Snow and Sniffles

Joe

Sam

Zach*eating snow*

Sis

There was, at least, 10 inches of snow that fell yesterday (conservative estimate on my part). My Mom and Dad were scheduled to come over for our Christmas dinner and they still made it. THANKS!

These were taken last night. We normally have the kids get in bed by 7.30 but Ben and I decided to give them a treat!

Because of a cold Ben is fighting (and now I seem to be fighting it as well), he stayed inside.......until I noticed that our gazebo had collapsed due to the weight of the snow it had accumulated. He had to come out to fix it, and fix it he did! My hero.

More of Inside-out

Because of this information, for the past several nights the kids have been sleeping with their jammies inside-out. =D

All the kids and I were waking up and talking, when Zachy realized it had snowed last night.

Z~ "It snowed! And we didn't even (looking around at the other kids' jammies to see if theirs were inside-out) sleep with our jammie's inside out!"
Essy~ "Eva must have." (She's the little girl from school.)
Katy~ "Haw, haw, tee-hee!!!"

Even to the last, children will believe.

Desires Met

As we were gearing up for Thanksgiving I got super excited that the kids had vacation. I miss them and love spending time with them. The Monday previous to Thanksgiving I found out that the kids had to go to school even the day before Thanksgiving. Bummer. They only got one day off. Oh well.
So, I was really looking forward to this Christmas vacation! A full two weeks of the kids home and cozy. What a treat!

And then came the snow. Beautiful snow! (I do hate to be cold though.)

It's been cold on this hill. We have been snowed/iced in for 5 days. And the kids' school has been cancelled every.single.day. Yippee!

*Sung to the tune of Happy Birthday* Happy Christmas to me, Happy Christmas to me! Happpyyy Chrrrristmaaaas, Happyyy Chrrristmaaaas......Haaaapppyyy Chrrrrristmaaaas to MEEEEEE!!!




If you couldn't guess it, that's my elated face =D
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Inside-out

A class mate of Esther's told her an amazing story. One night this little girl wanted it to snow so she turned her jammies inside-out and voila, that next morning she woke up to snow!

Saturday night my kids decided to try out this theory. And the rest is history. Sis was heard exclaiming "It worked!!!" on Sunday morning. He, he, he!

___ days 'till......

It's 13 days 'till Christmas.....today. I.am.completely.done.shopping.and.wrapping. I have to help Joey with one gift and Sis still has a few things to get, but it's all easy. And I am making all my siblings stuff.....alot of things still left to do.
Zachy (He asked to be addressed as Zachy. He said he likes it better. How cute is that?!?) and Joey's birthday is in 19 days. They also happen to have a dental appointment today. At our house we love going to the doc and dentist. When I told them they were going Zachy said "Is it because of our birthday?!?" He thought it was an early birthday gift! I wish I got that excited for dental appointments. Such simplicity.

5 minutes and tape

I'm tired. I was in the ER until 1.30 this am getting diagnosed with a bladder infection (severe to my estimations). Yuck.

But I don't want to re-visit that (just an fyi). I did want to tell you about some changes we've been making with the kids.

We've been having and increasingly difficult time with the boys being sluggish in the mornings. Like nearly making all the kids tardy for school. It seemed nothing I said would get them moving. Until today, that is.

I was reading a great book "How to Make Kids Mind Without Loosing Yours" by Dr. Kevin Leman. Super good read. I don't agree with every single idea he has, but most of them. He wrote about being consistent and dishing out discipline instead of just punishment and trying, as best as possible, to relate the discipline with the issue or mistake. And treating the kid with respect as you do. And not to refer to our choices as 'good' or 'bad' but as high or poor quality. Much more descriptive and truthful.

The best quote from my Tuesday read? (This is not an exact quote as I don't' want to violate the copy right.) "Your home needs to be a place where freedom to fail is a rule. Some of our greatest successes are a result of our greatest failures. It's just the same for kids." Basically, let them make the wrong choice and learn how that feels (my kids are leaning it's not-so-scrumptious). That's really hard for me to do. But making mistakes has great results.

Case and point. Back to the goofing-off-boys-of-mine. They were being poky this am. So I, without warning, moved up their bed time 5 min. and told them why. Oh the teary eyes. Then it happened again. So, I bumped up the time another 5 min. This totally got their attention.

We were also having problems at the table with manners. So now, when we notice someone chewing with their mouth open or elbows on the table, they are required to put a small piece of scotch tape on their cheek or elbow.

We have had ecstatic results. And in just two days! I only wish I'd read it sooner =D

I'll post about the results we've had with our Girl another time.

No Hiding

Every one likes a bit of attention now and again. Well, today I got mine.

I will, quite frequently, work out ofter I drop off the kids at school. Today I was prepared to do just that; no shower, work out clothes and no make up. I just drop them off and go. No chatting with other Mom's or teachers.

But this a.m. as I'm getting ready to walk out the door, I remembered I promised Sis I'd help her look in her locker for a misplaced paper. Bummer. I'd have to show my un-made self to others. Oh bother, to quote Pooh Bear.

"This won't be so bad" I tell myself. We drive, we arrive and we start looking in her locker (located in her room). Her teacher comes over and starts talking to me. No big deal. Except when I realise I'm pitted out. Gross.

Finlay I'm out of Sis' room and I start walking back to Penny. I then realize what day it is. Tuesday. "Hummm. Funny but I volunteer for the Twins' reading group on Tuesdays. That's weird." It took awhile but reality did sunk in. Today was the day I was to help.

I was pitted out and stuck at the school for the next two hours in close contact with very honest first graders (even though group didn't start until 9.30 I wasn't about to go home and shower and come back. WAAAAY to much $ in gas.)

I decide to check in with the Twins' teacher to see if she already has enough help. I'll admit it, I was hoping to get out of it!!! Nope, she needs me. Another bummer.

I go to wait in the office and try not to get to close to others. =D I had to walk back to Penny to lock her and the 1st gr. teacher asked me to help her in the classroom. Great.

I do. Then the Principal snagged me to help her with a project.

I do. As I'm walking back toward the classroom I overhear the Principal tell the receptionist "Yeah. Go ahead and pull the alarm." What?!?

Yup. You guessed it. A fire drill. All must evacuate. Uggg.

As the alarm is blaring, I help two first graders that are leaving the restroom to vacate. We find the other first graders and follow them to the 'safety tree'.

As I'm standing there, in my gym stuff, unmade and stinky, I was so-o impressed.

There were 210 kids, several parents and 16 teachers out in the field, and there was not a peep to be heard. (Aside form the alarm, that is.) No kids screaming or laughing. No teachers chatting. The teachers where in complete control and the kids were obeying.

I was just hoping my older kids were far enough away not to notice the potential embarrassing mother standing with the first graders. They didn't, by the way. Or at least they didn't say. They really aren't that embarassable.

Yup. Leave it to me to stand out in a fire drilling crowd. There was no hiding for me today.

More CHRISTmas

I got teary as I watched this video tonight. God help us.

+Addition+

We are adding to our family and we are ecstatic! We are becoming a foster family!!!

We have two options for the certification classes. I'm hoping for the sooner rather than later one. Our hope is to adopt whatever child comes our way. Every child deserves a good, loving and stable home. Did you know that 60% of the children removed from dangerous family situations are placed in foster homes that are equally or more destructive? 60%!?!?! Poor Baby's. There just aren't stable families who are available to help.

Ben and I have been feeling God leading us in this direction for about a year. We wavered about a month ago (for all of two days) but since then really felt His leading. We've talked, in very specific detail, with the kids and they are all a go. We've talked about what will change and what won't. Our goal is to love and exhibit God's love to these dear, hurting babies without sacrificing our own family. Once we receive our first we will wait from 6 mo. to a year to add any more (that is if none have been reconciled). We have purposely chosen not to limit the number of kids we take in (in five years we may have double our number of kids!). We will take in whom God directs us. Period. Although we have limited age. We will not take in any child younger than our youngest (er....I meant older than our youngest!). We would not want to displace antibody's position in the family.

If everything goes with out incident, we will probably receive our first child by the end of March. That's one fast pregnancy!

If you think about us, will you please pray? This is a big deal. Most foster kids have hurting hearts that require lots of patience and care.
I will defiantly keep you posted!

New Love

After consuming our Thanksgiving feast I was chatting with my new sister-in-law (not technically 'new'. She's been in our family for 1.5 yrs.). They have 5 kids they get to bring up. Sheesh! I cannot imagine adding another body to our little house. Ummm. In truth, I have imagined it and we're actually planning for it......but I'll save that for my next post. ;-)
ANYHOO......

For a reason I cannot explain, we were discussing our kids' household jobs. At our house our kids go through a rotation of loading/unloading the dishwasher. At their house each person is responsible for their own dishes (ie. they rinse and put their dish into the washer). It made me wonder if I should change our set up. So, this past Monday I asked the kids what they would prefer. Aunt Jen's way, or continue with the way things are. They chose the neater, and eventually, easier way. So we get to switcho-chango our schedule.

They've done a good job so far. They needed some reminding the first few days, but today was the least reminded day yet.

The problem. How do we know when the dishes in the washer are clean or dirty? What a total bummer it would be to add a dirty dish to the clean washer (thankfully this did not happen).

The solution. I woke up yesterday, had my Bible study time, pondered an idea and quick made this 'new love' of mine.

Bask in it's glory. Let the power of it sweep you off your feet. I would have never thought such beauty could be made in mere minutes. And yes, it's laminated. Heh, heh, heh!

When the person who add the dish that fills it, they start the washer and switch the card to read clean.

I L.O.V.E. this new addition. I may just snuggle up with it later.
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