Moving Day

Friday is moving day. Topsy turvy goes the house. Beds here, there, and everywhere. Yahoo. We used to change bedrooms in an afternoon, fueled by the adrenaline of a new placement coming within hours. This time, I put it off for a year.


It is time.


The precipitating event which broke the proverbial camel's back was a wonderful gift of a queen size bed.

We.Are.Blessed.

• Lindsey gets the bed, the top of the heap with all its responsibilities does have distinct advantages. (editor's note: clip art above for effect)
• Jerrod gets the double bed since his six foot frame has been hanging off of a single far too long.
• The girls go downstairs into the big room with Lindsey which will more than likely help along the beginning of the construction of a new bedroom/guestroom for that fancy queen size bed.
• And finally the little ones will move into the girls vacated room, leaving Jerrod and Erik where they are but in a double instead of a triple. Someday they will fix those holes in the wall, right?

In theory this is all good. But moving means dust bunnies must be corralled, clothing organized, and bedding washed.

Times eight?

Are you kidding?

I feel a blog post coming on...

Attitude of Gratitude

Looking back is fun.

I scoffed these from Lindsey's facebook so

she gets some photo credit.

THANKFULNESS

I am working on my attitude of gratitude. So true that the more we concentrate on thankfulness, the lighter the weight of the world becomes.

In July I posted on my facebook:

Jennifer is thankful for potty training (3 in diapers), air conditioning, baby pools, taco salad, baby hugs, happy kids, popsicles, hard-working husband, content teenagers, back rubs, looking back and seeing progress, the greatest commandment.

And last week I posted this list:

Jennifer is thankful for allergy doctors, newborns, friends on the phone, a faithfilled husband, my children's antics, taco salad, a safe (bus) van, books on CD, the sweet kids who bagged my 14 paper bags of groceries, and bedtime.

My prayer is to be thankful always for everything I have because I know that it all comes from God.

I am grateful for:

• 9 beautiful children in my care
• a warm house
• plenty of clean water
• disposable diapers (so shoot me)
• friends to spend holidays with
• plenty of food (feel guilty about this)
• mountains and mist
• sunshine in the morning
• dark meat and stuffing
• quiet relaxing afternoon with 13 kids hanging around
• baby laughter
• photographs
• teenage boys who got up at 4:30am to put the turkey in
• daughter who spent 2 hours in the car to spend 2 hours at home today

The list is endless. Everyday I purpose to pause and reflect on the goodness of God in my life. May my cup always be half full, overflowing with praise and thanksgiving for all He has done.

Early Literacy

Early literacy.

Little did I know.

Check out the pictures,

And my two cents below.

Brothers, reading together.

Never too early to start.

Even colors are exciting.

I think she caught on by watching her brothers.

Two and seventeen sharing a story.

Warms a mother's heart.

I am a reader. I read all the baby books. I heard the experts tell me to read to my kids. I did. Then the others came along....at age 2 and 4 and 5. They missed those early years, filled with neglect and refining of sheer survival skills.

Guess what? Reading is important to later development.

There are things we cannot make up for, cannot change. I grieve that lost part of their childhood, that life and learning are harder for them than they needed to be.

And I read to them now, as much as I can.

Bedtime?

Sometimes, being an older parent pays off.

I mean, do I really need to sweat the small stuff?

Cinderella and The Boys

Jerrod and Erik are in the production of Cinderella

with the local theatre group.

What a ball, literally.

"The Prince is Giving a Ball!"

The magical carriage. Jerrod is the far horse!

Erik is so charming!
An old New England building houses the theatre.

Jerrod and Erik in their finer duds.

We are so proud of them, onstage and offstage.

These sisters wanted to pose with the lovely stepsisters.

On a whim, the girls and I decided to go to the show again this weekend.

What a fun day out together.

Orphans

A glimpse of large family strife.

73 living the single life.

That's all I have to say.

Just Because

No words needed.

Today

BFFs

Outside wannabe!

But oh so cute!

Oh dear. Is that another rabbit?

Apparently they do multiply.

This is Tula.

She is a bunny for Erik.

He is winter rabbit-sitting for Remick.

Deal is courtesy of Farmer Lindsey.

Erik is VERY happy.

Um. Tula is a REX female.

There better not be any funny business.

Meanwhile, later....

Too cute to pass up.

Lindsey snapped this pose.

I love it when they think this stuff up themselves.

I hope your illusions aren't shattered.

I do let my kids watch TV.

Once in awhile.

Thus, the intent glazed over look.

It lasts for about 12 minutes with this crowd.

Then it is back to fun and games!

My Best Friends

My best friends these days are my littles. I love spending time with them. I love seeing them grow and discover new things. With a baby about to turn "21", believe me, I know how fast the time goes. Now that Trey and Micah are talking, it is lots of fun to play together.

Today, it was just the four of us for the afternoon.

All of the sudden, I looked up and here they were.

It took me a minute to ascertain how the baby got into the toy box. Trey helped, of course. They were each busily playing with whatever they landed on. The ultimate parallel play experiment, I would say.

Mommy MUST take a picture of this.

After while, the baby started fussing. The next thing I knew, Trey had gotten the bottle from the counter that I just made and was taking care of business. What an awesome big brother.

Mommy MUST take a picture of that.

After the bottle, we all had a two hour nap.

Yes, even me.

Sneak Peek OR What's On Your Counter

We have had a few birthdays around here. Actually we have one every two weeks through the middle of December. I bought a bunch of cake mixes when they were on sale a few weeks ago. The kids were putting the groceries away and couldn't quite figure that out. Well, the "big" kids don't go on a grocery store date to pick out their own cake and ice cream with Mom anymore. She has a pretty good handle on what they like.

I could only load four pictures. So this is just a tease. I am still (huge sigh) without my MAC and the editor on this laptop has a mind of its own. So I can only give a preview until I figure out a better way to load pictures.

The first November birthday was for Baby R. You saw below what happened on HER birthday. Yep, twins. That is a pretty big gift.

Everyone gets to lick the bowl after beating up the cake mix. R had a learning curve. It didn't take more than one lick for her to catch on.

She grabbed the beater and licked happily away.

I made her twelve cupcakes and a one layer cake. All the one year olds get to have a cupcake of their very own. VERY entertaining for the rest of us. You will have to wait for those photoes.

After I took the above picture, I zoomed out. Look what is on a small section of my kitchen counter which is between the stove and the refrigerator.

Food Processor

Twelve cupcakes on a rack

Nebulizer

Small pumpkin

Bottle top and nipple missing a bottle

Knife set

Steak thawing for dinner

Pedialyte for a kid who was throwing up. Didn't need it.

What a conglomeration of stuff.

Not all of my counters look like that........

Falling

Autumn is not complete without some falling!

Underwater

Did you think I was underwater?

Drowning in my own busy-ness?

Taking on more than humanly possible?

Oh no!

It is way better than that.

TREY

SWIMS

UNDERWATER!

No joke! We have the best swim instructor in the whole wide world. He is patient and kind, yet firm and loving. This accomplishment is exceptionally exciting for me because of how far Trey has come in being around water. He screamed bloody murder for a solid year in the bathtub. I never minded taking him to the beach that first summer because he wouldn't go in the water. Easy peasy. Oh boy, I am in trouble now. Once he got the hang of it at swim lessons, he was diving down and getting toys off the bottom in 3 feet of water.

Again and again and again.

At the tender age of three!

Micah even graduated to being on the "barbell" by himself, kicking his feet and swimming around. He kept saying, "Mommy, me swimming."

I wonder if I delight in these milestones more because of where my kids have come from. Each developmental stepping stone is a gift filled with excitement and awe. We rejoiced when our first three learned how to walk and swim and ride a bike. But perhaps in some ways we took it for granted because we knew they would.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.

When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Psalm 139:14-16

Isn't that amazing?