Thankful Thursday

Bantam15 has lost 16 pounds! He's been faithfully running every day after school, ever since his surprising success in the 5K several weeks ago. He's actually enjoying it and says it makes his mind more alert. He got up on Columbus Day, when he didn't have school (he's our one publicly-schooled child), ate breakfast and went running with no prompting--what a change! We'd like him to lose another 15 pounds for his blood pressure as well as his waistline. His reward for the first 15 was an Airsoft Luger he's had his eye on. His next goal? An Airsoft holster to keep it in.

My father-in-law has received several pieces of good news! We learned that pituitary tumors are almost always benign, and his is a type that is able to be dissolved with medication. In fact, it was already beginning to disintegrate last time they checked it. The lesions on his bones appear not to be cancerous, but are consistent with arthritis and old injuries. So the only thing left is the tumor on his kidney, which does appear cancerous, but encapsulated--a good sign. The next step is to get it out. His surgery will be scheduled for later this month, as soon as his doctors can work out a date. Thanks so much for your prayers thus far--we are so encouraged that what looked like a bleak picture with multiple tumors has turned out to be not nearly so bad as we feared.

I am so thankful that all went well last week with the makeup for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe! As Makeup Chairperson, I was so worried that we didn't have enough help to do all those detailed Animal faces and still get the rest of the 89-member cast ready by the time they were due onstage. I feared despair, disorganization and desperate slapping on of makeup in last-ditch attempts to finish characters before their entrances. But praise God, my team learned how to do their Animals in no time--excellently--and pick up the slack elsewhere, and we've had no problem getting everybody ready. And one of the teens even referred to me as "organized"!

I am especially thankful for the gifted artist on the Makeup Committee, the dad of one of the boys, who designed most of the Animal faces as well as the Evil Narnian look. He made step-by-step drawings for the rest of us to follow, and he taught each one doing an Animal how to do the final brushwork which makes it look so good, like actual fur and feathers. I haven't done an Animal yet, as I opted to assign them all to others and leave myself free to float and check on the makeup of the rest of the cast. I've ended up doing Edmund, Lucy, Evil Narnians, Tumnus and the other two Fauns.

We have three more performances this weekend, and I am thankful that Bantam11, who's getting over a sore throat and malaise, was sick in between shows.

Finally, I am thankful for the opportunity to go hear our President this afternoon, as he comes to Chicago for a fundraiser for our friend Peter Roskam--and for the dear friends who invited us to go as their guests!

What are you thankful for today?

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