Ordinary Time

Why is it that everything always seems to end up on the same weekend? And why do I add to the craziness by deciding to take on huge projects such as making G. and L.'s christening/dedication/baptism (fill in with what you are comfortable with) dresses? That is the bulk of my sewing, since most everyone decided on wearing an already existing Halloween costume. I only have to make P.'s. (She is going as a chimney sweep...which has the effect of causing B. to whistle 'Chim-Chiminy' almost non-stop.) On top of the girl's and K.'s christenings and Halloween, we also have TM's 7th birthday as well. So, instead of blogging, I will be sewing, nursing, baking, nursing, shopping, nursing, cleaning, nursing... I can't even leave you with pictures of the cutest babies in the world because the memory card on the camera is full. Which is another thing that must be taken care of before the weekend. Ugh. If I'm still standing by next week I'll have a hos...

It's time to announce the winners of the hat giveaway. The winners were chosen at random in a highly scientific and highly technological way. That is, I wrote the names on pieces of paper and drew them out of a hat. And now the moment you've been waiting for... The winner of Baby Blue is Divine Contemplations, the first entrant. I don't have your email address, so if you'll contact me at thecurryseven at sbcglobal dot net with your information I can send it to you. The winner of Not-So-Floppy is Elizabeth L. I know how to get a hold of you, and maybe I'll even return your Tupperware at the same time. The winner of Orange Leaves is Helene. I have your email address, so I'll contact you as well. Thanks for entering everyone.

I spend a lot of time nursing. I think I've mentioned that before, right? Since my book supply can't seem to keep up with the time I have to read, I also then, have a lot of time to sit and think. As I sit and ponder about things such as: why some days go better than others, or ways to get done what needs to be done, or what causes figurative dark clouds to hover above my head some days; I feel as though I am discovering things I should have already known. Maybe I did know them, but have never articulated them, or I knew them at one time, but forgot them. Whatever it is, I want to give myself a dope slap upside the head for not thinking of it sooner. Because when I actually think about it, it seems so blindingly obvious that I can't believe I haven't known it all along. Since I have had more than one of these moments recently, I will share my discoveries with you one at a time, because no one wants to read a 20 paragraph blog post. My first obvious discovery? It is the ...

I am well aware of the aphorism that in raising children, the days go by slowly, but the years go by at the speed of light. Or something to that effect. Knowing something, though, does not make it any less shocking when it happens. Tomorrow, M. takes the PSAT, which means that in less than a year, she will take the SAT and ACT. And you know what happens after that don't you? The next thing I know, we'll be loading her stuff into the van and dropping her off at college. Yikes! (Note to self: do NOT start sniffling now.) To make matters worse, B. has been very interested in all the college websites M. has been perusing and I'm realizing he is not very far behind. But at the same time, while life is moving just a bit too quickly for my two oldest, my two youngest insist on nursing. A lot. Which gives my days a rather slow feel. (Well, slow that is, until I realize it's 4 o'clock and the only thing I've accomplished is nursing, correcting some math paper...

I have been obsessed with making hats recently, in a effort to find matching sun hats for G. and L. As a result, I have several different test models kicking around my house which I'm not going to be using. My excess is your gain, as I am going to give them away. How do you win? Leave a comment telling me which hat, or hats, you would like. I love reading comments, so anything else you have to say is welcome as well. You can enter up through next Tuesday (10/20), at which point I will hold a drawing to see who wins. Now, on to the hats... L. is modelling the smallest hat, which as you can tell, is a little small on her noggin. It has a 16 1/4" circumference. It would fit a newborn and A. discovered that it also fits the Addy American Girl doll to a 'T'. We'll call this hat 'Baby Blue'. L. now models a larger hat, with an 18" circumference. It is made from a slighter stiffer fabric and is lined, so is not quite as floppy as the others. It...

I love naming children. At earlier stages in our parenting, I would have names in line for future children, often several names 'on hold' at a time. We never set out to have a naming pattern (all names starting with the same letter, for instance), but over time we realized we had fallen into a pattern. Through no advance planning, the first several children all ended up with family names and each started with a unique initial consonant. Once we realized the patten, it then became our 'thing' and we continued the pattern with subsequent children. This is all well and good when one is dealing with one's own birth children. But adding adopted children into the mix adds a layer of complication, especially if a different birth culture is involved. We never take the naming of a child lightly, but the naming of our adopted children was an issue that we spent considerable time pondering. How should we balance the child's history, birth culture, involvement of birth pare...

Yesterday a friend brought over some excess beets and chard from his garden. As you can see, these are not your average chard and beets, but are the 'large family' version of these vegetables. (Feed 11 people with just ONE beet!) As I write this, M and B are tackling the chard and beet greens while I hold a baby. I plan on freezing all of this and using it when the more average-sized chard from our garden is depleted. Here is K. next to a leaf of chard. I'm not sure whether this picture highlights how big the chard is or how small K. is. He had his yearly physical yesterday, and he has finally made it onto the US growth charts! OK, so he's at the first percentile, but at least he's on the chart now. Here is L.; G. was dozing and I didn't want to wake her up with the flash. L. and G. also had doctor appointments yesterday. They are still peanuts, but growing well and are healthy. And their pediatrician told me that his official, clinical opinion is t...

L. on left and G. on right It's not until I have a couple of hours when the babies are having a good nap that I fully realize how much time I spend nursing. I was able to get my kitchen cleaned up before dinner time today and we may just eat before 7pm tonight. I love them dearly, but they are definitely a lesson in letting go of my own agenda and learning to enjoy the moment.

I mentioned a few months ago how there were still families waiting (and waiting and waiting) for everyone's favorite Vietnamese province to approve their pending adoptions. I am so excited to announce that after two years of waiting, the last two families will travel to Vietnam to meet and adopt their children. It has been a long, hard road and we are so happy for them. Eighteen months of waiting nearly made me certifiably insane, I can't begin to imagine how two years feels. So if you're in Vietnam-withdrawal like I am, here's one of the family's blogs so you can follow along too.

This post is probably not going to surprise a single one of my 10 or so readers. This morning in the paper was an article about a new study that was conducted about the education level of stay-at-home moms. It would seem we are a far less educated group than was thought and that the phenomena of educated women leaving the workforce (opting out) to stay home to raise children was not nearly so large as was supposed. It seems to be so small as to not even count as a phenomena anymore. The overall tone of the article seemed to imply, "Whew...that crisis averted!" I'm not going to expend too much energy on the tone of the article. It was what I've come to expect when the job of mothering is discussed...a tacit assumption that staying home to raise children is a second-best option. What I'd rather discuss is the phrase 'opting out'. Does anyone else find this term as derogatory as I do? I know the thinking is that women who have degrees somehow 'owe' so...