What we've been talking about...

How good-looking we are.


We are, apparently.


I was walking home just a little bit ago and this hoodlum guy stopped me to tell me, "You are a very attractive lady.  I know Paul gets all the attention in town, but you need to know you are very attractive."


Paul's response to me after I told him this, "Well someone on YouTube thinks I'm hot."  (An anonymous comment left on one of his Thanks to the Turks videos.)


Me - "Well, we go well together then."


How boring and ordinary I am.


Paul was indecisive about his birthday plans on Monday so he said to me, "I'll spend it with you.  It's not special or fantastic but..."

GASP!  And then we laughed and laughed and maybe I punched him in the shoulder and said, "Thanks a lot."

Not special or fantastic.  ha.


How great and horrible the weather is.


We haven't had rain for a really long time.  If I had a farmer sitting next to me I'd ask him how many days it's been.  It's been in the 90s and 100s and super dry.  Our small town is surrounded by corn and soybean fields.  Our farmer friends are very concerned.

So I feel bad because I love this dry heat.  It feels wonderful.  Like an oven thawing out my frozen bones from that one time when I lived in northern China and was out-of-my-mind cold for six months.

It's usually very humid and sticky here and there's no point in straightening my hair because it will frizz and poof when I walk outside.  I know.  Vain.  I'm so vain.  That's why I only mention it here, where no one can hear me.


What else?  Matthew McConahey and Brad Pitt


In honor of Matt getting married I watched a movie he was in.  That's all.  And I informed Paul about this news, which he cared not about.  And does anyone really know how to spell his name?  I read that she took his last name.  How charming.

But Mr. Pitt, we've been watching him a lot.  As Benjamin Button.  In Turkish.  I realized I'm not hearing Brad's voice, but a Turkish voice-over.  And I don't hardly see him, really, since he's so costumed and make-upped.  As he is aging in real life he is looking less like my cousin Christopher who Grandma always said looked like Brad Pitt.  But I haven't seen Christopher (he's probably called Chris now) for years, so who knows.  Enough nonsense.


Our fourth child


I dreamt last night that our social worker called and said we were matched with a girl.  It's a girl!  I was so surprised.  I didn't even know we were in the adoption process again.  But, a girl!  How exciting.

Our social worker is visiting us on Saturday for our last post-placement visit for Charlie.  So I'll check with her then about that "we're having a girl thing."

I think the idea of another child joining our family is always hiding out in my subconscious.  If Charlie or Reuben's birthmom has another child that she needs to place for adoption, then we would be called first to see if we would consider adding her, as it were, to our family.  You're wondering, would we adopt Charlie or Reuben's sibling if that happened?  YES!  For sure.  Absolutely.  (Right, Paul?  Snookems.  Honey.  Sweet Man.  We can talk about it later, over your favorite dinner.)

And, my sister is very great with child (a girl).  Any day now.  And I've been reading that book about girls adopted from China.  So little girls are on my mind.


Seven early warning signs of a heart attack


That's a Yahoo article I'm headed to read.  Because I've been eating a lot of beef to, um, beef up my iron.  And I'm concerned about my cholesterol now.  What I should do is drive 20 minutes south to the buffalo farm.  Have you read about buffalo meat?  It's so lean and high in iron.  But it's also high in dollars.  But, can one put a price on her health?  Especially when it's someone who is so attractive?

Thursday Thoughts

Did you know there are people in Latvia who visit this blog?  Yah.  And in Japan, Turkey, Russia, France, Germany, and Australia.  I think that's amazing.  Merhaba, G'day, and Konnichiwa!

Also, I was inwardly concerned about the transition of Peter being home all the time when school got out in May.  How am I going to handle three boys?  This is new to me.  Well... It has been wonderful.  It's like Peter and Reuben have been making up for ten months of lost playtime.  They play and play and wrestle and laugh and create.  And Peter loves little Charlie.  He reads to him and builds train tracks for him and helps him however needed.  So great.

And now here's our dinner menu for this week.  All new recipes.

• Middle Eastern Stew - lentils and veggies
• Raspberry Chicken Salad - with lettuce from our garden
• Chicken Primavera - using the dreaded broccoli - maybe the boys like broccoli now - ha
• Roast Beef Pocket Sandwiches - like gyros - had today and Peter and Reuben declared them too spicy, which was a mystery to me
• Spicy Beef Salad - I scanned the meat section for flank steak.  I don't know what that is, but they didn't have it.  So the nice meat lady handed me a hunk of beef that she said would work.
• Spinach Melange - I don't remember what this is, but I picked it to use up the spinach in my freezer.  I'm fully expected the boys to revolt.
• Orange-Yogurt Salad - a jello with mandarin oranges - to make up for the spinach
• Mom's Chili - not new, it's my mom's recipe - needed a comfort food in there

Um, Charlie has a fever today.  Whisked him to the doctor via two-lane country roads.  It's one of my favorite drives out here.  About 35 minutes through the farmlands with little hills that flip your stomach.  About seven minutes in (way before the hilly part) I heard that horrific sound in the back seat... I needlessly said to Reuben, "Did Charlie just throw up?"  Oh, the carseat, you know?  And I didn't have a change of clothes for him.  I just kept driving.  Maybe it would go away by the time we got there.  And here I sit typing with throw-up still on my shoulder.  That's how veteran mom I am.

As for the literature I am reading these days... The Lost Daughters of China has captivated me.  It would be an interesting read for anyone, but having been through the international adoption process I am totally bonding with the author as she retells her adoption story of her two daughters from China.

I also read a book on yoga that's not worth mentioning really.  It was trying to convince to me to be all weird.  I just want to do the exercises, thanks.

And I've made several attempts to get through John Holt's How Children Learn because many in the homeschool world think it's a must-read.  I must be missing something.  I'm totally not enthralled.  It just seems like common sense, but I keep reading bits to try to find the fascinating part.

And in closing, Charlie gained a pound and is up to 22 pounds.  He'll be two in a few weeks.  I love that he's smallish.  I can still hold and cuddle him easily.  But I noticed that he's filled out his footie pajamas.  The last time he wore them the feet would drag and frustrate him.  But tonight they're almost too small.  Just like that.

And my main man Paul cleaned up the vomititious carseat.  Love.  He loves me.  He's here next to me reading about a sultan from the Ottoman empire.

And, I'm taking a trip to California soon.  God has been so gracious in providing all the major details.  I'm still waiting on one - it's a major one according to Peter...  Legoland tickets.  Their website is so silly.  Seventy-five dollars.  Ha, funny Legoland people.  Surely someone in, say, Latvia knows how I can get them cheaper.  Anyone?  Oh, what I need is a reader in Denmark.

Photos of the Boys

If he becomes fluent in Turkish before the rest of us, we'll know why.

 He's loves this little Turkish dictionary.

 Ice cream!

 Brothers in the sand box.

How the sand got on Reuben's head.

 

 Brothers in bed.

Brothers in the kitchen.

Charlie likes to eat peanut butter by the spoonful.

 

 Making a sassafras burger.

(grilling dinner at Turkey Run)

 Um, sassafras please.

(Sassafras is a tree out in these parts.

The leaves can be 3 shapes:

a dinosaur footprint, a mitten, or a football.

Isn't that neat?  A tree with 3 different leaf shapes?

The boys look for them when we hike and snack on the edible leaves.)

 Brothers all together.

Our Twelfth Anniversary

Back on May 6th...

(I realized as I organized this post that...

if one is blogging about a date then...

she's not going on enough dates,

youknowwhatI'msaying?)

In our driveway, headed out.

Giddy to be going out with an empty back seat.

Where to?

Turkey Run...

 Getting ready to hike trail nine.

It's the farthest out and we only hike it without kids.

Which is twice now.

 Surprise waterfall

 Trying to take a self-portrait with the waterfall,

but we keep blocking it.

Everybody to the left.

There.

 Cute in grey.

Lunch at the Inn.

I'd like another pot roast melt please.

 After lunch and lounging in the lodge

we found this shelter house and watched the rain.

 Here's a tour of the little shelter house in the big woods.

 Trying to start a fire with our car lighter.

No go.

But you could imagine.

 Cheers with our elder-approved bubbly, Martinelli's.

Thanks again to Debbie for giving us a day together.

I love my man

and love spending time with him.

He is my favorite.

I think it's amazing that there is a person who knows me really well...and likes me, you know?

Like, he wants to be with me always and forever.

That's a lot of overlooking my long list of faults.

I can trust him

and talk about whatever with him

and be all different kinds of personalities around him

and he likes my sass
(Sass.  With an "S")

and he's patient when I'm an emotional mess.

And look at his smile.

And his eyes.

I love his hands.

He has good hands.

Hi sweet man.

I love you.

The Pool of Death and The Sweaty Drive

Which leads us to The Pool of Death (renamed from The Bloody Pool).

But I decided it's too boring of a story to tell.  Just shards of glass and rusty metal, filmy/dirty water, pain and tears, a trip to Urgent Care, x-rays, a wheelchair, and antibiotics.  Which led to being late to the whole reason we were in Missouri... the family reunion.

And now after three weeks of phoning the pool people, they are sending us a check to pay for the medical services.  What a treat.

And Peter's okay.

Let's move on to The Sweaty Drive.

This very same day (which was back at Memorial Day weekend), we drove home.  Five minutes into our five-hour drive, the air conditioning stopped working.  It was in the 90s.  Hot and sweaty, yes?

Nope.  Well, a little.  We rolled down our windows and let the wind blow.

Sounds sad to you maybe.  You're feeling a little bit of pity.  You don't need to.  I immediately realized what a grand blessing this breeziness was.

I couldn't hear the kids in the back seat.

Do I need to say anything else about that?  Perhaps only if you've never traveled with children;  in our case, three boys smooshed shoulder to shoulder to carseat in the back seat.  I don't even want to think about it long enough to put it in words.

The drive was pleasant.  I heard nothing but the silence of the wind roaring in my ears.

So Paul's out helping a drunk woman whose husband has kicked her out.  He's been gone about an hour and I just heard a police car siren.  So maybe he'll be home soon.

I, on the other hand, just enjoyed a cup of ice cream with chocolate chunks and am ready to share some recent happenings.

We've got The Naked Ladies at the Art Museum, or The Bloody Pool, or The Sweaty Drive.

I know, The Naked Ladies.

We went to St. Louis last weekend for a family reunion, during which we spent a day doing touristy things like visiting their free zoo and equally free art museum.

*Tip - Even though you'll be tempted to go to the zoo when it opens at 8am to avoid the heat and holiday crowds, don't.  All we saw for 2 hours were the zookeepers cleaning out the habitats.  Bummer.

So Charlie fell asleep on our way to the art museum.  He snoozed on a lovely leather couch in the foyer while the other boys toured the museum.  To quench my boredom of sitting next to a sleeping child, I read a brochure about the museum.  It listed several famous artists and their paintings that were housed in this building.  One was Henri Matisse's work called Bathers and Turtle.  Do you see where this is going?  No?  Let's continue.

After a while, the boys return and I ask Peter if he saw the VanGogh or the Monet or the Matisse one about some bathers.  He said he had and he wanted to show me.

So Paul stayed with Charlie while Peter led me through rooms.  "Here it is, Mom."  Yep they are definitely bathers with a turtle.  A large painting of three large naked female bathers looking at a turtle.  Here...

So my nine-year-old son and I stood there to take in this early 1900s work of art.  Of naked women.  There was no shame or embarrassment, except the giggling I was hiding inside.

Then I turned around and Paul, Charlie, and Reuben had joined us and Paul pointed out another Matisse.  A sculpture.  Of a naked woman.  So our sweet little conservative family encircled the piece to gaze at its artistic wonder.  "What is it?" Reuben asked.  "A woman," I said.  "Oh."  Uh-huh.

And then I took a moment to look around the room.  All paintings of naked women.

I had sent my son on a hunt for naked women.

I could see this being a fun game when he's a teen.  I'll say, "Hey, Pete, did you see that one by So-and-So called Swaying In the Wind?"  And then he'll take me on a hunt for it and he'll get all embarrassed when it ends up being naked women.  And he'll say something like, "Ah Mom, not naked women again" and turn all red and then I'll giggle.

But for now, it's all art and we're all mature about it.


Paul's back.  The sirens weren't for him.  He said it was trippy and after much screaming, all is apparently well for the evening.

The other stories shall come henceforth another day.