Ordinary Time

It's been that kind of a week. The reading is really starting to click for some people, particularly L. She is starting to read just about everything. Last Monday she read Go Dogs Go to me, and Tuesday she read the first page of a Magic Tree House book.  M. has been spending some time here for the past couple of days, and is certainly winning the "Energizer Bunny" award... trailer gutted, TM's room primed, D.'s dresser (finally) put together.  We've got to get this making dinner-thing under control again. The last two nights we have eaten very late... even by our late standards. I now own my very first pair of snow pants ever. (Thank you LLBean points... I paid a whopping 84 cents for them.) You can now plan your own winter wardrobes accordingly, because I have probably just guaranteed us a completely snowless winter. My children my not forgive me. Olive is evidently in her teen years of development, and driving A. a little crazy. Everyone is doing wel

Before we go on our round-the-world trip for school, I thought it would be good to do a little bit with basic geography and map skills. So far we've covered north, south, east, and west; latitude and longitude; map projections and the challenges of creating flat maps of a curved surface, and today was contour and physical maps. I first saw this 3-D contour model on Pinterest, and loved it, so decided we needed to create it. Here is our little river delta with water, green areas and some hills. I made this as we discussed the different things we were learning about. The blue and green are our of foam sheets and the hills are made our of sheets of cork. Then, because we were discussing how physical features translate into flat maps, they then drew a map of it. H.'s Y.'s K.'s (Which if you look closely, you will see that he added Texas as an underwater island there in the ocean. No, I don't know why, and apparently neither does he. These things

I've posted several times about how welcoming and accepting our new church is of our family. Our old church (I still have trouble writing that, because we will always feel connected there), was equally welcoming and accepting. Because of that first experience, I wasn't sure what to expect when we started visiting churches, because when you live in the adoption and/or special needs world you hear a lot of horror stories. A lot. Before I go on, I want you to take a moment and read this blog post by another adoptive mom. When Church Becomes a Negative Experience for Adoptive Families No, really, go back and click on it, I'll wait. I want you to read this, especially if the adoptive, special needs world is not one you spend time in. If you also read the comments, then you will start to get a sense of what many, many adoptive, special needs families face when they want to go to church. The internet is kind of blowing up about this post at the moment, and people are sharing

I used my writing time last night to work on an article which was due. This means that my dear blog readers will have to make due with a photograph today. Here's Olive at 4 months old. She is looking much more Great Dane like, don't you think? She is much jowlier than she was, and as a result she is also a lot droolier. We are discovering that sometimes things stick to her drool. At her vet appointment she was over 30 pounds. That means in the last month, she doubled her weight. Eating 7 cups of dog food a day will do that. (In comparison, Kenzie, who is about 60 pounds, eats less all day than Olive does at dinner.) And here is your random Great Dane fact for the day. They were originally called Boar Hounds, since they were used for, you guessed it, boar hunting. English mastiffs were probably a part of the breed development early on.  A. has decided that instead of becoming a crazy cat lady, she will become a crazy Great Dane lady. Can you imagine how much food it w

Yesterday was the big kick-off neighborhood party for the new campus of the church we have been attending. It's a little complicated, and I'm not sure I have completely worked out how it all works. There are now three campuses to this church, yet they all function as one. I wasn't convinced, but it seems to work. I think it's because the mid-week things all happen all together. The Bible studies, the youth groups, the service projects, all draw from all three campuses. It is not a live feed, sort of thing for Sundays, but the preaching is all on the same verses. When you make a big move, such as we did, sometimes I have found that it can be easier to just make big changes, rather than find things that mimic your old life. We will never completely replace what we had, so I guess we decided not to even try. This new church, for the most part, is pretty uber-contemporary. (There is a traditional service, but coming from a service that had blended traditional and contempo

In the Bible study I have started attending, we are going through 2 Corinthians. I tend to stick to the Old Testament or Gospels in the studies I've led, so it will be interesting to do one of the epistles. I like narrative, so that is probably why I've kind of not chosen to study them. It's good to move out of your comfort zone now and then. I have to admit that the first chapter has had a lot in it that I have been thinking about. In particular, the idea of suffering and comfort in verses 3 through 7. I'll write it out for those who don't want to go search out a Bible. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are af

I'm not sure how much I have for you from this week, but I'll give it try. Re-entry from our vacation really threw us off our stride this week. It took us a good two days to settle back down into our groove. It was a great vacation, so I'm not sure why that is. Maybe it was spending time in a place that we've been going to for years and coming home to a place that still feels very new. I don't know. I know everyone is saying it, but the weather is crazy. I do not enjoy low 90's in mid-September. Olive is still growing. I know I mention this every week, but my goodness, it is extraordinary. Want to see? First, here is Olive's puppy picture from the breeder, right before A. went to pick her up. She's so tiny, she fits right in the person's hand. Here is the picture A. took two days ago, copying this pose. I don't know about you, but I find this hilarious. I particularly like Olive's expression in the second one. J. is rea

As you know we have a couple of dogs, and more than a couple of children, and an entire second floor of brand new carpet. I will admit to the combination making me a wee bit paranoid. Especially when, first thing in the morning, you hear your dog making a certain noise. A noise which says ugly, horrible things are soon going be spewed upon your new carpet. A noise which causes you to leap out of bed and across the room at a rate that would make a fire fighter proud. This is how I was awoken yesterday morning. I hear the sound. I leap into action, dragging the dog into the bathroom and onto the easily cleanable laminate flooring. I think I have made it all in time only to look behind me and see that the spewing was actually happening as I was dragging. It's not pretty. In fact it's a two foot long swath of yellow ugliness on my new carpet. Bad words were not said because a small child happened to be in the room at the time. I know I need to do something about it soon, or all h

The younger people have been going through a spurt of watching all of our large family movies. You know the ones... Cheaper by the Dozen; Yours, Mine, and Ours (both old and new), that sort of thing. I have been amused by their reactions. They have absolutely loved them. I would say it's because they enjoy watching movies about families that are similar to their own, but I'm not sure that's it. I think it's just because they're funny. I say that because, they have also mentioned more than once that we should have as many children as they do in those movies. Basic counting evidently needs to be added back into the curriculum, because at the time they were watching Cheaper by the Dozen, the one about the family with 12 children. Like ours. They all seemed surprised when I pointed out that movie family had the same number of people that ours does. It just goes to show what I've been saying all along. Being a part of a large family really doesn't feel any di

We got back last night from a long weekend out of town, up at J's aunt and uncle's place in Michigan. Unlike past years, when we've gone in July and had atrociously cold and wet weather, this year in September, we had terrific beach weather all four days. Go figure. Our days at the beach house have a certain rhythm to them. Often after people wake up and find food, many of them head down to the beach if it is sunny. L. G. Y. and TM Olive, who liked to dig in the sand. Kenzie, who did not like the water. Olive and A. Y. L. and G. R. H., with A. and P. in the background TM and Y. K. D. G. and J. Then it is time to head back up to the house for lunch. After lunch, we either spend some time resting... R. D. Y., working to figure out Rummikub Kenzie L. G. K. and G. L. Other days we go and do things, such as head down to the outlet... TM, posing with a