Celebrating

Tonight we celebrated with chocolate cake (with sprinkles on top!) and sparkling blueberry grape juice!

It has been a good couple of weeks on the Superkids advocacy front.  Several of "my" children have been matched with their families.  This always makes me so excited!  I celebrate each and every time I hear of a family being matched with one of the precious little ones I met in China!

This week one of my extra special little girls was matched with her family.  When I was in China, she walked in to the room and quickly ran to me and threw her little arms around me.  I picked her up and hugged her back.  It was so sweet!  I have advocated for her for months and now she has a family working to bring her home.

Then there is little Wei Wei.  He is a cutie from the same orphanage that Eliana spent her first three years.  He has the funniest laugh!  When he laughed we all laughed.  When I was in Texas recently I had the privilege of meeting his parents.  Again, we have advocated for him for a long time.  And then the perfect family for him just "happened" to be in Texas at the same time Pat Marcus and I were there.

And there are others too.  Sweet little ones with excited families working hard to get them home.  It never gets old!  I can't put them all out there publicly yet, but suffice it to say, a celebration was definitely in order tonight!

Taking Care of the Moments

On Saturday Douglas and I put up a wall decal in our living room.  It says this:

Take care of the moments,

The hours and years will take care of themselves.

It is a beautiful thought.  But here is the thing, how do you actually do it?  I know quite well by now that "the days are long but the years are short."  So how do you turn those long days into profitable moments?

Let me be honest here.  I love to spend time with my children.  I love doing projects with them and cooking with them and reading stories to them. I love doing all of the fun extras.  But when it comes to teaching them to do the nitty-gritty "no dirty socks under the bed" type of stuff I lag.  It really is not as much fun to teach them to keep their shoes in neat rows as it is to make rockets fueled by Alka-Seltzers (today's science project). 

Somehow I think that "taking care of the moments" needs to include both the fun and the mundane aspects of life.  So, for myself, I'm trying really hard to focus on teaching them the basics of doing all of their jobs right. It is a little wearing, but I know it will pay off in the end.  

Here is my method.  Each of them has assigned jobs each day.  The boys' jobs rotate between them.  Last week we all cleaned the house really well.  We worked together so I could show them exactly what I expect in each room.  Now each day they have a choice: clean their areas correctly or after chore time we start over and all clean the whole house again.  So far we have started over and cleaned the whole house every.single.day.

You think my method is working?! I don't know.  But I'm not quitting yet.  I just know one of these days everything is going to click and they are all going to realize that cleaning the whole house cuts in to play time quite a bit.  In the mean time my floors are going into shock from being swept and mopped so frequently.  

I know that for many mothers "taking care of the moments" may mean something totally different. But this is where I need to focus right now.  We are still having fun and making rockets and reading stories and spending lots of time together, but we are trying to learn to enjoy doing our jobs right too.  And the house is cleaner than it has been in many a long month!

 P.S. Y'all come rescue me if things don't take a turn for the better, OK?  I may desperately need a mommy's night out soon...

On Letting Littles Be Little

As most of you know we are a homeschooling family.  This means we get to decide to a certain extent when we begin to teach what.  I keep seeing the trend toward beginning to teach everything at a younger and younger age and I have been thinking about that.

Now I know some children are very gifted in one area or another and they soak up information like a sponge.  That is not what I'm talking about.  I'm talking about wiggly, giggly four year olds being made to behave like six year olds.  I'm talking about children being considered "behind" if they are not reading before first grade. I'm talking about pressuring our babies to learn.

And I watch my sweet Eliana and I say, "Not on my watch!"  I want her to be little now!  I want her to play and imagine and develop at her own pace.  Teaching her is a joy because she is excited and happy to learn new things, but the moment she starts to seem stressed we stop!  She is only five, we have plenty of time.  

Time is so short!  Soon, all too soon, she will have lessons that must be learned and duties that must be performed.  Right now I want her days to be full of playing with blocks and books being read to her and having tea parties with her dolls and playing with Play-Doh.  I want her to sing and chatter and draw and follow me around helping me with little tasks.

So moms of four and five year olds, if your child is not passing all of the academic goals set by today's standards just relax and let your littles be little.  There is plenty of time to teach what needs to be taught.  Treasure these innocent days. They really are only little once!

Cook In Training

One of the things I have always loved is working with my children in the kitchen.  As each of them has gotten old enough they have taken their turns helping and learning how to follow recipes and use kitchen tools. This evening Annika made our supper with very minimal help.

She made Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal.

She had to chop apples.

Measure ingredients.

Stir it all up.

Clean out the measuring cup.

Spray the pan.

Spoon it into the pan.

And wipe the counter.

It turned out really good and she is one happy little cook!

A Homeschool Snow Day

This morning started with a bunch of excited children.  The snow was piling up on top of what we already had on the ground and it was coming down fast!  Freeland rushed through his morning jobs so that he could go out for a little bit before we started school.  The next thing I knew he had made a big pile of snow beside our little animal shed and was sliding off of the roof into the pile of snow!

Today was a red-letter day for Annika because she completed the Learning to Read curriculum she has been working on since the beginning of the school year!  We now move on to a more advanced reader for the remainder of the year.  We can officially say we have another reader in the house!  Yay Annika!

Poor Casper does not love long division very much, can you tell?  Of course the pressure was on because he was in a hurry to get outside to play in the snow!

Freeland finished his work in record time.  A little too fast perhaps.  Poor boy had to erase and re-write some of his Language Arts answers since they were not neatly written!

And what was Miss Eliana doing while the others were doing school work?  Working, of course! Here she is cleaning the chalkboard wall.

They were in and out all day.  I have wiped up many a puddle today (mostly with my socks).  Of course there were tears because of hands that were too cold, and there were bumps and bruises (no kidding, with sledding off of the shed roof), but it was a fun day.  The only thing that would have made it better is if Daddy had gotten snowed in with us!  You think we could hope for that tomorrow?

Evolution

Life is constantly evolving.  Circumstances change.  Health changes.  Children grow and have new and different needs.  New opportunities come up, old challenges resolve themselves or become irrelevant.

Right now we are in such a nice stage of family life.  Everybody is pretty independent.  They all sleep all night, dress themselves, clean their own rooms (more or less), and basically take care of their own needs.  And, while I miss the little baby stage and would go back there in a heartbeat, it is nice.  On the other hand, no one is yet old enough to drive, so they can not be too independent yet. It is a time I want to treasure because I know all too well how quickly it changes!

As I'm writing this all three boys are practicing their music. There was a time when I would have groaned at this level of noise and confusion in the house. I LOVE quiet!  But I also love my boys and I love to see them grew and develop in this area.  When I asked the boys to write down 3 things that make them feel loved one of the things Douglas wrote down was, "That you are willing to pay for music lessons for me."  That made me smile.

We are well in to our second year of homeschooling.  This is another evolving part of our lives. Some things work. Some things don't.  We are learning together what works for each child.  We recently moved Annika's little FisherPrice table upstairs.  Each morning we put it right beside the sofa where I spend a lot of time.  She and Eliana sit there to do their work.  It is so perfect for us!  I can see everything they are doing and step them through the new parts. It is such a simple little thing that has made school mornings so much easier.

My health issues also continue to evolve.  Slowly, slowly I am getting better.  I am learning to cope with on going issues and I am wrapping my mind around needing to deal with this.  It isn't easy.  I would really like to follow a treatment plan and be finished, but that is not where I am and accepting that fact makes it easier to move forward.

My work with Superkids Charity is another evolving part of my life.  I never thought that the people I traveled to China with and the children I met would become such a huge part of my everyday life!  I am so thankful for this!  Each child is very special to me and I hold each one in my heart.  To see families excitedly pursuing adopting one of "my babies" is one of the sweetest things I have ever experienced.

Eliana with Pat Marcus at a recent Gladney event.

So there you have it.  Life keeps moving and changing.  It reminds me of the constant.  My one constant desire to constantly grow closer to God and grow in His likeness.  Through all of life's changes I want to keep that one goal front and center.

"Through every period of my life Thy goodness I'll pursue

And after death in distant worlds the glorious theme renew..." 

In The Past 14 Days...

In the past 14 days...

I have traveled about 3,380 miles, visited my sick grandfather in the hospital, attended two birthday parties, visited with Pat Marcus at the Gladney offices in Fort Worth, attended a dinner for Gladney families in the China program, visited with my brother from Nebraska, and eaten way more wonderful food than I should have. Wonder why you haven't heard from me here?

Safety First!

The Gladney grounds are so beautiful!

Pat Marcus and myself, Pat is from NY and I'm from PA, and we met in TX for the first time since saying good-bye in China!

What children do at a birthday party

What adults do at a birthday party

Eating cake and ice cream

The birthday boy (my nephew)

All worn out on our way home.