Anyone for pizza and a movie?

When Corey was gone, the girls and I had to find a routine.  Corey's a fantastic dad and husband and he's a huge part of our day to day life.  He really is the center of his girls' world and I kind of like him too.

So, knowing that he wasn't going to be around for awhile, I needed to buckle down and figure these things out.  So I did what I'm very best at.  I sat down with a pen and paper, and wrote and nice long list.  I listed things I needed to get done, things I wanted to get done and miscellaneous (which was Bethany's insistence that we "make someping"). 

Listing gives me purpose, it gives me direction and checking things off of my list makes me feel as though I'm getting somewhere.  It was also something to do with the girls that filled a few minutes, because believe you me, there were minutes that desperately needed filling. 

One of the things I put on the list, actually as a last minute addition (I love writing down something I'm going to do soon, because then I can scratch it off quickly) was to have a pizza and movie night with the kids.

When we were little, on Sunday evenings my parents would make nachos and we'd put sleeping bags in our living room and we'd sit and watch The Wonderful World of Disney together as a family.  Those memories for me are some of the sweetest.  It was time together as a family that was simple.  It didn't cost a lot, it wasn't busy or complicated, it was us and it just was.

Since Disney is no longer on, on Sunday evenings (or if it is I'm missing it) and since I can't eat Nachos because you have to make them with corn chips- we decided to compromise.  We'd make our homemade pizza, because it rocks and then we'd set up blankets, put on a movie and hang out and be together. 

It took a little time, and a little bit of pineapple and cheese snitching but we managed to get 'er done.  It was great!  The girls were over joyed at the idea of spending time, eating something like pizza in the living room hanging out with me.

Sometimes it's so easy for me to get busy and not spend a ton of undivided time with the girls.  I love to play and craft with them, but often we're interrupted, or I need to do something at the same time.  This time I purposely hung out, I didn't do dishes, I didn't fold clothes and I didn't check my email.  It surprised me to find that I needed it almost more than they did. 

We had 2 of those, one each weekend and made a decision.  Pizza and movie nights were too cool to keep to ourselves, we needed to make them an official Sunday night event so that Daddy could be included too.

Last weekend Cor joined us for his first pizza and movie night (which was lunch due to a scheduling issue) and the girls were so excited.  It took us at least 10 minutes to get them to settle down to start the show because they were both so anxious to show their Daddy how it all "works". 

With this weekend being Thanksgiving, I started thinking of all the things I'm thankful for.  It's something I've been trying to do on a more regular basis anyways these days.  It's amazing how remembering what you have to be grateful for makes the things you tend to grumble about seem less important. 

Anyways, of all of the things I'm thankful for - my husband, my beautiful daughters, my family, our work, a God who pretty much rocks and the list goes on, these new memories are pretty high on the list.  And I'm really thankful for one night a week that includes cheesy gooey goodness.

So, if you haven't answered the question on 45 other blogs today, what are you thankful for?

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!