Spring Break

I am so thankful for this break I have had to be able to refresh and renew some over the past few days.  I've done a bunch of not-so-exciting stuff, but I have loved every minute of it.  Other than the excitement of getting our taxes done I have pretty much just caught up on housework here that has been sorely neglected.  I have also cooked dinner for our family every night, and it feels good to do so.  Don't get me wrong, the meals that were brought to us over the past 2 months were a God-send, for sure and if someone randomly called and said, "Don't worry about dinner tonight, it's on us," I wouldn't turn them away.  But, with that being said, I can't remember the last time I was able to be caught up enough to plan for and cook meals for my family all week long.  I do enjoy it.  I must also say that daylight savings time weekend should always fall the at the beginning of spring break.  It has made the mornings lovely for me.  While I am lucky in the fact that my little guy does usually make it to 7am before waking up each morning, this week he has slept until 8 and it has been wonderful.  It has also allowed us to ease into waking up earlier for school.  Yay for the little things.

Coop and I had a playdate
today with sweet friends.  This
was how he relaxed from all
the hard playing they were doing.

We had a family meeting last night, sitting outside enjoying the wonderful weather.  We were able to discuss things like what we would like to do for our family vacation we would like to take this spring.  We are thinking about doing a stay-cation somewhere around here and would love to hear your thoughts about things we should do and whether we should choose the Great Wolf Lodge or Gaylord Texan when thinking about hotels.  We also got a chance to chat with Shelton about setting up a schedule for him to follow daily beginning next week.  We know that right now he is pretty limited in things he can do, just because being home is so new.  We are also fully aware, however, that bad habits form quicker than we can ever imagine sometimes.  We want to make sure that sleeping too much during the day or spending huge portions of the day zoned out watching tv don't become commonplace for him.  We have given him some realistic goals to shoot for everyday and have said that unless he is physically sick and unable to do those things, that it is a something that we are expecting to see from him.  While no teenager wants to hear that they have new set of enforced expectations, he handled it well and agreed that he knows it is important to do.  Pray for him as he tries to get into a normal routine and keep himself busy during the days so that he doesn't fall into bad habits that can come with idle hands.  His OT and PT were both here today and are both incredibly proud of his progress.  He has already met all of the goals the OT had for him and only needs one more OT session before he will have "graduated" from their services.  He has a few more things the PT needs to work on/monitor but is nearing the end of those goals as well.  He really can do amazing things.  We are learning some things the hard way, and he has had a couple of minor falls.  That is to be expected though, and we are working through it.  Honestly, the bathroom facilities and ways he is able to take care of himself now that he is home have been the biggest hurdle to overcome but we feel that might finally be on our way down that mountain and think that we have stuff figured out.  My dad and a wonderful friend of his widened the bathroom door upstairs over the past few days and it has made all of the difference.  We are thankful that we are beginning to settle into routines that we can all live with.  Routines are good for everyone, especially the Thackers.

As always, thanks for your prayers.  They are precious, as are all of you!

{The righteous will rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him; all the upright in heart will glory in him!}  Psalm 64:10