Twins Turn Seven

A couple of happy faces on their 7th birthday!  They ordered cereal for their birthday lunch, we almost never have cereal here, but were later convinced by the crowd to go with cereal for breakfast and pizza for lunch :)

Tamira loves her doll, her first big dolly, and Tony more than loves his scooter.  He has been on it, with a break here and there to share it (!!) since he opened it.  The first night he fell asleep on the hallway floor, with the scooter tucked under his arm :)

Poor Bowser

Our poor old Bowser.  The neighbor's dog attacked him :(  You cannot tell from this picture just how really bad he got it.  That was Tuesday night and today he got the four drains taken out.  Next week he will get the hundreds of stitches removed.  After the first attack (on Snookie, who was almost killed) the neighbors said they would absolutely keep that dog on a leash or chain.  After the second attack, where the dog was dragging Tony (the dog, not the kid) off the road and trying to rip him up, we were assured that dog would be leaving and until then would NEVER be off his chain.  This time, right in our own driveway, the neighbors tried to tell us they thought their ridiculous dog was just trying to protect their other dog... WHAT??! IN OUR DRIVEWAY??  grrrrrrrr... I was so angry.  All three times OUR KIDS! were trying to beat that dog off of one of our dogs.  I told them "THIS COULD HAVE BEEN A KID!! WE CAN'T HAVE THIS!"  Supposedly the dog is gone now, whenever we go by their place we look.  John reported the incident to the sheriff's dept (just like the other two times) and we are now in agreement if that dog shows his beady little eyes on this property again he will be saying goodbye to life in this world.

It is as I have feared...

If you lose weight after the age of 50, you will be trading for wrinkles... in abundance... just sayin'
sigh...

These two girls have so much fun together.  They are sisters and good friends :)  I really enjoy having them home for school.  There was a time when I did not think I would/could ever send a kid to regular school.  Oh there were times over the years where I was tempted to throw in the towel, especially when Jaime's behavior started making it nearly impossible to get much done here education wise.  But I plugged along, enjoying the up times and muddling through the tougher ones.
Then, after the first year of homeschooling with our adopted children, I had to face the fact that the people who could learn at home were not going to learn a thing if I continually needed to manage severe behavior problems.  That is when the Old Guy and I made a decision that was very hard for me... Some of the kids would actually be better served in a traditional educational setting.  We have rarely regretted that decision (really only around halloween, Christmas and Easter when the holiday focus is on things other than the Lord...)  The kids who go to "real school" are better served there.  There is no question they learn more in that environment than they ever did at home.  I am amazed at the progress they have all made and I am so thankful for the teachers who work with them and us and make it all happen.
I am the main educator here at home, but back in the day the Old Guy would teach math, specifically Algebra.  The Old Guy is seriously math minded.  He just gets it.  Without any effort.  It is obvious to him how it works...  This does not necessarily make for a great teacher.  His frustration level was quite high when someone did not understand after he has explained it a couple of times.  He would start talking LOUDER and S L O W E R.  We have given him a bad time about this on more than one occasion.

Well it is time I fess up.  I am every bit as poor a teacher when it comes special needs education.  Last night as I was "helping" one of the "real school" kids with homework, I realized how many times I end up talking  LOUDER  and  S L O W E R and LOUDER and  S  L  O  W  E  R.  I thought I would go berserk explaining an obvious concept over and over again.  Just to make sure my kiddo's teacher and her aide would know how aware I am of my limits, I thought I would add what I learned from this word exercise:

Peter's New Apartment

So Pete has a new apartment!  He moved in yesterday and on one of the trips Jackie went along to hold the doors.  I told her to bring her new camera (a gift from my dear friend) and take some pictures.  These are what came back to me :)

Once a Month Cooking at the End of a Crazy Week

On Thursday I took a cold, cold, cold trip to the big town to get ingredients for once a month cooking (except I am only doing 10 days to see if it is something that I want to spend time at and if it is really that much more convenient in the long run).  While I was there, I decided to get my haircut at this cheap-o place in the mall.  I have had my haircut there before and it was always fine, so imagine my surprise when I was on the receiving end of a haircut from HELLo kitty :(  I tell you I have NEVER in my life had such a HORRIBLE haircut.  I did not make a fuss, or cry over it as I sat in the car looking at my hair (what was left of it).  I drove around to the other side of the mall (geez I hate the mall) to the expensive haircut place and dismally inquired if they thought they could help me.  The nice girl said, "Oooh! Was this a home cut or salon?"  I said salon and she said again, "Ooooh... oh my. well..." The right side of my head was nearly shaved.  The left side somewhat longer, the top longer but terribly uneven and the back looked like I was going for some kind of mohawk (or as Tony says, "mohog" which might actually be more appropriate).  Obviously she had to match everything up with the shaved side of my head, and now I have very little hair.  I have so little hair that my hair does not curl anymore... sigh.  So I bought a hat with a kmart gift certificate I had, along with a tube of mascara so as to allay any suspicions regarding my being female (though Kat reminded me later that in this day and age that would not be an automatic guarantee of gender ) sigh... Oh well, it will grow and from here on I feel the expensive place will have to be the way to go, with the same stylist every time.  In the meanwhile, I guess I will just stay home and hide... it is too stinkin' cold out at any rate.

Well here are the beginnings of my attempt at once for 10 days cooking. Meatballs.  Last night I made meatballs and sauce for spaghetti and froze it. I stewed two chickens for black bean and chicken burritos and chicken noodle soup. I baked several chicken breasts for Teriyaki stir fry.  Today I will put together four large homemade pizzas, some marinated chicken, some spicy sausage penne, chili, chicken cacciatore, and something else which I forget at the moment.  And yes, that is a glass of wine next to my chopping area.  Might as well make a pleasant time of it ;)

Something Accomplished... Finally

I did not take a before picture.  It would have been too mortifying for me to show the world my clothing disaster zone.  Suffice to say it was a minimalist project I did not think I could tackle and I felt guilty downsizing my kids clothes.... seems mean somehow.  But in the end my desire for organization and a more manageable amount of clothes won out.  I know for us that if a person has 16 shirts, that is how many shirts will be dirty at one time before the laundry situation reaches the "URGENT MUST WASH CLOTHES TODAY" stage. If you take that same 16 shirts and multiply them times 12 people (we actually have16 people here right now but 4 of them pretty much do their own laundry) and add in the underwear, pants, socks, towels, bedding... well you know what my laundry area looked like.  Once every couple weeks I would spend a marathon two days in the dungeon catching it all up (I know, shameful.)

These two shelving units were previously filled top to bottom and side to side with cardboard boxes containing summer clothes for 10 kids. Every spring, as a changing of the seasons ritual, we would sit down in the dungeon, take down box after box and sort out and try on clothes to be divided between all the kids.  In front of these shelving units I had other shelves (bookcases really) where 10 kids had their clothes.  My younger kids are especially challenged in the area of keeping their clothes neat.  After several attempts at dressers, I abandoned them altogether and the shelves in the dungeon (with a lock on the dungeon door) became my solution to that particular disaster. 

I was ruthless as I downsized, keeping only what was really useful, and in very good condition.  Notice that the shelves in the front are no longer there.  And summer clothes, beach towel, swimsuit, sandals, baseball cleats, for 10 children are in those plastic bins on the right, each with the name of its kiddo on it.  :)  No more giant clothes sort in the Spring.  And I can see at a glance who may need a shirt or two or perhaps who DOESN'T need a shirt or two. 

On the other wood unit are winter clothes for 8 kids (I let two older, hopefully neater-by-now kids take their clothes to their room).  Each bin is labelled with the child's name.  Every piece of clothing (except outwear) they need is in this bin.  Each kiddo has several pairs of pants, several shirts, sweaters, socks and underwear.  If something new comes along, and their bin is full to the brim, said child can pick something to pass on or say goodbye to.

At the end of the winter season I will have 10 more bins.  Into each will go each child's coat, snowpants, boots, mittens, hat, scarf, ice skates and ski boots for the NEXT winter.  No more searching through boxes and boxes of winter stuff to see if there is something for each child. --Perhaps most of you are already this organized.  If so, God bless you and please keep it to yourself ;)

I ruthlessly went through the blankets and sheets and used one of the old shelves for matched sheets and an old TV cabinet thingy for blankets and mattress pads. The purple sheet you see in the background is covering a rod filled with hanging type clothes, girls dresses, boys dress shirts, etc.

And now my laundry area looks like this: 

 

And that is truly all the laundry I have had at the end of the day for this whole week.  Now to see if this plan has staying power...

Minimalizing Part 369

After I did Tamira's hair, she wanted to do mine.  All the kids know I am a sucker for a head massage and will say to me things like: "Mom, can I give you a hair scrub for a cookie?"  But Tamira just likes to do my hair because she says I "look adorable" in these ponies :)

No time to blog this week... My kids gave me SEVEN DAYS WITHOUT KIDS for a Christmas present!  And while it is tempting to sleep in every day, have a champagne breakfast in bed, stay in my pajamas and read my kindle while munching bad-for-me salty snacks all.day.long, I requested this gift to give me time to minimalize the basement, especially the out of control clothing situation (YIKES!)  I have eliminated TONS of stuff and can't wait to blog about the results... but for now I have to get back to it.  I only have two and a half days left and I was hoping to get something done besides the basement.  We shall see...

Tom College!



And we now have a college man in the house!  Today was Tom's first day at Ely Community College.  He is finishing his senior year of high school in the PSEO (post secondary educational options) program.  He will graduate from high school this spring with half a year's college credits under his belt :)  I am very proud of Thomas.  He has been a good student here at home, a great athlete at the "real school" playing baseball every year and football last fall.  He has been a great example in Sunday School, the oldest one there with Reuben being the only one near his age, and he does not complain or balk about going.  And most importantly he knows where his Salvation lies and, as everyone around here has heard me said a thousand times, there is NOTHING more important! 
So HOORAY FOR YOU, TOM!  You are taking those first steps out on your own in becoming the man God wants you to be :)  I am praying for you, as always! 
NEVER FORGET where your Salvation lies!

35th Anniversary Cruise

Ballyhoo

Me looking like a lure and ballyhoo.

Some kind of parrot fish, trying to get away from the Old Guy :)

Can't find my fish book, but whatever this is, it was off St. Kitt's.

Spiny Urchins also off St. Kitts.

More fish I cannot ID right now because I do not know where I put my fish book!

The Old Guy and I took a Southern Caribbean Cruise for our 35th anniversary.  This was back the last of Oct, first of Nov 2011.  I did not sit down and blog it at the time, and it was a wonderful adventure so I need to record it!  We visited 6 islands and snorkeled off 5 of them.  We surely should have bought more underwater disposable cameras.  It was a fabulous, fun trip that I dearly hope we can repeat!  I do not believe we have been alone for this amount of time (9 days!) since Kelly was born (34 years ago!)  And Oh. My. Gosh.  We really enjoyed the snorkeling!  We saw rays near St Thomas (Christmas beach I think?)  Ballyhoo (so cool!) near St John; we found beautiful paper thin sand dollars off St. Kitts, did a mud bath thing and braved HIGH seas (7-8ft swells) off St Maarten, saw a volcano area (much like Yellowstone) and some beautiful deep blue/black fish with yellow spots (still no fish book and did not take pictures at our first snorkel spot, so...) on St. Lucia.  We could NOT find a good place for saucy red beans and rice on Puerto Rico (anyone we asked said, "My mamma's place!"), but we did enjoy a long walk and a nice lunch in Old San Juan.

On Barbados it took so long to debark that we missed our "snorkel with the turtles" trip, and the snorkeling was not too good at the hotel beach where we stayed.  Still, we got these beautiful conch shells to give the kids from an old guy who was missing teeth and really needed a bath (!!)  Worked out perfectly to get everyone a shell on the last day.  I did not spend any time hunting for presents, since I hate shopping and so do not usually buy souveniers even for the kids (I know, rude... but my minimalist self does not want to bring home useless stuff, and my cheap self does not want to spend money on stuff to bring home that will only get lost or tossed.) These shells will look great on my someday to be finished whirlpool tub edge :)

 St Lucia.

 Towel Creations every evening in our stateroom.

St Kitts, Atlantic Ocean on the left, Caribbean on the right.

 St. Maarten mud bath.

St Lucia

 St Lucia remote beach resort.

Shipwreck Beach Bar and Grill... We had the place pretty much to ourselves for the better part of the day!

 Captain Kimmie of St Thomas (John and I were the only two people on this snorkel trip!)

Mongoose at the Shipwreck Beach Bar on St. Kitts.

Fireworks for Christmas

Christmas 2011 was not exactly a fabulous celebration of the Lord's birth here in the Loghome Up North.  Where last year we had no adoption related holiday unhappiness, this year we were overwhelmed with it.  What should be fun filled family times can often cause a lot of grief over abandonment and losses felt by older adopted children, and that is what we had happening.  The fireworks were both literal and figurative.  We all much perferred these beautiful ones that the Old Guy set off on Christmas Day evening.  (Taken with the fabulous camera given us by my dear cyberfriend, Mongoose :) )  The kids are back to school today and in one hour they will be rushing through the door, hopefully full of tales of a happy day, and thus leaving the trials of the holidays behind them.

2011 Children's Christmas Program at Church