What should I talk about first – our basketball tournament or our new toilet? Both are so very exciting. We’ll go with basketball since that involves my boys and as much as I love my new toilet, I do love my boys more.

I always enjoy our big end-of-year homeschool basketball tournament in Kansas. This year there were 7 states represented and 74 teams. It is so great to be a part of this! This year was just a little bit more special as it is Asa’s final year to play. I might have been teary-eyed all weekend. Shoot. I’ll probably be teary-eyed from now until we drop him off at the dorm in August. It’s a mom thing. I’m just trying to avoid doing the ugly cry in public. This was not easy when he came off the court for the last time on Saturday.

No doubt, Asa was feeling it too. He has loved being on this team. What a gift from God this has been – in so many ways. A friend of mine captured this after our last game:

 

 This man I used to read Curious George to is an entire head taller than me.

Since we got home, Matt has been finishing our (grueling) tax paper work, working on the FAFSA (gag me), and continuing work on our bathroom. Ladies, I have a new toilet.  It flushes. It is white. It makes me smile. (I also have a sink, but I do not have a faucet. No matter. That makes me smile too.)

 

Knowing that the toilet will never again be this clean, I might have lingered a bit, just staring at the clean. Stay clean, toilet. Stay clean. (If you look real close, you might notice that there is a ladder inside the shower. This came as a surprise to me when I tried to slide open the shower door and the door fell over. Shucks, I forgot that it’s not attached. Matt’s been pulling it back and forth as he works on tile and as he needs to get it out of the hallway. Do I really need to explain this? Just whatever. My toilet flushes!!

One more item of note. Our family pretty much never goes to the movie theater. Cha-ching, right? BUT, all six of us went to the theater tonight to watch McFarland USA. We were happy to pay the fee. Why? Because this movie was made about a man who is a friend of Matt’s family. In fact, for one week during the summer of 1990 Matt was privileged to train with coach Jim White’s cross country team. Seriously. We highly recommend this movie and love that Disney made a movie about a Christian man like this. (Christianity wasn’t brought into the movie, but the goodness of this man was.)

So basketball, toilets, and a movie. We’re celebrating it all this week! How about you? What are you thankful for this Gratituesday?