On your side of the pond

Happy Halloween to all my American friends!
I'm not a huge fan of Halloween. Spiders, ghosts, witchs - ick. Oh and don't get me started on begging strangers for candy. Only Americans would celebrate such an event.
We are currently still in Russia, and I am only a little disappointed that I'm not home to help my kids put their costumes together. I know that my mom will properly document the whole process for me. She's such a good grandma.
As you read this we're in the final stages of preparing for our court date! We're 8 hours ahead over here, so you'll all be sound asleep when we walk into the court room. Don't worry, we'll have news when you first wake up tomorrow morning.
Have a fun size candy bar for me!

Get out of Dodge

Today's the big day!
We're headed out to St. Petersburg Russia, for a brief pitstop before we head on to Arkhangelsk. The current plan is to have some time with Max while we prepare for court on Monday, and have our court hearing on Tuesday. If you're awake in the middle of the night around 2 am (which will be around 10 am in Russia, and we'll be waiting to see the judge) and wanna pray for us that'd be great! Otherwise just pray before you go to bed :)
We'll be back in the states on Thurs while we wait to take custody. So check back Friday for some kind of update. We'll probably wait until the whole thing is said and done to do a complete recap, but who knows. We're sort of just winging it at this point.
With that, we're off!

The journey of a lifetime

In a few short days we will stand before a Russian judge who will decide whether we are suitable parents for a 7 year old boy. It's likely  that this judge won't be impressed by what he sees in us - that we love Jesus, raise healthy children, and strive for normalcy. It's completely possible that the judge will look at all of our meticulously filled in paperwork and laugh in our faces.
I, however am not worried.
I'm not worried because this isn't about me. It's not about all the hard work I've put in to filling out the forms correctly, what kind of parent I'll be, or whether I have the financial resources to raise this child (which I don't, by the way.)
This is about a family who obeyed, even though they thought international adoption was a crazy idea.
This is about a little boy who was called my son before time began. A little boy who, I am certain, has been on a trajectory to be in my family since his mother left him 6 years ago. A little boy who has too many odd coinsedences for me to ignore. The way he looks, his personality, the way the names in his birth family tie to the names in our family. Only God could have arranged so many intricate details. 
So as you pray for our family, don't pray that the Judge says yes. That's not really the point. We seek your prayers for courage. Courage to do something crazy for Jesus, without worrying what the consequences will be.
Thats what we're going for here.
We are not afraid of the worst case scenario (or at least we're trying not to be) because we know that we obeyed. And that's the point.

And just so you know, that little boy will always be my son, whether we get custody or not. 

(nearly) Wordless Wednesday

Ready to fly...

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5 adorable things to make with fabric scraps

I am the worst when it comes to fabric scraps. You should see my stash. It's scary. Really scary. I've featured a few ways that we've used our scraps in the past, but over the weekend I was toodling around on pinterest and found a couple great ideas for using scraps that I thought I'd share, on the off chance that I'll have the time and energy to make some of these things when we get back from Russia.
Not that I'm dreaming or anything.
But here they are - go look at all that fabricy goodness.

garland
You know I love my garland, so versatile. In addition to draping my fireplace with it, wrapping it around objects for interesting table displays, gift wrap. Yeah... Here's an article with 10 new ways to make some rocking fabric scrap garland. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Fabric garland tutorial

As art in embroidery hoops or frames.
Ok, that's just stinking cute. I'm such a dork about putting odd things in my frames, this is just right up my alley.
Here's how they did it


key chains or zipper pulls.
Gulp.
Check it out

mobile
So my new son s not a baby, but do you think he'll mind if I make him a mobile anyway? Probably. Welcome to the family kid, your mom is a dork.
Mobile that my new 7 year old might like

magnets
they made letter magnets - cute way to practice our letters with Max, but I'm thinking about making something without so much detail to sew around like squares or something, then gluing on felt letters maybe?
Cute magnet ideas

So there you go. Who wants to make these things for me?

Art with melted crayon part 2

A while back we had some fun melting crayons over the George Forman grille. I saw recently where someone had melted crayons with a hair dryer. Say it ain't so. We had to try it. For scientific reasons of course.

So we set up another little melting station in the kitchen. After overheating the hair dryer without getting very far with our melting, we settled in with my embossing gun which worked way better anyway.

First we experimented with the size of our crayon chunks. The big ones made a lot of smoke and took forever to melt. Not so fun. Next we  tried using an old cheese grater to make tiny pieces, which took forever but it was pretty fun to watch those little bitty pieces melt. We finally settled in on medium sized pieces made from larger pieces broken up with a rock. Not sure what was more fun - smashing crayon with a rock, or watching those littler pieces melt.

After we settled on a size we had to experiment with some different melting techniques. Or more appropriately what to do with what we'd melted. Sure you could let it pool on your paper, but what fun is that when you could blow on it with a straw, make it drip down your paper, or just draw and etch in it with a pencil.

So much exploration and experimentation happening. Good stuff.

In general I'd have to say that this method of melting was way safer and kid friendly than the grilling method. It was safe enough for me to hand over the equipment and let the project take it's own course. And we all know self directed projects are way more fun than projects that have to be limited for safety reasons.

Architectural design with food

This is my 9 year old. He's been studying architectural design this week. We found a fantastic book full of design projects for kids his age so I had him create something from the book and plan a presentation. Of course he wanted to share his presentation with you! I  hope you enjoy it :)

We have 2 videos, one "in progress" where he explains his plan and the materials he's using, the other is the finished product and the pro's and con's of his design and materials. Disregard the roaming toddler that makes an appearance in the first one.

How to make a pumpkin

I have a little confession.
I have a little game that I like to play when I'm bored called "how can I make a ______" then I brainstorm all the possible ways to make something using stuff I already have. 9 times out of 10 I never get around to making the things I dream up, but that's not the point. It's more to entertain myself than anything else.
With that said here's a little sampling of a dialogue I had the other day when folding laundry called "how can I make a pumpkin"

Take a brown paper bag and paint it orange, fill it with scrap paper and twist the top shut. Either paint the twisted handle green or glue green paper around the stem.

Take a paper plate and color (or paint) it orange, staple a piece of green paper and curled green gift ribbon to the top. To make it more fun paint with something unusual like a sponge or cotton balls.

Take an old orange sock, fill it with cotton balls or fabric scraps cut the top off (so it doesn't get to long) and tie it shut with green string. If you're feeling adventurous paint the top with green acrylic paint. Or Sew the top shut with needle and thread.

Cut two pieces of orange construction paper into a large circle. Staple the two pieces together around the edge, leaving the top open wide enough to stuff. Stuff it with scrap paper and staple shut. Add green paper for the stem

Find something cylindrical that would make a good stamp, a round block, soup can, or a lid of some kind. Dip the circular end in orange paint to make your pumpkin. Do it several times and you have a pumpkin patch.

Make ice pumpkins by filling balloons with orange liquid (water with food coloring, or orange drink) and freezing. When liquid is frozen clip the balloon with scissors and it'll come right off.

How's that for a 10 minute brainstorm?

(nearly) Wordless Wednesday

Bursting with Joy...

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10 Things that Bring Joy

I wrote this list a few days ago, during a particular fit of the grumpies. Tired of the internal "why me" monologue, I found a quiet spot for myself and gave the grumpies a shove. After writing out a (rather long) list of list of things that bring frustration, I promptly deleted it and made this list instead.
Take that grumpies...

funny toddlers
children happily engaged with a project of their own design
warm fall days
cute gourds
a camera full of new photos
new possibilities
library day
things that are pretty
dinner in the crock pot
a playful attitude

What's on your list?

ESL in the Home

As I am in the final stages of preparing to bring this little boy home, the finality of teaching ESL sets in. I've been doing a little research on the ESL teaching community and have realized there is absolutely not a single resource for homeschoolers to teach ESL. Big surprise. On the other hand my research has lead me to believe that the home is the best place for my little guy to acquire English as a second language. The resources I've managed to track down are full of rich language activities that give the student the opportunity to learn the language in real time. Like baking cookies and playing board games. Potentially tricky in a classroom, but standard activities in the home. Nice.
So yes, informal language acquisition tasks in the home are limitless, especially when there siblings to partner with. What a relief.
But when I look at the formal language tasks I sort of have to shake my head. Every phonics program on the market banks on the fact that the student is already familiar with the language. Students should already know what aardvarks, avocados and antelope are so it's not a stretch to put them all together in the "A" category.
I'm going to bank on the fact that my son won't know what any of those things are, let alone that they have something in common.
Which means there has to be a lot of vocabulary acquisition before much phonics can be taught.
But my teacher brain revolts. PHONICS! Every student loves phonics! In some twisted way it doesn't feel like I'm teaching him anything if we don't start phonics training from the get go. So for months now I've been trying to find a handful of justifiable phonics activities that don't require any vocabulary. When I figure it out it's going to be worth millions. Because there's a huge market for non-vocabulary based ESL phonics programs for homeschoolers. I know.
Oy.
So until that phonics revelation occurs to me, I'm stuck with vocabulary. I'm sort of making up vocabulary games that I can use to introduce strategic terms that he's going to need right away. Like everyone runs into the kitchen and shouts "kitchen!" then everyone runs to the shower and shouts "shower!"and so forth. I could see my 3 biological kids getting a huge kick out of such silliness.  Perhaps we'll play a rousing game of "find the fork!" as well.

And just like that...

Would you believe about 10 minutes after my last post in the waiting series we got our call?
Yup. We're going to Russia.
Our court date is Nov. 1. After our court hearing we do not take custody right away. There is a 10 business day waiting period before he's handed over. During that time we will fly back and keep ourselves as busy as possible so we don't think about our how long 10 business days really is. When we go back to take custody we will have to spend 10 days with him in the country before we can bring him home.
So, hopefully we'll be home for Thanksgiving. And we will be so thankful.

While we were waiting part 4

Still waiting for news about the court hearing!
How 'bout a jump in the leaf pile to take your mind off the frustration.
Why yes, I think we will.

While we waited - part 3

This week we're doing a series about the fun and interesting ways we distract ourselves from the frustration of our adoption woes.
We've already been to the pumpkin patch twice, today we're revisiting the Apple Butter Festival that took place earlier this week.
We go every year. Sometimes with friends, sometimes just by ourselves. This year we took Alex's buddy Jake so that he wouldn't be tormented by little kids at chuck e. cheese.
Highlights include:

a civil war era rifle demonstration where they shot across the river

tossing dried corn cobs into an agitator that separated the kernels from the cob

and Mr. Krepp's tent (my old history teacher) who had Alex riveted for a good half hour.

(nearly) Wordless Wednesday

Waiting to be eaten....

Since we're on the waiting theme this week (nope, sorry, still no word about Max)

I thought that I'd just go with it.

Happy Wednesday.

While we waited part 2

As I mentioned yesterday, we are anxiously waiting a long overdue email from Russia with information about making progress towards finalizing our adoption.
And since we still haven't gotten word yet, we'll just keep on talking about the fantastic adventures we partake in to distract ourselves while we wait.
Which brings us to our second trip to the pumpkin patch. Which started out as a fall hike until we called our dear friends and they were determined to go on a hayride. Frankly hanging with them sounded more fun than hiking.
So back to the patch we went.

 Jory, my ex-cattle rancher, who is not sure why he paid money to be pulled around on bails of hay behind a tractor. It's right up there with paying someone to harvest their pumpkins for them. I know.

 

 

 the three amigos

 

Alex and Kyle fascinated by a wheat kernel 

While we waited part 1

When we turned in our paperwork for our adoption court hearing we were told it would take 3-6 weeks for translation, then they would send us our travel information so we could come to see the judge about our son. As of today it has been 8 weeks since our paperwork arrived in Russia. Still no word.
Insert cricket chirping here.
We could talk about the frustration of not having any control over the situation
Or the frustration that results from not being able to shake that frustration and give it to God already.
Or we could talk about the pumpkin patch. Which we've been to twice in the past week. Because getting out of the house is an excellent coping strategy when dealing with frustration.

Our first trip was a relaxed affair, as it was a week day and there wasn't anyone there. The kids took their time, marveling over the different types of gourds and pumpkins, and even cooperated for some photos....

it was a good day.

Paperless School

One of the fun things about homeschooling is that you can do wacky things, like paperless school. A full day of coursework without picking up a pencil. Craziness. I know. 
The concept evolved out of necessity a while back when my self directed learners completed all their seat work for the week on day 4, and I wasn't about to let them off the hook for that 5th day.
So what does paperless school look like? It's a fabulous swirl of science experiments, art projects, reading, math games, and a little bit of  Tim and Moby thrown in for good measure
So while they are rejoicing over the fact that they have "no school" today, I'm chuckling about the full day of school that I snuck in while they weren't looking.

Somedays are like that...

There are days when you set out on a promising crafting adventure. You pile the table with dye, glue, baby wipes, and tinfoil. Your project starts out as tie-dyed baby wipes, which ends up as an epic fail because wipes absorb liquid.  Whether there's a rubber band around them or not. Drat.
So since the glue is out you grab it and see if you can redeem your crafting session by making colored glue paint. Only to find out the watered down dye from the tie-dye project makes your colored glue super runny, and doesn't work for detailed masterpieces. So you pitch the pink glue in favor of untainted glue which is easier to draw with. After a handful of spiderwebs drawn from glue you decide it's really more fun to just spread pink glue all over the place with a pop-sickle stick.
Which makes a huge mess.
And Mom finds the end of her willingness to experiment in the name of creativity.
Because there's only so much mess a mom can take.
Somedays at the end of the craft session you're left with nothing but runny pink glue covered pieces of tin foil. And a better understanding of your craft supplies.

Some days are like that. And we don't mind a bit.

(Nearly) Wordless Wednesday

flutter by, butterfly...

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The View From the Back Seat

Hour long car ride + 3 squirrely kids + camera = 100+ hilarious photos

Iconic fall

Last week I visited a local pumpkin patch for a photoshoot. While I was there for work, not play, I couldn't help snapping off a few iconic pumpkin patch shots for myself.

happy fall y'all.