2010

Happy New Year!

We got together with some friends.

 

Had fun with noise makers.

 

They're just so fun to hit others with.

Stayed up past midnight. 

Two thousand ten, here we come!

Snow Ice Cream

Making the best of all the snow.

Love to see it fall.

Fun to walk in.

And tasty to eat.

*Just please don't make me drive in it.  Uh-uh.*

Get a big bowl of snow.

Stir it in to the milk, sugar, vanilla.

Sprinkle on mini chocolate chips.

I use Vanilla Almond Milk to keep my tummy happy and it's delish too.

Funny Paul.

There Is No Me Without You

I'm really into this book right now...

As in, I can't wait for the boys to get snugly in bed at night so I can get snugly in my bed and read.

The author is an American journalist and adoptive mother.  So her writing is excellent and her heart tender. Here's a blurb from the inside cover...

"With the grace of a novelist and the reportorial instincts of a seasoned journalist, two-time National Book Award nominee Melissa Fay Greene gets to the heart of the AIDS crisis in this powerful story of a woman working to save her country's children, one at a time."

I was crying by page 16 and motivated to consider putting our children in public school so I can go to work full-time so we can afford to adopt and adopt and adopt and adopt and adopt.

The book is a mix of recent E. history, understanding how HIV/AIDS came to be a crisis, and the true story of an E. woman who is in the depths of despair then finds meaning and purpose in her life again when asked to take in orphan after orphan.  It is well-written and just published in 2006.

Check it out a library near you.  What a great title.

How Julia Child Changed My Life

You drop it into swirling hot water then it folds over itself and in a few moments you have a creamy warm helping of goodness - a poached egg.  The very first I'd ever tasted.

Have you ever been influenced by a movie?  So influenced that you actually do some thing as a result of watching it?  Someone in this household was so moved by Julie and Julia that he opened his grandmother's old Better Homes and Garden Cookbook and learned how to poach an egg.

Yum.

I had mine sans bread, just a dash of salt while enjoying a second viewing of Julie and Julia.

We may soon be patting our meat dry so "it will brown properly" and wearing pearls in the kitchen.  He can do the meat and I'll take the pearls.

*And you should try his key lime pie.  Super yum.  But not today.  It's too cold to properly enjoy a chilled desert.

So Abrupt

Did the radio station have to stop playing Christmas songs so suddenly?  They've been playing them for a month, leading up to the big day and then they just stop?  It seems they could have gradually fazed them out, mixing them in with I want to know what love is and the other 'soft rock hits' they play.  You know, it's like leaving the Christmas decorations up for a few more days and snacking on the holiday left-overs.  I wasn't done yet.

Photos of the Snow Walk

The snow was fresh and untouched except for several sets of animal tracks.  We recognized the dog and cat tracks, but were unsure of this one...

Rabbit or squirrel, maybe?

Peter found a smooth canvas to draw on.

It grew into a snowman family having a snowball fight, but I dropped my camera and we moved on before I could fix it and get a shot of the whole thing.

The boys made designs with their sticks as they got a sled ride from Dad.

'Ice skating' on a slick strip of road.

 

Yep, it's slicker than it looks.

Paul did this while the boys did that...

Found a hill to sled down.

It was a lovely time.

(Recognize your coat, Dad?)

Snow Walk

We woke up to the sun shining (I've missed you, sun) and a fresh layer of snow.  So we're headed out to explore and enjoy it's beauty.  Together as a family.  How fun.

Cookies by Reuben

We wanted to thank the boys' Sunday School teachers for the important work they do.  So we made sugar cookies using nativity scene cookie cutters to give to them.  Reuben seems to want to help me cook any time I'll let him.  So here's how it went.

I rolled the dough, he pressed the cookie cutters.

While I transferred the dough to the cookie sheet, I found out later, he took little bits of dough and stashed them in the bowl for him to eat.  See the guilt on his face?

While the cookies cool, he sweeps up.

Both boys love to help sweep with this little set.

Look at the care and precision in his icing technique.

(That's a donkey.)

If you can't tell, Jesus is in a manger between Mary and Joseph (green).  An angel and star in the sky and a donkey hanging out.

Eating an extra Joseph, the biggest cookie.

He looks so old to me in this picture.

Yummy clean up.

Merry Christmas!

What?

We're eating dinner and Paul out-of-the-blue asks Reuben,

"What color is Mom?"

"Black."

"She is?"

"Yes, black."

"Mom is black?"

"No, pink.  No, black."

What in the world?!

We chuckled.

And in my mind I'm thinking about our future child who will be a lovely shade of that vision.

Down for the Count

Peter's unwell, see?

He and Paul went out before the sun to shovel snow.

Peter's Snow Removal is in its 2nd year of operation.

On their way to their first client, Peter stopped and laid down in the snow.

A signal, perhaps, that maybe he doesn't feel so well.

They finished their job, then came home and he's been on the couch ever since.

No fever.  That's good.

As I finished this post he woke up and declared,

"I feel better than I did in the morning."

*Note: This was Monday and he's now back to his energetic, Bionicle-building, dinosaur-fighting, Dad-and-Reuben-wrestling self.

Ice Skating

Reuben cracks us up.

Here he is after church. 

Still in church clothes, but came in for a hat and gloves when he realized

it's below freezing.

The tiger hat came from our trip to Korea. 

On the way to church

(we live directly across the street from our church)

Reuben really wanted to stop and 'ice skate' on our sidewalk. 

So after church he skated - in his Vans. 

Then got out the sled, then the big wheels. 

The kid loves to be outside.   

I love that I can watch him from inside.   

And that we live on a very unbusy street.

To The Post Office

Here I go, out into the world, freshly dusted with snow.

(since we homeschool, sometimes it feels like I never get out of the house)

See that big yellow envelope?

That's our next stack of adoption papers that I am lovingly escorting to the Post Office.

It holds our contract, permission to do background checks, autobiographies, a family photo, the first bit of moola, and a few other pieces - committing the next many months of our lives to the emotional, exciting, uncertain path to be united with our next son or daughter.  I love it.  Adoption comes with its own set of emotions that are thrilling and that I've only felt inside the adoption experience.

What's next?

The updating of our homestudy with our Adoption Specialist.

Four visits to our doctors for physicals.

And a new stack of papers to fill out.

Shorter

Got a haircut.

And my glasses adjusted.

Should have put lipstick on.

Creative Bowling

The boys just received this bowling set as a gift from a friend...

It was a fun, regular, normal time of indoor bowling.

Until Reuben thought knocking them down with the sword might be more fun.

Peter thought so too.

Hey, let's jump over them!

Yeah, I got hops.  And style.

And they ended the tournament with Smash Bowling.

I think they called it KungFu Bowling.

Bowling's a full body sport 'round these here parts.

We're Done

We're done.  That's what you say when people ask if you're going to have any more children, right?  "We're done."  We were so done.  Our little family of 4 is comfy and running smoothly.  As Reuben outgrows clothes I donate them instead of store them away for The Next One.  I rejoiced when Reuben was potty trained because I would never have to do that again (Many thanks to Paul's Mom for her involvement there).  I sold the crib - because we're done.  But, here we are now, being not-so-done.  What happened?

It hit Paul at the beginning of November, and me 2 weeks later.  We need to adopt again.  There are still children who need a family.  We are a family.  We should adopt.

Paul didn't tell me he called our adoption agency to inquire about adopting again.  He didn't tell me he had talked to God about it.  When I mentioned the idea of adopting again he didn't answer me with, "We're done."  Instead we talked about it, called our previous social worker with questions, submitted a preliminary application, received a call from the director, and then sent in our formal application.  And now we're in it.  And it feels great. 

Neither of us had to convince the other.  It's not this thing that one of us wants to do and the other is inwardly frustrated about.  God spoke to us individually and has brought us together.  This is a new exciting peace for us. 

Here's what really got me.  I was praying and reading through James, searching for confirmation from God that we should really adopt again.  Several verses in the Bible say to care for orphans.  That's nice.  But, a few verses before one of these says,  "Don't merely listen to the word...do what it says."  Okay God, we will.

Maybe your family could too.

I'd be happy to recommend a couple excellent adoption agencies to you.  If the timing's not right for your family to add another member, then here's what you do:  Find a family in the adoption process and give them $1,000.  Seriously.  How blessed would you and the family be!  It takes lots of those $1,000s to make an adoption happen. 

To the Parsonage

All that's left to clean up from our Holiday Open House yesterday.

We invited our church and community to the Parsonage (aka our home, but they really do call it the Parsonage) for an afternoon of visiting and treat-eating.  Over 50 lovely folks came and I forgot to take a single picture. 

None of the food.

None of the Lego-building kids.

None of our friends spending time together, sipping wassail from tea cups.

But really, you wouldn't know any of them anyway, and how rude for me to show you a bedecked table of goodies you can't enjoy. 

So, the chairs.

Off to have one of the few remaining Russian Tea Cakes.  Love them.  Even for breakfast.

Almost Missed the Party

This morning Peter came to our room with concern on his face and a paper in his hand.

"The party's at 2-4, but it doesn't say a.m. or p.m..  How do I know when to go to the party?"  

"Well, if it is a.m. then you missed it.  It's 8:30 now."

Yes, we were still in bed at 8:30 - Reuben was making us pretend breakfast in bed:  smoothies, rootbeer floats, and eggs. 

"How do we know which one it is?"  

"You could call them."

In a few moments we hear him dialing the phone and talking.  Paul and I chuckled.

Peter came back, relieved, and announced,

"She said it's p.m."  

Phew.

Welcome to Peter's Popina

We're studying ancient Rome here at the Leonard Academy.  This week's history-in-action was creating a Roman restaurant:  Peter's Popina.
(Click on the pictures to see them larger.)

Reuben, tired of waiting, with a bit of drama.

Posters advertising the menu.

Peter taking Paul's order.

There's a poster for cecina on the wall.  It's basically baked humus and supposedly Roman.  Tasty and good with the lentil soup.

Happy waiter.

Cheers with Martinelli's.

The boys thought it was great fun to drink with wine glasses.

The fabric remnants on the table are Peter's touch of decor.

He served apple cider (replacing wine), lentil soup, cecina, fruit salad (already eaten), and angel bread (a piece of bread cut out with an angel cookie cutter).  Ancient Romanish food.

Our history curriculum is The Story of the World by Susan Bauer.  We really like it.  It's a chronological study of history with all kinds of activities for different learning styles. 
I haved learned so much.

Just Another Day

So after lunch is Quiet Reading Time.  See?

They each have their own style.

Peter sprawls between the couch and coffee table with a Lego toy within reach, just in case.

He's reading Little House in the Big Woods.

Reuben likes to make 'a nest' or bury himself in quilts

and can't get enough of Car and Trucks and Things That Go.

Then it's time to roll up Reuben in a blanket,

battle with swords/golf clubs and shields,

play in the snow,
(notice who's giving who a ride here)

or have a snack.

Reuben would rather peel his own hard-boiled eggs,
if you don't mind.