Happy Monday

Usually Mondays aren't the greatest day of the week. But, truth be told, today was actually a good day. Now, I know I just jinxed myself by saying that and probably guaranteed myself a year's worth of yucky Mondays from here on out, but here are some good things that happened today:
1) The kids went to school. See, in the month of November, the kids only have one full week of school. Thank you Veteran's Day, Teacher Work Days (yeah right, can you say three day weekend so we can travel?), Parent Teacher Conferences and Thanksgiving, my kids are pretty much off for the month of November. So the fact that they actually had school today is a good thing.
2) We didn't miss the bus. Not catching the bus was almost a done deal as we waited to turn left onto the hauptstrasse this morning behind four other cars that refused to turn unless there was no other car anywhere around for miles and miles. We made it to the bus stop with a whole minute to spare!
3) I worked out with Tony before any kids woke up and didn't die. That's always a plus. I will be sore tomorrow, but no death occurred while doing countless push ups and pull ups. I didn't even curse at him for putting me through heck before 6 am on a Monday.
4) Mason went to a new friend's house to play while I went to German class, he had fun, no tears, and all went well. Yea!
5) We went to the local German grocery store on the way home, Wasgau, and loaded up on clementines, chocolate, and pretzels: essential after school snack food. Here's Mason pushing his own little cart in the store:



6) I talked to Sean twice today, and saw him, on Skype. Usually I don't even get to talk to him twice in a WEEK, but today, we got to talk twice. Cool. Oh, and if you're reading this Sean, SHAVE THE 'STACHE!!! (He grew a mustache folks, I know, "When in Rome"...but he has approximately 40 days to find a good razor and put it to good use before I pucker up for his return).
7) The people who were stalking my house as I pulled up to it with Mason after Wasgau aren't interested in kicking me out and moving into my house. YEA!! Everyone pause and do a happy dance for me!! I'll wait.....




Ok, see, I don't really mind moving, IF I FOUND THE PERFECT HOUSE, but guess what? That probably won't happen, and I don't want to be forced into moving especially at this time of year. So, if this nice German couple who speak very little English want to buy this house and keep renting it to this lady who speaks very little German, I think we have a match made in heaven! So far, so good.
8) We had a short and sweet FHE on gratitude. I made a gratitude jar:

We talked about gratitude. I told the kinder that happiness isn't getting what you want, it's wanting what you have. Oh...I know, very profound. We talked about having an attitude of gratitude and then we wrote down things we are thankful for, put them in the jar, and I challenged the kids to keep adding things to the jar over the next 2 1/2 weeks that they are thankful for. We will read them on Thanksgiving. Here's Ella and Colton filling out their thankful leaves:


And here's Mason with two of the things he is most thankful for:
JUICY AND BLANKIE!!!