Day 67: Thanksgiving Thoughts

My blog is usually focused on my misadventures as an English teacher, but I'd like to take a post to reflect on other positive areas of my life on this beautiful Thanksgiving day.

I can't remember if I've announced this yet, but Hubster has been accepted to the Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and next summer we will be leaving the south to move home where both sets of grandparents live.  He plans to transition into the army reserve as a chaplain candidate and possibly return to active duty after he gets ordained. While I am sad to leave my wonderful job and loving church home, it will be great for our little family to be closer to family.  Therefore, this Thanksgiving will probably be our last one with just us, since we'll be close enough to family next year to drive and spend the holiday with them.

My husband not only makes the most amazing meals ever, he makes it look easy.  He made a turkey, homemade mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, oyster stew, and pumpkin pie, and decorated the tree with me, and enjoyed the Thanksgiving Day parade with coffee and cinnamon rolls, and never got out of his jammies.

When we went up to the altar for communion at the Thanksgiving Eve service last night, there was a cricket sitting on the cushion.  I managed to scoop him off before kneeling, but I wondered, in a slightly superstitious manner, if he was someone's sign for something. What could a cricket at the communion rail mean?  Our church uses individual wine cups for communion most Sundays, and only uses the common cup on the "special" services (Pentecost, Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving...). I was so focused on the cricket that I forgot and took the individual cup out of habit, and was bummed when I realized my mistake...but it's not like I could take the blood of Christ TWICE...besides, it would look tacky to shoot my wine and then go for the chalice.  Those old school Lutherans out there will understand.

Two years ago, my grandpa, who is a prodigious collector of trains, gifted us a cute little train for our tree.  It worked great our first year, but last year it didn't run.  Our scientist friend jerry-rigged a circuit tester with a Christmas light and a paper clip to discover the issue was with the hub, but we never got around to fixing it last year.  Today, Hubster fixed our Christmas train; one of the teeny-tiny wires in the hub had disconnected.

Annabelle wasn't so sure though:

I am thankful for all those who responded to last week's post about my problem student; he does have a diagnosis of Oppositional Defiance Disorder, and I am working closely with his counselor and the behavioral specialist to do the right thing.  I sent my problem student to ISS (In School Suspension) on Monday to do the reading as a consequence for his interrupting class on Friday.  I tried to explain to him why he was going, and he sweetly said it wouldn't happen again ma'am, but when he realized I was serious about kicking him out he huffed off before we could finish the conversation.  He was in school on Tuesday but left before my class - unsure if there was any correlation between Monday's events and his absence. Wednesday was an early release day, and like a third of the rest of my students, he did not come to school that day.  The counselors promised me some schedule changes for the stronger personalities in that period at the end of the semester, so if we can hold on until then - just three more weeks, including finals - we'll be okay.

My child will be five months old next Friday, and weighs a whopping 18 pounds.  He wears 6, 9, and some 12- month size clothing.  I've started making regular trips to the Goodwill, since most infant outfits cost $2 and were worn a grand total of twice, like most infant outfits.  He loves watching football (good boy!) and chews on anything he can get near his mouth - fingers, nose, blankets. After several weeks of sleeping through the night, the last week he's done that once...and the other nights he's woken up at least twice.  I'm exhausted, but he's so stinking cute that it's hard to be mad at him.  Some gratuitous Spartacus pictures for your Thanksgiving:

We've managed to inherit a first Halloween, first Thanksgiving, and a first Christmas outfit.

The daycare took school pictures of the kiddos.  This was the one we felt he looked the least fat in...

We were taking selfies this morning.  I showed this one to Hubster and asked if Spartacus looks like me...he said, "He has your eye shape...and your boobs...don't put that on your blog, your parents read that!"

Annabelle selfie!  Action shot.

Happy Thanksgiving, friends! May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace!