Ultra-blessed

Today I am feeling overwhelmingly blessed to be the Mama of these 6 amazing, beautiful kids. I cannot believe God chose me to be their forever Mom and that I get to watch them grow up. I know I have blogged about this before but it's worth saying again. I am one really lucky woman. God has brought me through a lot of pain and trials and refined me in the fire with these kids. I am a better woman because I have them in my life. Just wanted to share that with you today.

Sleeping issues

When Justus was born he slept right next to my bed. After the first week I started bringing him into bed with me to nurse him and would fall asleep with him next to me in my arms. We LOVED having him in bed with us for many different reasons. When he was 3 months old he developed a severe case of eczema and the only way I could get him to sleep was laying him in one arm while I held his arms down with my other arm. All he wanted to do was scratch and he just couldn't fall asleep unless I was keeping him from scratching. This went on for months and as you might imagine, he developed some sleep issues. He hardly ever slept. 2 naps a day were a miracle and even then I would have to wait till he was completely asleep in my arms before I could lay him down.

Two months ago we were given a Papasan swing. I started putting Justus in it when I knew he was tired and propped up his bottle to eat. It was the only way I could get him to sleep anymore. Naps weren't working at all and he would scream bloody murder if we put him in his crib(in our room) to sleep at all. I was getting tired of it and did what I could to keep me sane. He was always contorting his body different way to sleep in the swing cause he was just getting too big. Isn't he so sweet?











Two weekends ago I just had it with all the sleep issues and getting kicked in the stomach all night long. I tried to put him to bed in the crib in our room and he screamed for an hour, even though we were in the room with the lights on and he could see us. I was frustrated. I tried each day but then this last Monday I decided to get serious and make it happen. For nap time(which I had to just make up as he has never had a scheduled time) I fed him, changed him and then laid him down in his room(which he had never slept in). I stood there with him and each time he put his head up I gently pushed it down and told him it was night-night time. He understood that he had to lay his head down and I didn't have to fight him too bad. Once he kept his head down for a minute I started slowly walking out of the room. I stopped at Judah's crib for a minute, at the changing table for a minute, at the door for a minute and then just disappeared. Amazingly, he fell asleep without making a peep and slept for an hour and a half. For his afternoon nap he did the same thing and for bed time we had a little more fussing at first but NOTHING compared to what it was just a few nights before.
Since then, I have kept up with the routine and have only been woken up a few times at night. He would go back to sleep if I put his Binky in his mouth and told him to lay down. Last night was the best night yet, he slept from his last feeding at 10:30 all the way to 7 o'clock. I woke up amazed that he was still sleeping. I think this is going to work and tonight, I get to share my bed with only one man. We are both very ready to have our bed back.

Puberty

Before I go any further I must tell you that I got permission from Sarah to tell you about what's been going on in our house. After all, she says, it's the way God made me so why should I be embarrassed about it?

So, last week Jonah and I sat down and I expressed my concern over Sarah's new emotionally fragile self. It seemed that she would get pouty and start crying over the silliest little thing (like getting a B+ on her spelling test). I was perplexed because this just wasn't my sweet little girl. It hit me a little hard when she woke up one day with a very large pimple on her chin. She had been getting little red bumps on her face for the last month or so but they never looked truly like pimples and besides, I told myself, she is way to young to start puberty. Right?

On Saturday we were all sitting outside and the kids were riding bikes around the backyard while Jonah and I chatted about Sarah. Jonah asked if she had body odor yet and I said I didn't think so. Jonah called her over and told her to lift up her arm and he took a big whiff (he's such a good Daddy, isn't he?) and said, "uhm, yeah smell it yourself." Sure enough she had B.O. By this time I am in full on denial. I am not ready to have a little girl who is starting pre-puberty stuff. I have only been a mom for FIVE years!(Sarah is 9 though in case you were thinking, what a 5 year old starting puberty;) However, I know that I need to start talking with her sooner rather than later. So, I get out my trusty, beautiful laptop and start looking for a good Christian puberty book or program. A good friend recommended a book called Lady Day that looks fantastic and I am waiting to come right now. I will let you know what I think of it.

That night I took Sarah out on a little "date" to go get some deodorant and face wash and then to go get some coffee and talk. We had some really good discussions and I enjoyed my time with her immensely. After talking a little bit about puberty and that this happens to all little girls and it's the way God designed her body to work she says, "But Mommy, what if I still want to be a little girl? I'm not ready to grow up yet." sniff, sniff. I'm not ready for her to grow up either but it's happening and I am going have fun with it and look forward to watching God do His handi-work with her.

Justus is walking...

sort of... Just to say, none of my other kids could do this till they were at least 13 months old without falling every 2 or 3 steps. I need to buy him one of these that can come inside and he would be on it ALL day long!

My big boy

Isaiah taught himself how to ride a 2 wheeler and he just keeps getting better and better at stearing. You can see in the video that there isn't much space in our backyard for a child who is directionally challenged but I think he does pretty well with it, don't you? I can't wait to get him out on our 15 acres and just let him ride to his hearts content.

Our first few weeks of kindergarten

Here are the "triplets" on the first day of school. They are little less than enthusiastic, even though all we were doing was singing songs(which they love). I mean, look at Isaiah's face. To say I was discouraged is an understatement. Thankfully, things turned up very quickly once they realized 'school' was actually lots of fun!


They each have their own notebook and pencilbox that they bring to the table if they need to. There aren't many table activities but they love playing at "real school". For some reason they aren't as impressed with "school" when we are sitting on the floor, even though that's where the fun stuff happens.



Well, maybe not all the fun stuff. Here they are painting a water color picture of the sun. The sun was what we studied the first week along with the sound of /s/. They learned a lot.






And if we turn around we can find Sarah studying her times tables since she very conveniently forgot them during the summer. No more long summer breaks for us! We are schooling year round from now on!



Here is a really cool program called "Cuisinare Rods" from My Father's World curriculum that the triplets LOVE. It is a lot of fun and they beg me to let them 'play' with these.



Isaiah is a happy guy playing with his rods and learning while he's at it. BTW, don't mind his ashy looking face. I'm not sure why it is like that. I tried taking 4 pictures of him and even though his face looked fine in real life it wouldn't stop making it look like he had chalk on it. Hm.



Alana really liked them too.






Here is Malakai's paper. This is one of his favorite activities and I'm amazed at how well he does at it.



Here Sarah is studying her US states. So far she knows all the states west of Wisconsin (including Wisconsin and all the states to the north and south of it). She is working on all the eastern states now. She LOVES geography.



I gave the triplets and Judah the task to make a cool house/compound/fortress using the blocks while I was working with Sarah on something else. Here is what they came up with.

Isn't Judah so cute? This is his smile-really-big smile. He sat here for at least 25 minutes standing these blocks up, knocking them down and then building them again.





Kai is so funny. He usually makes some pretty good building but I'm not sure what happen here. He still was really excited that I was going to take his picture.

Lookee what Jonah got me

A big box came in the mail for me. The kids were wondering what it was. They couldn't wait to see what was inside. We LOVE to get mail, we're weird like that.



Here is the big beautiful box just being opened. It looks like there is another box inside.



Any hint of what it might be? I was getting really excited at this point.


And more wrapping. The kids kept telling me to hurry up, meanwhile, I was taking pictures.



Look at that beautiful new laptop! What a great hubbie I have, huh? I actually think he bought it for me so that I would stop using his and he could take his to work.


And can you believe after giving me such a beautiful and amazing gift he actually tried to convince me to let HIM have it! Of course, I could take his old one. No thank you!

Making sourdough bread

I have been making my own bread for a year or so now and we love it. However, I have been a little trepidatious to try sourdough as you need a starter(and I didn't have one). Last week I decided to make my own starter and see how it turned out. The first recipe for starter I used turned out to be bad and the starter grew and grew up and over my very big bowl. They called for WAY to much yeast so I threw it out and tried a different one that called for much less yeast. It worked and after 5 days this is what it looked like. You can't even imagine how yummy it smelled too.



Then, I found a recipe that did the dough in the bread maker, which was SO nice! I still had to knead it a bit(which I love doing) but this was quick and I was able to school the kids while it was being mixed together. Here is the dough just out of the bread machine.




Here is the dough after I have kneaded it a bit. It was so soft and smooth. I love the way dough feels when you knead it.



Here is the dough after 2 rising times, more kneading and then forming it into a loaf shape. We still had to let it rise 3 more hours. So we continued to wait.



And here is the final product, fresh out of the oven. One side of the bread has a funny look to it as the plastic wrap stuck to it and took the whole top layer off during the final rise and before baking. Next time I will spray the wrap with a little Pam and see how that works.


This was some of the best sourdough bread ever! I know that the fact that it was homemade and I made it has something to do with it but it was really yummy. We had some as a snack last night and then again for breakfast this morning. I WILL be making this again very soon.

Reason 1,459 to homeschool your kids.

Read this story here and you'll understand. I can post 1,000 other reasons to homeschool but don't want to bog down my blog with so many posts. I thought this one would be a good one to share.

Being an adoptive Mom can be HARD!

So, I'm a mom, right? But not just any kind of mom, I'm extra special cause I'm an adoptive Mom.;) With that though, it brings it's own sets of issues that I wouldn't have to even fathom if I had given birth to my children from my womb and not my heart. Mostly things are normal, just everyday living. No big deal. Actually, they have always been normal, until the last few months, pretty close to when Sarah turned 9. She is growing up. Something all little girls do but with that she is getting smarter and starting to understand things on a different level. We have been having some really great conversations lately about a myriad of things. I love it. However, she also has some really serious, heartbreaking questions about her past that she wants answered. Some of them are really hard to hear for an adult and I don't feel comfortable telling her yet. What she is already aware of though is hard for her to swallow and it makes me so sad to see my sweet girl dealing with these thoughts and questions and feelings. They say that adoptive kids deal with their emotions in stages that go very much along with their ages. Age 9 is supposed to be a thoughtful, question filled age. We have hit that and all I can do is pray that I am doing the right thing. I point her to Jesus to take her hurt and feelings to Him and let her know that I am here to talk with her about anything she wants. But it is HARD! We could definitely use your prayers as we enter this new stage of her life.

My 2 little future Mommies

Tonight the girls came downstairs all wrapped up like this. I made them these Mei Tai carriers a little over a year ago when I was making one before Judah came home. They were each a Mommy and practicing attachment Mommy hood. I love seeing my girls do this. I pray they are Mommies that love to carry and hold and love on their babies. I didn't learn about this kind of parenting until Malakai was about 15 months old. I SO wish I would have worn him from the first and, for that matter, Alana too.


And, if you can't tell, these are babies that were adopted. One of them, Bethany, is from Africa and the other, Asia, is from China. I pray that my girls(and boys too) have a heart for adoption. I pray that they see what an amazing thing it is to love a child that is not of your body. I don't want this just because they have all been adopted but just because of the amazingness (I know that's not a word) of it all. That, and the fact that I believe the Lord calls us to care for orphans. It doesn't always mean adopting but I sure do love adoption. Have you been able to gather that here at this little blog?

And last but not least, I pray that my girls will be blessed enough to nurture and take care of their children each day. I tell them all the time that I want them to be educated and well-rounded girls but I hope that they choose to stay at home and raise their children. You may not agree with me but I believe that being a good wife and mother is the most important job a woman can have. We are the ones who raise a nation and sadly that nation is overwhelmingly being raised in day cares and after school care. They have a choice to make that will effect their children for a lifetime. I won't go into all now, as that is not what I intended for this post. Just sharing my heart.

I love my girls, they are such a treasure to me. And, aren't they beautiful?

Growing up

See that little beauty there? She is 9 years old and the oldest child in our family by 4 years. This means that she has 5 younger siblings to torture her and annoy her when time permits. This also means she has 5 younger siblings to love on, teach, nurture, play with and help. Sarah usually is a GREAT big sister, and I mean one of the best. Lately, however, I have been noticing that she wasn't being her nice, kind self and was beginning to be mean-spirited, selfish and angry with her siblings. I would chide her lightly each time over the last few weeks but today I realized that she needed a serious talk about her behavior.
Basically, I sat her down and told her that we needed to talk about the way she had been treating others in the house. She broke down crying telling me that I was right and she hadn't been a good sister to her siblings because she was treating them wrong and saying mean-spirited things. She asked me if I could pray with her and ask God for forgivness and to help her get back onto the track of putting others first and pleasing God with her words and actions. We talked about Isaiah, who seems to like to say things to make Sarah mad but when I told her I was going to talk to him about that too she told me that it was her fault because she was always the one to start it without me hearing her. Wow! What an admition! I am so proud of my girl and her maturity of taking responsibility for her words and actions. She is going to be sitting the little ones down later and asking their forgivness. This is HUGE! She is setting such a great example to the little ones by admitting her wrong, asking forgivness and then correcting it.
I pray that Sarah (and the other children too) are wise in taking the reproof and correction of their parents as they get older. It is hard! It is hard being the parent giving the correction too and making sure you are doing the right thing. Hopefully by the time we get to Justus we will have things figured out, but I know that's not the way it works.

My big boy

First off, Jonah took the camera(or I just can't find it) and so there will be no new pictures this week :( But this morning during "recess" Isaiah taught himself to ride a 2 wheeler! And does it really well too. He can turn the corners in our backyard and everything. The only thing is his sense of direction isn't so good(it's not good when he is on his 2 legs either) and he keeps running into the posts in the backyard. If we had him in a large open space he would be able to go and go and go. Can I just tell you how proud I am of this little guy? He has come SO far from a year ago. He's taught himself all of his letters and their sounds (without my help so far), all his numbers to 20, how to swim, and now how to ride a bike. There are many, many other little things too but he has learned by leaps and bounds!
And I must say, he is VERY proud of himself today and his accomplishment. He keeps asking me if Daddy will be proud. We called him but he didn't answer and so Isaiah is left wondering if Daddy will be proud of him. All my assurance does nothing to help the issue and it will only be better when Daddy calls back to tell Isaiah how proud he is of him. Isaiah is anxiously awaiting that phone call.

From the mind(mouth) of a nine year old

Last night I had done some rearranging in the garage and came across my high school year book. I took it out and Sarah and I looked through it a bit and I pointed out my "friends" to her. This morning it was still sitting on the table and she picked it up again. As she did she says, "Mom, back in the olden' days when you were a kid..." Huh? I didn't even let her finish before I quickly put her straight that I am NOT old. Olden' days are Laura Ingalls days! Not 20 years ago! I don't think she will ever say that phrase again about the time I was alive. :) I AM only 30. That's not old, right?

The ants just won't DIE!

Here in good ole' Southern California we have a time during the summer where there are ants EVERYWHERE. I am NOT exaggerating. For about 3 weeks now you could go outside and find trails and trails of ants but they had not gotten in the house thus far. Well, they are here, and they are everywhere. I have tried killing them by spraying around the house. I have tried killing them with 3 different types of ant bait. I have tried ignoring them and praying them away. Nothing will work.

Right now I have an ant bait thingie on my window sill of my kitchen with ants hoarding it and just pray that they will take all that yummy poison back to their home and it will go to work. Yesterday, when I pulled into the garage and got out of the car I noticed a very large line of ants going from the garage door to a hole in the wall straight into (or under) our house. There is a group of them in the kids bathroom, and the guest bathroom and then yesterday morning I woke up to find about 10 of them, get this, IN MY BED! I couldn't find why or how they were getting there, but can I tell you I just about lost it about the ants. That put me over the top. But then I realized, at least it wasn't spiders and was VERY grateful. I HATE spiders even MORE than I hate ants. So I guess it's somewhat of a good thing? I would rather be inundated by ants than spiders. Is fall here yet?