Breakfast...

I think it shows I've reached an all-time low in life excitement if I'm taking pictures of my breakfast.  Well, I did take a picture of it this morning.  Most mornings I come home from dropping the kids off at school and make some eggs.  I was inspired by your brunch for me, Tanya!  :)
This one has green peppers (from my garden), onions, mushrooms, spinach, Canadian bacon, cherry tomatoes (from my garden), and cheese.  It is delish!  It fills me up for quite a while.

 

I do have some more meaty posts that I am thinking about and slowly writing.

 

I earned a free photo book from Shutterfly and it was about to expire, so I made an album called Halloween thru the years.  It has pictures of the kids in their costumes from 2001 until 2011.  I just finished it today and it is going to be so cute and fun for the kids to look at!

 

I got the bonus room all cleaned up and reorganized today...again.  The hallway is now junky because everything I didn't want in the bonus room is now out there, but that's another problem for another day.  Half the bonus room is band stuff, a third is my stuff/craft shelves for me, and another third is a table with Legos on it.  I have gotten rid of SO much stuff and it feels so good.  Maybe I'll have to take a picture. :)

 

Luke took this picture the other day of a huge Hawk on our roof.  I hope he doesn't decide to swoop down and carry Zoe off!  She is light enough.  I can just see her batting her paws and going nuts up in the air while the hawk flies away with her in his mouth (now if that really happens I will feel bad!).

 

I'm happy tomorrow is the start of the weekend!!

Bus Conversations...

Bo and Noah have had some trouble at school waiting for the bus.  They have been in trouble a few times for running and being crazy during that time.  I emailed the teacher that has been dealing with them just to let her know I was aware and she had my 'blessing' to separate them or whatever she needed to do to keep them straight.  I also was making sure they were obeying her and showing her respect when she told them to stop.  She emailed back and addressed my concerns, then said...

"On a side note, I'm so glad you emailed because I've been meaning to tell you a story. One of the first days of bus duty; I asked your boys how to tell them apart. I meant to say that exactly, but ended up saying, "what makes you special?", thinking that would be easier to understand for a Kindergartner. They responded, "we are special because we are adopted and we are from another country!"  Being that I, too, am adopted it just warmed my heart. My parents raised me to believe that being adopted was something special and something to be proud of."

I thought that was cool.  Until school, Bo and Noah had not had much opportunity to be on their own to answer people's questions about themselves and our family.  I always answered the questions when we were out, and pretty much Bo and Noah didn't think anything of our family being different.  Recently, I have overheard them or the big kids have told me that on the bus they are telling kids that they have a white mom and dad.  They say that kids ask them why they have a white mom and dad and they just tell them that we were born in different countries.  It does not seem to bother them, but I know it's a lot for a 6 year old to deal with...something most don't have to deal with.  I'm proud of the way they handle it and just say the truth and be proud.  I pray it stays that way. They love school and love their little friends.  I'm thankful too because there are quite a few other black children in their classes and you can tell they are really drawn to them.

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By the way, Geoff and I had a great day today.  It went much too fast!   We did not do anything spectacular, but it was great to just spend un-rushed time together shopping for some shoes for him, a new phone for me, and going to lunch together.  Oh yeah, and we walked Rainbow.  We had hoped to play tennis, plan a trip to Washington D.C., and catch a nap, but those things didn't happen!  :) 

Anyone have any tips for taking kids to Washington D.C. for a trip?  Hotels that you recommend?  Must see things?  There is so much, we are trying to narrow it down.

13 Years...

Today is our 13th wedding anniversary!  Geoff took off of work and we are gonna spend the day together.  This is a first for us.  Fun!

Weekend and Other Random...

I am addicted to the show Parenthood. I had never thought to watch it, but Heather was just recently talking about how good it was so I gave it a try (it's on Netflix). I whizzed through season one and am almost done with season two. There are so many things I love about this show. I think it might be my all-time favorite show ever. The characters are so real and funny.  It makes me laugh out loud and makes me cry. OK, enough about that. Give it a try if you want to be hooked too.

In my most recent purge I emptied out my homeschool section of the bonus room closet. It felt freeing and provided so much more room in there. Well, 2 weeks later and my homeschool stuff still sits in a pile in the foyer ready to go out. I just can't seem to let go completely! :(

Poor Will got 4 baby teeth (his eye teeth) pulled last week.  It was to provide more room in his mouth for now, since those teeth don't normally come out for another few years.  Poor guy had to get numbed in eight or ten (I lost count) places in his mouth!!  He was a rock star and the dentist couldn't believe an 8 year old handled it as good as Will.  Our dentist has 5 kids, so I think it was hard for him to do this to little Willie.  The teeth pulling part wasn't that bad though, and Will even said the numbing wasn't all that bad.  His teeth (or holes) bled for quite a while that night, and his whole head was numb, but by the next day he was back to normal...with just a few less teeth.

Check out those mugs!  I wasn't thinking they'd be that long, but since they weren't ready to come out, the roots were still there (normally the permanent teeth eat away at the root as they are pushing in...a bit of trivia for you).
 

the new look (with chocolate teeth)

On the 20th it was Bo and Noah's 4th year anniversary of being home.  I'll have to admit that I was a terrible adoptive mom and although my calendar had the 'important date' sticker on that day, I didn't pay attention and was ill prepared to celebrate that night.  It was sort of a funny discovery when we remembered what 'important date' meant.  :)  We made this cookie the next day (decorated by Kendall).  More thoughts on this and an overdue Bo and Noah post coming soon.



Since the kids didn't get to sleep outside by the fire last weekend, we let them on Friday night this weekend.  All our wood was too wet for a fire, but they slept out there all night.  G slept on the deck and did not sleep well (as you can imagine).  I slept great inside, along with Bo and Noah.  

K and W fell asleep fast and reported good night's sleeps.  It was so nice and cool out there.  Luke said he woke up at one point with Junior biting his nose.  He is a weird cat and does weird stuff like that.  I looked out my window early the next morning and they were all sound asleep when the sun was coming up and the birds were chirping.  It looked so peaceful.  They were all completely eaten up by mosquitoes though!!

We did a 'first' on Saturday for our family.  We all rode bikes to TCBY to get yogurt, then rode back.  It's a few miles round trip, and we can get there all the way through neighborhoods, except for crossing one main rode.  It was a fun adventure and everyone hung in there and did great.  On our way home a friend from church drove by and asked us to come by her house for a lemonade break.  That was a sweet treat! :)

I have got to video something.  Will is the only kid of ours that Rainbow will growl at when he walks up to her.  It is so funny.  I think she is jealous of him because he's my baby. :)  They can be snuggle partners sometimes too though.

This weekend we had an impromptu cleanout and rearranging of K's room.  The cleanout was my idea and had been eating at me for a while.  She is a saver and her room collects lots of stuff!  The rearrangement was her idea and I fought it because we always seem to rearrange it, but I couldn't resist because she is a girl after my own heart in this area.  Plus we just redid it in ways that nothing had to be taken apart.  She figured out a way to do it that we have never done it before and it is by far my favorite!!  It seems so spacious!

 



from the door looking in

from her closet, which i should take a picture of b/c it's SO neat and clean and organized right now!

Wall hangings are all out of place and some not rehung because it probably won't be long before we move stuff again! :)

view from her bed

This is totally random, but I want to share.  I have a new body pillow that is one of my top 5 favorite earthly possessions. I cannot wait to go to bed every night and sleep with it. :) It is so big it looks like a third person in the bed. In fact, the first morning after I had it, I had already gotten up and gone downstairs and G was still in bed.  Luke came into our room looking for me and said he saw the big lump under my side of the bed and kept shaking it saying "mom! mom!" and then G finally was like "What are you doing?!"  It looked just like a person under the bedding! :)  It made me laugh.

Jump! Jump!

Fire...

If I were to label our past weekend with one word, it would be "fire."

Let me give some history...

Our three big kids love to work in the back yard to make traps and fire pits and various other 'survival' stuff.  They love to watch survival shows and mimic them.  A while back (like maybe even a year) the kids started digging a big hole in the ground.  I think I even put a picture of them on here one time digging in the rain.  They are so happy when they are back there doing this kind of stuff.  They often try to light a fire the old fashioned way, but (luckily) never succeed.  On Saturday though, Kendall had set up the wood in the homemade fire pit and G started a fire for them.  He had some wood he wanted to burn anyway from limbs that are always falling in our back yard.  It was a win-win.

 

Saturday...

 

G sort of put every other duty on hold for the day and just sat out there with them monitoring the fire.  The kids worked around him making various things.  Rainbow loved the company outside.  G got lots of wood burned.  I happened to have hot dogs so the kids had an impromptu wiener roast.  They were in their happy place for several hours.

 

 

Sunday....

A repeat.   They literally stayed out there in that spot for like 4 or 5 hours...poking and prodding that fire.  Even after suppertime they went back out and stayed out til after dark...until they had to come in for showers and bed.  They begged both nights to sleep by the fire in sleeping bags, but it didn't work out b/c of our concert and then school the next morning.  I'm sure they'll beg to do it this coming weekend!

 

This day they roasted marshmellows.  Rainy got in on the action...



 

Widdling an arrow...

Girlfriend LOVED the fire.  She could not get enough of laying beside it and just moping around it...

Posing here...

I had my camera out there and got a little picture happy.  Couldn't pick my favorite of these, so here are all of them! :)

 

When the kids were all in bed on Sunday night, G and I both reflected and agreed the down time spent doing 'nothing' was worth every minute.  It was one of those weekends when the fall weather was kicking in and it just felt good in every way.  I would wish every weekend could be so great, but then it wouldn't be so special, right?

 

Another note in my thinking.  We do not have a big wood-filled back yard.  I go through times of wishing for one and wondering if we should move so that our kids have more space to roam.  I battle with contentment with where we are in that respect sometimes.  This weekend showed me that our kids are just fine where they are.  They don't think of our yard as small and it, to them, is a forest to be explored.  I am thankful.

Hillsong...

On Saturday night, Geoff and I went to the Hillsong concert that I won tickets for.  When I found out we were going, I told my friend Millie because her husband (and her) are huge Hillsong fans.  I really didn't think they would come (they live about 3 hours away), but as it turned out, they came!

We met them for supper first, then drove together to the concert, ended up sitting together (it was general admission), and just had the best time.  Not only was it a great date night to get out of the house with Geoff, but it was a great friend night.  It was so special to be able to hang out with Millie and Seth, kid free, doing something like a concert that made us feel young again (I think I'm speaking for Millie and I at least...the guys probably did not read so much into our night).

 

It was such a wonderful time of worship and just great music.  I love so many of their songs, and they have words up on a screen for you to follow along if you don't know the words, which was helpful.

 



Here is one of my favorites that they sing.  Our concert was very similar to this, but just some of the musicians were different.

We don't go to concerts much at all, but whenever I do I am reminded how much I love them.

The big kids and I are going to Christian Music Day at Carowinds in a couple of weeks and I absolutely cannot wait.  They have not been to a real concert besides the Faith Family and Freedom thing which was great, and Toby Mac will be there and they love him so much.  Can. Not. Wait!!

 

So thankful for Christian music that is awesome.

 

Being in that place with so many other believers, being of one heart and mind, at least during that couple of hours, is refreshing.  It is a small glimpse of heaven and how we will enjoy praising God all together...but it will never have to be over and us go back to real life.  Can't wait.

 

Also, I was reading in Luke the other week about the end times and got a bit freaked (again....I always do when I hear the warnings about suffering, etc.) and wondered who else will be standing together on that day when so many Christians seem to waver on their beliefs and commitment (not that I have not been there either in ways).  It is comforting to know that there are people all over the world (Hillsong is in Australia) who are in the same boat and will hopefully stand strong together.  Still freaks me out though.  I know God will ultimately protect us (maybe by death), but it still sounds a bit scary.  That's another story though...

Bo's Smarts...

Here is Bo saying some things he has learned in kindergarten so far. Well, he knew some things but was just not as confidnent in them before. Yay Bo!

 

Only Child...

Friday night was a little crazy, but everyone had fun in their designated places (all but Luke were at birthday parties).  It was not my favorite Friday night because I really look forward to family time and not running around on that night, but it was fun for everyone for one night.  Luke was our only child for a couple of hours.  We still got pizza and he got to pick out the movie and get his own big ole Dr. Pepper and eat in the living room.  I could tell he didn't feel quite right without the rest of the gang, but he seemed to enjoy himself anyway. 

Welcome Friday...

We are happy it's Friday.  The last half of our week went more smoothly than the first.  We have no after school activities on W, Th, and F, so that helps.  Random pics...

 

The kids love to watch roller coaster videos on You Tube.  Our Intimidator at Carowinds got ranked in the top 10 roller coasters in the country, so the kids were pretty proud of that.  They went on to watch all the other top ranked ones...

 

We got some things figured out in Luke and Will's room to make it less messy and cluttered.  We most likely will not unbunk their beds because it would just leave no floor space.  Plus Will is quite fond of his cozy bottom bunk (of course he does not show it by staying in there all night).  We moved Legos into the bonus room with a table we had...so we'll see how that goes.  We purged a LOT of their weapons (in the blue bucket in the closet) and some toys and then put all of their little stuff in this over the door shoe hanger I bought.  It's perfect for their survival gear and other various gadgets that get dumped in a the bottom of a bin when not in use.

 



Lunches this morning.  Hot lunches start in October and I'll be ready for that break from making lunches one day a week.  Will is the one with Gushers b/c he does not like the kind of brownies I made.  We are not normally a Gushers family, but I caved at BJ's the other day.  :)

 



Our Friday night won't be normal, which is sort of sad.  Will and the twins are going to cousin Peyton's bday party and K is going to her best friend at school's party.  Looks like just Lukie and us tonight.  That will be a neat scene.  That has not happened in like...9 years!  :)

Thursday...

Days without the kids at home make for a lot less pictures!  These are from of recent.

 

It's a wonder we have had no broken bones/necks 'round here (Thank you Lord.  Please keep it that way!)...

Our backyard friend that has been hanging out...

 Had brunch at a friends house yesterday.  Time spent with other mamas of adopted kids and large families (they have 8!) are always a blessing.  Thanks again Tanya, and happy birthday today!

 

KK is going thru a school funk and begging to be homeschooled.  She will get it worked out, but it's a lot of growing and teaching opportunities for her/us as we talk about contentment and joy in all circumstances, etc.  Still it's hard.

 

Bo and Noah (mostly Noah) are still getting in little bits of trouble at school (well, mainly after school waiting for the bus or on the bus).  It's frustrating to me, but again...growing opportunities.

 

I won tickets to the Hillsong concert for Saturday night on K Love.  I was thrilled to win something!  G and I will be having date night!

 

Off to run some errands.  Fun fun.

Interview...

This sort of makes me laugh. Maybe it's just because I'm their mom. Will wants to be a stunt guy and is totally into movies and the action in them.

Luke and Kendall made a radio station in our bonus room last weekend and played like they were dj's and made the music loud enough to fill the whole house and talked on the microphone in between songs.

Will was interviewed by Luke at some point because I found this on my camera when I uploaded pictures.

 

Random and Semi-Boring Updates...

We are getting into the rhythm of school but I have to say that homework will be the end of me.  I'm thankful that G is a good homework helper.  If Kendall ever remembers her multiplication tables, it will be a small miracle.  I think Luke (5th grade) has a ridiculous amount of homework and I might just have to speak up about it soon.  I wonder what would happen to a kid and his grades if his mom refused to let him do his homework?

I like our new routine this year of me taking the kids to school every morning and them riding the bus home.  The bus has been a HUGE love of mine this year.  The kids like it too.

Luke's grade is going to Williamsburg in October for a 2 night/3 day trip.  After some hard thinking, we decided we are not sending Luke.  Besides the money aspect (it's $400...if we send all 5 of ours on this trip it will cost $2000...our family could take a nice vacation together with that moola), there are things we are just not comfortable with (me mostly) or excited about.  Luke is cool with it.  A little disappointed, but he isn't overly upset.


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We have entered the world of orthodontics.   Kendall is being 'watched' until she loses all her teeth.  Luke has started the process of getting spacers and all that good stuff on (lots of appointments in one month to get those suckers on!) and will get braces within the year probably.  Poor Will is getting all 4 of his eye teeth pulled soon to make room for his other teeth to come in.  It's putting off braces or anything else for a while, which is good.  But poor guy, the numbing process might be brutal! :(


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Kendall is doing Drama this fall like she did a couple years ago (she did Seussical and Aladdin before).  We signed up this fall because they are doing ANNIE!!  We were both so excited and they start tomorrow.  She had auditions on Saturday and got the part of July...one of the orphans.  She is so excited!


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Will's drum teacher is no longer with the place we take lessons at, which was a bummer to find out.  He had lessons with a new instructor today and loved him too.  Luke and Kendall also have new instructors for electric guitar and bass.  Lots of newness!  All 3 of them absolutely love their music lessons.  Makes it worth the money and effort (almost!). :)


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I met with Noah's teacher the other day, and besides being chatty and going to the bathroom a lot, he is doing well.  More on all that later, but it was a good report.  Bo and Noah both are LOVING school, as I imagined they would.

Sunday Night...

There is just something about Sunday nights.

5 kids worn out from a good, full, productive weekend.

5 showers or baths taken.

5 heads of hair washed.

2 heads of hair cut (Luke and Will).

1 head of hair retwisted (Bo).

2 sets of toenails clipped (Bo and Noah's don't grow and K bites hers--gross!).

1 set of fingernails clipped (Will's--everyone else bites theirs!).

Clean uniform clothes laid out for Monday morning.

 

Fresh and clean and ready for another week of school.

Weekends are so needed and refreshing.  We are thankful for them!

And we are also thankful to start a new week.

Cookie Pie...

I have had my eye on this blog and have wanted to make some of her recipes, but finally just got around to it today.  I made her Deep Dish Cookie Pie.  It used all healthy ingredients, using chick peas and oatmeal and applesauce instead of flour and butter...the only bad things it still had in it was brown sugar (I used about 3/4 cups) and 1 cup of chocolate chips.  I couldn't believe how it still tasted so much like regular chocolate chip cookies (or pie).  G thought it didn't have a lot of taste besides the chocolate chips, but I think he was wrong.  Everyone loved it and I can't wait to make some more of her recipes.  I need to try to cut down to the extreme healthy kind (she has variations for NO sugar), but we'll take it one step at a time. :)

(that picture is not mine, by the way...it's from Katie's blog)

Homemade Slushies...

I saw a 'recipe' for homemade slushies on Pinterest the other day and we tried them out.  They turned out good and it was pretty easy, so I thought I'd share.  Honestly, it's not something I'll do much, or even again, but it was fun once at least! :)  You can find direction here.   Or, I'll tell you how...but just no pictures...

1.  Fill a quart size ziplock bag about halfway full with water.
2.  Dump salt in it (no certain amount...I put about 1/4 to 1/3 cup in??)
3.  Shake it up to mix, then put it in freezer overnight.
4.  Mine did not freeze solid, but it was still fine.

5.  Put that bag of frozen salt water, still zipped up, into a gallon size ziplock bag.
6.  Pour koolaid or whatever other drink you want to become a slushie, into the gallon bag (yes, it will be all around the salt water bag).
7.  Zip up the gallon bag and shake like crazy.  The koolaid will slowly become a slushie!
8.  Dump the slushie out into cups and enjoy.

**I would only do 1-2 servings of koolaid per bag.  The lady said too much at a time doesn't work and can make the slushie taste salty for some reason.

**I made 3 of the original salt water bags to begin with so I would be able to do multiple slushies.  I did end up using one of the salt water bags twice in a row and it worked, but the 2nd time took longer to make the koolaid turn to slushie.

Lazy Girl...

 

 

 

 

This is pretty much what Baby Girl does all day long while the kids are at school.  Sleep and be lazy. 

Press on, Rainbow.  Press on. 

O Strange One...

In spite of his available, cozy bottom bunk, Will often finds other places to sleep.  This night he was survivor man, inspired by watching Dual Survivor and Man vs. Wild on Netflix.