New Feet

No pictures, but so thankful the foot came in on the 11:00 delivery. It was indeed snapped off and his right foot was breaking too.
They are not sure what is causing him to go through feet so fast, he's not too heavy and he should be able to jump rope...wonder if the running long jump and the standing broad jump have anything to do with it?

I am just thankful that Philadelphia is not further away.

I also am thankful for audio books.

Thankful too for grandmas that babysit little girls so I didn't have to drag Hope and Faith along as well.

Thankful for fans.

Good night, tomorrow is another crazy day...did someone say summer VACATION?

Summer Vacation I

This morning we hiked off to the orthodontist to see what he is going to recommend for Joe and Hope's teeth.  Thankfully, he thinks we can hold off on Hope's teeth for about a year, but Joe should start while he is still growing.
After seeing the sticker, I'm OK with waiting a bit.

Then since I had a babysitter (daddy was home today) I ran to the courthouse and picked up Shekinah's adoption registration. Crazy city driving!

This afternoon, the four youngest were jumping rope and Joe came limping in. Hope says "Joe broke his leg!"  She was almost right, he broke the same foot again. So, since I have nothing planned tomorrow, we might as well plan a leisurely drive to Philadelphia. They told me they can order the foot this afternoon and hopefully have it on the UPS truck by 11.  They do have a used foot in their "closet" just in case.



Finally, got this quilt finished....

Not my choice of colors, but when it's an order I don't spend a lot of time thinking if I like it or not. Just make the seams match and put the colors where they want them.

50th Birthday's

 Hubby turned 50 and his siblings did not let it pass un-noticed. On Saturday night they gave him 50 gifts. Most of them of the practical nature...you know, the kind that say "Hershey's" on the wrapper.
But one of the gifts was poignant, there is a picture of my husband and his brother (the one that passed away a few months ago) in the picture my husband is sitting in a wagon with a little stuffed fox wrapped in a blanket. My mother in law searched all over to find another little fox to wrap in a blanket. It has been well loved ever since Miss Shekinah discovered it.

The other thing they gave him was a huge Styrofoam plane. It is quite impressive. The wings pop off when it crashes....Actually it is perfect for our yard.

               AND....they told him to "go fly a kite"  which is not perfect for our yard, so we went to the church and used that wide open space

                                                            Which we did. (Sunday afternoon)

                        The kite mainly had seizures in the gusty wind....so the girls decided to roll down the hill

                  Then we went home and took naps.....The End

Graduation!

 Congratulations Ben! Salutatorian of THMH Class of 2013

 Speech title "Be There"

As in ...be in Heaven

As in....don't miss the Goal.

Also, be here as in don't miss the opportunities God gives you.

                               

Life in These Parts

   Daddy was a hero today and it didn't cost any money

 Just a little time...Shekinah is still chortling over the pictures.

 Someone had a birthday lately too!  Is he officially "old" now? 

New Shoes?

 Every now and again the girls get a hankering for heels.

 Nothing better than good old wooden train track bridge pieces and a couple of rubber bands

 If you aren't careful you will twist your ankle, just like real heels. They had the nerve to tell Shekinah that she is too young for heels.

   What is she holding? We have those little green caterpillars that descend from the trees on a silk thread. She didn't think they were one bit scary....unlike mayflies and the like. 

My Mother's Day

Yes, I am fully aware that last Sunday was Mother's Day and we did take care of the flowers for our mothers. However, we were the host family for church last Sunday. At our church that means you ( I mean we) spend the week cleaning or making lists of corners that need to be cleaned before Sunday morning. Also , it means preparing a meal that can mostly be cooked in a crock pot or the oven and be  pretty much table ready by 12 noon.  I don't mind that part at all, but what puts me beyond my comfort zone is --I don't know who my guests will be! I don't know what they like to eat...or don't like!

The point of having a host family is to make sure that visitors to our church will not go home hungry...plus it gives you a chance to get to know the visitors a little better. If there are no visitors, you ask around for a couple of families that didn't already put their dinner (lunch) in the oven.

Well, all that to say, my Mother's Day was not very relaxing.

So last night I stated that I was only going to do the things I wanted to do today.

I could see the wheels turning in some people's brains...does this mean we get to do whatever we want tomorrow? or does this mean we get to do what mom doesn't want to do?  I kept them guessing, because I really didn't know either.

I started out pretty good....I rolled out of bed at 6AM because dear hubby had rolled out at some awful hour starting with a 3...so I felt a little guilty....that is till I got to the bottom of the stairs and decided I really am not ready to face the day yet.

So I crawled onto the sofa and fell asleep again, only to be woken by that crazy cardinal that faithfully taps the window multiple times a day. Then I dreamed that the 3 girls came down and told me Shekinah needs to go to the bathroom, but the next thing I knew Ben was walking through the living room...he wondered what was wrong with me!

I ate breakfast
Then I baked 4 loaves of bread because I didn't feel like baking 8. ( I know that will catch up to me on Tues)
I sewed a few patches for the quilt I am trying to finish.
Gave orders (made a list) --decided it wouldn't be good for them to have the whole day off.

Then after feeding the troops hot dogs we put them in the care of the youth group and we went on a date!!
(This is a once a year event, not a weekly thing)...the baby-sitting I mean

We ate supper at Applebees and went window shopping at Big Lots....

It was a great Mother's Day

Teaching Her to Play

 This youngest one does not know how to play alone. I understand why, but I'm not a very good teacher.
So one day she spent about an hour sitting on the porch "waiting on daddy" She was drinking some very red cherry slushie (bad mom)

 Today it was nice and sunny, so I left her "paint" the sidewalk. The other day I gave her a tiny bit of water and had her paint some papers. She was so proud of the results she hung it on the refrigerator...all on her own. It took me a moment to realize why she was showing me this wrinkled up school paper. She had it carefully attached to the fridge with magnets.

 But today she ran out of paint so I told her to fill up at the well. Somehow she just got wet.

 This is how she likes life...full of siblings. 

 Patient big brothers are just the best!

Then to wind down with the business section....

Summer vacation starts next Saturday, we will see how she fares with five bosses all day long.

Not Fair!

No I'm not talking about the big things that aren't fair. I'm not talking about "why did I need to have 3 moms and other kids only need one?"
Not about "why do we have plenty of food and other kids don't?"
Not about "why do I get to have a soft bed and a roof over my head and other kids don't?"

I'm talking about the every day fairness...In our house we have 8 people and the Popsicles come in packs of 12. That means after every one has 1 there are ....calculator please ....4 left over.

Who gets to eat the last 4?!

The worst thing is when there are 8 cookies in the pack and daddy doesn't want his because he's watching his cholesterol.

Who gets the last left over cookie?

If I allow the first come, first serve mentality. There will be some people who never leave the kitchen for fear they will miss an opportunity.
If I allow the first person that notices the left over cookie, that leaves out the short people who can't see up on the kitchen counter.
If I make them take turns, I will be needing to keep complete and accurate records because we live in a household of "bean counters" and I will be corrected and reprimanded for forgetting someone's turn.


I find my self saying "no" to a lot of things because I know if I do something for one child, I will be expected to do the same thing for at least 3 more children. This is the toughest part of this fairness thing. I can claim the cookie, eat the popscicles at lunch time with Shekinah (what they don't know won't hurt them),and even throw away that last bit of the chip bag, but how do you handle the careful collection of data that tends to come out as accusations on tough days?

Yes, mom, I know you told me "life isn't fair"

Saw This Today

When GOD leads you to the edge of a cliff, Trust him fully.
Only two things can happen; either he will catch you when you fall 
or
he will teach you how to fly.

Just noticed that my next post will be my 500th!  Wonder if I should do something special?

Learning Her Colors- Ectrodactyly

 I was beginning to worry that Shekinah was color-blind.  I (well, Hope painted them for me) even made these puzzle type color blocks out of advertising magnets. She would match the shapes, but seemed clueless about the colors. Everything was "green?"
 I thought my children were knowing some of their colors at 2 almost 3, but she didn't seem to recognize the words even when I used Chinese words for "red", "green" or " blue". I know there can be eye issues with ectro, but didn't think color blindness was one of them.

Today I pulled these baby toys and noticed that there were still five matching color pairs.

And she got it!  Not sure which cheesy smile looks the best. So I'll give you both.

  Then just to raise the bar a bit, we linked the pieces together. She can do it, she just needs to be a bit more of an engineer and figure out the best place to hold things. Her palm area is a bit smaller than other kids.

Quote of the day:   "Mama, where Ben?  Ben go on bus? Ben go on airplane? Where Ben sleep?"

From an older child:  " I couldn't believe my mouth!"