Josh's new hobby . . .

Apparently November wasn’t terribly exciting.  I guess I’ve been in the trenches of life and parenting and haven’t taken pictures.  I do adore the way that Ali cares for her stuffed animals.  Cara has purchased a couple of My Life dolls.  (The 18 inch dolls.) She likes to play with them, but I laugh because she is also scared of them.  She keeps them in the box and in Ali’s room.  She wouldn’t want anything coming to life in her room in the night.

Thanksgiving was nice. I appreciate that we don’t have to travel to spend time with family. The kids enjoyed relaxing.  Josh and I traditionally love shopping on Black Friday, but more and more of that is happening online so we didn’t go out this year.  The love of a deal must run in their blood because I woke up to the kids sorting through the Thanksgiving ads and Cara, the girl who saves all of her money, making a list of things she wanted to buy.  I had a doTERRA booth at Novemberfest for the fourth, and most likely last, time.  Josh worked on his new hobby . . . 

Yes, Josh purchased the 1973 MGB convertible.  For months he has been talking about putting up a vision board.  A place when he can visualize his goals and dreams. Finally he printed one thing for the board – a picture of a 1973 MGB.  I harassed him about only having one thing on the board.  I didn’t even know he had a dream car. He told me that it symbolized so much more than a car.  It was a symbol of freedom of time and money among other things.  Two weeks later this car showed up in the classifies. It was as new as it could be and still have the chrome bumper that Josh wanted.  It only had 41,000 miles.  It hadn’t been driven for three years but seemed to be in mostly operating condition.  The CRAZY thing is that they were only asking $3000.  It was worth at least $10,000 more than that.  I strongly encouraged Josh to get it.  I feel like if your dream car only cost $3000 and you don’t have to go into debt to get it you should get it.  I feel like God was willing to give Josh what he wanted all he had to do was pick it up.  He has loved tinkering with it since we picked it up.  We have rode around the neighborhood in it a few times, but the weather got cold and snowy the day after he picked it up (not to mention that the brakes need to be replaced) so it will likely be spring before we really drive it. 

Caleb had his first band concert.  He was SO EXCITED for it.  He invited all of our local family.  He did a great job and I was totally impressed with the progress the band has made in just a few short months.  Playing percussion this year has been a great blessing for him.  He loves it.  I am hopeful that he will find a great group of kids and a place to “belong” in band.  It was sure home for me when I was in High School. 

We are making baby steps of progress with Caleb.  Josh took a Love and Logic parenting class in November, which has helped him to release emotional attachment to the decisions Caleb makes.  Caleb is also becoming involved in the afterschool robotics club, which is basically lego’s for teens. He also took a programming class two nights a week in November so he was extremely busy.  It seems like the busier he is the better he does as long as he feels accepted and successful in what he is doing.