backpacking trips.

10. Pants for the boys for $3.50. They were 50% off at Talize this week. I've tried buying new and used and it doesn't make a difference...Koen gets holes in them all. My boys don't wear jeans which would be more durable so we'll keep them in shorts as long as possible and then switch over to pants.

What is something that YOU are thankful for today?

Love,
Louise