Late March

Just like that late March is upon us. The snow is long gone, and the flowers are starting to poke their heads out of the soil. Well, not the flowers, but little green sprouts that will eventually become flowers, I'm good with that. The weather has warmed up enough for the kids to dust off their bicycles and cruise up to the park. The hope of spring is upon us.
Jory's mom has been visiting us this week. Her school was on spring break this last week, so she flew out for a visit. We enjoyed a constant stream of hot chocolate, extra hugs and snuggles, sewing projects, and having an extra brain to help explain school work. But alas, the airplane has wisked her back to her homeland, and we are getting back to normal. Without the hot chocolate.
We have started the fund raising process for our little Russian friend to come. We are continuing the photography fund raiser that we started last fall, and we sent out a few support letters to loved ones. We still have a lot of money to raise, but we are excited to see what God can do. And we are really really excited for July to come so we can finally meet the little one that we've been praying for.
School is on the downward spiral. We have about 34 days left. We are looking forward to having freedom. As the mama, I'm especially looking forward to the month of freedom that we have before everyone else is released - then our days will become twice as crazy stressful as before.

sigh

I had a nice little post all ready to go, but blogger just ate it. I have no idea what happened, but it completely disappeared. Lovely.
Let me try to remember all the exciting news I had to share........
My birthday, of course. 31 years old this week. Very fun and exciting. Jory and the kids threw me a surprise party in the morning before we parted company for the day. Then after work Jory and I had a dinner date and did a little shopping. All in all, a very good day.
The weather in these parts is starting to warm up. The snow is beginning to recede. Not enough to see our flower beds, but I"m sure they're still out there. Waiting patiently for their time in the sun.
Last week we had a flu bug visit us. Alex, Annie and I all had a 24 hour stomach flu. The good news is that we were all sick during the same 24 hours, so it wasn't a drawn out affair, but those 24 hours were tough on all of us. Even Jory and Louisa who somehow managed to avoid the bug.
So this week Annie decided to start calling her sister Lulu. Which is all cute and sweet when they're getting along. But it makes me laugh when Annie is mad at her and screams "Lulu!" in her best meanie voice. Too funny.
And a classic Alex quote from this week. "Mom! I'm 7 and 8/12 years old!" So random.

2 weeks (and a little more) in review

The last few weeks have been rather enjoyable in these parts. We've had a few significant snow falls. Nothing like the rest of the nation has gotten, but enough to enjoy. We've had a blast building a snow mountain, make a few snow angels, and taking a wintery hike through, among other things. We have enjoyed the snow that's fallen this month, but we're a little itchy for it to go away so our daffodils can start poking through. Spring is so close we can almost taste it.
We've also enjoyed watching the Olympics these last few weeks. I'm not so sure the kids care that much about the sports, but they are intrigued by all the different countries that are represented and all of the flags that represent those countries. As I write this they are making a collection of flags to represent different countries for their stuffed animals to wave. Currently we have an American flag, an Olympic flag, and flags for both Finland and Scotland.
Alex had his Pinewood Derby for Cub Scouts over the weekend. His car was an ambulance. He placed 4th (out of 13). Which was good enough for us. My dad (the genius) designed the car so that it would do well, but not so well that Alex would win, and we'd be forced to endure another drawn out competition at regionals.

Welcome February

A new month is here, and with it new adventures. I can breathe a bit easier knowing that next month it will start being warm enough to be outside. At this point it's just a matter of running the clock down. Plus we have Jory's birthday and Valentines day to look forward to. Having two excuses to get rid of the children is never a bad thing.
Over the weekend my good friend from Jr. High/High School, Karen, came for a visit. She was in town from Chicago to go to a wedding shower for our friend Jill. We had a lovely time at the shower, and then hung out here with my crazy family. It was good to catch up and compare notes on life. Good stuff.
School is going well, in the "we're sick of school and ready for SUMMER" kind of way. I'm tempted to say "well if your done with 2nd grade math, I guess you don't have to do math anymore right?" but no. If I followed that logic we'd be left with only Language Arts, as we've completed all the Science, Social Studies, and Spelling (and soon to be Math) required by the state. As much as I love Reading and Writing I can't bring myself to fill an entire morning with it. So grudgingly we press on, opening doors that lead to more knowledge. But yes, we're counting down until the last day of school. 68 more days.

500

I just noticed that this is my 500th post. Which sounds like a lot, but our blog is pushing towards it's 5th anniversary. So I guess that's about right.
Much has happened in the last two weeks around here. The girls have had their 6th birthday. We had a week long celebration. It started with a get together with our friend Cathy a few days before the big day. Then on their proper day we had a little party with the families we baby sit for, and a dinner / party with my parents and my brother.
So we've hit the cabin fever stage of winter. With at least 6 weeks left until it's warm enough to be outside, we're trying to think of ways to power through. We're filling our days with friends, activities, and school, attempting to distract ourselves from the restlessness that is stirring all five of us. We're daydreaming about our next family road trip, and all the things we can plant in our garden. We're trying to convince ourselves that we're perfectly happy celebrating each day that the Lord has made - even if we don't happen to like the weather that day.
We've dreamed up some rather interesting projects for ourselves these last few days. Annie has been the little shutterbug these last few days. She's had a blast dreaming up little scenarios for her toys, then arranging them just right and snapping away. I've taken to leaving my old Kodak Easy Share camera out for her to grab whenever inspiration hits. Of course the other kids always join in on her little studio set-up and offer their imput (welcomed or not).
There have been a multitude of other random activities, including snowman sculpting (at the kitchen table), food scuptures (with marshmallows, fruit snacks, and toothpicks), aquarium making (tupperware containers full of craft marbles and foamie fish), and rescuing marbles that were trapped in large chunks of ice. Good stuff.

So far...

Well with nearly 2 weeks under our belt, I'm happy to report that (so far) 2010 has been a relatively good year.
We had a quiet New Years Eve here at home. We celebrated with a family movie night - a veggie tale if I do believe. I think Jory was the only one awake at midnight - and that's only because he was having a phone conversation with his brother.
As far as resolutions go, the girls both resolved to turn six, and Alex wanted to play GI Joes with his dad. All very attainable. My resolution was to set reasonable expectations for myself - in hopes of avoiding the icky mommy-on-the-verge-of-a-melt-down. Sadly that Mommy reared her ugly head a few times last year, it wasn't pretty. Lesson learned.
This past weekend saw some rather fun outings. Alex attended a kids building workshop at Lowe's with his cub scout troup. He built a nice little wooden bank that we have plans for "cusomizing". We were fortunate to bring home two extra kits so the girls could build their own banks.
We also attended a pool party with some friends from church. Our children's minister rented a local YMCA as a thank you for all the ministry volunteers. The kids had a ball playing with friends in the pool, Jory shot some hoops, and I had time to socialize with the people I volunteer with (but never have a chance to talk to).
So now our year is up and running. We're excited to see all the adventures and blessings this year holds for us.

Post Christmas post.

While the snowflakes are flying outside, I thought I’d take a quick moment to jot down my thoughts on this phase of our lives.
Our Christmas was a great one. It’s hard to predict what gifts the children liked best. The early favorites for both girls have been the Strawberry Shortcake dolls, art supplies, GI Joes, and new outfits. While Alex has mostly focused on his legos, and the model car that he’s building with Jory. I’ve had fun playing (and winning, to my surprise) all the new board games that have come into the house. Poor Annabel has turned out to be a sore looser, and generally refuses to play anything unless she’s clearly ahead.
Anyway. We’ve had a nice relaxing week here. We haven’t had any little friends to baby-sit, so it’s been just us. A whole week with “only” three kids has been restful, but at the same time they make me want to pull my hair out. Why is it that group dynamics change so dramatically when you add and subtract little bodies? How can I be at my wits end with three children, but be perfectly happy with six? Who knows.
School in general is going well. We ended up doing 4 days worth this week. We don’t really take time off for holidays like they do in public school. The kids get bored and restless when we don’t do something organized in the mornings, so it’s just better for my own sanity if we all sit down and focus on something together. The other day I sat down and calculated our projected end of school date (for when we’ve completed the 180 days required by the state) to be April 27. Which is alarmingly early. As of right now I’m contemplating extending the year by 10 school days to try to push the end back until mid-May. We’ll see.

Really?

Really?
Has it really been almost a month? Oy. No real excuse, just a busy time of year for us.
So our fun fall is over, and now the Christmas season has descended upon us. The house is decorated, the cookies are being baked as I write this, and the gifts, well…. 2 out of 3 isn’t bad right?
Right now we are dividing our attention between school, evening activities, and babysitting. School is pretty good. In the last month we’ve finished several Boy Scout belt loops and pins, including art, astronomy, geography, and citizenship. There have been several great requirements that Alex and I have really enjoyed.
Babysitting is going well. Most days I actually enjoying being the mama to six kids, granted I only have my extras for about 18 hours a week. We’ve established a fairly stable routine, and have managed to include our new friends in some of the lessons that we do for school. Emily is in kindergarten, so she is right on track with where my girls are academically. Sweet Abby is 2 1/2, and it’s fun to revisit some of the old lessons with her that my kids enjoyed when they were her age. Corinne, well we just try to keep the beads out of her mouth.

Stuff

Well we're done with the photo project for now, and done with the "oh my gosh, I have all these fabulous pics of our friends, and none of US" photos. Finished all that up about 2 weeks ago, and miss it terribly. Sadly the weather in these parts has been fabulous. 50's and 60's for the last 2 weeks, which is pretty rare. If I'd known the weather was going to stay so nice I would have planned more photo sessions. But you know as soon as I scheduled something it would have snowed. Oh well. There will be plenty of time in the spring, I know.
So now we're directing our energy into school. After looking through the academic belt loops for Alex's boy scouting I decided there was no reason why we couldn't use the requirements as school. For everyone. This week we worked on Art (an obvious place for our family to start). We've had a blast making paper, sculpting, painting, and photographing (oh did we have fun with that one...) Louisa wasn't so crazy about the paper making, but Annie was quite the photographer.
Other academic areas are floating along nicely. We're rapidly approaching the end of second grade course work for most sugject areas so I"m sort of scrambling to figure out how to stall the boy in a way that is still challenging but isn't moving on to 3rd grade level work. (Hence the belt loops that count as school). Gotta let those public school kids catch up a little.
Random Alex quote from this morning: At a friends house this morning the state of Tennessee comes up in conversation, and Alex pipes up "Tennessee was a confederate state, California was a union state".
Ok, nerd.
Speaking of friends, last week a friend from church asked if I could be a "fill in" babysitter while she looked for a new one. So we've been over twice so far, and our kids are having so much fun that I may end up being the new one. Just in the mornings 2-3 days a week. We'll see. Emily is the same age as my girls, and Corinne is coming up on her first birthday here pretty soon. Their cousin Abby may or may not be there, and sometimes we bring baby Elizabeth. So there are as many as 7 kids running around, with Alex as the only boy. But he doesn't seen to mind.

catching up

This month has definitely been about photos in this house. Photos photos and more photos. And sadly this is just the tip of the ice burg. I have 6 sessions planned for this fall, (4 of which are finished) and upwards of 20 more families that have expressed an interest in the project who will have to wait until spring, when the trees are pretty again. The good news is that I'm having a blast, and I'm getting plenty of good feedback from friends and family members.
School is going well. We have about 11 weeks under our belt, and we're still going strong. The girls reading and writing skills are coming along nicely. Louisa perhaps more than her sister, but that's ok. Alex is really loving Social Studies this fall. Geography, History, and Economics are all calling his name. He is forever making maps and trying to sell them to us.
Our fall programs are all up and running. At church we're doing story time/play group, Tuesday night Kidz on a Mission, and peer mentoring for Alex. This fall we've added a church musical "Don't Rock the Ark" for all 3 kids, and Alex has started Boy Scouts. We're also trying to organize a social group at church for families who home school.

Taken by storm

This photography project has certainly taken on a life of it's own. When I originally designed the project I was hoping for 5 families this fall, and (if I was lucky) maybe 2-3 more in the spring. As of this post I have 23 families that would like to participate. Which means if I start in April and do one family a week, I'll be "in business" until mid July - which is the cut off for the project. The good news is that I should have my food/clothing expenses covered and most of our little one's traveling costs (which looks to be about $1,000). I am praying that God will provide all of our traveling costs, and a little extra so we can help others who would like to participate in the project.
It's so cool to watch God's plan for the project unfold. Clearly He dreams bigger than I do.

The Foro Project - photography fund raiser details

Photos “foro” good cause…

Next summer my family and I would like to host a Russian orphan through the Journeys of Joy program with Friends of Russian Orphans and McCord Road Christian Church. In order to provide for our sweet little one, we would like to raise between $200 - $300. Here’s how you can help…

Disclaimer:
I am an amateur photographer who loves taking portraits of family and friends. I have no professional experience.

The scoop:
For a $20 donation I would love to have a mini photo shoot session with you and your loved ones. I can guarantee 30-35 images on CD with no rights restriction (make as many copies of the photos as you want). The images are high resolution, and suitable for enlarging / framing.

Details:
· Indoor and outdoor shoots are available (I personally love outdoors!)
· You’ll walk away with some family portraits, couple shots, sibling shots, individuals of each family member, candid shots, and whatever specific requests you can think of.
· After you schedule your session you’ll receive a short questionnaire asking about your personal preferences. These questions will help me know more about your family and what kinds of pictures you want. This way I can tailor the shoot to your needs and you’ll get more of what you want…
· 5-6 family members please (that includes pets, depending on location!)
If you’d like to have a group larger than 6, that’d be great! But I might ask for a larger donation


Scheduling:
· I would like to do one session a week, six sessions this fall. Please don’t schedule later than mid November. I would really like to have all these shoots done before Christmas, so that you can send your new photos out in your Christmas letters if you so choose. Depending on the popularity of the project, I might offer up a few spring sessions (starting in April).
· Shoots can be during the week between the hours of 4:00 – 9:00 pm, or on weekends (Sundays after 1:00 pm). I have flexible hours, so if those times don’t work for you, email me and we’ll find a time that works for everyone.

Contact me to set up your shoot today – spaces are filling up quickly!
To schedule your shoot, leave a message on this here blog, or if you know my email / phone number, give me a holler...

In the event that we do not end up hosting an orphan, %100 of the proceeds will be directly donated to FORO.

Thank you and God bless!

Long past due

Don't remind me. So it's October around here. While I'm not that thrilled about loosing my garden to the frost, I'm so excited about all things October. Pumpkins, crock pot dinners, baked goods from the oven, sweat shirts, and even foot ball (which by the way, I find mind numbingly boring after about 30 seconds, but it's the concept).
So what's new around here? Alex lost another tooth. He's up to three now. I think that kid wins the "slowest tooth looser" award. Not that I'm complaining. I'll just enjoy that sweet mouth full of baby teeth as long as I possibly can.
I picked up some early readers for the girls the other day. They aren't really reading yet, but they are itching to get started. So I figured it wouldn't hurt to get a few really really simple books and let them practice their high frequency words. It's a step above pretending right?
I scored some princess costumes at the second hand store the other night. The girls promised that they'd put them away so they stay nice for Halloween. Yeah right. They put them on the next day and haven't taken them off since.
And just because I haven't posted any pics in forever, here are some from last month.

All 3 at Toledo Botanical Gardens

Louisa the super model. I thought Annie was my photogenic child.....

The latest...

In the spring I had this fabulous idea to plant extra vegetables so we could donate our leftovers to the local food bank. The idea being that the children (who love gardening) could learn about how to grow and care for vegetables, and in the end we could learn about doing our part to care for the community. (And we could give away all those yucky vegetables that we had no intention of eating). Well our peas and carrots both failed, but our onions took off. We ended up with about 70 onions the size of my fist. Some of which found their way into our bellies, but the majority were boxed up and delivered to the food bank. Where they were well received. So with a sigh of relief and gratitude we're pleased to be done with our veggies for the year. But also excited to think about what we can grow in the future.
School is going well. Alex is currently fascinated by the Titanic. So he's reading everything he can get his hands on, and having a blast drawing and building enormous boats. The girls continue to amaze me with their fine motor abilities. After Alex who had no desire to write or draw when he entered kindergarten, it's kind of a shock to see how well they can express themselves with a pencil. Boy are they itching to read. I think they're twice as excited about the concept of reading as Alex was.
It's starting to feel fall-ish around here. All our friends are back in school (which means not so many play dates - darn). The fall programming has started at church - which means new classrooms and new teachers. The kids had their annual Labor Day campout with Grandma and Grandpa. I'm working on getting Alex enrolled in the boy scouts.

Good times

I'm trying something new here, so I have my fingers crossed that this will actually work. Hold on tight, this could be interesting...
So anyway. We had a fun little get away over the weekend. Jory and I randomly decided to take the kids to Columbus for a little adventure. He and I both had some shopping we wanted to do. The Iron Pony for him, and Easton for me. We stopped in for visits with the Smith family, and the Alexander family. Top it off with swimming in the hotel pool and it was a great little adventure. Now we are home with an arm load of new goodies to play with, and a rather messy house to clean up.
We have now hit the 3 weeks completed mark in our schooling. We have finally found our rhythm. Most days we are completely done, or almost done with our seat work when baby Elizabeth arrives. So then we are ready to read with her, which the baby clearly enjoys.
So we finally found someone to clean up the mulch piles on the corner of the property. It took him nearly three 8 hour work days to complete the job. But he's done. Yahoo!! Now about that house........

Huh?

So I'm not sure why blogger won't allow me to cut and paste from Word. I have a very long post to share with you and am not about to retype it all here. Is anyone else having this problem?

Pigboy

Playing with the pig nose Jory brought home from work.

The End of Summer

Today is our last day of summer vacation. We are all set to start up school again tomorrow morning. The girls and I are rather excited, but Alex is not quite thrilled. This year all three children will embark on the crazy adventure known as home schooling. Kindergarten for the girls, and 2nd grade for Alex. While August 10 strikes me as kind of early to be starting, I have to remember that we’ve been on vacation for 3 solid months, which is more than public school kids get. So it’s time. It’s time for directed learning and structure. It’s time for all you crazy people to go back to school and leave us alone so we can focus. Ahem.
So this week was slightly calmer than the past few weeks have been. We spent a few days at the lake with our friends, the Smiths. Kevin, Jonna and I were pals in college, so it was good to sit back and reminisce about the olden days. Their daughters Natalie and Tessa had a blast chasing my kids around, and soaking up the fun in the lake.
So between our little get together, tying up loose ends for school next week, oh and getting ready for sweet baby Elizabeth, (who will be joining us for school on Monday). It was a productive week. Calmer, less frantic, and definitely productive. The way they should be.

The Speed of light

What a whirlwind these last 2 weeks have been. It’s been a fabulous swirl of birthday, friends, VBS, and a wedding. I’ll do my best to touch on the highlights.
Alex turned seven on July 15. We celebrated his birthday with a trip to the lake and a joint birthday party with his little buddy Hope. Later that week our dear friend Cathy came in from Illinois. Together we had a fun outing to Sauder’s Village where we all enjoyed learning about local history. The girls particularly enjoyed the Potter’s Studio, Alex liked the train ride. Of course.
The week of July 20-24th was our first week of Vacation Bible School. I played the part of photographer. Wandering in and out of classes hoping for the “perfect” shot for the slide show. This year our church was given the opportunity to host 13 Russian orphans. The children range in age from 5 to 12ish. They are staying with various members of the congregation, and attending VBS. As the photographer I got the chance to interact with all the children. As a group they are beautiful and sweet, funny and shy. As a crazy mom with a huge heart you can imagine I fell in love. With each one. I want to keep them all in my house. My tiny house with 16 kids. Don’t think it didn’t cross my mind. But no, they will probably all go back to the orphanage. Filled with ice cream and memories.
So this weekend we went to my brother-in-law’s wedding in southern Missouri. Actually they live in Missouri, but got married 2 hours away Arkansas. Whatever. The wedding was beautiful and we got tons of pics. We also spent a lot of time hanging out with Grandma and the cousins. A lot of time swimming in the hotel pool, exploring local parks and of course, sweating. Southern Missouri in July is hot y’all.
So that brings us mostly up to date. You’ll have to forgive me for the lack of pictures. I only have about 600 from the last 2 weeks to sort through…….

New Dress

Here’s a quick pic I snapped of Louisa in the dress I made for her. She’s soaring like a bird (in case that wasn’t obvious). Everyone knows that a new dress makes you feel like your flying.