In a Shoe Parenting Tip

When your shoe overflows with kids, you find yourself with not enough time to do all the things you need to do.

Teens need to tell you the latest drama in the Youth Group and they need a ride and a poster board. Toddlers run their head into the kitchen table and cry and do it again an hour later and they need a drink every 12 minutes on the hour.

As I answer all these demands I glimpse my house out of the corner of my eye and it needs me too.

So here's my advise if you're raising a large group of kids.

Water the kids and forget the plants.

P.E. 101

Grace and AnnaClaire are under an umbrella school in Maryland so that when we finish homeschooling their high school years, they'll have a Maryland high school diploma. We really like it. It not only gives them the diploma, but I like the support and oversight during these years.
The only problem for us is the P.E. credit. The girls have to have 120 credit hours over the 4 years of high school.
Seems easy enough.
Not for Grace and Anna. They aren't exactly what you would call athletic. We tried soccer - they hated it. The only thing they liked was the t-shirt and the bag for carrying all their equipment. Mostly they stood around watching the ball go up and down the field.

We tried cheer leading. They loved the outfits! They loved putting their hair in pony tails. Other than that, they mostly complained.

So this year they picked swim clinic. They do like to swim, but more than that, they love the coach, Ms. Pam. Anna doesn't really know any of the strokes, but is learning. Grace can barely keep up with the rigorous work out (kidney failure tends to do that), but they love it. Not just the swim caps or the goggles, they really love the clinic.

My little athletes!

In the picture, the girls are the two on the far left, biting their nails.

In a Shoe Cleaning Tip

Having lots of kids is both good and bad when it comes to cleaning.

Bad: Lots of kids = lots of mess.

Good: Lots of kids = more you can make help clean up the mess. Sing with me..."clean-up, clean-up, eveybody..."

And here's my cleaning tip of the day:

Host a baby shower at your home once a month. This will force you to clean all those hard to reach places in your house. Like the kitchen sink and the counter top and the floor.

Okay, so maybe they're not hard to reach, but who really wants to.

Pictures of my clean house and Lane's baby shower to follow.

Your Breaking My Heart

It's not been the best day.

I took our foster kids on their first visit with their biological mom since they've been here. Mom has voluntarily given up her rights, so I wasn't really understanding why we were doing visits but delivered them as I was asked.
The girls were happy to see her, but the little guy cried hard when I left....I assume he had forgotten her. (I felt so sad for the mom).

An hour later when I picked them up, I heard the oldest crying even before I saw them. She was devastated to leave her mom. Her face was swollen and red and she was heartbroken. She cried most of the way home and I had nothing I could say to comfort her. Her mom wasn't working to get her back. The middle girl never cried. She was angry. She kicked, she screamed she disobeyed. It was horrible and I knew that her grief was all wrapped inside her furry. The little guy was clingy the rest of the afternoon as he always is when he's unsure of what's going on.

When we got home the social worker called to see how the kids were. We agreed that in this case seeing their mom would only make the healing take longer.

This world stinks sometimes.

A Little Confused

Our three new kids have had to learn a lot all at once. All the rules of a new house and all the new stuff about Jesus and God.
We had this conversation today while driving the older girls to swim clinic.
"Mom, Malyia took her arms out of the seat belt."
"Malyia, put your arms back under the belt."
"Why?"
"Cause it's very dangerous and if we got in an accident you could die."
"Would I die on the car for you Mom?"
"No Malyia, this isn't about Jesus on the cross, this is you not wearing your seat belt right, now put your arms back in."
"Okay Mommy"

Go Away You Scare Me

Yesterday afternoon I looked up and saw a bat hanging from the ceiling of the front porch.
I have no idea why he choose to be there in broad day light - maybe he was lost or maybe he just wanted to creep me out for the fun of it.
UGLY!!!

Pleasant Distractions

It's been a much easier to homeschool since the two little girls have started pre-school a few mornings a week. They were very excited to get their book bags and set off into their own world.

The youngest has informed us her teacher's name is "doodle"....not Miss doodle, just doodle.

So things are quieter. A little quieter.

However, the too young for pre-school guy is still at home with us and he's ready for action!