Ordinary Time

This is actually effort number two to write about National Adoption Month.  My first effort was a satire about why people shouldn't adopt which J., my editor-in-chief, deemed perhaps too biting for my blog.  He likened it to inviting a group of friends into my living room and then slicing them open with a scalpel.  It's not a pretty image.  Consequently, you won't be reading my biting satire as that is not the way I like to treat my guests. The impetus to the writing of the satire was born out of frustration.  Frustration over why more people don't choose to adopt.  Frustration over others thinking that J. and I must be some sort of super-parents in order to parent the children we do.  Frustration that money is so often the reason cited for not adopting... the adoption fees are seen as too expensive, raising another child is too expensive, and the number one reason I hear most:  We can't afford to send one more child to college, as if those...

TM felt under the weather yesterday.  He spent most of the day curled up on a couch or a chair.  For a boy who usually bounces (he once did an entire math lesson while jumping on one foot), this is highly unusual.  While I do not enjoy seeing my children not feel well, I am grateful that I can use that time to show a little extra love and care to the sick child.  (And for a child who is still healing from previous losses, this is an added bonus.) When I look back on my own childhood, I realize that I have wonderful memories of being sick.  It wasn't that I enjoyed not feeling well (I distinctly remember not liking that), but I loved the feeling of being cared for... my mother coming in and straightening up my bed, reading me stories, bringing me small snacks and drinks, and providing a little bell so I could call her if needed.  I loved that.  I loved the cosy, warm feeling that it created. I try to create the same feelings for my ow...

I've been nominated in the Homeschool Blog Awards for 'Best Homeschool Mom' blog.  Thank you to whoever nominated me.  It's a huge list of some really great blogs so I feel I am in good company.  But here's my shameless plug:  There are prizes involved and the prizes are mostly books.  Books, people!  So, if you feel so inclined, go vote for my blog.  Here's the link .  Because you all know I need more books. Like a hole in the head.

Once upon a time there was a husband and a wife.  They were very happy.  Because there was only two of them, they used a little frying pan and ate very well. Then some children came along.  They were still very happy, but had to use a bigger frying pan to feed everyone. Yet more children joined the growing family and even the large frying pan became too small.  A bigger one must be found in order for everyone to have enough food.  The not-so-little family now eats well again and are happy with their very large frying pan.  And they lived happily ever after.  (Except they still can't have risotto because even the very large frying pan can't hold enough to feed all 11 of them.) ... which is why I became so excited while idly thumbing through one of the masses of catalogues arriving at our home when I saw the 20 inch frying pan.  (Go ahead, get out a ruler and see how big that is.  The largest frying pan above is a mere 14 inches.)  I co...

This is what I made for dinner last night.  It was super yummy, not too difficult, and healthy.  Since it had all these things going for it, I thought I'd share it with you. The recipe is originally from the Everyday Food magazine, though I have changed it a little bit and made the amounts more suitable for a family my size.  Consequently, it now makes a lot, but because it is just vegetables, broth and wine it should freeze quite nicely.  So go ahead and make the full amount and have a couple extra meals on hand in the freezer. First, roast the vegetables.  The most time consuming part of this is the chopping.  I suggest doing it early in the day and then everything will be ready to throw the soup together right before you eat.  You'll need: 2 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into ~1-2 inch dice 3 lb small, new red potatoes, scrubbed and cut in half 3-4 red onions, peeled and quartered 2 pounds carrots, peeled and cut into ...

One of our yearly family traditions is to fill several shoe boxes to send to Operation Christmas Child .  I collect small things as I find them throughout the year, and then in early November, we all troop to down to the local dollar store to fill the rest of the boxes up.  Our children have always loved picking things out for a child who is close to them in age and trying to imagine what that child would like to receive.  We have even been fortunate enough to have one mother (from Uganda) write us back telling us how much the gift meant to her son.  She even sent a picture.  The benefits for everyone really do outweigh the overwhelming-ness of taking nine children together to the store to let them browse.  (Though it does make me realize that perhaps I need to start taking K. more places to give him some more practice in proper store etiquette.  But I digress... ) One idea that I've seen in several places is the idea of hand making some of the ...

For the past couple of days I have felt as though I have spent far too long on the computer.  No, not because I've been spending hours surfing blogs or catching up on the latest facebook news (as if!), but doing actual work-type stuff that had to be done.  As well as taking care of little odds and ends that had piled up, I also wrote an article that will be coming out soon (I'll let you know) and I made M. a high school transcript.  She is in the midst of applying to colleges and it was becoming somewhat important that I stop putting it off. In the end, it was not as horrible to make as I had expected it to be.  I knew what she had done, it was just a matter of organizing it into more traditional sounding classes that could be understood by college administrators.  I still need to write a course description sheet in case it is asked for, but that should be fairly straight forward.  After spending nearly four years mildly fretting that M. wasn't doing enou...