Where's the Pause Button?

That thought has been running through my mind quite a bit these days. Somehow I feel like we are at the perfect time in our lives. I know that my children might not agree, but I feel like life is almost perfect right now.

Our eldest is happily married.

All of us that need jobs, have them.

 We are all relatively healthy.

The taxes aren't due yet.

In a few months Ben will be graduating (May is only a few months away) Then he will enter the REAL world. You know, the one with a full time job or more school or ?

At the end of this year we will have another driver in the house...at the VERY end of the year. I am praying that the DMV office is closed between Christmas and New Year.

In a few short weeks, Joe will turn 13, somehow that  makes him so much older. So little time to get him ready for the real world.

Hope is poised on the brink of being a young lady. I've not shared my house with a teen girl yet. They tell me it could get interesting.

Faith and Shekinah are just at their perfect stage of being young, plenty of time to teach them before they are out there on their own.

I like life just the way it is.

I guess I could look at it another way...it could get better....maybe I'll look back at this post in a year and laugh at my shortsightedness. 

I hope so.

Parent- Teacher Conference-Edited!

Tonight we went to parent-teacher conferences--for someone else's kids.

At least it felt that way.

Each student was respectful

Always cheerful

Had a pleasant outlook

Quiet voice...almost too quiet (that was just one of them)

Very neat work space

Not much gets them down

They always seem to do their best


I wonder who those lucky parents are?

Edited! I'm just glad that they wait until they get home to be 'normal'. I told one slow-poke this morning, "If your teacher would come and hide in a corner for awhile, the parent-teacher conference might not sound the same."

Finally!

 Today I was hard at work on this quilt order and my sewing machine just QUIT!  couldn't make the needle move at all. I was so close to finished!

DH came home from work, forewarned and took the back plate apart and soon figured out what was jammed...we removed a whole litter of dust bunnies and oiled it. Now it sounds like a new machine!

Thank goodness for hubbies who are willing to fix things.

This is a queen sized quilt, the top, odd part is for the pillow tuck.

The other week I talked about the precious "Go Dog Go" book that we read at least twice a day. Today she must have been suspicious that I would hide the book...she fell asleep with it clutched in her hands.

Ears

Did you know that you can't look into your own ears?

Well now you do.

Who Needs a Fancy Clothes Line?

Especially when you have cabinet knobs.

I was busy putting shirts and dresses on hangers when little missy found some 'smalls' in the wash basket. She decided that  hanging them on the side of the basket was just unimaginative.

Well PTL!

Before I went to China this time we had heard rumors of a sewer project on our street. This rumor had been floating around for years....actually heard about it first when we went for Hope - 10 years ago. This time however it sounded more likely, there were actually surveyor marks on the road and little colorful ribbons on the bushes.

We turned it over to God.

 If you know anything about township sewer projects you know that they are expensive. First they inconvenience the neighborhood by digging holes in the road, then they charge you for the inconvenience. Then after they put in all the pipes you have to pay your own contractor to dig a pipe out to their pipes in the road. Then you get charged quarterly for the amount of sewage you produce.

We didn't have the money sitting around waiting for that kind of project.  I caught hubby with the calculator figuring things and trying to figure out if the home equity line of credit could be stretched one more time.

Well today we got a letter in the mail bearing the township's logo. I opened it expecting to be advised when we should expect the digging to commence and how to apply for a loan.

But wait...! what did that say?!

"because your main building is more than 150 feet from the road you WILL NOT be required to hook into the system."

That my friends is a direct answer to prayer.

A Week Late

                       Ten years ago, Hope took a good look at her new daddy and didn't even cry.

None of the babies did even though their bottles were hours late....hmm...

 I promptly made my first bottle ever, coffee hot as was her preference.

She had a nasty cold. We used the blank a friend had made for her. She still uses that blanket!

         Doesn't he look young?

   The White Swan was decorated for Chinese New Year. I didn't realize how much, until we were there in 2006 and saw the lobby in its 'normal' splendor.

Our guide De and his wife HeLin took good care of us.

Now I Need an Overlock Machine

I blame it on this book. I picked it up at the library and there are the cutest little dresses in there!




Thing is you need t-shirt fabric. So on Friday after school, the girls and I went to this place and found some fabric. I combined it with some leftovers that I had and put together 3 dresses today. I believe I would have been finished in a lot less time if I had an overlock...My hubby was worried when I told him that. "what's happening to you? First a new 'office' and now a new sewing machine"

Just wishing...

Anyway Faith has some dresses that are big enough for her...girl is growing like a weed!

Then just a picture of little one setting the table.

Stir Fried Rice in the Crockpot?!

I wanted something easy, that could wait and that contained ingredients that were already in the house.   That ruled out a lot of dishes...well for these PA Dutch folks anyway. We ate our 10 pounds of potatoes in 2 meals, the 1 # of spaghetti wasn't gonna go very far ( we do a lot of carbs- I'm feeding growing children)  So that left rice. Googled stir fried rice and added 'crock-pot' to the search too  came up with this   and this   but of course the amount was to serve 4 and had wonderful things like mushrooms. So I came up with this:

Stir Fried Rice in a crock-pot

serves 10 with a little for lunches tomorrow

5 cups rice, cooked

6-1/4 cup water

2-3 cups vegetables

3 eggs

garlic

ginger

black pepper

salt

2-3 tablespoons sesame oil

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

2-3 tsp soy sauce

2-1/2 cups cooked chicken

Early in the day

Cook 5 cups of rice in 6-1/4 cups water  so that the rice is not over cooked

Let rice sit till 4 hrs before serving time

When time to start crock pot

fry one onion ( very finely diced at our house) in

olive oil

garlic

chop 4-5 carrots

chop a chunk of cabbage

1-1/2 cup frozen peas

The veggies are mix and match use what you have. I didn't cook any of them except the onions and then needed to have the crockpot on high for the 4 hours. If your veggies are cooked you won't need as much heat or time.

Spray crockpot with vegetable spray or oil it in some way.

Throw veggies in crock pot  add,

3 eggs

ginger  ( sprinkle on some dry approx 1/2 tsp)

stir them up

Drizzle  1-2 tablespoons sesame oil over the cooled or left over rice

              2-3 tsp soy

              black pepper

              olive oil

              add salt to taste ( not too much)

Stir the oils around in the rice so that the grains separate, I think that kept my end result from being mush.

Throw the rice in the crock pot

And don't forget the meat like I almost did!

I had left over roasted chicken, I think the stir fry is better if the meat has a little flavor...salt, pepper

I added some ginger teriyaki sauce that was around...but plain chicken would work too

Stir the very full crock pot, mixing everything

I ended up stiring it about every 45 min, so that my carrots cooked...so next time I think I will blanch

my veggies so I don't have to stir it.

             

Ten Years and Change of Plans

 This morning I had my day all planned...well you know how that goes.  We were going to welcome  this family to our house for lunch. I was going to use the rest of my day to cook a 'hot and cold dish' for a family reunion tomorrow.  Somewhere after the chili was in the crockpot, but before the pumpkin scones were baked, Shekinah came by and was patting my leg. I picked her up and ...you know that feverish feel...
( We had a few dogs for awhile and they get warm noses and their fur feels funny, but people feel different too when they have a fever)

Anyway I called our guests and told them...they decided to see us the next time they are in town. Actually Anna I must confess it did relieve my mind so I could just sit and hold her when she needed me. While the fever meds were working she was happy...in between...not so much. Not sure what is causing the problem and since it's our first round of illness with this sweetie, not sure how it will go tonite.

Then the red letter portion of today!  Ten years ago we met Hope!  She chose to go to Mc Donald's  for supper. Yeah, I know, we don't have real high expectations around here. But it did mark the first time Shekinah had an ice cream cone...too bad she didn't feel good enough to eat it..

We decided to buy ice cream and eat it at home.

      You can see how enthused S was about her ice cream

                      

  Tomorrow I have to find the meeting day photos and post them, she is growing up way too quickly.

My Office

It needs help.

 I edit a 32 page newsletter four times a year and mail it to over 350 subscribers.

 I need to come up with a better office. 

 Shelf space, use the walls?

  I amazed that I don't lose more stuff than I do.  Thankfully I can soon pack up all the adoption paperwork and get that out of my area.

I also need to get stitching on those 'pretty' leaves and finish that quilt...so I can start the next order.

Am I bored?

Nope not yet.

Christmas Vacation

This is what you look like when you try to do a 10 page book report with
noisy siblings in the house.

I'm glad that they go back to school tomorrow, there is just not enough
to do around here. Well, OK, maybe if mom would be a lot more organized
she would have clean kitchen cupboards and waxed floors.
Guess I'm lazy, but that sounded like more work for me than for the able
bodied people around here.

They kept up with the laundry and toys, swept the carpets, and emptied
the dishwasher.

AND played too much computer....which we found out tonight is going to
cost one of our little lambs...they neglected their quiz team
memorization and fell way behind. We are praying about it tonight, but
should make a decision about taking them off the team or letting them
drag the others down...not sure yet how to handle this.

PS: It's not the 'lamb' in the picture