Take a Bite My Little Pretty

James and I have been doing weight watchers on line.
Oh sure, it works. I've lost 11 lbs and he's lost 9.
But that means you can't eat anything. Not anything good.
So my solution is to just not eat. I have to feed the kids, but I sure can't eat much of the food I make them. It's easier to just go hungry.
But James is a food genius. He makes good food that is low in points. And we can eat lots of it.
This is one of the many reasons we've been married for so long. He feeds me.
Here's his latest delicious and low calorie creation.
He even makes it look good on the plate.
Oh yea. James and I just celebrated our 35th anniversary. Others have said sweet things.
Me....I'm about the food.

Look Mom!!

My friend Adela's mom hasn't been feeling good and so Adela has gone to spend some time with her. Her son, who had many pressing social engagements, stayed with us....you know, pre-school halloween party and trick or treating....things too good to miss.
Tonight right before he brushed his teeth, I convinced him to let me pull his very very loose tooth.
He wanted his mom to see how cute he looked.
So here he is Adela.
And thanks for letting us enjoy him this week!!

Saying Goodbye

This year we outwitted all the hundreds of deer that freely roam our backyard and had 3 huge, productive tomato plants.
The taste of that first of the season home-grown delicious tomato - red and juicy - sliced, still slightly warm from the sun...incredible. Every day this summer we picked some..they came a few at a time. I had them every morning for breakfast, sliced on the homemade bread James makes. Every lunch they made my turkey sandwich perfect, and they laid beautifuly on top of our dinner salads each evening. Every bit of summer was captured in each succulent bite.
A few days ago we had a frost warning.
We picked all the tomatos, both red and green.
Here's the last one.
I promise not to take a single bite of the disgusting bland faux tomatos they sell in the store.
Till next summer - goodbye sweet thing. I loved you.

Pumpkin Stuff

Our homeschool group went to the coolest pumpkin farm yesterday in the horse country of Northern Virginia. (read ...only really rich people live there)
It had it all, animals, hayrides, slides, apple cider, petal tractors and pumpkins.
But our kids loved the giant jump on thing best of all.
A chilly day in fall with friends and kids and pumpkins....who needs Christmas?

History Right Before Your Eyes

Our family is using Sonlight in homeschool this year and we're doing Eastern Hemisphere Explorer, (which FiFi is going to be using too when they start back to homeschooling. Yea!)
We really really love it. Although my girls don't love to read, they've enjoyed all the great books we're tearing through.
We're reading "Commodore Perry and the Land of the Shogun" now and the girls are way into Japan. We read about the steamboats going from America to land in Japan and the girls weren't very familiar with them. Just so happens that James Rumsey, the inventor of the steamboat, made his first trial run, right here in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
So you know that means.......field trip!
We were given the key to the museum because it was closed on Monday and we had it all to ourselves. We visited the place on the Potomac where he launched his boat and hiked all over town.








To reward ourselves for learning so much, we had lunch at an authentic Japanese restaurant with the girls promising me they would try something "real Japanessy". Miso soup all around!

Driving home we passed the High School and I was thinking how much nicer it is to learn history the way we were, rather than reading a few paragraphs in a text book.

Homeschooling is the bomb!

Hop In

We have a 12 passanger van - all white. We call it "white boy". As in play that funky music..
We also have a Jeep Wrangler.

I spend a large portion of my life inside the van. It's great. You can take anyone who wants to go with you and it has a huge way back for tons of stuff. But it uses lots of gas and well, you can't be all about your image when you drive it.

Rarely I drive the Jeep. It's too small. Why is it when the mom wants to go somewhere, all the kids scramble for their shoes? My husband can go out ten times in a day and the kids don't even notice. I quietly take the keys out of the box and they're all lined up ready to go.

Yesterday I took Grace and Anna to their swim clinic. Just the three of us, so we took the Jeep.
We ran into Walmart to get a few things. It wasn't until I was rolling the full cart out that I remebered the Jeep has ZERO room in the back for groceries. No problem, we'll pile the groceries in the back seat with one of the girls. My cell phone rings...it's Kelly, she needs picked up from school. No problem, we'll just put bags on everyone's lap. The phone rings again. David's car has broke down and he needs a ride back from the car shop. Now we have 5 people in a 4 person car with 8 bags of Walmart junk.

White Boy looks good on me.

Cousins

Layla gets to stay with us until her mom and dad and new sister come home from the hospital. She doesn't mind staying here and told her mom that she needed to come to Grandma Kate's house, because "Grandma Kate misses me." She's right.
And Kara came up for the weekend to visit with her two kids.
Layla and Scarlett had a wonderful time just being cousins.
And I'm on a grandma high! Lots of kids equal lots of grand kids....sweet!

Lauren

Late last night a little girl joined our family, looking much like her sister Layla.
Her name is Lauren and we fell in love with her in an instant.
Josh and Lane were tired but happy.
Welcome sweet baby.

Counting Contractions

It's starting to feel familiar. Sitting again in a hospital room with a daughter, waiting for a new grandbaby to be born. Lane's baby will be grandchild #12. Each one is as exciting and sweet as the first.
I can't wait to hold and kiss her.
I'll update with pictures as soon as she arrives. I love wireless internet in hospitals!
Oh...no name yet. Josh is still searching for just the right one.

Ready for Launch

After a long 4 day visit, the adoptive family for our little ones feels ready to commit to the kids. I was glad to hear that the attachment issues that we've seen, were evident on the visit. Kids with these problems are difficult to parent, even at an early age and the parents need to know that they can handle it. We recommended that they get training in dealing with RAD kids now, so that they have the best chance of helping her be successful in their family.
The social worker came out yesterday and gave her blessing on their move. The girls were excited to have a forever family and they truly love their new mom and dad. The little guy on the other hand, at two, doesn't have a clue. He did know, from being moved often, that the worker meant something bad was going to happen and cried in terror and clung to me. He will have a hard time with this move....hopefully the last of his life time.
This will be our second- in- a- row good pass off, of our foster kids. I'm happy for them. But my heart is getting as tired of this as my knees.

Loving Fall

Last evening we got an impromptu call from our neighbors inviting us to a campfire. They have a little stone pit that they use for fires, and they drag a bunch of plastic chairs around it for sitting.
There were a couple of bags of stale marshmallows which only the kids ate.
We sat and talked and laughed. Nothing big.
Just the first fall night, cozy in our hoodies, being with our best friends.
Okay - perfect!

Quiet on the Home Front

Our 3 little guys are having a long visit with their perspective new family.
They walked out the door with suitcases and blankets and toothbrushes and car seats.
When the door closed there was this strange thing.
Silence.
It's day two and it's still quiet here.
Last night James and I had a date.
I got an email from their new mom and she said they're having a great time!
Bet it's not quiet there.
I'm still praying.

I AM Watching (sorta)

Everyone with kids does it and if your like me you do it a lot.
You drive kids places...like piano and guitar lessons and soccer and speech club and dance and swim clinic and a million other places that kids have to go and we have to take them.

I'm not complaining. Really.
There's something about sitting for a half hour with nothing whatsoever to do that's appealing.
It means I'm not cleaning or cooking or basically thinking.
I've spent an entire hour waiting on a child and didn't have a single thought. And I liked it.
A complete soccer game has been played not 3 feet from where I've sat in my lawn chair and I didn't see a single moment of it. I looked up and smiled when the moms who were paying attention cheered.

Today I sat in the driveway of Anna's piano teacher's house. I didn't go in because my shirt was actually my pajama top that I never took off although it was 3:30 in the afternoon.
I forgot to bring something to read so for the first time in my life I played the games on my phone.
I didn't know they were so hard. They gave me stress.
And they were all demos, so just when I felt that I wasn't a complete moron, the game would end and then invited me to buy and download the real game.
I didn't. Mostly because I didn't have a clue how to download them.

What do you do when you wait on your kids?

A Plan to Prosper Them

Our 3 new kids have begun the transition to their much prayed for adoptive home.

It was a difficult decision- to let them move on - or adopt them ourselves. I prayed and thought about it so much I didn't know if what I was hearing was from God or my own thoughts. When we laughed and played, I felt like I could keep them - even though I'd be 70 when the youngest graduated. And there were times when I felt all of my 53 years...bending over and picking up dolls and Fisher Price Little People for the one hundredth time that day.
God sent a young couple to us who are madly in love with the kids and willing to take on their special needs and hurts.
I covet your prayers for these kids as they have to move on, once again. No matter how perfect the new mom and dad are, there is loss for them. The little 2 year old guy especially, who hates when I leave the room, let alone leave his life.
I'm trusting God to love them more than I can imagine.