Ordinary Time

K. turns 3 years old today. (We celebrated his birthday this past weekend which is why I have birthday cake pictures.) It's hard to believe that he has yet to be home an entire year because he has integrated into our family so seamlessly. He has gone from a scared, undernourished, underdeveloped 2 year old baby to a self-assured, funny, competent 3 year old eating machine. During the never-ending wait to bring K. home, I was worried I was missing so much in his life. Little did I know that we would get to witness most of his 'firsts'. Other than your typical baby things...rolling over, sitting up, first tooth, first step, first surgery (OK, so maybe that one isn't typical)...we have witnessed the rest. Since he had no language when he came to us, we heard his first words (Ma and Da), first swim, first solid food, and now his first birthday celebration. Clearly, he had been paying attention to the 6 birthdays he witnessed before this, since he is a champion at blowing ou

I'm not sure I should listen to daytime radio, even to our local Christian station. Something will inevitably come on that makes me wander around the house muttering to myself, much to the amusement of my children. This particular case involved a woman's interest show and the person being interviewed had written a book about how when she became a mother she lost who she was and had become "just a mother". I'm used to hearing things like this and usually let them roll past me, but the interviewer had to go on to say she was sure there were two types of woman listening. The first group were the women who didn't know they had lost themselves and the second group were the women who understood completely what the author was talking about. Now, I know, and J. is constantly reminding me, that I am no one's target audience. But the fact that the interviewer didn't allow for a third option really grated on me. Frankly, I don't feel lost and I don't feel

I think the title really sums up how I've been feeling these days, and not just absent from this blog. I feel as though I'm living in a fog and can't focus on anything. Even if I was up for doing everything that needed to me done, I can't think what all those things should be. It doesn't help that it feels as though every time I sit down, I fall asleep. I have moments of clarity where the fog has lifted, but they are few and far between and usually end up being somewhat depressing because I look around and see how life has fallen apart around here. So, in honor of my completely scattered state of mind, I will catch everyone up on the doings around here, but in a completely scattered fashion. Life with four extra children has been going smoothly, in large part to the two 16 year old, first-born girls (M and P16) who now reside here. I'm pretty sure that I could completely disappear and they could keep life running for the rest of them. The two oldest boys

children, that is. As of tomorrow we will be the guardians/parents of 11 children for the next two weeks...our 7 plus 4 of children our friends the P-family. The parents of these children are our very good friends who are travelling to Ethiopia to meet their two newest children. We will be caring for four of their children and other friends are caring for the other 2. Before you start feeling too sorry for me or decide to sign me up for sainthood, you have to know that I feel as though I am gaining 3 more pairs of hands as opposed to 4 more dependents. Our friends refer to themselves as the "P" family since all of their first names begin with that letter. It will make my system of referring to my children by their first initial a bit awkward. So, to help with confusion I will also tack on their ages: P16, P15, P10, and P5. The only real difficulty with this arrangement will be with TM and P5. They are good friends, but also have a tendency to lead each other down the wrong pa

and I'm not entirely sure how it happened. It seems as if it was just last week when she was a baby and just yesterday when she was 2 years old and reciting A. A. Milne's poem, Lines and Squares . Though when she recited it, all the l's were pronounced as y's, so it sounded more like 'yines and squares'. (And yes, having a 2 year old who could recite mulit-stanza poems did slightly warp my expectations for the following child...poor B.) But now she is a lovely young lady, who is confident, intelligent, and very mature for her years (and can pronounce the letter 'l'). So, I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that she is 16, since she has been 30 for so long. For a 'practice child' I think she has turned out pretty well. So, happy birthday to my darling daughter who has forever changed my life and the one who made me a mother.

Today A. turns 11 years old. She is bright, cheerful, funny, and very giggly. A. is also well on her way to turning into a young adult. The past several months she has been incredibly helpful...making dinner and all of our granola, helping to take care of her younger brothers, and she is the only one who can remember which piece of clothing belongs to which person. We receive a lot of hand-me-downs (for which I'm exceedingly grateful), but sometimes none of us can remember to whom the 'new' piece of clothing belongs...except A.. She has a remarkable memory, especially when it comes to clothing. In short, A. is a delight and life is much duller here when she is not around. This is also one of our two months of cake. Except for P. and TM., who have birthdays off in the fall, all the rest of our birthdays and anniversaries occur in the months of March and June. And assuming I last until 37 or 38 weeks with these two babies, the new little girls will have June birthdays as wel

A friend sent me this picture yesterday of K. It was taken at our history co-op's annual end of the year feast. We were studying the medieval period last year as you can tell by all the little knights in the background.

Today is "Square Root Day" because the date, written is numbers, is 3-3-09. The next one won't be until April 4, 2016 (4-4-16). In honor of the day, I set A. to making a game about square roots that would help explain the idea to P, TM, and D. Here a picture of them playing A.'s game: You can't really see the games, but one is a matching game and one is more of a board game. Now, off to work on the square root of 9 things on my 'to do' list, especially since the conference I'm presenting at is this weekend.