Almost Thanksgiving!

Another week come and gone. Another week closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas! This past week Hubby was in DC teaching, so it’s been just us girls at the house.

I am still not overly happy with the Zebra room at Courtney’s daycare. It still feels very chaotic in there most of the time to me. But, Courtney likes it. And her potty training is advancing really fast, so hey, maybe it will be okay.

Thursday night I took her to try a class at My Gym. If you aren’t familiar with My Gym, it’s a “gymnasium” for kids 6 weeks to 13 years old. They hold classes for different age ranges, and they have all kinds of play equipment for kids. They are nationwide and apparently worldwide too! (http://www.my-gym.com/)

So, we headed to our 6pm class. The teacher, Mr. Joe, was telling me at the beginning that most kids don’t participate in circle time the first time so not to feel discouraged if she doesn’t. But Courtney jumped right into the first circle time! And she did everything the teachers did! She loved it! They start the hour by doing free play, then a circle time with some songs and movements. Then more free play, then an activity, which they had little square boards on wheels that the kids laid on and we pulled them around using a hula hoop. Then more free play, then they pulled out swings they hung from the ceiling, then free play then more circle time, etc. They also do about 5 minutes of social time where the kids play and the adults leave the floor and let the kids do things on their own. She did really well during that too.

I was shocked when right in the middle she came up to me and said “I need to go potty”. So, I took her to the potty and sure enough, she pottied!! Later that night, her diaper was dry when I changed it, so she is obviously figuring this whole potty thing out!

The class gets over at 7pm, which is her normal bedtime. After the class I had to stay to fill out paperwork to get her enrolled, so she was starting to fall apart while I was doing that. Thankfully the gym is not far from our house and it’s only about a 5 minute drive. So, as soon as we got home I put her to bed and she was out in a matter of moments! Next time we should be able to leave right after class, so that should help with the bedtime stuff. It’s close, but as long as we don’t stay much past 7pm, she should be able to hold it together.

She did so well! She participated in everything! And she had a blast jumping on their trampoline, jumping in the ball pit, and riding on their little train. She can’t wait to go back! She kept saying “we went to Gym’s house”.

After I put her to bed, I spent the evening doing my accounting homework. Do I know how to have fun or what?! I only have 3 more class sessions left and I am done with Accounting 1!!! It sure would be a lot more exciting if it was Accounting 2 that was almost over so I didn’t have to ever do accounting again, but it’s not. So, next summer I am going to have to suffer through Accounting 2. BLECK. But it feels great to have all my accounting homework done for Tuesday! Now I don’t have to worry about it!

So, this time of year, in this economy is really tough for me personally. What I mean by that is that I know that there are so many families that are struggling just to make ends meet, let alone have a large meal or purchase presents for their kids. There have been food drives left and right, and I have always been trying to donate to them.

Courtney’s school just held a drive; I donated about a bag of dry and canned goods to that. At work, a few months ago over the summer, I initiated 3 collection boxes at the office. 1 is for our Office Assistant’s husband in Iraq, 1 is for the Humane Society, and 1 is for the local food bank called Care N Share. All of us who work in the office pick stuff up, just an extra item or two when we are at the store to throw into one of the boxes. Then Kim sends the stuff to her husband, or we take the other boxes to their donation locations.

Last year we adopted a family at work. We have done the same again this year. We have adopted a family of 5 that needs help. They asked for things like sheets, pot and pans, jackets, shoes and coats. We will go shopping for them and then wrap all the gifts.

Also we have an annual friend’s dinner at Christmas time. We have instituted that everyone that attends brings a pair of kids PJ’s and a book and we donate that to the Pajama Program (http://www.pajamaprogram.org/). Just a few small things we try to do to help those in need. But to me, it sure doesn’t feel like much. I sure wish there was much more I could do, especially in these economic times.

Well, Hubby is finally home this afternoon, so I guess we will all go and spend some quality time together as a family. Hope everyone is well!