Meet Owen

Here's what we are doing all day today.  And tomorrow.

 

Practicing to be a family of five.

Babysitting for a friend.

I can't imagine schoolwork getting done.

Reuben just dragged out our only baby toy,

a ride-along bus.

He has also very graciously offered his stuffed dragon.

Paul is soon departing.

I had better eat.

Code 575c

Um, it's snowing.  Quite a bit.  As in the ground is now white instead of brown.

It's a very relaxing snow,

if I could sit and watch it.

But I can't.

Because...

Code 575c states, "If snow afalleth after the first day of spring, all out of state Californians may purchase a plane ticket, free of guilt and concern from her real-world realities, to San Diego for herself and her favorite man."

So naturally I'm at southwest.com making plans.

No time for snow gazing.

It is 80 degrees and sunny at the Stone Steps, right?

Of course it is.

I'm in charge of my own utopia.

Right Now

Reading about fossils

Playing with fallen branches in the backyard

Frying up wild boar patties

Youth group planning meeting with Bernie and Tara


That's what we're all doing.  You can match up who's doing what.

How Do I Know?

Paul usually heads to the L&M on Wednesday nights, but last night he hung around the house.  Why?  He was speaking my love language... We had a Tornado Warning going on and he was staying home to make me feel safe.  Sweet, sweet man.
 
Since living here I have become aware that if today is 68 degrees and tomorrow is predicted to be 30, then tonight we're going to have a tornado.  Or at least a tornado warning.  I didn't even know there was a warning.  I thought that maybe I had heard the sirens going off earlier, but I was hoping it was just the noise coming from this new game Peter was playing on the computer.

So I checked the weather report online and it said, "TAKE COVER NOW."  And it used adjectives like 'dangerous' and 'deadly'.

"Um, Paul," I interupted his Lego playing, "They're saying to take cover now.  And it's dangerous and deadly."

He looked outside.  "Looks fine to me."

I don't have enough experience with tornadoes to know when we really need to take cover.  Is it just going to come out of the calm and tear us to bits?  I mean, the siren went off and the weather news people wrote IN ALL CAPS.

But we just hung out and watched the weather map and were fine.

So I don't know what to do with this experience.  When do we really need to take cover?  I need to know this.  Our 'take cover' involves running across the street to the church's basement.  Which we have done in pounding blow-me-over rain with kids, blankets, candles, and flashlights in arms.

Oof.

Love That Trader Joe

Back in my very first post, I wrote about Peter's dilemma with having a fifth member join our family.  Trader Joe's sells these yummy chocolate covered frozen bananas in a four pack.  What are we going to do about the fifth person?

I'm glad to say that TJ got the memo and responded by making chocolate covered frozen banana bites.  Now we can all just share the box, one creamy, chocolately bite at a time.  And we think they are tastier.  More chocolate to banana ratio.


Thank you Trader Joe's.  We heart you.

Continuing the Discussion

Every other day we are taking the boys to Korea, not taking the boys to Korea, taking the boys...

Today we are not taking them.

Good points all around.  Thanks for the discussion here, in emails, and in person.

A new one that hit me a few days ago as I was making tortillas is...

We have depleted our savings with this adoption so far.  All further expenses will be coming out of our retirement, college, and emergency funds.  We hope to move to T a year after this adoption... How unwise is it to move with all these funds wiped out?  (Last minute plane tix to Korea are about $1700 each, see?  They call us when Jae-min's paperwork is all ready and we are expected to be in Korea within 7 days.)

Want to hear the tidbit details of this realization?

When Paul and I disagree in a stubborn-like fashion and we're just not getting anywhere close to a unified decision...
I pray... that God would change... Paul.  It's true.

"God, you know what's best.  Please use your Spirit to inform Paul.  Thank you."

Well, as I was rolling out tortillas I was having this little talk with God.  But then He turned it on me.  What if I'm the one who needs to change?  Seriously?  And then that bit about being responsible with our finances came about.  I hadn't thought about that.  I'm cool with using every bit of our savings to provide a home and a family for a child.  Not so cool with using it up on a trip for two kids that risks being insignificant and unmemorable.

This was reinforced as I was chatting with Paul's brother and sister this weekend about Really, how much are the boys going to remember about the trip?  Apparently I went to the Grand Canyon once.  I don't recall a thing about it and the fact that I went is pretty meaningless to me.  Anna asked me to recall the first vacation I could remember.  I think it was camping in the Redwoods when I was about nine maybe.  I got hit by a car on my turquoise bike.  And my younger brother fell out of our tent trailer and we got to eat Honey Nut Cheerios.

That discussion made it clearer to me how little the boys will actually remember.

I feel pretty okay about them not going at this point.  Focusing on the positives now.  Of course I wish they could.  I just wish they were older.  One day we'll all take on Korea.  Just not quite yet.

What's Happening

In honor of my Irish roots (I'm really more Scottish, but no matter) we had Irish Beef SomethingOrOther and Irish Soda Bread for dinner.  A day early, but we are going to be out of town tomorrow at dinnertime.  So tonight.  (Lucky Charms for breakfast, if you're going to be around.)

 I've always loved orange and green.

 Here's the soda bread.

With raisins.

It was tasty.

 Ugh, his glasses.

An ever-persistent problem for an active boy.

They won't stay snug and adjusted for more than ten minutes.

This last weekend we joined our friends as they celebrated their son's first birthday.

This is huge deal in Korea with lots of traditional happenings.

Four Korean boys.

Rube's in the red/blue shirt.

 I had extra fabric laying around

so I made a new mei tai for Jae-min.

(pronounced may tie)

It's much prettier in person.

A manly pretty, for sure.

Green with multi-colored dots.

That's the back and the front not yet sewn together.

Here's Rube and I four years ago

using his mei tai.

Jae-min's foster mom carries him on her back

so I'm hoping this will be a comforting carrier for him.

 Here's a better pic I snagged from BabyHawk.com

They sell them for $80-$110.

That's why I designed my own.

Materials cost $20.

Takes about 6 hours to make.

 Another topic change...

Reuben has really been wanting to have a fire

in the back yard.

 He's a persistent fellow.

Here's his fire with wet wood and a bit of starter fluid.

Met his need.

Another favorite Reuben activity - 

painting rocks.

Why is that so great?

I don't know.

And this is what's happening.

Currently at this moment Reuben is watching

Wallace and Grommit...

and cracking up.

Pete is doing Grammar Lesson 85

I'm sure he's laughing too.

Deep deep down inside.

It's sunny today.  Did I mention that?

The daffodils are breaking forth.

And...

that's all.

But spring is very near.