First Day of School

It went well! We will add in a few more subjects as the week goes on, but this was a nice start.

Tagged - How I am Feeling

My friend Heather tagged me. I am supposed to share 6 words to describe my feelings. Okay, I'll try! But like you, Heather, it might take a few more than 6 words!

1. Dirty - Our hot water heater isn't working. I'd really like a shower. Hey...you asked!

2. Excited - We start a new school year in a week. I just pulled copies of activities we will need for week #1. I also hung the big wall map. On day one the girls will have their pictures made and apply for their pretend passports. I hope they enjoy this curriculum...I think it looks great!

3. Frustrated - Goes back to the no hot water thing. And is it just me or do a lot of my posts deal with something being broken around here?

4. Loved - A long weekend with my husband was just what I needed after a pretty hard week last week.

5. Relieved - Betsie is sleeping pretty well in her big girl bed. The transition from the crib to the toddler bed was a bit of a nightmare. I was dreading the move to the real bed. But she has slept pretty well the last few nights and I am SO relieved! As much as I love the little darling, come bed time, I really want to say nighty night and not see her again until the next morning. (Now if she could just figure out part 2 of potty training.)

6. Nervous - I really want to have a good school year with my girls this year. Last year was such a challenge. If the first few weeks go well, it would be SO encouraging to me. So I am a little nervous, but at least I am sure that the girls are where they belong for another year. (Prayed pretty hard about it for this school year...wasn't so sure there for a while) So if you think of us next week, we'd be thankful for any prayers for our first week!

*update: We have hot water! Got it last night around 7pm and didn't even have to replace the hot water heater...although that happening soon is a real possibility since ours has outlived its life expectancy. But we're all squeaky clean! Yippee!

No Camera=No Blog

Seems like everything I want to blog about needs a photo. I'm realizing that without pictures, my blog is pretty bland! Sorry! Hopefully I'll have that remedied soon.

Two Years!

This is the little one we met in China two years ago today. These photos were made in her home province (Hunan) just 5 days after we became her parents. She had been going through the attachment process pretty well and was comfortable with Jason and me but not others. During the photo session, there were about three people trying to get her to smile by shaking rattles in her face and making goofy noises, etc. She started to cry instead of smile. Jason couldn't take it anymore. He scooped her up and told everybody to leave his baby alone. (They couldn't understand his words but I think they understood that he didn't want her upset anymore.)

We did end up with some beautiful pictures and I got a glimpse of how much my husband loved his new little one and just wanted to take care of her. He wanted her to know she was always safe when he was around.

I can't believe it's been two years. I am so thankful to have my little Ying Hong. Happy Gotta Day, little one! And Happy Gotcha Day to Caroline, Julia, Mikayla, Abbie, and Hannah...oh and your moms and dads too.

Back to School? Already?

It seems like summer just began, but we start school in just a little over 2 weeks. It is SO HOT here that we might as well do a morning of school work and then SWIM in the afternoons. I have been coloring boundary maps for a geography game and I need to have our new wall map laminated. And if you notice Wal-Mart's big school supply sale, let me know! I like to have all that ready when we start if possible.

I am a little nervous about starting a new curriculum. It feels like moving to a new town. I am excited but it will be very different than what we have done before. One of the books I am excited about using with My Father's World is called Window on the World. It is just the sort of thing that Jason loves so I might save it for him for family devotion time if he wants to use it. A couple of times a week, we'll read about a certain people group around the world, look at the photos in the book, find where they live on the map, and pray for them. (Specific prayer requests are listed in the book for that group.) Jason and I were saying last night that we don't want this to just be an assignment. We want to approach this resource with the excitement and faith that God will hear our prayers for those people and that maybe one day we will see the fruit of that in Heaven.

Dead Camera Battery

Well, I really wanted to show you pictures of the newly decorated big girls room. However, my camera battery died and something is wrong with the charger...so no pictures. Bummer. I vaguely remember getting the charger wet so I am guessing this is my fault.

I was going to post pictures of their cute new bunk beds and hardwood floors.

Two years ago we moved Mary in with Rachel and the poor child has been sleeping in a trundle bed all that time. She thought that was just fine, but I am glad she is in a real bed now. She has the bottom bunk because her dog sleeps with her. And Rachel likes having her own little space that the dog and the little sisters can't really get to very easily.

Jason worked so hard to rip the carpet out of the room before we picked up the beds (we found them on Craigslist) and I must say he did a nice job. I have ordered a rug that will hopefully cut down on the echo factor. Imagine three loud girls and their squeals bouncing off the walls.

Since I can't show you any pics of their room, how bout a pic of their rug from the rug website?

Yep...hopefully I'll get that battery charged soon...

School Supplies!

Jason thinks I am weird for enjoying new school supplies and storage containers and that sort of thing. He's never actually called me weird (over this anyway)...he just doesn't get it. But I know for a fact that other homeschool moms understand!

So next year we will be making geography vocabulary word cards. The teacher's manual suggests writing the word and definition on an index card, illustrating, and filing in a card file box...then of course reviewing often. But at Wal-Mart today I found these nifty little notebooks for index cards. They already have 50 index cards in them and you can buy refill packs with the holes of course punched in just the right place. So I bought one for each of my two students. Yippee!

The first assignment will be to decorate an index card and then slip it into the little sleeve for the cover. That's right, the fun here never ends.

Betsie and the Blocks

This is a lame attempt at keeping my blog current. Betsie and I played with blocks yesterday and I took some pictures so I'd have something to put here. Maybe when our new school year starts back, I will have more to say!

Our building...which she called a grocery store, Mimi's house, and a church at different times as we were building it.

No, we haven't perfected the art of sitting in a lady like manner just yet.

Time to knock it down!

Re-entry sure is hard

I mentioned that Jason and I went to a marriage conference last weekend. We drove down to Florida and had two nights in a beautiful St. Augustine resort while attending the conference. Saturday night is the scheduled date night. We drove into St. Augustine and walked around in the shops, had dinner at one of those really cool hole-in-the-wall but yummy restaurants, and just enjoyed being together.



The conference itself was wonderful. It was a Family Life Weekend to Remember event. We attended one about 8 years ago. Both times were good but this one was more intense for us. I won't share details here, but I'll just say it was needed and very valuable for us. I highly recommend it for ANY married couple, no matter how long you have been married and no matter the condition of your marriage. I have wanted to blog about it, but I have decided that it was just too personal and I want to keep it between my beloved and myself. Anything I would feel comfortable sharing can be found on the Family Life website...great speakers, names of sessions, etc.



We got home around 9:00PM on Sunday night. We came home to our sweet, sweet girls and were so happy to see them. But the older two had sunburns and Rachel was running a fever. She continued to be sick until Tuesday night. Betsie was clingy and whiney and needed a day or so to re-attach to us. Mary Evelyn was so sweet and gave us a welcome home picture she had made and some applejacks (she said she knew the drive would make us hungry...LOL!), but by Monday morning we were battling a bit. Mary Evelyn was not remembering what it means to honor us as her parents and I confess it was pretty hard to keep my cool a few times. By Tuesday night I decided she and I needed to do something fun together. So I took her to a movie and things have been a lot better since. (not perfect, but better) By the way, I loved Kung Fu Panda...and I am not always a kid movie fan!



Rachel is better but now I am sick. Jason was sweet enough to make sure everyone had breakfast and was settled before he went to work this morning. Plus he made me some hot tea to soothe my raw throat before he left. I do love that man! I think I just have a cold, but colds seem to feel worse the older I get so I am resting a lot...at least until we have to be at swimming lessons this afternoon.



So we are back in the trenches but trying to apply the lessons learned and the old reminders we were given this weekend. I am thankful for the time we had together, for a husband who initiated the whole trip because he is committed to our oneness, and for parents who are willing babysitters. And I am thankful that God is with us in real life.

To All My Five in a Row Friends

(Warning: Those of you who have never been involved in an online community may find this post odd.)

Thank you so much for your encouraging words both on the boards and in private emails or notes when I said I was leaving the boards. It's just time. I have been using FIAR and it's boards since 2002 (I think.) and have come to care deeply about the people I have met there. A few close real life friendships have resulted from my time there and I feel so blessed by that. And some of you have become very good email friends as well. I'm glad to know that I can still communicate with you outside of the forums.

A few things led to me deciding to post my "good bye." The first is obviously that we will be using My Father's World as our core curriculum beginning in a month. And I know Steve and Jane did not establish the FIAR boards for people who use other curricula. Those boards are about so much more than homeschool curriculum so it's hard to leave, but I think it would be wrong to stay. True...I might use Before FIAR with Betsie here and there, but that will not be the main focus of our homeschool so I feel I need to step back. However, I will be watching to see which Fold-and-Learns are released for Before and I hope to use a few of them with my tiny little student.

Even though I might use Before FIAR sometimes, I still chose to leave because those forums are such a draw for me and I want to be online less when we start our new school year in a month. David Hazell of My Father's World suggests that your children receive your undivided attention in the mornings. I know if I did that, we would accomplish a whole lot more. So I want to stay off the computer on school days at least until after lunch. Posting a goodbye thread was a way to make myself stay off those forums in order to accomplish more at home.

Jason and I attended a Family Life Weekend to Remember conference last weekend. And I really just feel the need to give more of my time to my husband and our girls. I'll still be online, but I need to be online less.

Thank you again for your sweet words. You are a blessing to me and I have learned so much from you. I will forever be grateful for your kindnesses to me when we were adopting. You prayed and rejoiced and even helped me decide what to name her! I remember logging in to FIAR from our hotel room in Changsha (see how strong that draw is!) and seeing a post titled "Jen has Betsie!" with lots of happy tears and hopping icons and so many rejoicing over our special gift. You have no idea what that meant to me. And then when I got sick with mono just weeks after coming home, I received get well cards in my mailbox and even some muffins and fruit on my doorstep from one of those real life buddies. You gals are amazing. And those are just a few samples of how you have blessed me.

So be sure to check in here and be sure that I will be checking your blogs too. I don't want to lose YOU. I just need to be off the forums.

Praying you all have a great summer full of sweet memories with your families.
Love,
Jen

Some Updates

There have been so many reasons to blog in the last week and a half. I wish I had not missed them all!

• House fever is not gone but it is not spiking either. We have decided to wait until after tax season next year before there is a "for sale" sign in our front yard. In the mean time, we have made an enormous to do list to get this house ready to sell. The previous owners put carpet over hardwood flooring down the hall and in the bedrooms. We have been rough on the carpet so it will need to be replaced. However, Jason is thinking of ripping up the carpet and refinishing the hardwoods instead. Crazy, crazy...but way nicer for showing the house.
• Mary Evelyn turned 8! Shame on me for not doing a birthday post for her. Sigh... We had a little mini celebration with my friend Hollie and her guys on her birthday. Then Hollie (being the servant kind of gal that she is) drove the big girls to the movie theater to meet my dad so they could see Prince Caspian. My dad says he still hasn't seen the movie because they sat on the front row and he kept his eyes closed. He says it sounded like a good movie though! Then the girls spent the night with my parents...including little Miss Betsie. The next night we celebrated with Jason's parents.
• The above mentioned night at Mom and Dad's was Betsie's first night away from us...she was not a good sleeper unfortunately. But she told my mom, "I yuv you, Mimi." so I think she was forgiven.
• While the girls were with my parents, Jason and I used a gift certificate to a lovely local Bed & Breakfast. So, so nice. Our 15th anniversary was the day before Mary Evelyn's birthday so it was a special getaway for us. Did I mention that about 2 months ago Jason surprised me with a new van (Odyssey...woo hoo!) for my early anniversary gift? Pretty cool. He got an ipod nano. So come the big day, we were broke and just had to be sweet and skip the gifts.
• I painted my master bathroom. It's lovely. I might have to start a new blog category showing before and after pictures with all the projects we have planned.
• I got excited when David Cook won American Idol.
• Then I was broken hearted just an hour later to learn that Maria Chapman, daughter of Steven Curtis Chapman, was killed in a terrible accident. I have been grieving for them since Wednesday night and praying for them constantly. I just received a prayer email asking for prayers for wisdom about when they should return home. They have been staying with friends since the accident. Please pray for the Chapmans.
• We are almost done with school for this year and excited about our short break until mid-July when we'll start back up.

House Fever

Yep, we've got it. Don't know where it came from, but we've been looking. Now that doesn't mean we're moving. Or maybe it does. But my van sure does have some extra miles on it from riding all over town looking at homes we've found online. We've ruled out several neighborhoods but found a few we like.

We have a lovely home, but we feel a bit crowded much of the time. We bought it back when we thought 2 kids and 1 dog would be it for us. As you know, we have added one of each since then. We are content to stay here though and we just might do that. But the thought of a tub in the master bath sure is tempting. Jason wants a more private yard.

I'll keep you posted, but here's a peek at one that we are seriously considering. Of course the sellers will probably seriously laugh at our offer. I'll keep you posted!

MyPoints

Do you know about My Points? I have been a member for several years and have received quite a few gift cards to places like Starbucks, Target, Barnes and Noble, etc. Basically, you go to www.mypoints.com and sign up. They send you emails with little offers for special deals. You get 5 points for reading the offer and more for taking up the offer (which I pretty much never do). You can also get points when you shop online. They also have other ways to earn points on their website. After you accumulate enough points you can redeem them for gift cards. It really does work!

Anyway, if that sounds like something you'd be interested in, let me know. I'd like to go through their site and refer you so I can get more points. I could give them your email and not tell you but I wouldn't want you to be mad at me. So if you decide to sign up, please let me refer you first. You do get emails most every day but you don't have to spend any money unless you want to. You still can earn gift cards...just for clicking emails.

Just thought I'd share!

Jen

I'm Still Around

Well, I do still exist, but apparently just don't blog much anymore. I'll have to work on that. Now that tax season is over and Jason isn't working at night, I guess I'm hanging out with him and not spending as much time at the computer desk in the evenings!

Here's a little of what has been going on:

• We've been planning trips! Jason and I have a Family Life Marriage Conference coming up (Weekend to Remember). We are going out of town for that. Also, we received a gift certificate for a night at a local B&B so we will be spending a night there soon for our 15th wedding anniversary. In a few months we are planning a family vacation to the Creation Museum and lots of other attractions in the area. So nailing down details for all of that has been fun.
• Foster: He came to us with kennel cough so we have been dealing with that and just adjusting to a new pup in the house.
• Mother's Day! We only got to see Jason's mom very briefly but we had dinner with my mom and dad Saturday night. My sister and her family were there as well.
• School: About 3 more weeks to go. I am still very excited about our plans for next year.
• Betsie: potty training...good days and not so good days. Also, if you've read my blog for a while you know she was a climber and had a crib tent to keep her in. We took that off and lowered her crib rails so that it's sort of like a toddler bed. She is staying put so that is a good thing.

Not sure what else to tell you...we've been watching way too much TV for people who get no channels. Netflix is a good thing. Then there are the swimming lessons we have twice a week and the very cool lake with walking trails we found just a couple of miles from here. So we are enjoying the spring and being together. I am so thankful to have Jason around a little more at this time of year. I hope you are enjoying your spring time too.

Mary Evelyn's Early Birthday Gift

She got to pick out a pooch at the Humane Society. (although I said no to her first few choices for a variety of reasons.) Meet Foster. He just turned one year old and seems to be a terrier/lab mix. Mary Evelyn ADORES him. He is very friendly but needs lots of training. Rose keeps barking but Foster just stands there and looks at her like she is crazy. Maybe Jason and I are the crazy ones!

I am not crazy about his name. Jason and I had a dog pre-kids named Foster and I loved it for that dog...that and this dog has had about 4 names today. I insisted that the name he had at bedtime tonight was the final answer...so I guess we have Foster Jr. Sweet pooch though.