Saturday morning after breakfast, all 3 kids headed upstairs and were happy and content for a while. I went up to put away some laundry and found them like this:
All 3 in the single bottom bunk, my daughter in the middle reading aloud to a brother tucked on each side of her.Priceless, precious moments!Wordful
Wednesday,
Wordless Wednesday, &
Not So Wordless Wednesday.
***We got some more good news from our adoption agency on Friday and are currently in any-day-now mode for getting our referral, but no call today! Actually that's not true, there were 2 calls to my cell phone today, both of which made my heart beat out of my chest when I heard the ringing, but they were not THE call! And the call from a relative of mine who lives in the same 817 area code as our adoption agency from a new cell number that my phone didn't recognize -- so not funny! I really, really thought that one was THE CALL! So, in an attempt to gain just a bit of sanity for myself, here's a post about shopping and sewing!!!****
Several months ago when my daughter turned 5 years old and outgrew the toddler section at Target, I wrote the following letter to the Target store in my head:
Dear Target,
I must first say that I love your store and shop there quite often. I've even been known to make a trip to a Target store 3 times in 1 week! Over the past 5 years I've loved shopping your baby/toddler girl section. I've been amazed at the cute, quality dresses and other adorable things I've been able to get for my daughter at such reasonable prices!
However, my daughter is now five and has outgrown your toddler section. I've looked in your "Little Girl's" section, but seeing as how I do not want my 5 year old to look like Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, I'm afraid I cannot find many clothes there I'd buy for my little girl. Please consider carrying over some of the same cute, sweet styles from your toddler department into the little girl's section, and save the black lace and cropped t-shirts for your lingerie department.
Sincerely,
Almost your biggest fan
I have no idea why I never actually wrote and mailed that letter. Instead, for the last several months I've walked by the toddler girl section and just sighed at all the cute things that I couldn't buy and snarled at the mostly tacky selection in the little girl's section. But recently, I realized I could buy a toddler dress for my daughter and then just add a bit of my own length with an extra ruffle of coordinating fabric!
I bought this dress minus the bottom ruffle for about $10, and then just added the ruffle.
I even made some coordinating ruffle pants!
A custom-looking outfit that was super easy and cheap!
And the best part? I now again have a reason to shop in the Target toddler girl section!Find more
Gratituesday,
Tackle it Tuesday, and
Works for Me Wednesday
We've had tremendous beautiful, warm weather here for several weeks, but there was one day this week that turned chilly, so for afternoon snack we had homemade hot chocolate with whipped cream and sprinkles. One last hurrah for winter!And remember what I said last Friday about you guys getting a front row seat to enjoy all the chaos without having to clean up from it?Well, the hot chocolate fun ended as pretty much all good things do around here, with a mess!
But, enjoying hot chocolate with my 3 most favorite little people at 3:30pm on an April day? Was so worth the mess!!______________This next story is just to illustrate the level of tolerance my husband and I have developed for the chaos. The kids have a police motorcycle ride-on toy in our playroom. It has buttons to push and it spews out messages, and at random points over the last 7 years we've had the toy, it will start broadcasting the messages even though nobody is pushing the buttons. The first few times it happened it was spooky because it always seemed to happen late at night when all the kids were asleep and we'd go investigate the noise expecting to find a child out of their bed but there wouldn't be one! We finally figured out the toy was just malfunctioning and taking the batteries out and putting them back in would fix the problem for several months. But, the other night around 10pm while my husband and I were downstairs, the toy was shouting out, "Calling officer! Report to headquarters!" over and over again. And we both just ignored it, didn't even comment about it, worry that it would wake up the sleeping children, fight over who was going to go remove the batteries, just no acknowledgement at all! I don't think either of us even flinched. Finally after about 45 minutes of the crazy, I looked at my husband and said, "I can't believe that thing has been going off for a while now and neither of us has done anything about it!" And then I sent him upstairs with the screw driver!______________I made these homemade granola bars this week and they were super easy and super yummy, endorsed by our entire family!______________If you're an Ikea lover or a dog person, this YouTube video is hilarious!Too bad it's a joke, because our puppy Madeline would really like a highchair!______________Happy Friday!
I don't need to whine again that our adoption wait has gone on way longer than expected. You all know!
What I've found myself asking God the last few months is, "Did we hear you right?" "Is this your plan for us?" "Are we totally on the wrong path here?"
Because we didn't choose adoption. God led us to it in tons of clear and specific ways that spans years of time. The last year leading up to our signing on with an agency was so full of obvious God speaking moments that it truly became comical, the "coincidences" piled up and were happening to both my husband and me. And even through the first few months of our adoption paperwork, God's presence was really felt.
But, the past few months, as the wait has drug on and the bad news has rolled in, it feels like God has gotten quiet on the adoption front. We've felt Him lead in other areas of our lives, though.
And just this morning I was asking God, "Do all these delays mean this is not your will for us?"
Then early afternoon during my 3 year old's nap, I started working on my homework for my Thursday Bible study group, we're going through Colossians, but the first question I came to today had us reference Gen. 17 which features Abraham and God again promising to make him a great nation although Abraham had not one son yet.
I've heard the stories of Abraham and Sarah many times, but today the math struck a different chord in me. Abraham was 75 years old when God first promised to make him a great nation (Gen. 12:4) and he was 100 years old when his first son, Isaac, was born (Gen 21:5).
That equals 25 years of waiting!!
Kinda makes our 1 year adoption wait seem like a cake-walk!
And did the long years of waiting mean Isaac wasn't God's will for Abraham and Sarah? Of course not! Their delays didn't mean God wanted them on a different path (remember the Ishmael debacle!).
The years of waiting just meant God wanted them to wait!
And so we wait.
(Some days more patiently than others. Yesterday was an impatient day, today was better. Praying already for tomorrow.)Find more
Thankful Thursday here.
In addition to Madeline the puppy's exuberant love for the bathtub and kiddie pool, this week we discovered her love of the sand table!
The fact that it is an elevated sandbox didn't stop Madeline, no problem jumping right in and doing some wild digging!
Wanna know what her nose looks like when she gets out?
Don't let her sweet face fool you, she's worse than a 2 year old child, this dog!
Wordful
Wednesday,
Wordless Wednesday, &
Not So Wordless Wednesday.
I shared here about my quest to shorten my grocery list by making more things from scratch and I have something new I'm making from scratch.
Well, technically it's not new because I've been making it for months and completely holding out on you guys by not sharing this sooner because it is by far the easiest thing I make from scratch.
Maple Syrup!
We eat pancakes and waffles fairly often around here and my husband and kids also like maple syrup on cornbread so I was buying the Aunt Jemima Syrup quite a bit. Until one day we ran out but I'd already made pancakes, so in a panic I searched for a homemade syrup recipe and found one that can easily be made with three (Yes, count them up 3! And 1 of the items is water!) items you likely already have in your home!
I love it, my kids love it, it is so easy to make, and syrup is FOREVER crossed off my grocery list!!
Here's the link to the recipe.Find more
Gratituesday,
Tackle it Tuesday, and
Works for Me Wednesday,
I never cease to be amazed at how different my 3 children can be from one another. Same DNA, same parents, same home environment, yet 3 totally different kids!
This spring both my 8 year old son and my 5 year old daughter are playing soccer, they're on different teams with different practice nights, but in the same league. It's the first time for them both to be doing the same sport and it really highlights some of the ways they're different.
Here's my 8 year old son playing soccer:
As he gets ready for practice I have to remind him about every step and sometimes re-remind. Change into soccer clothes, shin guards, cleats, find your soccer ball!
Then I hand him his already filled (by me) bottle of ice water to take to practice.
Me: "Ball and water bottle. Those are the things you need to keep up with at practice and make sure they make it to practice and back home again. Okay?"
We drive exactly 2 minutes to practice. I park, unload all 3 kids out of the car to walk the 8 year old into his practice area a couple fields over, usher kids across parking lot making sure everyone is holding hands (Is it just me or is there just no good way to do this when you have 3 kids and only 2 hands?). Then I look down at the 8 year old.
No water bottle and no ball!!!
Me (trying not to sound exasperated): "What are you missing?"
Him: "Oh yeah, they're in the car."
My 5 year old daughter playing soccer:
Her (as she gets ready for practice): "Mommy we have to get my shin guards on and my cleats. Here I'll get them, I know right where they are. And my ball. And my water bottle! We can't forget my water bottle! Here it is in the cabinet, I'm going to fill it up!"
Me: "Good job remembering, I almost forgot about the water bottle!"
And needless to say she made it out of the car and into practice with both her ball and water bottle with no reminders or trips back to the car!
I'm thinking I'm going to have to practice some tough love on my 8 year old and maybe let him show up to practice without his water bottle or ball or shin guards a couple times if he doesn't get them himself. It worked with his homework for school. After the one time when I made the hard decision not to rescue him and take the homework folder he left on the table up to school, he hasn't forgotten it again and I don't even have to remind him to put it in his backpack!
So are the differences in my son and daughter boy/girl differences or just their personalities?
One more last funny note about both of them playing the same sport. At her age my daughter's team rotates all the players through all the positions so she got to play goalie at her game on Saturday and I snapped this picture:
When he saw she'd been put at goalie, my 8 year old son had to jump up from his seat on the sidelines (his game was after hers) and go behind the goal to give his little sister some coaching. Doesn't she look like she's thrilled to have his instruction?!!
