Our Thanksgiving

It started out before the sun was up...since three girls are still on the school day schedule.

We attended church, then drove to my niece's house. The cousins had fun.

                         They made turkeys with cookies and corn candy...then had a cookie catching contest

Some of them resorted to catching candy corn because they were sure their mouths were not THAT big

Around 4 PM I got a text from our oldest saying that his wife is headed for a c-section...I'm very glad I didn't know when they arrived at the hospital....sometimes ignorance is bliss!

         Shortly after 6 we got the call that Parker Chase had arrived!  A whopping 8 # 10 oz

Proud daddy!

                               All the proud aunts and uncles got to hold him the next day. We actually took turns from oldest to youngest, but it's too much hassle to arrange the pictures AGAIN!

"S" Quote

Those practice session with the colors must be sticking a little bit!...
Well first a little background, over the weekend I began smelling a 'rotten' smell in the girls' room. Remembering the purloined Popsicle, I started searching and found a sippy cup of very sour milk hiding under Shekinah's bed. Apparently it had leaked a little onto the carpet and the smell didn't disappear when I got rid of the cup.
So Monday morning I was on a warpath, that room was getting cleaned! I hauled all the blankets from her bed, and the blankets that I lay on while waiting for her royal highness to fall asleep, down the steps. Well, I got a foot tangled in one of the dangling corners and that quick I was plopping down the steps on my behind.
Long story, short, I called hubby at work and told him to check on me later, while he was talking to me I started mumbling and hung up on him.  Like any good hubby he called 911.
All told, we had 3 police officers and 2 EMT's in my living room and Shekinah was busy observing "those guys"  I didn't go to the hospital, I just bruised my tailbone and my pride. I'm still a little achy but MUCH better.
Anyway--- tonite hubby was looking at our adjustable floor lamp and said "now who was messing with those lights again! I told them (the children) to leave them alone!"  He looked at Shekinah and asked "Do you know who was messing with the lights?"
"yes, those guys."
" which guys?"
"Those blue guys in the shirts!"

Their shirts were indeed blue, but I didn't see anyone messing with those lights.

But she got the color right!

Painted My "Native" Americans

And sent them out the door! They thought I should whip up fringes and leggings last night...sorry kiddos, I don't have that much energy for something you will wear for about 3 hours.

Fourteen Things.....About Me?

I was 'tagged' on fac*book to give fourteen "little known" facts about myself. Some people were assigned as few as six; I'm not sure how I managed to be elected for fourteen. Maybe I'll tell myself  " I won".....there that makes it easier!
I really don't think there are fourteen facts about myself that people would really want to know, but here goes:

1. I spent all my life high, that is until I was 19 and got married and changed my name to something different.

2. I have been asked a number of times if I'm part Chinese.

3. I am the oldest of  three children.

4. I have no sisters.

5. We have seven children.

6. According to the IR*, I am self-employed at three jobs.

7. I am currently getting my hair combed into 'cornrows' by an eight-year-old. I may never be able to finish this post- ouch!

8. I once drove an ambulance into Philadelphia...and back out. The ambulance was fine and the patient no worse for the trip!

9. I have only been to FL once, on our honeymoon.

10. I have been to Chin* four times.

11. I've worn glasses since 8th grade.

12. I helped deliver a little boy, early one morning, in the living room of their house. My famous words? "Oh it's the head!"

13. I got my EMT certification a little over 25 years ago.

14. My hubby and I met at a scavenger hunt.

Today is National Adoption Day, I can't imagine how boring my life would be without the added blessing of our youngest four children. Not everyone should be adoptive parents, but EVERYONE has the requirement of  James 1:27 and other verses to care for those less fortunate than you. It can be praying specifically for a family, providing a listening non-judgmental ear,being part of a big brother/sister program, or MAYBE just MAYBE God is asking you to step outside of your comfort zone and into some Extreme Parenting!   How about it? Ask God, you might be surprised what He says.   That verse also mentions widows, they can be 'adopted' too, there are so many ways to be involved in helping other people that don't even involve money...but they do involve time.  That is a long topic all of its own.





A lesson learned: If you are stealing nuts, you should watch where you are going!

In Memory

Seven years ago, we said good-bye to my grandmother. Most of my children

were privileged to meet her and sit on her lap, but somehow I don't have

pictures. Reminder: make sure you take pictures....

Next Generation

   She came to me tonight to show me how to handle a choking baby. She goes along to CPR classes occasionally. Apparently something is being learned.

.                                                She also has an interesting taste in books

Things We Learned This Week

We can't eat 30# of bananas in one week even with all the hungry people at our house.''


Those funny bumps on Shekinah's feet...probably are from hands, foot and mouth...sorry, hopefully we didn't pass it around, she started on Wed.

We should learn how to knit so we can make custom gloves for Shekinah, she can wear the others, but  all the floppy fingers are a bit disconcerting.

Going to bed at 8:30 PM makes 4:55 AM not-so-bad.

We talked about why Sydney Australia is having 90 degree temperatures in November...somehow my 7th grader wasn't taught that in the past 3 years.

Jelly fish can be beautiful.

It is very irritating when the glue you use for your poster either a. doesn't stick or  b. wrinkles your paper.

If you want to get Shekinah out of your hair, say something like "I'm gonna get momma."
then go running toward mama...that will cause Shekinah to shriek and cling to mama's skirt and proclaim "she's MY mama!"

Baking soda and vinegar shampoo IS worth the bother.

You can only work so many hours of over-time before all you want to do is sleep.

It's time to start a budget again and squeeze every penny till it squeals!  copper wire here we come!

Cooking the grains/legumes for Ezekiel bread seems to be worth the bother.

"I like Wang shou-shou"

She has a photo album of our journey home. In it I have pictures of her foster mom who she seems to have forgotten, but we keep reminding her of the name she used. She called her "ni-ni" (long i) . Then there is a picture of our driver whom we called "Wang shou-shou"  Wang being his surname and "shou-shou" being the term for uncle. She usually asks for his name when we look at her book. I remind her, but the next time she asks the same question.  And I wonder, "does she even hear me, does she have a learning disability?"  or is she just playing games...?

Today we went to Wa*mart for that wonderful family picture and as we were leaving, I was unloading the cart, cause you know, I might as well make the stop worth my time...we needed peanut butter, milk, flour, baking powder, coffee creamer, dishwasher soap....
Anyway...she was facing the parking spaces while I was unloading, I noticed a Toyota truck park in one of the facing spots and noticed that the couple was Asian. My brain sort of goes on 'alert' when she is "alone" and is faced with Asian people...sometimes she doesn't seem to notice their features, the next time, she will practically crawl out of the cart to get to me.  It seems to make a difference in the attitude of the other party.
This time the man got out of his side and noticed Shekinah sitting in the cart and me -the unmatching mother. He had a pleasant expression on his face the whole time and Shekinah gazed after him.  I gave her an extra hug when I put her in her car seat and she said  " I like Wang shou-shou"

It was funny, something about that man reminded me of Wang shou-shou too, but most of all...she is hearing me!

Sunday Morning

We inadvertently captured a bit of the rush that Sunday morning brings to this household. 

I forgot to get a family picture for our 1 year post-placement, the social worker called on Friday 

to remind me. So-- I informed the family that no one is leaving for church until I have a suitable

family picture...in this case, everyone looking and most of us smiling. After all, we are not sending 

a dossier to China, just fulfilling the photo requirement. 

                          Zeke was testing the lighting and making sure the camera had the right settings

I was quickly combing hair, the others were clearing up.

Unfortunately at the last minute someone noticed a magazine behind Shekinah's booster seat

I tossed it on the floor, thinking it wouldn't be noticed....

but I think we have a suitable picture.

THEN!

 I saw something I haven't seen in months! CLEAN DISHES from my dishwasher. We had decided that the dishwasher is just getting old and will need replacing we only filled the bottom rack and often I just washed everything by hand because it was such a pain to inspect each dish or rinse the crumby film that was left behind. Then the other day we noticed that the bathtub drain gurgled loudly when the washer started the spin cycle...then we started seeing water come out of the bathtub drain....eww yuck!  (just a side note our toilets are on a totally different line) but still....finally on Saturday DH had a chance to take a look...the pipe had lots of buildup of the same type of gunk that was building up inside my dishwasher....he remembered that about two years ago he saw an article in the newspaper about the phosphate free soaps causing problems with our appliances.
So I did some online research found this article and after looking at the costs of shipping dishwasher detergent, decided to see if I could find this product locally. Sure enough, they sell it at the paint stores and the stated use is washing walls before painting "to remove greasy sooty build-up".

I added about 2 tsp of the stuff along with my dishwasher detergent and my dishes have been CLEAN!

 and Praise the Lord!  the plumbing seems to be open again after a couple of bottles of draino. Now see if we can keep it that way..

Why We Still Get the Newspaper

So we can adjust dress patterns!

Hope out grew her dress pattern and there is NOTHING in any of the pattern books that is just a regular dress, you know, a skirt, a bodice with a neckline that doesn't fall off her shoulders and sleeves ...a very simple request I would think.  I ended up copying an old pattern from the school and I was delighted until I fitted the bodice against her...so short, mom!? So I added a piece to the waist then after I had the zipper sewn I realized that this dress is about 7" too wide for her!

It's a good think I know how to use a seam ripper!

Actually we still get the newspaper so we can read the comic pages and see news stories of things that happened days ago.  We almost cancelled it because  we could just read internet news AND read all the comics online, but that would mean the younger kids would want to be online too and I'm just not ready for them to be clicking all over the screen. Enough things "just happen" on the old computer they use for school work and games.

And it would mean that I wouldn't have any paper to make dress patterns!

Tonite I made "Ezekiel Bread" for our sub rolls it was a hit. Now I guess I will need to grind unusual grains and have flour soaking on the counter top overnight when I want to bake bread. Will have to decide if the extra steps are worth it, or only for special occasions.  You  can find the recipe I used here  for you local readers, I found the ingredients at Glenwood foods.

For months I've been copying and pasting my 2012 blog posts and photos into a file. I converted it to a pdf file and had it printed at the UPS Store. Shekinah loves 'reading' it...and we have been 'reading' a Waldo search book most every night before bed...she knows where he is on every page.