Cause ya have a bad day....

Leah is growing up. I am seeing it so much these days. She is very mature acting, reminding me of how my sister was at that age....but her personality also reminds me much of her daddy's. With this maturity, brings about her dis-interest in playing. She would rather read, do crafts, watch t.v...or just be left alone. Rachel, on the other hand loves to play, and hates being alone. She fights alot with Noah, and they share very few interests. Rachel also got along really well with Amber when she lived here....they played together a lot, Amber was usually the one following Rachel around. Rachel will not leave Leah alone. Leah comes downstairs often and says, "ssshhh...don't tell Rachel where I am". She can really drive her crazy, and I hear her often saying "I don't want to play, I need time to myself, or just leave me alone." It makes me feel bad for both of them, b/c I understand how they are both feeling.

One day, Leah had really just had enough. She woke up in a mood, and nothing was going right. She kept asking Rachel to leave her alone, and she kept following her around. It was enough that I was interveining telling her to just leave her alone. Then Rachel was upset, thinking Leah doesn't like her anymore. They were both so frustrated and upset. Rachel dissapeared for awhile, and then came back with this drawing.

Leah took one look at the picture, a smile spread across her face, and her whole mood was turned rightside up again. I praised Rachel for being so sweet, and she was just beaming! It really changed Leah's mood, and the next thing I knew, they had run off to play together. Just like that. Rachel said this photo if of them playing stuffed animals and dolls together.

Talan and Rachel

Having baby Christian, and everyone around here being sick, we haven't been able to go visit Talan in almost a month. We had been going every week. I have really been missing him. This photo was taken the last time we went, and I just love it.

I have been in a blogging funk....just haven't been in the mood, but I hope to get back to it soon, and catch up on everything that has been going on.

My favorite from this weekend....

Hunter and Amber came to see us this weekend, and we had a great time. I will share more later, but this one is one of my favorite photos.

Do you have a favorite cookbook?

I am a little ashamed to show you mine, but it is also funny to me. See that shelf of cookbooks? I spot Noah's Star War's one, 2 of Leah's Kids Cookbooks, Clay's Emeril and Martha Stewart (yes, they are his, and Martha has some great tips to make food really yummy!) Can you guess which one I love, and use the most? It is right there in the middle.

Yep, the ratty, torn up, overflowing old notebook....that is obviously old, b/c it has Maury Linder written all over the top of it.
It was apparently an old College Notebook,and I apparently didn't even know for sure what classroom I would be in. :)

My very first recipe? Maccaroni Squares. Clay's family all-time favorite. Which has even been scribbled all over. Do your favorite recipes have big stains all over them? Mine do.

I have quite an eclectic assortment of recipes. This one, I was e-mailed from Debbi,

She had a cooking/freezing party, and then passed along her recipes. I can't tell you how many times I have cooked the sour cream enchilada and the chicken spaghetti.

This one came from a facebook friend

This came in an e-mail from a friend after we visited them....a spice bread recipe, recipe for laundry detergent, and a message, all in one.

Got these free in the mail once

My favorite....hand written by my grandmother

A sticky note from my sister

Someone obviously much more together than me. When Leah was born, she cooked me a meal, then thoughfully brought the recipe card along with the meal.

The best Coconut Pie ever from Clay's mom....again, note all the stains

Noah's favorite, and another recipe passed along from a friend, b/c of the yummy meal she made when one of our babies were born.

My notebook finally exploded, and now all the papers spill out.

Seriously, these are the main recipes I use....and I spend a lot of time flipping through this mess looking for what I need, as you can tell. Maybe, someday in my "spare time" I will organize it, retype it, and put it in a binder in plastic sleeves....ahhh that would be glorious!

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www.blessingsforthegoodlife.blogspot.com

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To your Mother....

I think about Zachariah and Christian's mother pretty often. I have never seen her, or met her, and I wonder what she looks like. Zach's old caseworker came to visit, and the minute she saw Christian she said that he looked just like his momma. She has told me before that Zachariah favors her a lot too....I hope the boys will favor each other. They are both so beautiful. Does she know that? Does she know what beautiful precious babies she has?

The stories I have heard about her, my heart just breaks. People ask, "how could she just abandon them, I don't understand". I do. I think about my parents, about how close I was to my own mother, how they raised me, how they treated me. It is not one bit of comparison to the life their mother had growing up. Their grandmother is a bad person. She did not protect her daughter the way a parent is intrusted to do. Their mother never had an example, was probably never shown what true, genuine, motherly love is. I am so blessed that I was. I am so thankful that my mother taught me that, she gave me a love for babies, the desire to be a good mom.

I truly feel sadness for their mother. Her life must be something aweful, that she knows she can't even try to be a mother to them. I know, just how much she is missing out on. It is something great. It is something I wouldn't trade. I am thankful to her though. I am so thankful that she chose to give her babies up, to give them a chance at a better life. The judge said it perfect in court, "she left Christian in the safest place possible, and she has to be commended for not taking him off somewhere, or trying to care for him when she couldn't". I totally agree. I think about my other 2 babies, Hunter and Talan. Look at what both those babies suffered b/c their mothers weren't able to care for them.

What an enormous job the Lord has entrusted in me. It is overwhelming sometimes. I worry that I will be able to live up to what he has given me. To help these boys know love, to help them overcome the cycle of foster care and abuse, to help them heal, b/c I know they will have struggles growing up. To raise them to be fine, Christian men. I want them to become good fathers, b/c they have a good father. Luckily, I am blessed with a husband that is an amazing father, and loves these boys, and shows them so much love all the time. I wan thtem to always know I love them just as much as Noah, Leah, and Rachel. I longed for them, and prayed for them just as I did for the other 3. My heart knows no difference.

To their mother, thank you. Thank you for the most precious gift. I pray that you will heal, and that one day you will know love, know what it is to receive love, and to give love. You deserves it as much as your babies.

Noah's pumpkin

Noah's 1st pumpkin has been picked, but not by his choice, as you can see in the first picture. He went out to check on them, and saw it had been pulled off the vine. We are thinking it was an animal that did it? He does have some more coming up, but he wanted to share his pictures of this one with you.

Public School for us!

What may have sounded like a haisty decision to some, was a result of months of me disliking homeschooling. There are things that I really liked, as reflected on my blogs...but there were many more moments, that outweighed those, that made it torture for me to get through the day. I think it may have begun really when we moved here. There is something about me being in confined spaces that makes me get stressed out really quickly. I felt that way when we lived in an apartment, and it got better when we moved to Maumelle. That house had tall ceilings, and big open rooms...I felt I could breath, even when we had 8 people living in our house. Then we moved here. I like the house fine, but the rooms are small, and just my personality, I don't know, I felt like I was climbing them everyday. Mix that in with a special needs, high maintenance child, and I really was stressed. I thought when Talan left, things would get better. They didn't though. Everynight, at bedtime, I just felt this sickness, this sense of dread at the thought of getting up the next morning and teaching my kids. Yeah, it was that bad, and that is when I knew it was a time for change. That wasn't fair to my kids, or to me. It made me so grouchy, and there were too many days that I just threw up my hands and said, I can't do this today. Throw in a 1 yr old, and a newborn baby I hadn't planned on (but was such a delightful surprise) and you have 1 crazy homeschooling mama. I am ashamed to say that everyday for over a month, I threatened the kids with public school, and everytime Clay walked in the room he was met with complaints that, "I hate homeschooling. I wish the could go to school. I am so done" Every-single-day. Bless his heart. I know they were all so sick of listening to me.

So, alas, I finally got up the courage to put them in school. I know, I did this last year, and pulled them back out. I am pretty sure I am really done this time. At least for now, at this point in our life. Never say never, huh. I love my kids so much, and putting them school has allowed me to enjoy being around them again. And to miss them....oh how I miss them. And I love hearing all about their day. And I enjoy helping them with their homework, b/c I know it isn't my responsibility anymore to know what to teach them. I only have to show them how to do that one paper at a time. I love the smiles on their faces as they talk about their new friends. I laugh with them when they talk about the kids in their class that get in trouble....and laugh to myself knowing that is how my kids had been acting for me at home. I love their school. I love their principal. She is so genuinely nice, and really cares about her kids. Took a special effort to place my kids with teachers that would help them adjust. She is awesome. Gave us all a hug when attended a Math/Science night at school, and was genuinely excited to see us there.

Have I mentioned I can see their school from our house? How spoiled is that? I told Clay today that it would be hard to ever move from here, being so close. I love that I can step outside and see it, will drive by everytime I run an errand.

The first day I walked to pick them up from school. I think it is really quicker than driving.

I forgot to take their picture before school the first day, and they weren't the most enthusiastic bunch after school.

And, I would like to share with you the most awesome infant carseat/stroller combo ever. It is SO nice. Someone, whose friend bought it for foster babies, is letting me borrow it. I call it my limosine stroller, b/c it is that nice. I would have never bought something this nice for myself but I am LOVING it!

We saw a snake skin on the street on the way home....see, we are still learning together

And I looked over, and saw Miss Rachel chowing down on her left over lunch while we were walking. Silly girl.

Volcanoes

We recently did a lapbook/unit study on Volcanoes. I found a project book that told us how to make our own volcanoes. We tested it out first, just to make sure that it would work before we made them.

We had these mini water bottles, and we put screen/netting around the bottles...

Then we put plaster of paris over the screen. I have had this bucket of that stuff for a long time...I kept holding onto it, and finally found a use for it!

Then we painted them

Noah added in toothpicks to represent his village

Then it was time to take them OUTSIDE, and put them to the test.

First, we put in baking soda

Then we put in food coloring...obviously, lava isn't green, but that was the only color we had

Then we poured about a cup of vinegar into the volcanoes...

And ERUPTION!

Update on Noah's pumpkins

He's got 2 pumpkins forming!

Smooch smooch!

Have a great day!!