Snake Time Again!

The girls came running into the house saying "Snake! Snake!"    Sure enough, there was another Rat Snake in the chicken coop.  I love it when we have a chance to learn something new about wild life.
Our friend Steve Wright was visiting. He is helping Mike get the Boat ready for Summer.  He is also a Boy Scout Leader, so today, the Boy Scout Leader shared  his snake  knowledge with a bunch of little girls. :)

 So why are all the chickens so upset?

 The monster in the trash can, that's why!

 There he is in all his beauty!

 Yes, he ate his fill of our breakfast!

 Hello Mr. Snake!

 Snake Lessons....101 courtesy of Mr. Steve. :)

And off they went to drop the snake off in an ablidging field.  Thanks Mr. Steve!

I didn't hear that last statement!

Our Sweet Little Ilse

Emily posted some new pictures of Ilse.... I'm so thrilled to see her again. I so want to be there, yet responsibilities prevent it..... :(  I'll try to get there soon Tim and Em! Isn't she just adorable? :)

Happy Daddy!

 Sweet baby admiring Mommy

Sleeping Peacefully.

In the arms of Mommy. :)

Sometimes Miracles Hide

For all the special moms and dads I am blessed beyond measure to know. :)
We love our Sweet Little Ilse. :)

UMMMMM EXCUSE ME!

No, you may NOT have chickens in the house, no matter how hard it is raining outside! LOL

My Special Time With Anna

I took Anna with me to the bank today, and then we went to Subway to get a bite of lunch..... Subway now has GLUTEN FREE sandwiches.... Yes!
We enjoyed our time together talking about all sorts of things.... Her favorite topic?  Country Music.
This little one is All TEXAN, ALL COWGIRL and would love nothing more than to move onto loads of acreage with cows, horses and more. :)
She is doing so well.  She loves the dog Guess, and spends a LOT of time with him.
We talked a little about her new big sister role to her newest little sister.   She was sharing all sorts of information with me about how Guess the dog must have not had owners that cared about him, and that is why he has so many bad habits... because they didn't teach him anything... But with her patience and kindness, she is teaching him and he is responding very well!   I asked her, do you see a connection there with your newest sister?  She thought about it for a minute and said, "Mom, Alli is a person not a dog!" LOL
never mind. :)

She has also learned to mend fences by herself and when daddy tried to help she said, "It's ok dad, I 've got it!"  He was so proud! :)

Her favorite cowboy hat is missing. I hope it isn't the decrepid one I threw away last week... yikes.... so she found Dad's old Vacation hat.  He forgot he had it... I think it is hers now. :)
I just love having our sweet talks. One thing about Anna.... she LOVES music, but not music that doesn't have good lyrics. She is very good about asking to print out lyrics to decide if it is a song worthy of listening too.  I am really proud of her.

Science Without Doing Science

Last night, the girls went Fire Fly hunting.... They looked up on the web, what FireFlies Eat and found out they eat flower parts and pollen....They also found out that Fireflies are not flies at all. They are a type of beetle!

This A.M. one of the fire flies had died in the jar.

Alli and Sarah conducted a very nice funeral and buried him in the yard.

 Then it was time to look for other wonders in the ground.....

 They found grub worms, (bad) and earth worms (good)

 They also got some more pollen for the other flies.

 Alli ran out to daddy for a morning hug.

 Then they found a little toad.

 I thought he was pretty neat....  I love how excited they were to find simple pleasures right underneath their feet; the things we naturally do not notice...... God's creation is truly wonderful. :)

added:
My little Fire Fly Hunters: :)

Olden Days Part 2

A very nice reader of the blog updated the Olden Day Photos to look like "Olden Days!"  How Fun!
Thank you!

I can't wait to show them to them in the a.m.! :)

JOY

Tonight, 4 little girls, laughed and giggled their way to bed.   They had a happy day ALL day... and they were up a little late because 2 of them went to a youth function with our church.....
The other two, Sarah and Alli, stayed home with mama and organized DVD's and baked cookies.

They also ran outside and caught fire flies to put in a big jar and save. We googled  what Fire Flies eat and how long it takes them to lay eggs and have babies, as they seemed to be mating in the jar. LOL

After reading a chapter in "On the Banks of Plum Creek"..... everybody layed down to sleep.
 Each of my little girlies just seemed to be so relaxed today.

What a joyous day.  I could use LOTS of these! :)

Olden Days

The Girls were playing "Olden Days"..... I love it that they still like to dress up. :)

 They tried to act the age..... olden days pictures did not have smiling faces.

 That didn't last long. :)

 A rare picture of Erika in a dress!

Sarah's Special Time

I just love my sweet Sarah. :)  She and I had our special mommy- daughter time today.  We went to Sonic for a 1/2 price drink, and then off to Tractor Supply for Chicken Feed. After that we headed to Walmart for Groceries and to look at a few things of special interest. (Sarah's Birthday is coming up)

I have to say, she is just so lovely. We sat and talked for a while about all sorts of things; being a big sister included.  She has a lot of really great insight, and I love that Sarah is tender towards the Lord.
As we were talking, I just saw her little personality shining through... and I was looking back in my mind at that bubbly little sweetheart of a 5 year old that came into our lives through disruption.

As I looked at her, my heart has never been so glad to take a dive (as a dear friend describes the adoption experience) and not look back. :)
Sarah is growing up.... soon to be 12! She is starting to do bigger girl things, desiring to have her ears pierced, maybe.... and even though her spunkiness is still there, she is not NEARLY has hyper as she was when she was just a little girl. :)
She even said something to that effect today. "Mommy, remember when I was so hyper?" LOL

My favorite thing she said today was, "I like cloudy days, but I really like shiny days better!" :)
She is our little sunshine and brings us great joy.....
Thank you sweetie for our special time today. :)

Alli's Poetry Lesson

She was so proud of herself she was going to each of the girls, "Want to hear my poetry!" :)

Happenings

Today has been a bit of a mixup of a day.  I woke up feeling sick, so had to go back to bed for awhile.
The girlies have their schedules already printed out, so at the right time, they started their school work, and for the most part did pretty well..... I helped Alli on my bed with her math....
After noon, we started our day. We started with lunch, which Erika is wearing very nicely on her shirt... and hair trimming .  :)

 Anna is working on another paint by the numbers. She LOVES doing them. And has completed 2 in the last month.

Sarah has discovered a new audio story that she can check out from the library. They are pretty neat.
She has spent lunch playing with her dolls and listening to a story.

The girls are also reading The Silver Chair in the Narnia Series. They read it aloud each day right before lunch..... 
We are winding down our school year..... and next month we will only be doing Math and Language Arts, as well as Library.   We will take off the month of July and first week of August, and we are really looking forward to taking the boat out on the lake once again.....

I do believe Summer is right around the corner!

Kids

The girlies have been in bed for about 1/2 an hour. I read them a chapter in "On the Banks of Plum Creek" and then they put in the new "Adventures in Odyssey" story CD..... They have been waiting to listen to it for a LONG time.....

Alli just ran out of bed and said, "Mama! The Odyssey CD is GREAT! It is scary! So scary, I don't want to get out of bed or anything!"  LOL....

"Well sweetie, then you better run get back in bed so you don't have to get out of it!"

I just love kids. :)

Tools Put to Good Use revisited

I posted this back in 2009....."Tools Put To Good Use".......

It cracked me up.... I was going to post about the happenings of today, but let's just save time and say, "The Names have been changed to protect the innocent", other than that, this about describes what I was going to post about. LOL  :)

CHANGES OVER TIME

Mike and I were talking to the girls about how things were so very different when we were kids.  We are not THAT OLD, but MUCH has changed since we were children.

When we were children, everything closed down on the weekends by Saturday at 6:00, and didn't open again until Monday a.m.  ALL stores and Malls were closed!
When I was a teenager, things started to loosen up and Stores started staying open until 9:00 on Saturdays, and then began to open at noon on Sundays.  This was scandalous! :)
There were never kids soccer games (soccer didn't exist) never BASEBALL games on Sundays; only on Saturday mornings. 
The Church Bells of the local Catholic Church rang Loudly for all to hear, and when we got into our car to travel to our own church, I admired seeing whole families WALK to the local Catholic church, women and girls with lace head coverings. 

Girls were required to wear dresses in school, until I was in High School.   It was unheard of for a girl to wear pants to school. 
Boys had to have their hair cut over their ears.
A box lunch was 25 cents.  The cafeteria lunch was 35 cents and ice cream cost 5 cents.

I remember the first time I had a McDonald's Hamburger .... it was .15 cents.
My parents used to send me to the local gas station to get a gallon of gas for the lawn mower.
I remember paying 32 cents for a gallon.

When we were kids we would go outside and play and be gone for hours, riding our bikes all over the place. I used to ride my bike to the library, the store, the park... When I was a teenager,  I used to clean house in the a.m. and take the bus to the beach, with my little brother where we really felt rather safe.

I remember where we lived jobs were very hard to get. Unions were heavily involved in the grocery stores and my sister had to join a union to sack groceries.   It took her forever to get a job just doing something like that.  I felt VERY fortunate to get a job at Burger King. There was much competition.
People could work one job on one salary and actually live. 
At the grocery store, the cash register was full of keys and each amount had to be entered individually. Each item had to have a price tag on it. If there was no price tag, then they had to call for a price check.  It took a long time to check out.  I distinctly remember my mom FILLING a HUGE cart to over flowing, and the average cost was around 27-30 dollars.  That same cart today would be in the 175-200 dollar range.

When I got married, but purchased our first car for 2, 500 dollars. Brand new!  Gas was in the 80 cent range and it was scandalous when it went over a dollar a gallon. :) I could fill my tank up for around 9 dollars.  Most of the time, I only had 5 dollars to put in.  Today, that might get us down the street and back. LOL

The news we had came from "The Daily Breeze" which was delivered by kids with paper routes that would collect money and get tips.  So the current events of the world, were very limited.
My dad would always watch the 6 o clock news and I would watch it with him.  During the Viet Nam War, they would have a still picture of a map of Viet Nam, and there would be stars marking where battles were being fought.  There was also a voice from a short wave radio that would report.
By today's standards, that is stone age technology~! LOL

There were no computers... and the word Google had to do with a guy named Barney in the comics.
There were no graphic images of war. There were no world wide threats to our sovereignty.
There were awful things that happened. JFK and Bobby Kennedy, assassinated. I remember both, but it was a different time.
Even though things happened, it wasn't on the level it is today. 
Makes me sorta sad for the world we are leaving our children. 
Some things are better.... but much is not.



 

2 1/2 Months. :)

Golly it seems longer than 10 and a half weeks.....It is such a short time, but it seems already like Alli has always been here.

 Alli has had such a wonderful week.  We continue to thrilled and thankful to the Lord for her progress.

This weekend, I decided to have things "unplanned" to see what would happen. Typically I have everything pretty scheduled so she keeps busy. This weekend, when we woke up, after sleeping in, there was nothing planned. At first, she didn't know what to do, and then she went and got busy. She helped shred papers with Erika which was great fun....(shredding old documents), then she played with the dog, with Sarah and Anna, and pretended to be from Australia. I heard Australian accents coming from everybody which carried into today. LOL

Later in the afternoon we did a little shopping, and I even let her have some extra time on the computer.

Her attitude overall has been wonderful! Not perfect, but wonderful!

(nobody is perfect) :)

She got creative in the afternoon and decided to make Lemonade without sugar.

Here is a video of her drinking her creation. :)

Saying Good-bye To A Dear Friend

There are times in our lives when it is time to move in a new direction.  For over a year, I have known it was that time, but I have avoided it, because change is just hard.  There have been rumblings and signs along the way..... and that still small voice saying "Now is the time"...... but I didn't heed.

Sometimes the Lord uses hardship to move us along when we are too pig headed to listen. :)
Yes, I am talking about me.

I have participated on an International Adoption Board for the last 5 plus years, and became very active. Too active. But my heart was to help.  Because of my participation there, I have not worked on the projects before me that I KNOW I am supposed to do....I even took a leave, but it wasn't long before I was back.
Last week however, proved a good time to move along. It was spelled out very clearly in my heart,  that it was time to go.  I am sure that the board will  go on just fine without me. There are many wonderful people in there who will continue the cause of helping others adopt, and helping others adjust to their new children.

And that is PRECISELY what I want to continue to do, just in on different avenue in a different town.
I will miss the board greatly, but at the same time, I KNOW that if I go back in, I won't leave and my project will remain 1/2 done.

I am clearly ADD.... LOL
So, I will be drinking lots of coffee to see if I can help myself concentrate on the hard stuff.
So, now that it has been several days, and my withdrawl is truly over.....I am happy to say
Au revoir....... it has been a lovely 5 years. :)

And now I'm ready to say, "Bonjour! Mon Ami"

gulp. :)

The Adorables Visited

I love it when my family visits. Today, Marcus, Ivy, Will and Charlie came over. Marcus is done with school for 5 weeks and then he has 1 more class before he gets his master's degree! Yea! I know a beautiful young bride who will LOVE having her man home! :)

The girls played restaurant with Ivy and Will, and Marcus and I took Charlie on the teeter totter.
He really likes it.  But when he is ready to get off, you have to watch him. He has no concept of height.
He will just try to get off in the air! LOL
He also discovered the dog, ran to see Papau with Will, and Marcus had fun making Charlie's hair stand on end. :)

Will had fun playing with balloons, with the kitchen on the porch and looking at the water globes.

And they BOTH had fun playing the piano.

Building Bridges

These two girls just crack me up! :)
I was NEVER able to do this kind of bending as a child...It hurts just to see it. LOL

I have to say, we are building other kinds of bridges over here too. :)
Last night, during our Family worship time, Daddy asked Alli to get her bible out.  She said she would rather share with Erika.  I can't exactly remember the words, but he asked her again to get her own bible out, because that is what he wanted her to do.
She curled up....
We were wanting to start our talk after  a good time of singing.

And then Daddy said, "Alli, I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings. I wasn't trying to hurt you...

And..... then he said, "Will you forgive me for hurting your feelings?"

AND>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Not only did she sit up, she said, YES, and I'm sorry, and she got her own bible out!!!!!!
I have been able to bring her around fairly easily, but daddy has had more trouble, very similar to what happened with Anna long ago.....

But then, not only did she turn her heart around, she readily participated! She was excited about what we were talking about, and she asked loads of questions.
Daddy's one humble statement, "I'm sorry, will you forgive me"...... turned her around.

He really DIDN'T mean to hurt her feelings. AND she is VERY sensitive sometimes.  She is learning VERY WELL not to be.... but she still is at times.
We have been able to talk with her about what happens when she feels overwhelmed and what causes it and she is becoming more aware that the problem isn't with everybody else in the world, but within her.   I am so proud of her.

This a.m. all went really well, and then in the afternoon she came up to me and said, "Mama, can I go out and see my daddy in the shoppe? "
I said, sure....
She had a  picture in her hand.
I asked, "Are you going to give him your picture?"  She said yes.... and I'm also going to tell him that I really love him and give him a hug too. :)
Last night, a HUGE BRIDGE was crossed!

Part of BCLC parenting is thinking outside the box.... It is trying to look at things from the perspective of the child who has so many wounds, so much trauma, and such a sad history.
It takes baby steps to get them to heal....little itty bitty steps, not huge strides.... But once those itty bitty steps get rolling, THEN you can see the huge strides start to take place....  If I look back at the beginning to now, there is so very much to rejoice over, even in such a short time.  

Daddy really didn't do anything wrong..... but Alli's PERCEPTION was that he was unkind. Her window of tolerance was not open very far....
Because that is how she took things, and it was not his intention for her feelings to be hurt, he apologized.  His humble apology and gentle love for her opened her window wide!  By not being defensive, he brought her defenses down and diffused her.

  They were able to talk some more later, and now she has a better understanding that when she is asked to do something, there is a purpose behind it, and daddy loves her. VERY MUCH.
He was so proud of her.