And Then There Were Ten

This Blog Has Moved

2011-02-05T23:26:00.000-08:00

We've MOVED!

Just letting you know that if you want to continue following this blog that you will have to follow the new link:

Have Faith : Will Dream

I have had a comment from someone that isn't sure about following or hooking up, so let me explain. On the new blog there is a subscription box for getting an email from my blog when I write a new post. Or you can sign in as a 'Follower' on the bottom of the page, or you can join the Feed burner if that is what you know how to do. If you have questions about how to sign up, please just drop me a comment on the Interesting Thoughts at the bottom of each blog entry.

I won't be blogging on this blog anymore. The other blog is a family blog still; I just felt the need for something new and fresh, and this blog is SO heavy and big that it didn't seem a good idea to import it. I was afraid of losing stuff.

See you there! Please do come!

Blessings, Justine
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The Deliciousness of Books!

2011-01-31T10:14:00.000-08:00

There is nothing more delectable than a good book!! Some of my best Christmas gifts when I was a child were books. Just knowing that I had an exciting read to curl up with gave me the most wonderful feeling. My children are no exception. I do my very best to find books that enthrall each and every one.

This year I was most fortunate at Costco. I managed to find a trilogy for Cassidy of an exciting series I read years ago, plus, Curious George anthology for Cooper, a set of Geronimo Stilton books for Raine, a boxed set of Guardians of Ga'Hoole. Then I hit the jackpot. Dane is a hard boy to buy for. He doesn't read much. Well, I was thrilled to find these fat books full of 1940s comics about World War II. They are the original series bound with 12 comics in each volume. I was able to get three of them; one for Colt and two for Dane.

The boys haven't put their books down since they got them. I love to have children that adore books!

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A New Friend From Switzerland

2011-01-28T15:03:00.000-08:00

I don't think I posted on this yet, but in October of this year, we had the pleasure of a house guest for three weeks. Many years ago we immigrated from England. My mum's best friend also immigrated with her family. Her son is now married to a Swiss girl. It was his wife's second cousin that was traveling around the world and needing somewhere to work in Canada for the summer that came to visit us.

We found her a job at a ranch for six weeks and then after that she came to us for three weeks. I really didn't need a helper as my home is very organized and I didn't want someone else doing the kids chores. But I knew that we would have the opportunity to have someone from another culture visiting us and that was a great idea. So we did it.

Brigitte arrived and the children welcomed her with open arms. They loved her right away. She was very easy to get along with and most helpful. I honestly think she had a pretty easy job with us, because I only called on her a couple times a day to help with dinner dishes with my son, since his big brother was working on the house, or to play with the children.

A Visit to Canada Through the Lens of Brigitte's Camera

Walks to See the Horses

Tightening Extensions

Then after a few days I realized there was something she could do that was very valuable! She could make cookie dough! That is one job that I do myself as I like them just so. But it is 20 minutes out of my week that I would gladly pass on to someone else. So make cookie dough she did!

Each day I had her do three batches and I kept storing them in the freezer. Brigitte made enough dough to make 180 DOZEN cookies! 2060 cookies!! We now have enough dough to keep us going for over six months!

As well as Brigitte making cookie dough, she assisted me in stirring the huge amount of granola I mixed up. I had granola drying in the oven daily for about two weeks!

Then one night Brigitte offered to make a meal that she is accustomed to. When she began she had no clue how big a recipe it would entail. It was like feeding an army!! It was very good!

The visit continued and these are some of the things the children and Brigitte encountered:

Cooper Mimicking His Big Brother

The kids were collecting pine cones to have a pine cone war. Poor little Briton was given this suitcase and told to fill it! You can see by the pulling action that he did a pretty good job!

A New Game - Bouncy Tummies

Home Hair Cut

Brigitte had a real laugh when I got out the vacuum to clean up the hair all over Dane.

School

Brigitte Taught Them How to Make a Xylophone

She Was Very Brave Handling the Gerbil!

Teenagers - You Never Know What They Will Wear Next!

Brigitte Had Never Seen Shopping Like This

Our Family

The Boys and Brigitte - What Fun She Gave Them All!!

While she was here they learned German, played cards, and games, and went on many walks to meet horses and play at the playground.

We really enjoyed her stay and it taught me I could have a Mother's Helper here to stay. I really don't need 'help', but having someone stay to be a big sister would be a wonderful thing. We hope to send Cassidy to Switzerland next year and if he does, he will look up Brigitte and her family.
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And the Laundry and Frugality Continue

2011-01-26T18:40:00.000-08:00

As the winter came on the laundry continued, and so did the need to keep saving money. For the first time in twelve years there is no winter work in the construction field. It has been nearly two months of steady unemployment, but we keep tweaking things to keep ends met.

We have a laugh when we bring the laundry in on the cold winter days! It is hard to show exactly how stiff it looks, but when we send the children out to get the laundry it is formed to the shape of the chair it is drying on. Savannah tries to get the laundry in the basket, but she can't quite make it fit! lol

I have to say it must be making a difference in my hydro bill because when I got my bill this month I was expecting it to be much more than it was, because I had a girl stay here for three weeks this winter and she stayed in our travel trailer. (Not because she had to, but so she had a little room of her own). For heat she had to use an electric plug in heater. I am sure those things eat up the pennies.

We have taken to using as little lights as possible. It would be good if we were that conscientiousness all the time. I understand from doing research on the internet regarding lighting for our new home that 20-50% of our electric bills goes to lighting! And if our dryer uses up another huge chunk, well, we know what we can do to cut costs!

I remember growing up and my mother telling us to turn off lights. It didn't make sense to me. Whatever. We did it when we were told, but didn't carry it in our memories for long. She tried fining us 10 cents a light, but that didn't work. And we grew up without money, so I know how important that was.

Ray is like my mum. He gets on the kids and reminds them. I don't. I just turn them off when I walk by. Probably related to my childhood. So, it is interesting that I am the one that is really cracking down on the light usage right now. I think it is because I want to see how much I can bring the bill down. If it is really related to lights and dryer then I have a lot of control over my monthly bills.

So as the evening creeps in and the shadows start to come down we gather in the main room. The children are wonderful about cooperating because I have explained to them that this is a way to help Daddy with the bills. I found Austin peeling potatoes in the near dark the other day. lol I told him to use the lights!

But as I told Dane, "This is what memories are made of!" I said this because I walked in the TV room one evening and said, "What are all these lights on?" Then I bust out laughing. Dane joined me when he found out what I was cracking up about.

All these lights - all 2 of them. We have two light fixtures in our TV room and they both hold six Christmas light size bulbs. I had no control over all the lights being on in the house, so I had taken the liberty to unscrew some bulbs. In this room I had unscrewed all but one in one of the fixtures. This night it seemed really bright. Dane had turned on another one in the second fixture. *laugh* The room really did seem light in comparison to what it has been. And it is a TV room, after all. It is supposed to be more like a movie theatre.

But it was funny.

The nice thing is we are doing more clustering. We are gathering in the main room more and I find I am cooking, a child has pulled up a comfy chair to read, another is doing a puzzle, and others are doing chores. I don't really see the downside in saving money by using less lights! And each day the sun stays up an extra two minutes! *grin*

Another thing we have done is cut out our cable. We did this way back in May. That has saved us about $60 a month. Not much? Well, that adds up to $720 a year. Plus the tax you pay to take home that $720. You end up saving about $900 a year from that one thing! For starters, I began watching old TV series like The Waltons, Little House on the Prairie, Seventh Heaven, so I was already taming down my TV.

Then we discovered that you can watch any tv shows you want on the internet. Now, the children and I don't watch TV shows at all, so this doesn't affect us, but it does mean that Ray can watch the couple shows he likes to watch - for Free! So here you see Dane and I huddled around the computer screen watching a show! (laugh) Not exactly the most comfortable seats. I understand you can hook it up to your TV screen. Maybe one day.

One thing that Ray misses the most are the hockey games. Not that he is a complainer; he's not! But we couldn't justify the $60 a month it cost for him to watch hockey - not at this time. So now it is like the old days. The family huddles around the radio (computer) to listen to the play by play. *grin*

Casually Listening

The Crowds Move In As the Game Picks Up

And.... OVERTIME!

Well, the situation was recently remedied for Ray. We still don't watch TV, but Ray takes nothing for himself, spends nothing, and expects nothing, so coming up with the money for his hockey is quite a reasonable thing even in the light of unemployment.

I still didn't really want the tv due to the horrible brain control it seems to hold over certain members of our household. So I was quite happy to have it gone. The short version of the story is that I called the company to disconnect with them when our six month sabbatical was over. They didn't want me to. They said I would have to pay another months fees as notice. I said I couldn't. They put me through to another department. That day I discovered there is such a thing as the Save Department. There job is to keep the customer at all costs!

It was so funny. I was trying to convince that food was more important than TV, lol, and he was trying to convince me to stay. Finally, when it was abundantly clear that he was not going to keep this customer he offered to drop my fees. Suddenly, my resolve dropped, my ears perked up.

What? Huh? How much? My suspicious nature came out. I asked all kinds of questions. Yep, I could take it to the new house. It would be my new fee for good. He keeps trying to convince me, I'm not convinced. Finally. Okay, so then I'm listening, my face is looking thoughtful and then when I realized it was really a good deal I said, "I'll take the deal." You had to be there, but seriously, I felt like it was Deal or No Deal. Lol

Here he was offering me this deal. If I didn't take it and wanted TV in the future I would pay $55 a month. Here he was offering it to me for $31 a month. Shucks. What to do!! I knew my hubby deserved to have his hockey. What to do. What to do!! lol

So when I said, "I'll take the deal," it felt just like when you got the $50,000 or you can go for the next question. But no, I took the deal.

It was very cute when I called my son in to turn on the TV that had sat inactive for nine months, only to discover it had been active the whole time. He was pleased for his dad. And his dad was pleased. So now I know, there is a Save Department and that is where you get fantastic deals!

I still wish it were gone, but I figure if we are allowed a 6 month sabbatical, then we can use it for six months for hockey and a few shows and take six months off, and that will cut the yearly fee in half - down to $15 a month!
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New Blog

2011-01-25T22:57:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to be sure you all know the new blog is up and running. The funny thing is that I am still having huge hits over here, but that blog is not catching the viewers, so I am wondering if there is a problem. I did have one reader mention having problems figuring out the new blog, so is there a problem finding it?

The link is: http://havefaithwilldream.blogspot.com

The family type posts will begin on that side soon. Right now I am finishing publishing the posts that were written in 2010. But I am working on the other blog. Right now, my heart has been drawn in another direction on that blog, but it will still be my family blog. Just with a different slant.

So I hope to see you over there. And don't forget, down at the bottom of the blog there are the links where you can sign up to follow: Blog follower; feedburner; email etc.
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Update on My Mum

2011-01-25T22:54:00.000-08:00

I have had people ask how my mum is doing. Thank you so much for caring and praying! She came out of ICU two days ago. She was on a regular ward. It is amazing how draining something like a burst appendix can be. Nothing keeps my mum down! In my whole life she probably took 'aspirin' a handful of times. So this has really been a whammy on her.

My mum and Dad live in a small community and have done so for about fifteen years. She is the backbone behind so many public activities. She gives her whole heart to anything she can. She is a self-less volunteer! One of her many responsibilities is writing the weekly column for the local newspaper for the area that they live in. I am sure they are missing her writing skills right about now! She is also usually treasurer for one event or another. I can only imagine they are all scrambling to fill the many shoes or hats she wore!

My dad called me tonight to tell me that last night they transferred her to our local hospital. What he didn't tell me before was that when they operated they found an abscess on her bowel. This was a second hit to her system. Then he told me that she was on oxygen because she has fluid on her lungs and is on oxygen. He thought it was related to her lying down, but then he said it was due to what she had been through, so I am not really sure.

Please, please keep praying for her!! Her whole life she was so healthy, until about four years ago, and at that time she was hit with so many scares: diverticulitis, nodules on her lungs (which were not dangerous, but for a while there were very frightening), breast cancer, and now this. She needs to regain her strength and her punch.

My dad said she is not out of the woods, yet. Honestly, that kind of unnerved me because I was kind of taking it for granted that she was on the mend, and then I found out about the second two medical issues. I have no clue how serious the fluid on her lungs is. She is not a spring chicken anymore, and it seems during winter and after people hit sixty that their bodies take longer to recover.

I am thankful she is local now, so I can take the children to see her and boost her spirits!

Thanks again.

Blessings, Justine

Birthdays For Our Girls

2011-01-25T19:21:00.000-08:00

In International Adoption one of the things people need to know going in is that birthdays are not always what they seem. When we got our girls we thought they were 3 years 10 months and 4 years 11 months. Why wouldn't we believe this. It was, after all, what was on their birth certificate.

But we have learned over the last three to four years that that is quite typical. Why?

For one, in a country such as Ethiopia many, many births take place in little grass huts where going to register a birth might not be feasible.

A Home Like Our Girls Were Born In

Or perhaps losing the birth certificates, as our girls' mum stated she did. So then they are in a situation where they have to come up with birth certificates. Since these are not done the day the baby is born there is always the chance the information is not accurate.

In our case, we asked our birth mum numerous times if we had the girls' true birthdates. She stated that they were indeed the ages we had been told. We suspected that this was not so, as our girls had already told us that they were five and seven years old, upon pickup from the Transition House. At that time, Solomon Tsegay who worked for Imagine, told us that the girls were mixed up. We believed him.

When we came home one of our girls told us that her mother had told her that to be adopted they needed to be three or four years old...

But we still had no proof. Then one day we were fortunate enough to reconnect with our birth mum, and at this time she felt safe enough telling us the ages of the girls. It was as we suspected: she feared they would be rejected by the adopting family if she told their real ages. Thankfully, she believed that the girls were loved enough that their real ages didn't matter to us, and never had!

So now our girls will no longer have birthdays in September and November, but instead, in June and July! They are also 2.5 years older than we thought.

This does complicate things slightly because on paper they are legally 6 and 7, but in real life we call them 7 and 8, and actually they are 8.5 and 9.5. How crazy is that!

Many people have chosen to keep their childrens' paper ages but we didn't because it didn't make sense. Raine was clearly older than 7 years old, and Savannah was about 8" taller than Briton and growing in leaps and bounds. So we gave them each one extra year.

This way when it is time to get their driver's licenses they will be held up by one year, rather than two, and that could pose a real problem for them when they have to wait til their paperwork says they are 16, when in actuality they are already 18.5!!! So one year up works for us.

There is a factor that you might not expect and that is what the other kids think. In Ontario they are very strict about birth order adoptions. I believe it is that you have to adopt under your youngest child. I never understood that until now. But at the same time, I think, "But what about the children you are adopting. They are losing their birth order!" That is significant.

When we first told the kids that we were adopting the girls, we told them how old they were. Raine would be 9 months younger than Cooper, and Savannah would be 2 months older than Briton. When the girls arrived we realized we were probably wrong. I knew from Cooper's personality that it would be an adjustment. I didn't tell him right away. When I did finally tell him tears welled up in his eyes. He liked the idea of being the big brother. We sat on it for a while, and then finally moved her forward a year, putting her 3 months older than him. He was okay with that; she was his twin.

With Briton, Savannah was always his twin. She was two months older than him. But for the longest time this didn't seem right. We knew she was older than him. Finally when we got proof that she was not just one year older than him, but 2.5 years, we knew we needed to advance her a little bit. We had been preparing her for this for a while, talking about ages. She knew that Raine had had her 5th birthday when she arrived in Canada, and then a year later, she had celebrated her 7th birthday. So it wasn't a big surprise to Savannah when I told her one day that she was seven.

The unfortunate thing was that Briton was walking by at that particular moment. This is the child that is the *end* of the birthday train. Well, it depends on how you look at it. His birthday is in January. BUT the kids that he hangs with have birthdays from end of the September, to November, to two in December, and then it is finally his birthday in January. That was always hard enough - watching four birthdays go by and waiting forever for his.

But then that day when he walked by and overheard me talking to Savannah I heard a little squeaky, "Huh?" of complete surprise and disbelief.

He couldn't use enough words to explain what he was saying, but the gist of it was, "Savannah's five. Her didn't have six. Now her's seven. That's not fair!"

No kidding. It probably didn't seem fair! We sure didn't tell him that she was really eight! (grin) He would have really thought that wasn't fair. How on earth does someone go from five to seven overnight?! Especially when *he* knows how long it takes for him to wait to turn one year older! (laugh)

He did eventually settle into the fact that she was indeed older than him. And then it was time for Cooper. We hadn't told him at the time we discovered the girls' ages about Raine. Somehow it slipped my mind. I guess because I had always known she was older. Well, one day I accidentally mentioned Raine as being 9.5 (which she is well aware of) and Cooper was shocked. Okay, here we go again. (laugh)

We let him chew it over for a little while. I left it alone. After all, we did already call her eight, and he had just turned eight, so it was fine. But we had always written the kids names in age order as Cooper, Raine, Savannah, and Briton. I had yet to change this, as it wasn't really fair to Raine. Soon...

Then tonight, while Briton was doing his prayers, he was listing off the people in the family one by one. He would say a name and then pray for one in particular. Then the next. After he did Austin he paused. Then from the top bunk I heard, "Cooper or Raine is next." (I wonder why it was "or"? lol) He immediately followed this with, "Do Raine first. She's older than me."

I was so proud of him. The transition has been made. My kids are not whiners, so I can really see why 'birth order' really does carry some importance with it! My suggestion is to be sensitive to the children you already have if you find your adopted children are not the ages you thought they were, thus upsetting the age order you thought you had! Take your time and let them adjust naturally.

And now, without further ado. Here is Raine's "8th" and Savannah's "6th" birthday party.

Cooper and His Now Officially Big Sister, Raine.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR BIG GIRLS!

Electricals, Heating, Stairs, Basement Framing

2011-01-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

This should have been posted a long time ago. Actually, right before Christmas, but somehow I think I forgot. I suppose it was the stress of hitting that huge road block with the engineer! So here is an update on the house. A new one will be posted soon.

December 20, 2010

The house is moving along slowly. The heating pipes have been completed. That was a big job!

Stringing Heating Pipes

While my son might not like construction, I have told him how valuable the knowledge is. People in our school system have to have a C+ average to be allowed to go to college working on an apprenticeship, while in grades 11 and 12. They don't get paid; they simply get a couple of years of learning under their belt before they graduate.

Not only that, because they are learning about work ethic it helps them in their future. Work ethic is something that I teach from the moment they are able to help out around the house. And because of it our kids know the meaning of doing a good job. Doesn't mean they always choose to do it, but they do know how to produce.

An example is Colt. He is at school on the coast and he heard of a roofing guy that needed helpers. He offered Colt $15 an hour to take old roofing off and help put on new roofing. At the end of the first day Colt was given $20 an hour for an 8 hour day. He was that impressed with Colt's work ethics.

Drilling Holes For Heating Pipes

Putting in the Electrical Panel

One of Our Electricians

This is the view from the media room towards the playroom on the left and the stairs up on the right.

Ray Drawing Out the Stair Cuts

Making Stairs

These stairs are unique. I love them. When we first began designing our house I said I wanted stairs like in the tv show Seventh Heaven. They had a staircase coming into the kitchen and also into the foyer. I began drawing and soon we had a plan. Then we changed our mind about using our drawn plans (we have drawn the designs for the previous two houses we built), and began looking through plans. I only found about two plans that had the double staircase, and as faith would have it, God provided it in the plans that I loved!

So this house goes up stairs when you enter the house, but you can also go upstairs from the area off the kitchen.

Ray is building at the foyer entrance. The staircase that goes up to the right goes up to the upper bedrooms. The landing above Ray then also has a smaller set of stairs that go down into the area between the dining room and the kitchen. And under the upper stairs you can see the staircase leading to the basement.

This is the view of the staircase from the bottom down by the kitchen (to the left) and dining room (to the right). You can see a landing just up about seven stairs.

This is the view of the stairs from the foyer. You can see right through the foyer wall, through the hallway, into the livingroom that looks out over our valley and to the distant lake.

This is the window ledge (not seat) in the diningroom. This is the view from the front deck. Ray figured I could put Christmas decorations on it and I think that sounds wonderful!

This is the window seat in the schoolroom. It will one day be the master bedroom, but for some years it will be the schoolroom and Austin will also share it as a bedroom of his own. We are planning to customize it as a 'daybed' room that he owns. So when it is done it will look very nice. I am thinking a geography theme.

Austin and I have already begun planning colours and ideas. Given his bed/ daybed will be in the right hand side of the window I have had the electrician put a lamp above his headboard on the wall complete with a switch at his fingertips for when he is done reading at night. The room is large enough that he will feel he has a room of his own, while sharing it with some school looking materials.

The Upstairs Landing Complete With the Abominable Snowman! Or is it Sasquatch?

These two small rooms are at the end of the media room. The room was quite long, as well as having a carousel in one side (that breakfast nook upstairs continues to the basement), so I had a plan. This house is wonderful but it doesn't have lots of storage. There are rooms, but I have given the storage room to Ray as his plans room, so I needed to come up with some storage ideas.

So I had him carve off a 6' width off this room right across the width of the room. So it is about 6'x15' and then divided in the middle into two rooms of about 6'x7.5'. Just perfect for two small organized storage rooms!

Then it was time for me to decide what kind of cabinets I wanted. We are trying our very best to be as frugal as possible. Just because the frame of the house is large is no excuse for being extravagant and wasteful and we are certainly not being that.

So we found a company that had cabinets we liked that we could put in ourselves. They have very good pricing. I spent three days over the computer designing the kitchen and organizing what I needed. When I took it into the store the woman told me what I had done was her job. lol I showed her my plan - cabinets that were different heights and some different depths. She looked at me oddly.

I looked at her oddly. lol. I asked her if she had ever been to www.kitchens.com - Not yet, she said. By the time we had finished talking I had educated her on what I had learned. Everything I did in my kitchen I learned from this wonderful website.

The next thing we had to do was decide on a floor and tile pattern and colour. It was funny how we did it. We brought home some laminate (cheaper than hardwood and better for many children running through!) and put it on the computer and then went to some websites: www.builddirect.com is the best. The prices are remarkable and they have a headoffice in Canada, so when they ship you are dealing with Canadians. The neat thing is that they can ship all of the decking to our house and even with $1400 shipping cost and the US exchange rate, it still comes out cheaper than buying it at a store!!!

In other news, we have met with a small? crisis. It seems we keep hitting road blocks and this is no exception. When we chose this plan it needed to be okayed by an engineer because it was an American plan. Then the trusses could not be designed, so they got Ray to figure it out. He was able. They agreed it worked. Then there was a problem with the trusses, which they worked out. Then the inspection failed.

In over 20 years of framing, Ray has probably failed two or three times. He is that good at what he does. A level and a square are his friends on a job site. People know this about him, and so he does not have to advertise. Word of mouth does his work for him.

He has been told he needs an engineer to come and look at the roof. It needs to be fixed and stamped by the engineer as approved. I asked Ray about it. He said, It needs to be repairable. Meaning, There is nothing I can do about it if it is not repairable. Uggh!

In the meantime, we are ready to insulate, but cannot move forward on this until we have the framing inspection cleaned up. The blessing in this happening when it did is that it happened on the 23rd of December (bad for Christmas cheer), and so Ray moved into Christmas holidays at that time. Then after Christmas he was able to go out to work on a small job that needed to be done for a customer. That is good news. A little bit of money. By the time he is done that job the engineer will be back at work after the holidays, so then we can try to book him to come out and see the job. So we are praying that he is available asap!

So please pray if you are so led. So I am going to trust God on this. He has overcome so many obstacles on this job, so far, but this one is just another huge one.

Our house has still not sold, but again, I am trusting God. If it had sold when we first put it on the market we would have been homeless! Right now, we need about four months to finish the house if we work hard and together. So really, selling the house now would be inconvenient.

If it has not sold by the time we are able to move in, then we will be renting it out. But I am sure God has a plan to sell it in the nick of time. Because He is the God of miracles and He *always* comes through - in HIS time, not OURS!

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Homeschooling Moments

2011-01-23T12:03:00.000-08:00

I love homeschooling. I love the relationships it creates and the time the family has to spend together. When people worry that us having 'too many' children means the children don't get enough time, I only need to state that homeschooling children see more of their mums than public schooled kids do. My children are here all day. When they have a need I am there for them. Some things are less critical and so they get put off, but when they need me I am available. I am so fortunate in this!

Listening to Audio Books

Beginning to Read Already!

Savannah Loves School and Works So Hard!

Raine is a Competitor. She is Determined to Keep Up With Cooper.

Cooper. What Can I Say?

If you could have seen the six photos I took before these ones. *smile* He was anywhere but doing his math. Feet on the desk, hanging upside down on his chair, chewing on his shirt, walking around. Now, the girls, on the other hand, have no problem attending to their work! *grin*

Briton in Speech Therapy.

Sadly, because are homeschooled he is now cut-off from support. But we got an assessment in the hopes of keeping his support going, but funded by our private school.

Briton and Savannah Love Making Playdough Letters

This is a great, concrete way to learn the letter formations and sounds!!! I should have done this with them all.

Cooper Copying Out Bible Verses

Cassidy Doing Online Schoolwork

Austin Typing a Narration of a Book He Read

Narrations are a wonderful way for the children to put to practice what they have learned in spelling, punctuation, grammar, vocabulary, memory, and understanding. They read or listen to a literary piece (my children read about 1 hour a day from school books) and then they are required to type up a specified amount. Austin finds this very easy, so I don't put an amount on him. He uses big words and great sentences without prompting, so I let him go. Cassidy struggles in this area, so he has a required amount of about six to eight sentences. What I am noticing is that Cassidy is improving, as time is passing. I have been teaching him some simple punctuation rules, which make all the difference:

IC/CI - this means that if there is a complete sentence followed by And, Or, For, Nor, But, Yet, or So, and then there is a complete sentence following the Coordinating Conjunction, then there is a comma following the CC.

Ie: John went to the store (complete sentence) AND, he picked up some bread. (complete sentence)

What wouldn't work is: John went to the store (complete sentence) AND picked up some bread (not complete sentence after AND).

By drilling these as we go (and there are about five rules) I have found he is able to use semi-colons and commas in a much better way. The book to buy is Jensen's Punctuation. I love, love, love it!! The lessons are taught using passages out of a book, and then the student simply punctuates the sentences based on punctuation rules they have learned. *I* have learned so much using it! And so now, with Austin, I immediately teach him the simpler rules (and there are only five main rules!) so that when he gets to Jensen's he will find it a breeze. Cassidy's teacher has already told him that most adults don't know how to use semi-colons, so he is ahead of game!

Briton did a fabulous job cleaning out the pantry!! This time I showed him there was order and then left him alone. When I came back I found he had it totally organized. Well done!

It was wonderful the day I realized my younger set were capable of peeling potatoes! This took a job away from the bigger kids or me, freeing us up for more jobs, or more time to play games with them all!

A little bit of a homeschool day. *smile*

Moving On Over

2011-01-23T09:36:00.000-08:00

Hey friends,

So the time has come. This blog will remain open and there are a number of posts still to be posted that are related to activities from last year, but I will be opening my new blog now. The address is:

http://havefaithwilldream.blogspot.com/

I hope to see you over there. Once there, please feel free to enter your email address in the email subscription box or the feedburner box on the right hand side near the top, or enter your name as a Follower if you wish to be informed when a new post is written.

Look forward to seeing you there! Let the adventures continue!
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Greed - An Aesop's Fable - Rather, a Justine's Fable

2011-01-22T13:30:00.000-08:00

We teach our children to not be greedy don't we? I fully believe in this teaching. But there comes a time when the theory gets put aside. That would be when your husband brings home a box of Purdy's chocolates! Sorry kids, you saw your mother get very greedy. And you saw her reap the negative consequences of it.

My hubby came home from work one day with a box of Purdy's chocolates.

I saw them and remembered how wonderful they are. I knew someone once who worked at Purdy's. I even got to go to the factory in Vancouver when I was a girl.

What began as a joke turned into an earnest fight for the chocolates. I simply began by making a statement that I should have the chocolates, since he would not appreciate them, considering he was known to inhale treats. For Ray, it is a matter of popping in a chocolate, one or two chews, and down it goes.

I, on the other hand, am known to nibble away at a chocolate, until it has disappeared. His is done in the first 10 seconds, while mine lasts a good 30-60 seconds, or more, depending on how delectable it is!

He joked back at me that he had picked up the chocolates, therefore he was entitled to them. Not I.

I stated that I paid the bills at that particular company, and therefore the case was in my favour. He laughed at me. The nerve of him!

I could see that I was losing ground, so I dug in my heels and told him that I was willing to buy him TWO boxes of Stover chocolates in exchange for this box of chocolates. They are very good chocolates. Those I don't care if he inhales.

He laughed at me again, as he walked off with the chocolates. Hhhmmmpph!

I would have been willing to share the chocolates on the condition that I could see him enjoying them as much as I did. There would be no - open, toss in, chomp, swallow nonsense. That is purely sacrilegious (grossly irreverent towards what is being held in esteem) to a chocolate!

I left the room feeling it was extremely unfair.

That night as I sat down in a darkened TV room to watch a little TV I had no idea that my sweet husband had left the *untouched* chocolates right beside my chair. But as I turned on the light I saw it there. I opened it. Not one chocolate eaten. Talk about restraint! (grin) I carefully chose one, leaned back, and bit by bit, I nibbled away at it's delicious flavour.

Once done, I knew I had to hide the chocolates.

Somewhere that no children would find them. I truly, truly, truly was not hiding them from Ray. Yes, it looks like I was. But no, it was the children.

I put them on a shelf under some motorbike helmets, where I knew no young or old boys would find them. Then I went to bed. I forgot all about them.

Until...

About a week later, Ray walked in the door with this...

Boy, did I laugh. And laugh hard. The joke was on me! The rest of the family saw a beautiful sleigh full of chocolates.

I saw the Moral of the Story.

Be Willing to Share!

That sleigh was FULL of Purdy's chocolates. Five boxes, plus individual large candy and chocolate items! My kind husband said he will share with me. Personally, I don't think he will ever believe that I didn't hide the chocolates from him. I seriously forgot I had put them away. I am sure this last week he has felt that I just hid them. (laugh)
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Comments

2011-01-22T12:38:00.000-08:00

Sonya and Al! (smile)

You have come out of the wilderness! lol Thanks for posting. Please feel free to post anytime.

I love to have two way conversations when I write the blog. I get to know my readers so much better! And honestly, through the blog I have made many friends. Some of them are in the States and lots are in Canada. The wonderful thing is when we take road trips we have had the amazing opportunity of having face to face visits and some very special friendships have emerged from these simple blog comments!

I know that when I hit the road next summer I could hit many towns and cites. To name a few friends I have made on the blogging world: Surrey, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary, Winnipeg, Cranbrook, Castlegar, Kelowna, Penticton, Terrace, Ontario, Kansas, Tennessee, and the East Coast of the States.

Oh, and not only that, if you leave a comment, that gives me the chance to follow to your blog to visit you!

So please, jump on in and 'conversate' as I like to say!
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Welcome

2011-01-22T11:34:00.000-08:00

Momma to four! Thanks for visiting my blog. It is always nice to have new friends enter my 'livingroom' and join in on the chat! Please feel free to hit the Follow button on the right hand side. You had me curious and following your link to see if there were any clues to who you were. Smile. But you, like me, were rather illusive. A wise thing on the blog world!

On my new blog there will be a Email Subscription box, so if you wish to follow the blog you can just enter your email address and it will send you an email when I publish a new blog entry.

Blessings, Justine

A Little Heads Up

2011-01-22T00:20:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to give you a heads up. I have been inspired through the last month to begin a new blog. This present blog has a number of new posts still to come. These are posts that were written in 2010, and I want them to publish on this blog. Shortly though, I will be inviting you to our new blog home. I am very excited with the direction it is taking, and I know that God is up to something big - just not quite sure right now what it is. *smile*

I hope to see you all over there!

So stay tuned!
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Winter Where We Live

2011-01-21T00:16:00.000-08:00

We truly do live in a beautiful part of the country!! We have four seasons and each of them is celebrated in true colour and beauty.

The Lower Drive to Our House

Across the Fields On The Drive to Our House

Thank You For Praying

2011-01-20T22:04:00.000-08:00

At the moment , my mum is doing fine. Last night, at about 11:30 the surgeon told my dad that the surgery went very well. When they opened her up they discovered that it was not a bowel perforation as they thought; it was a burst, very gangrenous appendix. It had drained quite far into her body, so they had her hooked up to a saline drip and were giving her all kinds of meds.

I am so thankful for a surgeon who was acted very quickly (an hour to surgery!) and was very compassionate, and thorough in her job.

My dad has been going back and forth to the hospital, cause where we live it is *cold* (like in -22) and the pipes can freeze, so he can't leave it overnight. I felt very touched last night when I had barely posted my prayer request and my phone rang. I dashed to it thinking it might be my dad, just to hear a deep voice say, "Justine." *smile* It was Al the Plumber (my salute to you, Al *smile*).

God sometimes uses the most unlikely people. This kind man had read on my blog about my mum and had immediately called to ask me to tell my dad that he would do anything for him that he needed. He is a good friend of my dad's. Al was the man that plumbed our first house when we moved to the area, and now his wife reads my blog. The funny thing is that he probably knows more about my family that my parents do!! lol Simply because his wife reads my blog, and she updates him, and I share more on here than I tell people in real life! lol

So when that call came in, I felt God had sent a great warm hug!

Then this morning, my dad and I were having a chat about the fact that he has a slippery driveway that his van doesn't like to get out of. My mum's vehicle is in the shop right now, so he has to rely on his van. He had a little laugh when he said that he couldn't get out unless he chopped at the ice and then put down sand. But of course, he had to go to town to get the sand, and he couldn't get out of the driveway to get the sand. Stuck.

So this morning, the children and I prayed for my mum and we prayed our thanks that Al had stepped up so quickly to help, and we asked that the problem of the vehicle and the driveway and the ice would be solved, so my dad could get to the hospital.

Well, wouldn't you know it, my dad called this morning and told me he would be going to the hospital. He didn't need to get his van out of the driveway. Good ol' Al had lent him his family vehicle. When I told Austin how God had met that need, you should have seen his beaming smile. Our God takes care of everything.

I plan to go up tomorrow to see my mum and see how things are going. They say she will be in for another couple days, while they flush her system. So thanks again to all who prayed for your care. You really are a great bunch, and thanks Al for pitching in and helping my dad!

I should just finish with a bit of a funny. My parents are not very technically savvy. Well, that's putting it mildy. They have no clue. They are not on the internet. They don't read my blog. I don't think my dad really even gets the whole blog thing.

So last night, I call my dad and mention that Al called, and he immediatly says, "You didn't tell anyone did you?"

And I'm thinking, NO, JUST THE ENTIRE INTERNET WORLD, and I cautiously and curiously ask, "Why?"

And he says, "Your mother is a very private person. She wouldn't want anyone to know."

And I am thinking, "Oh Poop!! Too late!" I have to tell him I put it on the blog for prayer. Sheepish grin. He says, "Well, it's better you don't tell your mother." *laugh*

So we'll keep the secret how you found out, Al, okay?
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Emergency Prayer Request

2011-01-19T21:43:00.000-08:00

Hi friends,

Tonight my dad called me to tell me that my mum, who has diverticulitis, was taken to the local hospital for pain that she has had for the last two days. The doctor thought it was appendicitis but ruled it out. They gave her morphine and then transported her via ambulance to a larger town for an ultrasound.

My dad just called to update me. She has a perforated bowel. The doctor acted quickly and is doing surgery immediately. As I write, she is entering surgery (about 9:30 PM Pacific time). Please would you pray?

Apparently, her whole body has been poisoned by the perforation. She will be in ICU and they say she will get worse before she gets better because they have to clear the contamination from her entire system. She should be in hospital for 4-5 days, but if things get worse she will be transported to a even larger city.

Please pray that the doctor has wisdom and knows exactly how to deal with this. Also, that the antibiotics that they use to clean her system will be speedy and extremely effective.

And also, peace for my dad, as I am sure this is rather unsettling. Thank you so much!
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Just Cooper

2011-01-19T14:07:00.000-08:00

I looked outside one day to see Cooper working like a busy little beaver. He was mixing up mud and applying it to the cracks in the loghouse to winterize it. But wait. WHAT was he wearing???

I walked a little closer to get a better look, then I told him to *stand still*. I needed to get a photo. This was something else! What child chooses to take a pair of pants that have holes in the knees and deliberately create such ugly 'shorts'? What child? My child! He loved his pants. When I finally put them in the garbage he was not too pleased! lol

But just look at that smile! Who could make him take those 'shorts' off and put on something decent? Not this mother!! *smile*

Another day I found him and Raine working together to create a door for their loghome.

(This was obviously back near the summer and I am a little late in publishing it!)
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Christmas Decorations and Winter Woolies

2011-01-19T12:37:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned before, we thought we would be in our new house this winter. Well, it didn't work out that way. I carefully packed everything and boxed up all the excess. I made sure to put the things I would need for the winter season near the front of the storage room.

Then my son, my helpful 17 year old son, who was trying to create a nook for himself in that icy cold garage, packed each and every box so tightly that there was not an inch to spare in that garage, minus the 6 x 6 square he carved out for his weights and playstation.

Did I fail to mention that in the course of his restructuring he put my winter stuff so far away that I have no clue where it all is? Well he did. That and my Christmas decorations. We made do with decorations. Actually, we probably had a prettier tree than I have seen in a while. It had popcorn rings, and home made decorations made from To and From tags covered in glitter, and toilet paper tubes that were cut up into rings and then covered with oodles of glitter glue to resemble the three wise men's crowns. And to top it off we hung miniature candy canes and tinsel. It truly was a pretty tree!

The children had so much fun making the decorations that I promised them they could decorate their own trees next year! It was a worthwhile craft. I just left out the glitter, glitter glue, stickers, cardboard, paper, scissors, ribbon, and they came and went when they wanted. Everyone got in on it, even the big guys.

My very kind hubby delivered the tree that he cut down from our land, and then delivered a case of Coke. He knows that we have not been spending a penny we don't need to and buying a luxury like Coke for my relaxation drink (grin) was not on the budget. He very kindly played out a Coca-Cola commercial by making it the first present under the tree! (grin)

Our Pretty Decorations

They are hard to see because of the camera flash, but they truly were pretty with their white paper and red ribbons, and then all the white popcorn. Cassidy popcorn 1.5 cups of kernels to make this small amount of chains. Could it have been because for every one he strung, he ate ten? Hmmm

Anyways, back to the Winter Woolies.

SO my children had no snow clothes. With a little digging we found the snow pants. There were a few pairs of boots found, but not everyone's....

With a little cajoling, Briton was willing to wear the girls' old boots. He now doesn't notice the pink pom-poms on the pink strings. Mind you, I won't take him skiing til we find all the gear. I wouldn't do that to my boy! lol

And when I looked outside at our first bit of snow to see my dear children in all their makeshift woolies, this is what I saw. How priceless is this...

Old snow pants that are about six inches too short, plus Dad's old work boots.

It didn't stop them from having fun!

Each day that Ray goes to the jobsite he takes a few more boxes. Bit by bit, we are finding the things we need. Hopefully before we begin skiing in January (thank you, homeschooling credits!) we will have found it all. In the meantime, they really aren't cold, so please don't worry. They do have many thick winter sweater jackets, and are making out just fine. *smile*

Update: Since I wrote this post we have located the snow gear, or at least almost all of it. Thankfully, before the deep snow arrived, and just in time for Cassidy to go skiing this week!
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Briton the Russian Woodcutter

2011-01-18T12:35:00.000-08:00

Colt at BCIT

2011-01-15T20:23:00.000-08:00

Our oldest son, Colt, applied to BCIT - British Columbia Institute of Technology - last year. He passed the entrance exams with flying colours! For anyone that knows Colt the story I am about to tell is one of wonder.

While Colt was growing up he really struggled with school. He could get caught up in five math problems and take hours to complete them. When he did them they were always correct, but it was the time it took him to complete his work that was remarkable. He would tell me that when he was working through a problem and writing down the information and then moving onto the next part - then he would get confused. He would lose where he was in the problem while he was holding the previous information in his head. It made school very hard for him. Written work was no different. He struggled to get anything of any substance down on paper.

Those were his difficulties, but at the same time, he was equally gifted when it came to making things work, and finding out how problems could be solved. At one point we had him tested, and as far below average as he writing and communication abilities were, just as far into gifted were his mechanical abilities. I was not surprised.

When he was nine years old he took my old blender, some old carseats, some long 2x4 pieces of wood, plus some larger pieces and built an airplane in our basement. He put his little brothers in the carseats, plugged in the blender, turned it on, got into his cockpit, and 'flew' his airplane, complete with working propeller.

Another time, at 12 or 13, he took some scrap wires, a lightbulb and some metal and created a working lamp!! No instructions. Just all in his head. I always told him he was a genius. He would blow me off. He didn't think he was smart. After all, he was the one that saw and felt how difficult life was for him. The information in his head was accurate; getting it out of his head was the problem.

When he was in Cadets he was given the Obstacle Award. This is an award that is given to the cadet that has overcome the most odds that year. Colt had entered Cadets and had to learn how to write lesson plans and begun public school all in one year. The lesson plans were supposed to take hours for a cadet to accomplish. With Colt's difficulties they took days. But he overcame this. No, it never took a couple hours, but he learned to work around his difficulties. In time he became one of the top 5 cadets out of 70,000 in BC!

Why am I not surprised? This is the boy that rolled over at 2 months of age, sat up in his stroller holding onto the front bar at 6 weeks, sat upright at less than 4 months, walked around furniture at 6 months 2 days, walked across the room at 9 months, took off skiing on his first day at 4.5 years and when told he could not use the chairlift until he could ski properly, conquered it in one day. He then went on that very day to consistently beat me down the slopes!

SO why should I be surprised.

When it came time for Grade 10 and higher levels of education I knew we had to do something different, or he would not get through. We worked through a lot of these difficulties by me scribing for him when it came to longer works. He would narrate to me the essays he was supposed to write for Social Studies. The thoughts were in there: His essays began as 500 word reports and by the time we were one they were up to 3300 words!! That was a lot of typing. When it came to math I was his scribe - he was the mouth and used the calculator. This way he did not forget his steps. He got through Grade 10 with all his classes complete. Not hot grades, but definitely nothing less than a C.

When he hit grade 11 he was on his own. And bit by bit he coped. He worked out very hard and showed me ways he did it. For instance, he had a math tutor. He would see him once a week - learn the concepts, go home and do the test. He never wasted time on the math lessons. He simply got it. And he scored a B in math.

When he graduated he had an 81% average.

Colt then decided he wanted to join the military and be an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer. He applied to BCIT and was accepted.

I had no clue how he would cope with this program that was so intense. Apparently it is a three year program shoved into 16 months. They then go out for a two year apprenticeship. When he is done his position will be that of only 10,000 jobs in the world. The other mechanics work under his position. I had no idea when he set out for this training that it was that intense.

This is Colt's school. I will now go on to brag about what he has accomplished in the last two months.

Colt began school on November 1st. There are eight levels to graduate. Each level is 7.5 weeks long. They then get a four day weekend before they begin the next level. This way if they fail a level they simply go back to the beginning of the level versus the beginning of the course.

Colt's class is made up of seventeen students ranging in age from 19 - 28. Early in the course there was a nomination for Class President. This person represents the class at the meetings. The students were the ones that nominate their choice. Colt and one other guy were nominated for President.

At the same time, the teacher was having each student spend a few hours in the airplane hanger working on the aircraft. During their few hours they were being the 'Crew Chief'. At the end of the evaluation the teacher was to choose his choice for overall Crew Chief. Colt was chosen.

I am very proud of him. He was not only chosen by his peers, but also by his instructor.

Since school began Colt has had constant tests. His first test was the second day of school. He is doing very well. His practical work is scoring 95% and his theory is at 85%.

He explained to me about one of the practical assignments. They had to take a piece of metal and then fashion it into a tool. The measurements had to be within 1/1000th of an inch. First they take it to 1/32 and then they use algebra (you know the stuff you figure you will never use? lol) to get to 1/1000 of an inch! The graduating class had to come in and judge the projects. Colt was told his was best 'by far'.

And he is humble to boot. I have had to dig to get this information. I am sure Colt will go far. He is working very hard - til midnight many nights, and then up at 4:00 am to catch the early bus to be at school at 8:00 am.

Right now he is commuting 2 hours each way to school, but as difficult as it is, it is a blessing, because my sister and her family are putting him up in a basement bedroom and have created a little livingroom for him. He has a safe place to live at a nominal cost.

It is really very remarkable to see him achieving all that I knew he was capable of, but while not losing the difficulties he was born with. To me he is an inspiration of how we can work around our 'issues' to accomplish what is really important to us!

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Beware of the Blogger Camera

2011-01-15T20:22:00.000-08:00

Don't ever think of doing mindless, foolish things in my house. I will *always* without fail manage to get to my camera and back before you unwrap the tinsel from your head!

Poor Cassidy is laughing because he knows he is doomed. Doomed to be seen wearing an icky green workshirt and bright red Christmas decoration on my blog!

Don't say you weren't warned. You know I will always catch you!

Here he is trying desperately to unwind it before I get the pictures.

Too Late. Got my pictures. haha

Thank you - Edited

2011-01-14T08:23:00.000-08:00

Thank you to all of my friends who prayed or were thinking of us this week as we had to leap with great faith over yet another huge hurdle in this housebuilding project.

God really is a God of Miracles!

My biggest concern was that the roof would have to have a hole torn in it to repair what they wanted changed. Now, that is not saying that my husband stated that would have to be done, but given he doesn't really elaborate on facts very well I had no clue. And honestly, I don't know if he knew to what extent the problem would have to be repaired.

I tried to see the blessings in the problem and there were some: it happened right before Christmas meaning my husband was off for a few days anyway. Then he had a tiny job he could work on to bring in some much needed funds, so that worked out nicely.

We had to have an engineer come in and we were quoted one coming from the Big City. I thought, when I wrote asking for prayer, that we would be looking at $500, and that was too much as far as I was concerned! Naive me! It turned out that the quote we got was for $2500 plus tax for the initial inspection and recommendations, and then we would pay an additional $250 for each other inspection until it passed the final inspection on the framing. Wow!

My husband had found another guy in our town that was a steel engineer, but we found that he had worked with the log builders, so I knew there was a good chance he would be good enough for us. Ray decided to use him, even though I wasn't 100% certain that we would get the information we needed from him, and might therefore, end up hiring the other guy after all, thus throwing us back even more financially, plus another week or so behind.

But Ray felt it was the thing to do, so we did it. And I am glad that was what he decided!!

This guy came in on my son's 6th birthday and checked the job. Ray came home and told me he had some repairs to do but they were all doable!! So praising God!! And it turned out the repairs were relatively small, and so on Tuesday the inspector came in and gave us the PASSING STAMP!!!! Yeah, back to work on our beautiful home! So very thankful! Just one more HUGE roadblock that we have passed!

Thank you to all who told me they were thinking or praying for us. I love the fact that I have the support of such good friends, many of whom I have not even had the pleasure of meeting!

We are now onto the insulation stage. The boys have the heating finished and the heating guys will be in this week to hook it all up and then Ray will get the huge outside furnace running and soon the house will be toasty warm. At that point, and not before, my little troops and I will head out to do our part: play (them) and insulate (me). If I am lucky, lots will be done before I get there! (smile)

Update: I should just mention that this guy was NOT $2500 plus, plus, plus. He is $75 an hour, so we can expect to save at least half of the money!!

Love, Justine

Cassidy and Cooper Have a Birthday

2011-01-14T08:10:00.000-08:00

It's that time again. My December boys had their birthday. Years ago, when I had a chance to decide if they should share a birthday because of an induced birth I decided against it. I thought they might resent it in years to come. I wish I had stuck with sharing it. They have always enjoyed having a birthday together. Once, when Cassidy turned 13, we had a solo party for him where his friends came over for a pizza and big guys birthday, but other than that they have been the best of brothers usually sharing a cake as well as a birthday.

Cooper Wearing the Official Birthday Hat

Cooper's Turn

And Then Cassidy!!

Happy Birthday to my two big guys!! Hard to believe how fast Cooper is growing up. Makes me quite sad. You have always been a sweet and loving little boy. No wonder all the little girls pick you for their friend. You are kind and have such a protective nature!

And Cassidy you are moseying through your teenage years in a pleasant fashion. I love having your creative energy and your enthusiasm for all things that you try. I look forward to seeing what you do with your life!

I love you boys!
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Prayer Request

2011-01-06T09:11:00.000-08:00

I hope I can ask a request of my Christian friends. We have hit an 'impossible' roadblock in our housebuilding. Now I say 'Impossible' but I know that with God, All Things Are Possible, but to my small human mind and anyone else looking at the situation, we have hit something huge.

There is a problem with the plans for our house. The roof is on, the framing is complete, the plumbers have begun, the electrician has finished his rough-in, we are ready for insulating. We called for inspection on December 23rd. It failed.

That has happened, perhaps two or three times, in my husband's 24 years of building houses. He is *the best*. I know it, others know it.

This plan was strange. It is an American plan and our inspectors needed it done a certain way to be sure it conformed to Canadian standards. Fine. Trusses were fabricated and the house was built.

So now we have hit this spot where the inspector has a problem with the roof/trusses. It has to have an engineer come in, inspect it, tell my husband was has to change, and then be reinspected. We have already been on hold for two weeks.

We have been told we will have to bring in an engineer from the Big City, because we don't have what they need around here. This will be more time and quite possibly, lots of money we do not have.

More importantly, it *has to be fixable*. Whatever their problem is, it has to be able to be fixed.

Please pray, if you are so led:

1) we can get an engineer in quickly.

2) the problem is really quite simple and we can move forward quickly.

I do know that God brought us this far and we have no end of issues that have miraculously be ironed out. This may be just one more. That is what I am going to believe. But in the meantime, I am telling myself to not worry. *smile* Keep the faith. So thank you for praying!

Thank you for your support! I'll let you know how it goes.
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Love, Reign O'er Me, Rain on me.

2011-01-01T15:00:00.000-08:00

It is 12:45 AM on January 1, 2011. I did not have an exciting New Year. Instead, I had a pleasant one. Our older boys headed to the ski hill for a night of tubing, bonfires, hotdogs, and hot chocolate with friends, and our middle sized boys spent a fun evening at the movies watching the newest in the Chronicles of Narnia, while the little four and I stayed home, had pizza and punch, and then finished our evening off with the movie The Secret Garden.

Once the little ones were all tucked up in bed, my hubby and I sat down to watch a movie. We browsed through a few looking for one that appealed for such a night as this. We settled on one that I thought was going to be funny given it had Adam Sandler in it. And with him you never know what kind of movie it will be. So I was forewarned and forearmed with another movie choice.

As soon as the beginning came up it stated it was an R movie. ICK. I don't do R movies. I then pulled out my trusty computer and went to pluggedinonline and did a check to see the content. I was surprised to see it was not to be a comedy, but actually a very profound drama.

Adam Sandler played the character, Charlie Fineman, a former dentist who lost his wife and three daughters in a plane crash in 9/11. His old college roommate spied him one day riding downtown New York on a motorized scooter. Alan Johnson, the friend, soon discovered that his old classmate was a shell of the man he used to be, having cut himself off from anyone who knew him in his former life, and having become an emotionless individual who played video games and renovated his kitchen every couple months.

It didn't take long for me to be swept up in this movie. Such a painful story, yet so necessary to watch, to understand what my daughter has been through. Yes, both my children have had a lot of loss, but one in particular, has endured so much more. To see this man so paralyzed by grief that he refused to speak of his family, acting as if he didn't remember, was sobering and eye-opening. I felt I was looking at my daughter.

And the irony is that the previous movie spoke to both my daughter and myself: The Secret Garden. This little girl arrived in England, an angry little girl, but one who did not know how to cry. We talked about Mary and Raine understood her.

There were parts in Reign Over Me that brought me to tears, especially the court case. My heart felt ripped in two as I transferred his grief to my sweet daughters and thought of what they have had to live through. It is really almost beyond my comprehension what they have experienced. The only way I can begin to imagine it is to pretend it is one of my little boys whose hearts I know so well. Then it becomes flesh and blood real because I *know* how they would react - with terror and sadness and grief and confusion and broken hearts, and perhaps they too, would eventually shut down, because to think about it just hurts too stinking much!

When I watched this movie it made me realize why consequences just don't make sense. Not to a child who has faced such trauma. I understand now, more fully, why without secure attachment, consequences can do more harm than good. Yes, we want a child to recognize that what they did was wrong. But really, in the face of life, does it *really matter* when they didn't do their chores, were disobedient, unkind, told a lie, and all the other things that get them corrected through the day?

No, I am not going to suddenly become a different person. That will take a miracle. But I am going to be so much more astute to the fact that in the grand scheme of things I need to say to myself:

DOES IT REALLY MATTER!? before I dish out a correction - no matter how small!!

I have heard over and over that when a child is attached there will come less behaviours. But truly it is frustrating when you know a child knows how to do the thing they are not doing, or the thing they have chosen to do wrong, and that makes it hard to ignore, because you are used to parenting your other children in a different manner. But I have to remind myself over and over and over again - that until that attachment is solid they are going to react to correction in a differently than my boys. So a gentle redirection, a soft correction is going to do so much more for undoing the damage that has been done, than a consequence.

Because any form of correction can be construed as a form of trauma to children who have lived the life my girls have. And this probably rings true for every child that has been adopted at a later age. They have all experienced too much.

So please, do rent this movie, but be warned it is not for children. There is a fair bit of language, but the depth and profoundness of the movie made it worthwhile. It will speak to your heart and open your eyes to what grief, trauma, and loss can do to a person - let alone a little child. And we have the nerve to say 'children are resilient'. Who says!

Only love,
Can make it rain,
The way the beach is kissed by the sea.

Love, Reign ov'r me.
Love, Reign ov'r me, Rain on me.

Only love,
Can bring the rain,
That makes you yearn to the sky.
Only love,
Can bring the rain,
That falls like tears from on high.

Love, Reign ov'r me.
Love, Reign ov'r me, on me.

Peter Townshend
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Old Friends Reconnection

2010-12-31T14:30:00.000-08:00

Years ago, when Cassidy was about seven years old we were friends, actually more of acquaintances with a family. They also homeschooled, but they only had two children. Their oldest was Cassidy's age. Oddly enough, he was Cassidy's 'twin'; both being born on the same day! Their other child was a wee little boy. Just a babe.

Time passed, they moved away, we moved on out of that homeschool group, and we didn't see each other for a long time. Then one day, this mum reconnected with me. Or at least she tried! For two years after the girls came home she tried. She was very patient! I was just keeping my head above water and really, honestly, not doing a ton of extra things. Just trying to get back into the swing of things with two extra children. Imagine having twin babies. I had two friends who did that. I barely saw them until their kids were two years old. They were just coping. I was much the same. Once I hit the one year mark it got much easier, but still not simple.

Now, life is normal. I can't imagine life without eight children. (smile) And then one day this mum and I tried again. We almost made it. Life happened and this time it wasn't me. (smile) A few more months went by and then we tried again. And made it. And the rest is history. What was I waiting for! (laugh)

We have had so many wonderful talks that only a mum of many, who homeschools, who has a multi-cultural family, who has big ones and little ones - could get! We have so many things in common, including, our good points and flaws.

It is such a blessing to have a friend who I can be downright honest with and know that I will not be judged. Instead, we share our weaknesses only to help the other one up. Many times she or I will share a situation and the other knows how to handle it because they are dealing with the same thing. Or perhaps, we know what to do, but know how *hard* it is to do that thing we must do, so we can commiserate and be *real*. Noone is listening but us. Noone is judging.

I am very thankful for my new *friend* Chelsea and all that she has brought to my life. Her wisdom, her kindness, her strength, her laughter, her gentle corrections, her comfortableness in my home! I hope you can all find someone that gets *you* and is on the same journey you are one. Because I can tell you they are about the only person who doesn't mind you waking them up at 7:47 am with a critical question about a situation that is going on *right now and I need advice!* (laugh) Yes, we have done that to each other. We now know to answer each other's crisis calls right away, because many times it helps us make the right decision versus what we might have instead reacted like!

Not to mention, when you have six kids, or eight, like me, and are both stay-at-home mums on a tight budget, it is really nice when your kids meet someone else that eats oatmeal many mornings a week! (laugh)

Here are some fun pictures we had when the kids came over for an impromptu birthday party for Cooper, Cassidy, and Ben.

Who Needs a Schoolyard.

Between us we have fourteen children! What fun they had! There was a friend for everyone! Cassidy and Ben shared a birthday. Austin had his friend, D., the girls had A, who was just their age, Cooper had a new friend, just a year younger, L., and Briton had little M. And then we can't forget sweet little Baby O, who had noone his age. :o)

Kids Doing Lunch Clean-Up

I just want to add a somber note to the end of this email. I heard from a friend this morning that she has closed down her blog. This mum was real. She told it as it was. But someone felt she was not doing the job right, so they called Family Services on her, and now her family is going through turmoil.

This is so unfair. Unless you are an adoptive mum or dad, you will never know the challenges that a family faces. You will also never know the love a mum feels for an adopted child, while *still* going through the ups and downs and twists and turns of transitioning a child from another family and / or culture into your family. It is an adjustment for everyone and it takes time. It is not always easy. But we are all in it for the long haul because we love our kids - all of them.

So please, when you read someone's story and they are sharing, remember that you are not hearing the whole story. You are hearing a piece of it. Don't judge them from a sentence or two, or even a paragraph or page. Get to know the real people. And usually in Blog Land we don't get that opportunity. I am very thankful, though, that I do have a chance to connect with a few of the real people out there.

Also, blogs have become somewhere that people share with other adoptive families, because we all need support. I can't tell you how helpful the blogs are that are very honest. The ones that sugarcoat things don't do anything for me. I don't read them anymore. I want the nuts and bolts, the meat and potatoes. It is those blogs and those people being real that has moved me along the most in my adoption journey.

And my journey is about becoming the best mum I can be to my adopted girls. Do I know what it feels like to be in their shoes? Absolutely not. So I do the best I can learning and gleaning from others who are also on the same path, while reaching out to others in the hopes that what I learn can help others.

This is one of the main reasons I have considered and am still considering going private. My children and family are the most important thing to me. The only reason for staying public was to be a source of information for those that follow, like the ones that have helped me.

Just before I talked about going private some weeks ago, I had heard of a family in the States that had their kids taken away because of her sharing on her blog. I have read some of this woman's blog. She is another one that is real. And real is not always pretty! It can be downright ugly.

But you know what? When we stepped into adoption we had no clue. We had been to the seminars and been told 'all the right stuff' like attachment and open adoption, and fetal alcohol syndrome, but we had not learned about ages being wrong, brains being damaged by trauma related injuries, and so many things that International Adoption can bring.

So is it worth it? To leave a blog public to help strangers, when the very same strangers can hurt? I don't know. I am still thinking about it. I don't have anything to hide, but then neither did my friend who was called on by Family Services.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-30T09:57:00.000-08:00

This year we had a quiet Christmas. I was glad for that because I have had (am still having) a very stressful year. I won't say I have been stressed out; I have really been trusting God, but all the same I did want to kick back as much as possible and having a quiet year turned out to be a blessing. I love, love, love getting together with my sister's family and really look forward to doing that next year if we are in our new home. We *should* be barring any complications, which seem to keep rearing their ugly heads.

First, on December 19, our children were in a church play. Briton was a shepherd, the girls were angels, and Cooper and Austin were kids. I was impressed to see that my two boys had their lines learned completely, while others had scripts hidden. All that memory work they have practiced with their verses has come in handy!

Then when Colt came home on December 23rd, Ray, Colt, and Dane headed to the land to try out the snow mobile. The rest of us stayed home as there was much to do!! I have to say that this was the best year for getting things done! My troop of workers were amazing!

Cooper and Briton peeled enough potatoes to feed an army, since my mum and dad were coming, as well as our ten.

Savannah Cleaned Out the Pantry.

Cassidy the Baker

Cassidy baked three cakes and helped build two trifles and one black forest cake, as well as doing multiple other cooking prep jobs.

Raine was My Gopher.

Team Work

Washing Dishes, Vegetables and Baking

Savannah and Briton Helped With Baking

And of Course, the Younger Ones Went Sledding

Christmas Eve

To begin the evening all of the children got dressed up in beautiful clothes. I cannot believe that I did not take pictures! The girls looked gorgeous in their Ethiopian clothes and gold and white hair beads. The boys were very handsome in their get-up.

We had a wonderful hour of singing Christmas carols and listening to songs sung in foreign languages. We also heard the Christmas story as read from the book of Luke in the Bible. This was finished off nicely with goodies and hot chocolate after the service.

From here we came home and the children helped tidy up the house and then got their pajamas on. They all settled into bed, with the exception of the big kids. Once I was certain that they were well settled Cassidy and Dane went and stood at the two bedroom doors. Upon my signal they burst open the doors and called out, "Merry Christmas!"

The poor little kids were so confused, *laugh*, that they didn't know what to do! They thought their brothers were playing tricks on them. It didn't take Savannah long to hop out of bed and hit the stairs running once they told them they could come downstairs!

They all gathered on the couch and waited to see what was up. It is funny that they had forgotten from all the other years that we do Christmas Eve gift giving with the children's gifts, plus the out of town gifts, and then from Ray to me and vice versa!

Probably the best present of all. Dishes, crockery, pans, cutlery, aprons. Imagination fun time!

Briton Gets the Firetrucks He Was Wanting

Miss Savannah Gets a Hat and Stole For Dress-Up

(Mind you, I did find her sledding in it a few days later! lol Only Savannah!)

Dane Vying For Savannah's Hat

Cooper Happy With His PS2 Game

(We still have the old PS2 from when our oldest boys were about 8 and 10 years old! So now we can get games that are really cheap! Unfortunately it is getting harder to find them now the PS3 is out there!)

I played a trick on the boys and girls. I gave the big boys a large parcel to unwrap, and then I gave the little ones some small parcels to unwrap. I had put them backwards. Dane and Cassidy and Austin opened the Playmobil and played the part of all excited!

Meanwhile, my confused younger children looked with polite smiles at their DS games. Perhaps wondering if there was a DS coming? Not likely. So they looked over at what their brothers had received. And this is the reaction they saw...

Oh, So Pleased to Get Playmobil Africa

I told the kids if they could come to an agreement then perhaps they could switch gifts. Cassidy and Austin were quick to say yes, since they own DS handheld gamesters, but Dane wasn't so sure. He decided to hang on to the Playmobil. He was in a lose situation if he switched. He didn't own a DS, but he could play with the toys. He decided to hang on. That is until Cooper tackled him. He finally gave in.

The night finished about 11:30 pm and the children headed off to bed, with goodies in their tummies, new toys in piles, and excited thoughts of what the next day would bring.

Christmas Day

My parents live near to us and it is always nice to have them over for Christmas. For over 30 years my mother is the one that hosted Christmas. We immigrated from England and my Grandparents lived in England with the rest of our family. So we grew up with only ourselves for Christmas. Then my parents moved far away from us and we would go to their house for Christmas.

Once we moved here we began sharing putting on the event. Once our family increased to the size that it is and my sister had her two children, it was obvious that my parents house couldn't house the clan anymore. That must have been a hard adjustment for my mum, who had always put such effort into the occasion. So now we try to get them involved by putting in their efforts on the dinner. Like I tell my mum, we all have something to bring to the dinner that makes it special.

There is NO way that I am planning on *running* the Christmas dinner when I have so many children!! No way. I will host it, yes, but my sons and wives and daughters and husbands will all be part and party to the putting on of what will eventually turn into a huge number of people! lol

My Dad Helping With the Turkey

Grandad and Cooper

My Three Big Sons

My children all love Curious George. When I found this anthology at Costco, I knew I had to buy it! It was a big hit with Cooper, and it came with an hour long audio cd of the stories as well.

Police Stuff!!

Cooper has been saving his money and buying bits and pieces for the Playmobil police set.

This was so funny! Briton wanted a present for himself, so he decided since the present I handed him to give to Grandad did not have a written tag, that he could write his own name. He did. Then Grandad told him he could help him open his gift. Briton began opening the gift - saw inside and said, "Ohhh!"

Then he realized what it was and in joking disgust said to my dad, "Clothes! You have 'em," and tossed the present to my dad. Boy, did we bust out laughing. That boy is going to be a comedian!

My sister sent Christmas presents with Colt when he came home. Dane opened his wrapping to find this pretty box. Check out his face. He was dying laughing. I am certain she deliberately picked this box for that boy. What a joke. At least there was no tutu inside the box! It was a nice American Eagle shirt. lol

At the end of the night when the children were done opening gifts I surprised my mum with a black forest birthday cake. Her birthday is going to be December 31 - New Years Ever - but I know they always go out that night, so I thought this would be a good way to surprise her. And it did!

But the surprises weren't over for the night. When the younger children were all in bed - about 1:00 am - we called the big boys into the kitchen to tidy up the late night dishes. As they were working I held up an envelope to Dane asking him if it was his because it had his name on it. He opened it and grinned.

At first he thought it was coupons to some music cds he wanted to buy. But after studying it for a while he suddenly realized what it was: excellent seating for him, his dad, and his brother, Colt, at the upcoming Bon Jovi concert in the Big City. It is an early graduation gift, plus thank you for working on our family home.

He was beyond pleased. He had wanted to buy tickets and had told us when they went on sale. I nonchalantly asked him if they were on Ray. I then gave Ray 'the eye' as he sat at the other end of the table. He was *supposed* to know that the eye meant 'go online and see if the tickets are for sale'. Of course, he had no clue. So then I said, "Are you done on your computer?" And reached over and helped myself to the computer he was still using. I am sure I confused the boys with my not-so-polite behaviour. lol Ray being the nice guy didn't complain. I then sat down and punched in Bon Jovi concert and came up with the information.

Okay, so it was out there. Now I had to get Ray to the office to buy tickets without gathering suspicion. The boys and I were playing a game, so I just shut Ray's computer, handed it to him, and asked if he was done with it he could put it in the office. I was seriously not obvious (lol!)

The boys made a comment that, Dad was finished now because I had taken the computer. lol Ray finally got the hint, took the computer and secreted himself in the office, went online, found the venue, chose our seating and made the purchase. It turned out this all was on the night they went on sale.

Weeks later, Dane tried to see about tickets. I tried to keep him away from the computer. Ray said to check out and see what was left. I did. There were $23.00 seats behind the stage in the nosebleed section near the roof. I told this to Dane to stop him from buying himself a ticket. That boy was determined to get to that concert even though it would cost him $150 in bus fare to get there, plus how was he going to maneuver the Big City on his own!

So you can imagine, when Dane found he had 10th row seats in the lower section he was very pleased! Now if I could be a fly on the wall. That music takes me back to my teen years!

So that was our Christmas and it was a very nice one!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families and wish you all a Happy New Year!
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Hallelujah Chorus at the Food Court - Amazing!

2010-12-29T00:01:00.000-08:00

Kid's Talents

2010-12-23T14:58:00.000-08:00

It is always exciting to find when your child has special talents. Last year, when Briton was four, we discovered that he was extraordinarlily fast in building a tangram puzzle. No more than 27 seconds! Over and over again! Different shapes each time. He was as quick as his 17 year old brother, who has excellent hand/eye coordination.

27 Seconds to Complete

The next thing we noticed was that he would do puzzles backwards. He could take a puzzle that came in a frame, dump it on the floor and then build it upside down, no picture, based on the shapes of the pieces. These were not small pieces. One of them has about 100 pieces and the pieces are tiny, odd shaped pieces and they create a map of Europe.

Othertimes he has taken a puzzle without a picture and quite comfortably built it without any picture guide.

In October, we had a girl from Switzerland visiting us. She was playing the Labyrinth game with Cooper. It is a game that makes me think of chess. You have to know where your move will take you before you even get there. It is for ages 7 - 99. It is a great game and takes about 30-45 minutes for a game.

I thought that perhaps Briton could be her partner. I came back a little later and Brigitte told me that Briton didn't need a partner. He was doing just fine. He actually won one of the two games! That was just the beginning. It is now his favourite game and he is a fair opponent for anyone who plays against him.

My Name is Christmas Carol

2010-12-23T10:11:00.000-08:00

Just wondering if I can ask a Christmas prayer from my praying friends. There is a certain someone (very small) that needs prayer this Christmas. God knows who this little one is. Please pray that God would meet this child's needs and do what is in the best interest of this little one. I can't share more, but please, please do pray.

I would like to add a Christmas song that speaks of these needs. It will follow this post. Thank you and Merry Christmas to you and yours!

PS Before you listen to this song please go to the music player on my blog and push the pause button so you can hear the song. Thanks!

The Trials Continue

2010-12-22T17:03:00.000-08:00

These are the trials that have hit our family since the end of August 2010 up until the end of January 2011.

God is our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1

Very dysfunctional visitor turned our family upside down for a couple weeks.
Discovered some of our children had been through something terrible.
Hubby lost his upcoming winter contract.
Construction bills (not our house) way over cost during financial hard times.
Terrifying teen crisis - life and death.
House guest from Switzerland for three weeks. (good, but still upheaving)
Small son experiencing strange flashes and shapes in vision for several weeks. Going to Children's Hospital for EEG, CT scan, and physical.
Same small son shot in the eye.
Personal crisis.
Mortgage company made huge mistake putting us at great risk.
Son could have been killed - near headon on freeway.
Family in car accident - $10,000 damage.
An adoption situation.
Ray's Grandmother died.
House crisis - three week concern til framing passed with engineer.
My mother rushed to hospital by ambulance.
Two months unemployment.
Our pastor's wife dies.

What would I do without Faith??

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Delegating and Chores For Many

2010-12-15T14:15:00.000-08:00

I love to delegate. At one time I did all the work myself. Now I delegate. Believe me, I am still working all the time. If I didn't keep things moving I am sure that they would quit! And with them doing most of the cleaning and laundry I am freed up to do the: Schooling (remember I have seven in fulltime school); running the business end of a company; and doing all the jobs that are necessary to keep a family of ten functioning. Trust me, there is little down time!

In the meantime, the training and delegating has paid off. I have noticed that my little boys value their freetime more than my girls. I frequently wake up on a Saturday morning to the sound of my boys cleaning their rooms. They work hard and are done by 9:30! And they don't just clean their room. They also clean the master bedroom and bathroom. They are a good little team. The girls also work very hard, but they seem to take their time and don't appear to have a great desire to be running free, so somehow their workday ends up being a lot longer than the boys.

One morning I was awoken by a knock at my bedroom door. In walked Cooper ready to do the master bedroom cleaning. Ray had left at the crack of dawn for work and it was only about 8:00 am but the kids were up bright and early with their Saturday chores. They had plans for the day and wanted to get their chores behind them!

I walked through the house and these pictures are the scenes I was greeted with in each room!

Savannah's TV Room Ready to Vacuum

Team Workers

Raine's Bathroom Cleaning Chore

Bedroom Ready For Vacuuming

Boys' Room Spotless With Beds Made

Cooper Cleaning the Bathroom Sink

Briton Scrubbing the Tub

(that honestly, they use more than I do!)

The older boys do their own areas of the house, but really they like to sleep in, so there was no sign of them yet! By lunchtime on Saturday our house is spotless because each person has their own area. Each of these areas is maintained by the same child through the week (minus our bedroom, which of course, I maintain).

Because I am frequently asked about routines and how we manage to do things, I will show you how easy it is to keep your house shipshape with a handful of helpers. First, it has to be routine. Each Saturday our children know it is the day to clean house. Then each day they also have a set routine of chores. So there is no complaining; it is simply what they do.

Dane: Washes kitchen windows; Wipes down marks on walls; Cleans out refrigerator; Tidies pan closet; Vacuums floor; Washes floor in kitchen; Does own laundry.

Cassidy: Organizes and tidies: entry ways, laundry room, and half bath on main floor. He vacuums out shoe cubbies and rooms; Washes down washer and dryer, picture frames on walls; Thoroughly washes the half bath toilet, floor, sink; Washes the floors; Does own laundry.

Austin: Tidies bookshelves in living room and sitting room; dusts and vacuums both rooms; tidies pantry; Does own laundry.

Cooper: Shares vacuuming, dusting, and organizing of his bedroom with Briton; Washes bathroom sink and toilet in master bathroom; Vacuums master bedroom.

Raine: Vacuums, dusts, and tidies her and Savannah's bedroom; Thoroughly cleans her and Savannah's bathroom; Does own laundry.

Savannah: Vacuums stairs and landing; Cleans, organizes, dusts, and vacuums TV room; Does own laundry.

Briton: Shares vacuuming, dusting, and organizing of his bedroom with Cooper; Washes bathroom floor and tub in master bathroom; Dusts and picks up master bedroom.

Each of these children also has evening or day chores that makes the weekend chores so much easier.

Dane: Dinner dishes and kitchen cleanup.

Cassidy: Pick up and wipe down of entry ways, laundry room, and half bath. Makes lunch and lunch clean up.

Austin: Makes breakfast and does breakfast clean up.

Cooper: House pick up on call; Stacks logs and hauls to house; Yard clean-up; Laundry assistant; Keeps bedroom picked up daily.

Raine: Empties dishwasher; Vacuums hardwood; Mops kitchen floor; Laundry Boss; Quick wipe of her bathroom sink and toilet at night.

Savannah: Moves washing loads over; Laundry assistant; Vacuums schoolroom and kitchen; Quick sweep of her bathroom floor at night.

Briton: House pick up on call; Stacks logs and hauls to house; Yard clean-up; Laundry assistant; Keeps bedroom picked up daily.

Overall, each of the children puts in about 60 minutes of help a day. By expecting them to maintain their bedrooms it really makes Saturday cleaning a breeze. Briton and Cooper generally have their room cleaned in 30 minutes. And that is if they are pulling out the dressers and vacuuming behind, or dawdling. And their Saturday jobs should take them about 2 hours. So not a lot of work because many hands make light work. Plus, I *never* have laundry build-up.

Each of these baskets holds one child's laundry. The very bottom basket holds socks, pajamas, towels and rags. It makes for very easy laundry work for a child. They know who they are folding for. And I rarely have more than one basket a day.
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Light Up the Night

2010-12-12T14:46:00.000-08:00

Our children had lots of fun at the Light Up the Night party at our church. It is a wonderful way to bring light to a night where so many people choose to make it a dark night. The children had fun dressing up. We had Pippi Longstocking, a cow, a cowboy, a lumberjack, an FBI agent, a motorbiker, and Wall e.

The kids had lots of fun, got lots of candy, got cold, sat by the fire, got warm, and then I brought them home. The bigger boys and Cooper decided to stay longer and get a ride home later. When Austin came home he showed me how dangerous a lollipop could be. Apparently, a little boy was playing with him and whacked him on the head. Quite the egg for a lollipop! lol

And the next day I gave each of the kids a bag of candy and them they could eat as many candies as they wanted and then they were going in the garbage the next day. They thought that was a wonderful idea!! Until...

Cooper came to me and told me he felt sick. He actually looked a little white. Too much sugar! He took a seat by the toilet.

Briton and Raine thought it was fabulous and managed quite nicely.

I personally love to savour candies and make them last. But my dentist and a friend suggested trying that approach. The reason I was willing to try it is that I have 78 years of consecutive parenting through all eight of my children and out of all those years I am so happy to be able to say I have *one* child with cavities! And that child has only had fillings twice. So I want that record to continue.

But at the same time, I don't know. I want them to learn to *enjoy* things and not oink them down! lol Next year we will see.

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A Delayed Valentine's Gift

2010-12-09T15:41:00.000-08:00

When Colt left last year, the children and I worked to create a present for him. It was to be a picture that said I Love You. I planned to use the children's bodies to create the letters of his name.

First, I had the girls do the O.

And then the boys made the letter L.

Everyone was cooperative, except for Briton. He wasn't exactly uncooperative; he was simply a little scared of being the T. lol

He was a little panicked because he had no clue what they were doing with him!

Do you wonder why he was nervous? Seriously, I know he was safe, but it looks a little freaky! lol

And the finished result of the picture was our letter T.

As soon as Cassidy put him down he ran to safety behind the girls. Poor little guy!

Do not get me! I am not doing that again!

Savannah looks a little amused, while Raine looks compassionate. *grin* Before a minute went by, Cassidy was after him to help make the letter C. We tried to tell him it was not going to be up in the air. It would be a nice letter. Boy, did he run! All around the yard. *grin*


Kicking and Objecting

Once we caught him and lay him down he settled, realizing it really wouldn't be scary. The only reason Briton got chosen to make the T was because he was the only one small enough to lift up over Cassidy's head.

The final result - the letter C.

After we had made the name C O L T, we wrote I LOVE YOU.

LOVE

YOU

Then on Colt's last day with us we had a turkey dinner - a Goodbye Colt dinner.

We gave him the picture that we had made for him last year. We had planned to give it to him in February that passed, but the timing wasn't right, as it would have had to be mailed to him. So this was perfect because it meant he could take it with him to where he will be living at college.

And now he's off. Off to B.C.I.T.. More on that later.