General stuff...

Life is getting back to normal around here. We've had a few blissfully quiet days that have allowed me to catch up on my "critical" list of to-do's. This week the kids have been out to the lake for swimming lessons with my mom at the boyscout camp. Annie of course is quite the little fish, leave the other two in her wake. Alex is learning to like the water without goggles.
I've had a quiet week on my photography project, which has allowed me to make some headway on editing past sessions. Just so you have some idea on where we stand, I've currently raised somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,250 for FORO, and in the month of June I've had 8 paid photoshoots, with 3 more scheduled before July 1. I chuckle when I think about my original goal which was 5 photo sessions total, $100 raised. I was so far off the mark.
Speaking of FORO, we had our final planning meeting this week. We learned a little more about Severodvinsk, where our children are from. Apparently, the region is well known for their submarine building (which Alex thinks is SO cool), and the movie "The Hunt for Red October" was filmed not far from their community. We also had a Russian language training session. Basically we learned the top 100 phrases a parent would need. Stop, not allowed, are you sick, bathroom, etc. I'm fairly confident I can get by with the Russian, I already know - yes, no, and grandma. Jory is trying to learn a little more - I think he just wants to impress his co-workers.

Update on life

Much has happened in this house during the last two weeks. Last week Jory and the kids went to New Mexico without me. While they were gone, my mom and I had extreme home makeover - Peterson family edition. We painted the master bedroom/bathroom and our hallway bathroom. Throw in some new bedding, new bathroom faucets, furniture rearranging and some other general "repairs" and you have a good idea of how we spent our week. But now the children are back home, where they belong. They're up to their regular antics, and I'm pretending they aren't making me crazy.
In addition to working on the house, my life has been overtaken with photos. I drove to Columbus last weekend for a photo extravaganza. I had 7 sessions planned, thankfully the good Lord intervened on that craziness, and 2 families had to cancel. In the future I'll know that 5 sessions in one weekend is just right. Numbers aside, I had a lovely weekend. I got to catch up with some friends that I hadn't seen in a while, catch up with a friend I hadn't seen since high school, and meet some new friends - ones that I felt I already knew, and apparently knew me just as well.
Thankfully things are starting to settle down around here. We are falling back into our regular routines. My lovely little garden is chugging right along, despite the fact that I've neglected it all week. Our peas are now ripe for the picking, and boy do we have a lot. Louisa has taken to helping me pick them in the morning, which has been a fun little bonding experience for both of us. Remember when I said no one else in the family would eat them? Well times are changing - these kids might be pea eaters afterall.

Welcome June

It's so fabulous to see how our garden changes from week to week. This week we are excited to see things that we planted from seeds starting to push through the soil. We have cosmos, and dill(new plants in addition to the volunteers we have from last year), and pumpkins - which we've never grown before. Growing things from seeds is the coolest, watching it start out tiny and then get bigger and bigger as it matures. Sure it takes forever, but that's half the fun. In addition to our new growth, we were excited to see the first tiny pea pods appear. Soon enough I'll be able to pick a snack every morning as I make my rounds. Yes, I eat peas for breakfast.
In addition to new growth in our garden, I was thrilled this morning to find my first tiny toads, by the end of the summer they'll be about an inch long, but right now they're about as big as my pinky fingernail. I found three of these little guys this morning. It's time to start watching where I'm walking again. Speaking of watching where I'm going, I found another black rat snake in my garden today. This one was smaller than the first one I saw back in April, and therefor not nearly as scary. But still. I've lived in this house for 7 years with nary a snake, then all of a sudden I have multiple snakes. Yahoo. All I can say is he better not eat all my toads.
Jory and kids are getting ready to take a trip out west for Grandaddy's birthday. Jory's grandfather will be 98 this year. Sadly I won't be able to join them. Remember that photography project I'm working on? Well I currently have 8 photo shoots scheduled that week. So I will be here pretending to be a photographer and enjoying a house that actually stays clean. And eating peas for breakfast.

happenings........

It's been a little quiet around here these last few days. We are settling into a summer routine, enjoying the fact that we don't have to sit down at the table to do school work for a while. It's still too early in the season for our summer programs to be starting up, so we're just chillin. We've been having fun with our international preschool friends, and catching up with our friend "baby Z" (aka Elizabeth) who is a little friend that we watched a lot last fall...
Our garden is bursting forth. This week it was the roses. The pink ones and yellow ones are stunning right now. Last year I found some sadly neglected roses on our "annex" and transferred them to our garden, not knowing exactly what I was putting in. Well, the first one is nearly ready to bloom, and it looks like it will be have a red blossom. Not sure if they will all be the same color or if they will be a variety. Surprises are so fun.
My photography project is picking back up. I started it last year as a way to raise money for our little Maxim to come, and have had a great response. I had a session last weekend, and am looking at at least one session per weekend for the next few weeks.
On a completely random note, a friend convinced me to make a "fan page" on facebook. Not that I think I"m cool enough to have fans, but it does make it easier for people who aren't friends with me on FB to look at my pictures. So if you'd like to see more photos of the kids, or see some of the photo shoots that I've done you can find me at Elissa Peterson Photography, or just follow the link in the sidebar. It's not that exciting yet, but there'll be more pictures up soon.

freedom........

We are officially on summer vacation in these parts. Wednesday was our last day. It's so weird to come home from our various morning activities and not have to wrestle the children into submission at the kitchen table. A very welcome break indeed.
Our big news for the week is that we recieved our placement information about our Russian orphan! His name is Maxim and he's 6 years old. He has blonde hair, blue eyes, and chubby little cheeks. He's pretty darned cute if I do say so myself. He and his friends will be here on July 16th. We're pretty excited to meet him.

Mother's Day was a lovely affair in our house. After church we headed out on a little adventure. It was a beautiful day, so we took our kites to the park, and did a little exploring. After our adventure we had a nice "dinner" of pie and ice cream at Bob Evans. Being a grown up rocks.

The weather has been a little icky this week, so we haven't been able to spend much time out in the yard. We've had a little bit of flooding in the low parts of our yard. Nothing to write home about, but enough to make some of our plants unhappy.

The Scent of Summer

We are closing in on the end of the school year. It sort of crept up on me this year. We have 3 days left - which means I only have to plan a partial week next week. Whoa. Where did the year go? The kids worked really hard this year, and all three have made great strides academically. So now it's nearly time to play, and we can't wait for our freedom. The weather is warming up, and we are antsy to get out in the garden.
Speaking of which, our garden is bursting forth. New blooms for the week include the double layer white daffodils and 3 types of irises (all purple oddly enough). This week the girls and I probably planted 150 seeds - cosmos, sunflowers and dill. We are still having trouble with the tent caterpillars. It turns out that when you destroy the nests - if any have escaped they will just build a new nest. Lovely.
In other news we have embarked on a new child care adventure. Previously we've been doing in home child care for individual families. As of right now, we're sort of between families. So when we were notified that a local center was in need of volunteers, we thought we'd try it. Our new center is called the American School for Women and Children. It is a school for women who are learning English as a second language, and provides childcare for their children. We are in the pre-k and kindergarten class, so my kids fit right in age wise. With one week under our belt we are completely thrilled with the center. I was afraid the kids would find it slightly odd that they are in the cultural minority (as in the only white children in the center) but they could care less. The other children in our class are Chinese, Arabic and Somalian. What a fantastic learning opportunity for my children.

The latest

Last week we were blessed to have Jory's brother Jason visit for a few days. He had some errands to do in our neck of the woods, so he and Levi made the long haul from Montana. Highlights from the visit include Alex and Levi running continuous laps around the house for about 6 hours, burning the last few tent caterpillar nests out of my apple trees, dinner with my parents, and an outing to the Airforce museum in Dayton.

Our kids had yet to experience the museum, so we were excited to see what they thought. The girls and Levi were properly impressed. Alex was enthralled. He needed me to take a photo of every. single. airplane. Not just a simple photo, no... he had specific instructions on how each photo needed to be composed (huh, wonder where he learned that from). Mental note, next time, take two cameras. In other news, we managed to reclaim our apple trees from the tent caterpillars. At the end of the day I think we destroyed about 30 nests total. I was able to cut out and burn most of them by myself, while Jason managed to rig up a torch on a stick to get the last few nests that I was unable to get. The children got a kick out of watching the caterpillars attempt to escape the flames, I had to remind myself that it's not considered murder if they're pests.

This week

My oh my has this been an interesting week. It started with a bored Mama who needed a field trip. So to the botanical gardens we went, to see what was blooming. (Well I was interested in what was blooming, the children just wanted to run through all the little garden rooms playing tag.) We did learn to recognize tulips though, so it wasn't a total loss. But there were many things blooming - tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and so much more. I was as happy as a kid in a candy store (or perhaps a Mama in a garden) peaking in each little bed to see what treasures it held (while the children ran wild of course).

The other interesting occurance happened yesterday, after lunch I was walking around in my yard pondering life, when a rather large snake warned me not to step any closer. Eek. He flattened his head the way a cobra does - which was rather terrifying. I am fairly certain that there are no cobras in this area, so I called the resident snake expert (aka my father) to identify the critter. Popular opinion says it's a Black Rat snake, which may or may not be harmless. We're taking precautions anyway.
So now the immediate drama is over, I can only thank God for minimizing the drama involved in the situation. I was alone when I found the snake, so the children were spared the trauma of witnessing a scared Mama. He showed up early in the day - before I would have sent the children out to play. Which is such a blessing as I found him in a high traffic area of the yard. If it had been an hour later and I had sent them out, it would have only been a matter of time before the first unsuspecting pair of bare feet ran past him. Shudder.

All I can say is I would never make it in Africa where they have really dangerous snakes.

Pickle juice paint

I have had a few inquiries about my special pickle juice paint. It's basically uh... pickle juice and food coloring. And we use it as paint because there's never enough to completely submerge the eggs. So I pour the juice from the pickle jar through a strainer into small containers, add a little food coloring, hand the kids paint brushes, and poof - happy colorful easter eggs. Alex and Louisa kept adding layers of "paint" to their eggs, so theirs were more colorful. Annie wanted hers to be more muted, so she stopped after 1 layer.

April upon us

Spring has come to these parts, not a moment too soon. The daffodils are blooming, the grass is turning green, and much to my great joy - the children are spending a good part of their free time outside. ahhhhhhhhh.
As the weather warms up, our desire to do school work is quickly deteriorating. Who wants to add and subtract when you can dig? Not us. We have 26 days of school left, and as we gleefully cross off each day we hear that sweet song of freedom calling a little bit louder.
Easter has come and gone. My attempt at Easter last year was remarkably pitiful, so I had to redeem myself this year. Last week we had an egg hunt with our friend Emily (well several egg hunts as the children wanted to keep hiding the eggs from each other). On Saturday we painted hard boiled eggs with my famous pickle juice paint, and on Sunday we had a family Easter basket. In the past I've stayed away from the whole secular side of Easter - the baskets with too much candy and lame-o toys and such, but one (large) basket full of goodies for the whole family to share was just about right.
Our church is creating a new brochure this year, so the brochure committee asked me to submit a handful of photos to the cause. Well after I submitted "a few" they were thrilled and gave me a list of specific topics they wanted to illustrate better. So on Easter Sunday (which was possibly the worst time to take photos because the church was PACKED) I showed up, camera in hand, and managed to get a handful of decent shots. So those have all been submitted and I'm excited to hear back about what they thought.

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.