7 Quick Takes - 7 years with our K!

 

 

Today is my middle son's 7th Birthday!  Happy Birthday K!  We have had such a fun 7 years and I cannot wait to see what God has in store with you!

 



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You arrived early evening, born to my OB's newest CD by KT Tunstall! My best and easiest c-section.  J beamed and lit up when he saw you.  We were all so happy to have you!

 

 

And you were such a good baby.  A good sleeper, a good eater.  You have been our only "chunky monkey". 

 

 

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My little 2 year old.  Your little personality came out. You were friendly and smiled and talked to everyone.  And you always seemed to look like you were modelling in all of your pictures.

 

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Oh, man, those 3 yr old eyes. . . .

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And, your 4 yr old goofiness . . .

 

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Each year you have shown us more of your special heart.  You have a kindness that is so deep and special.  You are always looking out for your brothers and others.

 

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You have a genuine and pure heart for Jesus.

 

 

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Your smile lights up our days.  You are a special young boy, K.  You work so hard and attack all you do with excitement.  We love you so much!

 

 

Happy Birthday!

Seeking Sponsors for the Run for the Little Flowers!

This little guy wants your help!

 

 

This is just a friendly plea (oh, I will have a bunch more of these soon!), the Second Annual Run for the Little Flowers will be on October 19, 2013!  Registration will open next month and I am in need of sponsors for the run.  Right now I am looking for anyone, individual or business, willing to donate an item for the giveaway (see this post from last year for the items we had) or money to help defray the cost of the shirts, postage and medals.  If you cannot help, that is fine, but consider sharing this info on Facebook, Twitter or your blog to get the word out.

 

 

Let's make this fundraiser a success!! 



For more information and to stay up to date on information for the run, like our Facebook page here!

Wordless Wednesday, but not really . . .

Mary, at Better than Eden, wrote a great post about homeschooling and it really made me reflect on our homeschooling journey and the lessons learned.  And, this quote from Albert Einstein sums up my motto for homeschooling . . . .



 

 

 

My job, as my sons' teacher, is to find the genius in each of them and let it shine.  Those gifts, that genius, is different and unique in each, so their schooling will look so different.  And different from the homeschooling family across the street.  And that is OK. Better than OK, really.  That is the way it should be.

A not so quick update on life

I realized that it has been a while since I blogged and I am afraid that this space will lack any meaningful posts for a while.  Life is just full right now.  So, in case anyone cares what is going on with our family, here is a run down . . .

Adoption

We were in a blissful paperwork lull for a while.  That has ended. Last week we had phone calls and multiple emails from our adoption agency and homestudy agency.  We have printed off a 100+ page manual to read and sign multiple papers from our adoption agency and I was greeted this morning with an email from our homestudy with 30+ pages attached to read and sign.  The big checks are due.  We are taking it one day at a time.  And any time I get anxious or stressed about it all, I go straight to prayer.

Praying this awesome novena now!

Homeschool

I made the crazy decision to homeschool all year round.  We did that last year and it was the best decision ever.  The boys are not thrilled right now as most of their friends are finished, but they are good sports.  Right now, things are light. We are doing science and history, reading, and math.  J is done with many of his subjects, so we are doing lots of fun supplements.  Yesterday we made goo and bouncy balls!  I ordered all of their books for "next year" and cannot wait for them to come.  We are switching some things around.  Changing math, again.  I am switching J to a writing curriculum from the Institute for Excellence in Wiritng, which I am excited about.  We still have not gotten J evaluated by an Educational Psychologist and am not sure when we will.  We are in a good streak, so I do not want to disrupt all the good that is going on right now.

Summer Crazies

Swim Team.  The boys have swim practice 4 days a week.  The first day it was so cold, J had to stop because he could not breathe in the water!  It has gotten warmer here, the water has warmed up.  J and K are enjoying it and we are trying to convince A to join the mini-swim team.

My breakfast.  Egg whites with spinach from our garden.

Our Garden. It is growing SO WELL this year.  Our spinach is amazing.  Lettuce, incredible.  The beets are growing well and our sugar snap peas are doing great too. 

Travel. Memorial Day weekend we went to visit my family in NY.  My brother and sister in law were in town from CA.  We had not seen them for 10 years.  It was so great to see them and be with them again.  We also got to visit with a friend of mine from college that is a priest and CFR who lives in Honduras.  Such a full few days, but so wonderful.

 

Work. I cannot believe that this is becoming a topic for me again.  I have not done any work outside of the home since my hubby got his new job 2 years ago.  But God has seen fit to bring me Personal Training and Life Coaching clients without me doing anything.  I forgot how much I loved doing that work.  I also worked my first expo for Run Pretty Far this weekend.  It was busy, tiring, but so much fun.  What isn't fun about being around other women runners and cute running clothes?

I hope I have not bored you all!!  I do have some posts in the works, I only hope that they will make it to the "hit publish" stage.  Have a happy summer y'all!! Know that I am reading all your blogs, just do not have time for long comments!

7 Quick Takes - Lots I want to say, but will keep my mouth shut, for the most part

1.  The Boy Scouts of  America Decision

I could write a whole post on this alone, but I just do not want to right now.  I am saddened by the decision for many reasons.  I have read many comments about the decision on both sides and they anger me.  There is no charity and respect anymore.  I am most distraught by comments made by people who call themselves Christians  . . . if this is how most Chistinas act and speak, no wonder people are leaving churches. 

The only thing I will say that sums up my thoughts on this issue is a quote from the founder of On My Honor.  This is a paraphrase of what he said;  he said that Scouts in not the place for sexuality and politics and activism. And, I totally agree with him.  Scouting should be about fun and camping and character development.

One more thing that I think people did NOT understand is that the former policy already allowed for scouts with same sex attraction (which I have No problem with):

The essence of the difference between the old policy and the proposed new policy is that the old policy prohibits “open and avowed” homosexuality for both BSA youth and adult members but the new policy removes that prohibition for boys and requires every BSA unit to accept “open and avowed” homosexual youth up to 17 years old. Importantly, the current policy already allows for BSA members who have a same-sex attraction but do not act out openly or inappropriately to be in good standing and to earn Scouting’s highest rank of Eagle. This is a critical point that has been obscured by pro-resolution advocates but one which is irrefutable.
 

For more on this go here.

2.  It is going to get quiet around here.

Lots of new things going on in my life.  Between adoption paperwork, working more, swim team starting, homeschooling year round . . .

You get the idea.  I will not be posting much.   I am going to make a switch to wordpress soon and I feel God moving me in a specific direction right now.  I am excited about the changes!

3.  Pool opens this weekend

It currently is 56 outside.  My kids are more than welcome to jump in the pool and risk hypothermia . . . I think I will wait until the POOL WATER TEMPERATURE is about 80!  I feel bad for my boys.  Swim team starts next Tuesday.  It will be cool all weekend, which means my boys will be BLUE by the end of practice!

4.  Waiting . . .

 

I have talked a lot about waiting on God lately and this is how I feel right now!

 

5.  Run Pretty Far is in the house!

 

Yesterday I got a BIG box of the cutest running items from Run Pretty Far!! They are not for me, of course, but to sell at the Zooma Annapolis Expo I will be working at next weekend.  But, I will say this . . . . I now want EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. of RPFs items!! They are adorable!!  I think I may need to buy this one first . . .

 

6. My boys . . .

 

I have three of the most, super awesome boys right now and I would love these two to enter the fray . . .

Seriously, it would take a MIRACLE to get matched with these two cuties.

 

Will you pray along with me for that miracle???

 

 

7. Little Flower Cuteness

 

Pray for little Yi that just arrived at Little Flower Projects.  He was born with Down Syndrome.

 

Have a great weekend everyone!