First Day of School

First Day of School!  Faith in 4th, Hope in 7th, Joseph in 8th and Ezekiel in 11th

Shekinah was not real sure that they should leave "all by themselves" but they did!

Daddy and his little girl giving the turkeys an evening stroll...

the turkeys never stay in one spot to get a good picture.

Our meatless taco bowls from Tues night. Quinoa, rice, beans, chips, lettuce, tomato, and cheese.

Fun Stuff and "New" Purchases

                    Somewhere along the line I posed with Shekinah, gotta check the camera cards more often.

Then someone sent us a video on keeping mosquitoes away, it involved wearing a nylon stocking over your head, this bit of information intrigued some of my children....Almost couldn't fit one over this noggin.

                                            But it proved the funniest part of the day

                               Even Shekinah had to get in on the act, poor kid could only open one eye.

                             Licking the beaters is the bestest part of making Zucchini cake.

               I normally lay my peaches on the table on our back porch to help them ripen evenly. After all these years a smart critter, coon I think, came and took bites out of half the peaches. Apparently like Ramona "the first bite tastes best" because he only finished one or two. May the bites of stolen peaches rumble in your intestines like the thunder.

It's great what you can buy at a Facebook yardsale! I put out an ISO (in search of) and within a few hours knew of 2 pianos. One was only a few miles from our home, when we found out that a piano weighs quite a bit I was very glad we didn't have to transport it very far. I lost a bit of sleep trying to figure out how we were going to get that thing up on the bed of a pick up truck. I investigated renting a ramp, and furniture dolly. Thankfully someone that hubby works with loaned us a garden tractor trailer and we with the help of the previous owner and a neighbor man we walked it onto the trailer. We drove 25 MPH down the road and after removing the front door got it into the house.

Of course if you buy one piece of furniture you should get rid of three, but the jury is still out as to which three pieces of furniture we should send out the front door. I tried to offer my mom one of the pieces (just on loan), but she didn't bite....she keeps sending stuff to MY house under the guise of  "here girls, don't you want this?'.

Anyway, now...music lessons  times four?   Wonder if those online things actually work?  Joe needs to use a different technique and Zeke already has his idea of what music should sound like....

Next week Joseph will start to use a third brand of feet. He has broken feet from the two other popular manufacturers so now we will try the "indestructible" ones supposedly made from the same material that helicopter rotors are made from.
Tomorrow Hope comes home from a week of girls' camp. I'm sure there will be a day or three of adjustment and wiggling our ways back into the pecking order.

Visit to Bradford, etc.

       Just so I remember what this year's  Christmas quilt looked like. I'm sure I will need

 to make another next year.

                  Making a dress out of a t-shirt and a huge pair of t-shirt shorts, takes planning. 

It's not a dress for "good" but it will do for stay-at-home-days.

Last week Ezekiel spent the week working with my brother in his computer store.

I called it computer camp, he worked at beginning programming and getting the feel

of customer service. It also led to a possible after-school job.

He messaged me on the first day and said "well I'm the new guy, you

can tell because I only have one screen, Tony has three."

We went to Bradford to bring Ezekiel home and while there we visited Kinzua Bridge. The last time I saw that bridge, Ezekiel was about 2 and the bridge extended the whole way across the valley and you had to keep an eye on your watch. The train schedule was posted at the entrance to the bridge and you were expected to get off the bridge before the train roared across.

God allowed the weather to show man's mistakes in leaving very old bolts

in the base of the bridge when they repaired it at one point.

In 2003 half the bridge came crashing down during a tornado type storm. Thankfully no one was on the bridge and no lives were lost.

     Hanging out on 300' high bridges with glass windows is OK for an occasional trip

           but those little people just have no fear and would have leaned 'way over the railings if  we mothers wouldn't have been watching :)

Go to Tony's blog for better pictures of the ruins.

                              This family of cousins has a "match" for each of our younger children, except their child
                     was born in the year ours came home....so there is a difference of a months/ years depending
           which of our children we are talking about. They had lots of fun playing "The Bean Game"
                 We ordered it the day after we came home and they are spending much time trading

           "soy, stink, wax, or coffee".

Two Weeks with Catherine

                            Wow those two weeks "went past fast". Here is a picture of the first day at our house.

                     She was super shy....and stayed that way for the whole two weeks. She ate well. 

                 Was not enthused about mashed potatoes, but I expected that. She ate pizza, did not go swimming, or ride bike, or try the hula hoop, or shoot baskets. 

Always the polite wave of the hand and "no no"

Every morning we got them up at 7:15 and had her to a local church

by 8:30 AM.  They did all sorts of  "American" "Mennonite" activities.

One day they went to Hershey Chocolate world, one day to Knobels, one day to Sight n Sound

to see the Moses performance, camp out, farm, tour a grocery store, frisbee, mini golf,

camp out, picnic and baseball.

Joe was a little insulted when the ump mistook him for an exchange student and asked slowly

Did.you.play.baseball.before?

Joe: yes at school

Oh. I.didn't. know. they . played. in China.

Joe: no, I go to school here.

One afternoon, Faith sat down and read Winnie the Pooh to Shekinah. Catherine was obviously 

tired and soon both girls were sound asleep. Faith was impressed.

She spoke decent English...better than my Chinese anyway, but

it was such an effort to carry on a conversation that part of me said

"oh what's the use, she's leaving soon" 

When she did answer a question it was with simple "yes" or "no" and she never

asked any questions at.all.

Was not quite sure if she liked our family, she did show more animation with the other students.

We did find out that most of the students met for the first time on this trip.

Shekinah pested her, Faith was grouchy cause she was the perennial middle child with not enough sleep.

Hope sort of monopolized her and Joseph started practicing his Chinese calligraphy again.

When I had prayers and Bible stories with the girls, she took her shower.

She did accept her Chinese/English Bible,but left her story book here because "it didn't fit in the suitcase"

One of the other families was brave enough to ask their student what stood out about his visit in their home.

He told them "all the love".

I wasn't brave enough to ask.

Would we do this again?   Not sure.

        During this week we put out the Adoption News using child labor.

  Parker is getting around and tearing paper amuses him.

It amuses his grandma too...for now.

I declare, every week he is doing something new!

Catherine was bemused by him, but I'm almost certain she was never around a baby.