Amazing

Last night, I put the kids to bed...and they all stayed there!  Amazing!

No one woke up during the night...at all!  A miracle!  :-)

Perhaps it's this lovely, cool, fall weather that has descended on us?  Whatever the reasons, I am extremely thankful!

Thursday

and the day's going a bit better then yesterday...although we still had quite the naptime battle.  And Zach was bouncing off the walls.  Since he got up from a nice nap he's been much calmer.

Part of the reason the day's going well is because I had a plan for supper.  "Curried Lentil Soup" is cooking away in the crock pot as we speak.  I also made "Oatmeal Brownies" for dessert.  Now to be fair, the curried soup isn't really curried...because I don't keep curry powder on hand.  Hopefully it's still tasty.  We sampled the brownies (warm!) when the kids got off the bus.  Delicious!  And with the oatmeal you can pretend you have a healthy dessert.  :-)

My MOPS table group, well, 3 of us, got together this morning for a play group.  That was a nice break for us all as well.

It's a gorgeous day here.  The humidity has finally broken and there is a nice breeze.  And, wonder of wonders, the sun is finally out again!  Lovely!

Wednesday...

...and I'm tired.  Tired from not getting enough sleep.  Tired of cleaning up 1 mess only to find 3 (or more!) more that need cleaned up.  Tired of feeling tired!  Tired of always running behind and not keeping after things.  Tired of being the referee to a million arguments a day (and yes, I've tried that "ignoring & making them work it out"...but it hasn't seemed to work well here..someone tends to get hurt).  Tired of fighting the same battles (you must stay in your bed at naptime/bedtime, you don't need to sleep but you must stay there) over and over every day for months.  And a million other things.

Don't worry...I won't flip out or do anything drastic.  :-)  Just keepin' it real!  Some hours/days are just to get through....building my character I guess!  :-)

But...I love my husband, I love my kids, and I love our GOD who is mighty to save and strengthen and uphold us through Jesus Christ!

"So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
Isaiah 41:10

"The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."
Zephaniah 3:17

"Peace I leave with you;
my peace I give you.
I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled
and do not be afraid." (~Jesus)
John 14:27

"Do not be anxious about anything,
but in everything, by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God.
And the peace of God,
which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 4:6-7

So now, I'm going to go have a cup of tea, persist in keeping those boys in their beds, and then proceed to do some housework (assuming of course there is a bit of time between when the one who falls asleep last and when the one who fell asleep first wakes up).

Tuesday...

..and it's naptime!  But the boys are playing nicely...I usually put them to bed when they start to fight.  :-)

Yesterday Janae brought home a note saying that she needs her eyes examined as she's having difficulty reading the board.

Today the IU13 teacher called and said she thinks Autumn should meet with her for right now for some extra help with her math.

This morning's therapy with Zach went great!

A lady who was at MOPS with me the last 2 years has a son who had leukemia 3 years ago.  It's back.

A friend of my sister just discovered she's having twins!

All sorts of stuff going on....

Weekend

We had a lovely weekend....doing stuff around the house (including cleaning out under kids' beds), a trip to the Pepperidge Farm Outlet (me)....I love it!  Church.  A baby shower for my friend in a lovely decorated barn, some time with family.  Splendid.

And now for a week with only 1 appointment (Zach's OT)....a few other assorted events (PTF at school for me, Jr. Youth for Josiah, MOPS table group play group)...but those are more optional, even though we plan to attend.  Oh yes, and hopefully we'll get to go the New Holland Street Fair at some point...  And of course the inevitable cooking, baking, laundry, cleaning up, etc.  I'm hoping to spend some time organizing as well...we'll see.

It's a beautiful sunny day here in the east.  The leaves are starting to change colors ever so slightly.  I'm planning on doing some clean-up in here this morning and then the boys and I will head outside for a bit before lunch...anyway, that's the plan...always subject to change.  :-)

Happy Birthday, Mark!

3 years ago today, I didn't know you existed...well, to be fair, we suspected your existence, but didn't know.  But God did.

On October 10, when you were 17 days old, you joined our family.  We love you immensely.  And your calm personality is a wonderful compliment to our family.  We love to watch you play with your brothers and sisters.  You love to swing and play with trucks.  Hopefully we will soon be able to understand your speech. :-)

 Janae & Mark - no idea what age....I'm guessing around 6 months or so because he grew out of his infant carseat quite young.

 Watching the kids leaving for school.  1 year old.

 At Cape Henlopen State Park w/Daddy - 2009.

At the park with Aunt Wendie.  Fall 2009.  In 2010 he had surgery to correct the clogged tear duct.

This year at the play ground near the beach house.

Quick Update...

Mark is doing well...only minimal pain med today.  Slept all night, although was up early...and napped decently as well.

Mark

is currently sleeping...as he has been off and on ever since surgery this morning.  The surgery went well.  He's on some sort of acetaminophen/narcotic combo so he's rather sleepy.  He also is not interested in drinking anything like they want him to do.  But, at least he is a quiet cranky when awake as opposed to the loud, screaming, thrashing cranky of someone else in this house.  :-)  Hopefully I can switch him to regular Tylenol before to long.  I'm also supposed to keep him quiet (no running, jumping, etc.) for a week....seriously!  A (nearly) 3 year old boy....let's hope he doesn't feel well so he stays quiet.

Well, kids are back from school, gotta run!

Tuesday

This morning I had a lovely time with a couple of friends.  We drank coffee, chatted, and refereed the kids as needed.

Tomorrow is Mark's surgery.  He is scheduled to have his adenoids removed at 8:30 a.m.  I need to be at the surgery center at 7:30.  If you read this before this, pray for my sweet boy...and pray for our friend who will be taking care of the other 2 boys for the morning and getting the 3 school kids off to school.  I'm hoping that if all goes as planned I should be home around lunch time.

I was thinking back to when Josiah was 4 and needed to have dental work under anesthesia at a local hospital as he did not do well in the office...yeah, whole 'nother story.  Anyway, at that time I was glad that I had just had Janae and needed to stay home with her.  Randy & my mom took Josiah in and got that all taken care of.  I was so relieved because I did not think I could handle it well (it was hard for me when we tried to do the work in the office with "sleepy gas" and it didn't go well).  Well, here we are 7 years later....and instead of being worried about being upset, I'm thinking that I will enjoy the quiet of the waiting area and hopefully work on Zach's afghan a bit and perhaps read a newspaper or magazine....not that I'm not concerned, but I'm no longer worried about falling apart over a simple procedure...(of course that doesn't mean I won't).  :-)  And when I think of how upset I was when Josiah got his first immunizations....I guess I just got used to some of this stuff....

Anyway.  Well, I need to go get everything in order for tomorrow so we can leave promptly and lunches are ready for the school kids....

Monday musings

• We had a fabulous time with some friends this past weekend.  Between our 2 families there were 9 kids, ages 11, 9, 7, 5,4, nearly 3, 2, 2, and 1.  We were camping at Spruce Lake Retreat.  Saturday we went to Jim Thorpe and rode the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway.  We even tackled hiking Spruce Mountain on Sunday morning.  The weather was cool so we enjoyed camp fires and lots of hot dogs and coffee.  :-)
• I think that Micah is slowly getting better at staying in bed and falling asleep....slowly but surely I will win this battle.  :-)  Janae, on the other hand...well, we're still working on her fears....
• Wednesday Mark is scheduled for his surgery to get his adenoids out.  Hopefully his runny nose will not postpone things.
• Today I did mounds of laundry, went grocery shopping, and put the furniture back in place that had been moved after Hurricane Irene knocked out our electric resulting in a wet basement.  All ready for play group in the morning.
• Well, I'm tired...to many late nights around the campfire...gotta go...

Permanency Day!

Today we remember the day that Mark & Zach became legally a part of our family.  At our home we don't do any big special party...but we remember none-the-less.  Having a mixture of biological and adoptive children, we have chosen to make the adoption very matter-of-fact...not better or worse, just different.  And who knows, maybe we'll make it a bigger deal in the future, or some years and not others.  We'll see.  :-)

 Zach (above) and Mark (below) - first day of school - 2011/2012.

In a way, I consider our children privileged to have their adoption in this day and age.  They will grow up with neighbors and friends from various family situations.  Adoption will not be the secret that it was in some circles in the past.  And I am grateful.

 Zach & Mark - winter 2008

 Adoption Day - September 16, 2009

 Zach & Mark - winter 2009....I think.

 Mark & Zach - beach trip - 2010

 Micah, Zach, Mark - Spring 2010

 Our Family - October 2010

Zach, Micah, Mark - June 2011

We are so blessed to have Zach and Mark be a permanent part of our family.  I can't imagine our lives without them.  And God has changed me through them (and the whole foster care experience) without a doubt.

"The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy."  Psalm 126:3.

Remembering....

The other week our former deacon at church died very suddenly, and this song came on the CD player in our vehicle shortly after I heard the news. It has been meaningful to me in the past several years as a couple of friends from church have died.


 

 Two years ago today our friend, Lisa, lost her battle with breast cancer. I still miss her insight. This song was also meaningful to me during her fight with cancer.

Lisa's sister-in-law gave us these beautiful roses from the funeral to use at the Zach & Mark's adoption party.  Lisa was quite supportive of us in our adoption and I appreciated having the flowers there.

Wednesday

and I am ready to stay home for a whole day.  I really don't like when my schedule is such that I am going away every day, but so it is this week...so I need to maximize my time at home...when really I just want to relax.  :-)

• Monday we had a doctor appointment and did pears.
• Tuesday we had Occupational Therapy, another doctor visit, and (with all the kids...what was I thinking?!) a trip to the grocery store.
• Today Mark needed to go for "Pre-Op" (blood work) for his surgery next week.  He did fabulous!
• Tomorrow is MOPS (yes, I could stay home from that...but it's the first meeting of the year and I could use the interaction/break).
• Friday is an IU13 meeting about continuing Mark's speech when he's 3.

I prefer to keep all meetings/appointments/activities to 2 days a week so I have 3/4 days at home to do the multitudes of stuff around here....perhaps it'll work out next week....but I've gotta say, my hat's off to the parents who need to do this type of thing every week for whatever reason.

Now, we're going to play for about 20 more minutes, then it's naptime (otherwise known as the hour long battle after which mommy gets 20 minutes [before the one who fell asleep first wakes up] to do everything that she was waiting until naptime to do.)

It is a gorgeous, sunny day here and a lovely one to be outside.  A cold front is supposed to come through so it will be chilly for the rest of the week/weekend...and I'm looking forward to digging out my "winter" clothes and wearing something different.  :-)  I love fall!  (with a few notable exceptions such as when it's cold enough to require shoes and coats on children who have done without for many months and are no longer interested).

Have a lovely day!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband!

Random...again.

• I'm using the new blogger interface...still getting used to it...
• I'm frequently sleepy these days....Micah's been getting up nights again.  And then I figured out he's cutting his final molars...hopefully we go back to sleeping all night after they're through.
• The kids are pretty well adjusted to school...although Janae is still adjusting...she complains that her tummy hurts, and sometimes cries that she misses me (only when tired).  She seems to be enjoying it though.  Stress = tummy aches seems to run in the family.
• My mom came back and helped me finish the pears today.  Between the 2 days I got 64 quart...and used up all of my quart jars.
• I'm really looking forward to MOPS starting on Thursday.  If anyone would like to join us...sign up at www.EphrataFirst.org.  Click on "Women's Ministries", Click on "Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS)."
• Because I was doing pears this morning, I'm doing laundry now....and I should go start folding....
• Zach has had the best week (behaviorally wise) in a long time....I wonder what's different.....

Rain

Lots of rain here overnight and this morning.  Flooding everywhere.  Kids off school.  Thankfully we are relatively unscathed.  A bit of water coming through the walls in the basement but nothing major.  But the pictures I see from around our county...wow!  Some areas are having flooding unlike anything seen since Hurricane Agnes in 1972...or worse.

So, we are staying home.  And hoping Randy can come home sometime.  Many major roads are closed all over our half of the state...he was planning on getting home tomorrow....hopefully the roads will be reopened by then.  But some have major damage from the flooding so I don't know.  I wonder if the kids will have school tomorrow.

For those of you who are not local....to see what we're dealing with, check out www.wgal.com...our local news channel.

Raining...

"The Sun did not shine, it was to wet to play..."  so begins "The Cat in the Hat"....and a perfect description of today (and other recent days) it is!  We've been getting a lot of rain, here in the east, and the kids are going stir crazy.  We've also had some thunderstorms (I just saw another lightening flash so I should probably get off the computer).

Thankfully, on our schedule today was "Play Group".  So nice to get together today with 2 other moms and 3 other kids...get out of the house and socialize!  On my way I swung by a local produce stand and bought some pears.  So whenever they ripen, canning pears will be on my agenda.

We finally did piano lessons again tonight...only a month late....hopefully we can get back on our weekly schedule.  I had a bunch of tomatoes that were about to start rotting so I turned them into Pizza Sauce.  I needed to go to the store for bread...but didn't feel like dragging everyone out in the rain.  Then I remembered a loaf of frozen bread dough in my freezer.  So I just baked that and hopefully that will do the trick for school lunches tomorrow.

We are still working at "staying in bed when Mommy puts me there for naps and bedtime" with Micah (and to a lesser extent Mark).  Some day they may actually figure it out!  :-)

Tomorrow's agenda:  laundry, clean up the house, speech therapy, laundry.

Well, I should go mop up the water leaking into my basement at the spot it always leaks when we have lots of rain....I wonder how much we have had?  We no longer have a rain gauge...somehow around here they just break....

Food

The other week I spent some time searching through old magazines to inspire my cooking...I was tired of the same old things. So, in the past week or so I have tried:

• Chocolate Carrot Cake - very good...or so those who tasted it said. I took it to our church fellowship meal and it was gone before I got any.
• Slow-Cooked Beans - good. To spicy for Autumn, but that's because I used fairly hot salsa.
• Pizza Grilled Cheese - Excellent. We enjoyed this alternative to grilled cheese.
• Lemonade Iced Tea - Nice for something different.
• Cheerio Treats - Kids ate these quite quickly!
• Herbed Steak Fries - Very good as well.

All turned out to be delicious!

I also made a couple of ice cream deserts:

• an ice cream pie which my aunt makes that I converted to a 9x13 dessert. It's a Rice Krispie/Corn Syrup/Peanut Butter Crust filled with ice cream (I used Turkey Hill Eagles Ice Cream). It was delicious!
• And a homemade ice cream cake recipe from my mom (modified slightly). I used a chocolate cake mix, split it, filled it with Fudge Ripple Ice cream, and topped with a delicious fudgy icing.

Assorted Tidbits

• God has been blessing us with a plentiful supply of boys clothes through various neighbors. We are so grateful. It is rather hard for me to shop with the kids so it's a blessing to have the clothing brought right to our door!
• I read the 2nd book in the "Father Tim" Series by Jan Mitford this weekend. I enjoyed it as I have all the Mitford books.
• It was rather humid again today. Hopefully the rain tonight will clear things off and it will get cooler again.
• This week is relatively blank....only occupational therapy (Z), speech therapy (M), and a play date on the schedule.
• I'm thinking of getting out my fall decorations for the house this weekend. I have been feeling kind of lousy the last few weeks so I haven't had the energy to do more then what has to be done. I think I will actually give in and go to the doctor for a check-up. Of course, it's probably just "mother-of-multiple-preschoolers" syndrome. :-)
• Today I was working at organizing the various hand-me-down clothing for the boys into bins by size. Now I need to go through their drawers, pull out the to small stuff, and check if they still fit the stuff from last spring or if I need to rearrange some size stuff.
• Tomorrow's agenda: Get the house in order, My friend will clean, I will take Zach to therapy...and we'll go from there!