Sunday Snapshot

Wow. It's been almost three weeks since my last post. A LOT has happened here at The Gang's House. I figured posting a pictorial tour of the last 17 days would be a waaaay more interesting way to catch us all up. I say "us" cuz I feel like I need a good reminder of just what I've been headlong into before my memories fade! So, buckle up and here we go...

Li'l Empress has, for several months now,

told us repeatedly that she wants to be

a piggie when she grows up.

Imagine her delight when these cute

p.j.'s came out of the summer clothes bin.

Oh, and check out the 'tude - hands on the hip

is the new "thing" around here.

I let it slide when she's just being funny or sassy.

We enjoyed our traditional Memorial Day weekend

with my "best friend since kindergarten" and her family.

Well, minus her oldest daughter,

whose presence was sorely missed.

Li'l Empress needed a bit of coaxing for the first

swim of the season. It was a tad chilly at first, but

warmed up nicely by Monday.

The weather was perfect for all the grilling and swimming.

My sweet friend also blessed me by filling

my porch planters. And now, every time I look

out onto my porch, I see all this beauty

and think immediately of her.

Everyone should have a friend as steadfast

and deeply beautiful as Stacey.

Shaggy purchased his first car!

A peppy little '89 Honda Accord LXi.

It's a five-speed, which he will have to learn to drive,

but it's going to be a great first car for him.

I'm so proud of him - every single penny came from

his own savings. He's a hard worker and very frugal, to boot.

Always happy to indulge her little sister's cute

pre-occupation with piggies, LadyBug made this

curly tail for Li'l Empress. She wore it off and on all day.

My two girls got hit this weekend with a nasty summer cold.

But gosh, even all feverish and drippy and hoarse,

they are still so pretty. Don't you wish you looked

this cute when you felt that cruddy?

Oh. Look. There's the 'tude again!

She followed Daddy up and down the stairs

all afternoon, "hepping him" make the closet

door frame. "Hepping him" hang it.

She's gonna sleep good tonite, after all those trips

from the bathroom to the garage and back again.

All that's left in there is for The Boss to trim it

all out, touch up the paint, and finish the closet door.

I can't wait to start organizing!

There you have it. A not-so-brief summary of the missing weeks.  It's my way of easing back into the discipline of blogging. I so miss it when I don't do it, but the pace around here and the STUFF we've been working through to get to this point has been too draining for me to come up with interesting and witty posts. The good news is that the school year is DONE for Shaggy and Dr. D. Hard-fought, long hours, and lots of essay and project proofing, but DONE. DONE. Can I get an AMEN from my peeps?! They are so excited to have two full weeks of downtime before their younger sibs - I've had to tame the gloating and the ribbing to a dull roar. Especially since I still have to get up to a stupid alarm clock WITH the younger ones!

I'll have to sit down this week and share Dr. D's other great news with you all later. It deserves its own post but I'm waitin' on some details to come together. Suffice it to say, as busy and crazy as the last three weeks have been, there have been some very special moments in it all.

Click on the button below and join in the Sunday Snapshot fun.  It's a great way to kick off the week and to capture some great memories for your gang.  And if you come by here to take the tour, drop me a comment. I love visitors :)

Let The Games Begin!

I don't know about you, but right now, after three days of ridiculous humidity and erratic downpours, my lawn looks more like a jungle. A jungle full of drooping dandelions well past their prime. The kids and I chuckle fondly over The Boss's anxiety when he sees the neighbor open the shed and pull out the mower. Never, not once, in all the years that we've owned a home has The Boss been the first neighbor to boast a fully trimmed and newly-edged lawn to start off the Spring Yard Games. That's what we all say, when we see The Boss twitching and itching in his seat while he watches one of our five closest neighbors beat him to the punch.  We say, "Let the Games Begin!" and laugh evilly.

Not even the advent of teaching Shaggy and Dr. D last year to run the mower has eased The Boss's competitive spirit. He now has fully released the job to Dr. D for a weekly salary but he still shivers when he drives in and out of the driveway, cringing at the dandelions and crabgrass interspersed in the clover and grass. (Interspersed is a gentle term. Think more like invasion of the Huns.)  The thing is, it's a game he'll never win. Never. He works full time, an hour and a half or more of commuting time tacked onto the already 8-9 hour day. Our neighbors, for the most part, are retired and/or teachers. They are home earlier. And more often. So while he is totally frustrated at the inability to compete at their level, he is ever so grateful for Dr. D's skills and effort. He'll be more grateful when he doesn't have to wait till Dr. D is done school for the week to enjoy a freshly mowed lawn, but that's beside the point.

You'll notice that I emphasized that we taught Shaggy and Dr. D to run the mower just last year.  That's because we are self-proclaimed safety freaks. Aaaaaand, before last year, we had a riding mower that worked adequately for The Boss to knock out the job in an hour or so on a Saturday morning and he actually kind of liked the relaxing nature of riding round and round and round in big circles around our fenced-in pool and the house.  Then, the time crunch got crazy and we checked in with the boys to see how they felt about hand-mowing.  I will admit, it took some convincing of The Momma that both boys were ready to take the task as seriously as we both felt it should be taken.  You see, both The Boss and I have heard too many horrible stories of accidents with mowers, too many times...  For example, did you know:

Lawn mower-related injuries account for more than

51% of traumatic amputations among children.

Major limb loss is most commonly caused

by lawn mowers for children under the age of 10.

And that's NOT just for the children who are operating those mowers. It's for the ones caught in the blind spots of operators. Or the ones "just running to retrieve that ball" that they threw too far.  It's horrible. It's tragic, and it's completely preventable.

Please, go HERE and read this post. It's not a game. It's life and death. And it's preventable, with just a few safety measures and standards that are easily adapted to your family.

Creating a Network

In the last two months, Li'l E has undergone several different evals and consultations with an eye toward assisting her hearing in the educational setting. While I'm not a fan of picturing my Li'l E heading off on a big yellow bus for her first day of kindergarten, (sob!) I am well-aware that planning ahead and gathering the information and doing the research is the best thing I can to do for us to make the decisions that we need to make. (More on the forecasts of what is coming down the pike for our girl at a later date...)

So. While I'm studying up on hearing assistance devices, hearing support and speech support therapies and more, I have a few questions for you, my readers:

Are you a mom of a child with hearing loss?

Are you a reader of a blog written by a mom of a child with hearing loss?

Do you have a hearing loss of your own that you talk about on your blog?

I am looking to create a bit of a network with this information. For now, I don't envision anything more than a special list on my sidebar that connects us all together. To learn from each other, to share resources and information. To support and encourage each other in the parenting of these little treasures.  Who knows what might come of it?!

I've already been a long-time reader of 5 Minutes for Mom's excellent sister site, called 5 Minutes for Special Needs. And I've learned a lot, connected with some great folks, and used it as a starting point for other resources that I still enjoy today. But that site is a broad umbrella of all kinds of special needs and I am feeling the desire to hone my focus in the search for connection with other families who are living with varying levels of hearing loss.

If you are in that group, please leave a comment today. If your blog is not accessible via your comment, please consider leaving a link to your blog. If you have any suggestions or resources that are especially helpful for this venture, leave a comment.  I'm not quite sure how else to go about creating this network, I just know I'd really like to take a stab at it.

Sunday Snapshot {for esther}

My heart is breaking for Stefanie and Chris and their beautiful family. The loss of their little Esther is so sad and I can't even begin to imagine how they are all processing it and working through it as they grieve. My Sunday Snapshot is a tribute to sweet little Esther. Her name means "morning star" and is meant to denote a name of beauty pointing the bearer to Yahweh, in worship to the King. I love that Biblical names of the Old Testament did that: point the bearer to the King. Such a beautiful little star, glowing for such a short time but  pointing to the Father in her intricate, unique and fragile life.

So, my friend. These flowers are from my garden. They began the earliest stages of showing their beauty and bloom around the time you received your LOA. And this week, while you mourn and grieve and seek His comfort, they are in fullest bloom and blossom. Stretching their little faces toward their King, bringing glory to His name by pointing their audience to His face. I've never met you in person, sweet Stefanie, but I remember your encouragement and prayer and support in our own, glitchy adoption journey. (Not that what we experienced is even close to your pain. But you were so supportive then.) And so now I stand with you in honoring little Esther's life. And I will stand for you in prayer moving forward.

I Can See Clearly Now....

Last week, I picked up my new glasses. To clarify, I picked up my new READING glasses.  Yup, it's official and I can no longer live in the sweet shadow of denial.  I am getting old. As if the assistance to my eyesight wasn't ENUFF already, my LadyBug turned 12. TWELVE, ya'll. TUH.WELL.VUH. Ugh.

It's NO coincidence at all that the day after my eye doctor kindly and gently informed me that getting dizzy while trying to read AND watch my favorite cop show at the same time was, in fact, a sign of my aging eyes, that I decided to take my aging self to the nearest beauty school (Hey, I'm vain but I'm frugal. VERY frugal.) and get some highlights added in to cover the gray.  Er, I mean white.

Cuz, to add insult to total injury, I am finding out the hard way that red heads don't go gray slowly. Or even fade from red to pale pink. They go white. In stubborn little clumps of wiry, willful strands all around my face.  Highlights help me at least FEEL like they are blending in.

So. I'm freshly highlighted. And be-spectacled when seated at my computer or snuggled up with a book. Please, be kind.

I'm not used to having to account for glare

when smiling a big fake smile for the camera.

And yes, that's a doozy of a sunburn.

Had a third grade field trip to Ellis Island with

Baby BlueEyes on Tuesday. Totally forgot my sunscreen

till I felt the heat tingling. Ugh. That's not gonna help

the aging process, will it?!

Wordless Wednesday

This is how I found Li'l E's lamb the other day.

Stuffed into her toy microwave.

I don't even know what to say about this.

For more Wordless Wednesday fun,

head over to 5 Minutes for Mom and link up!

Sunday Snapshot

I had a full and happy Mother's day. I hope all of you did, too. We got up a little earlier than normal and headed up the highway to worship at my parents' church. On the drive up, Li'l E provided a running commentary of the scenery, of her siblings' antics and behaviors, of the music she was listening to in Shaggy's earbuds, of the other cars traveling along the road with us, and so on. One hour and 25 minutes of almost constant conversation. MOST of it aimed at me - lately every sentence is prefaced by "Mommeeee?" But some of it was worth sharing, notably this little exchange:

"Daddy, look out! Der id a bid, bid mownten in dront od you!"

"Thank you, Li'l E. I'll try not to run right into it."

"Oh. Okay, Daddy. Youw wewcom."

She is SUCH a back-seat driver!

Anyway, here's a couple pics from our day of celebrating my mom,

both for Mother's Day AND her birthday.

Mmmmm, I made an Orange Coconut pound cake

for dessert. Thanks to Betty Crocker and my sister's

tips, this one turned out yummy and tender!

See Shaggy peeking in on the action?

It's really hard to get a serious pose in our family.

He made it up to me with a giant hug and a nice pose.

Rare, but nice. (The pose, not the hugs!)

Apparently, our celebration was exhausting!

All three of them were asleep just like this

within minutes of clearing the table and finishing dessert.

It took some doing (multiple calls to gather,

multiple admonishments to smile nicely,

and multiple "takes" of the same pose), but we did it.

Here is my Gang with my mom.

OH! And look!

The rarest sighting of the whole day!

A real hug AND a real smile with Dr. D.

It may have taken all day to coax the hug

(he's not the biggest fan of all the hugging that happens here!)

and some "naughty" words to prompt the smile

(body functions get him every time - he is a boy, after all!)

but it was totally worth it.

And the PERFECT way to end the day!

Wordless Wednesday

The Reds were on FIYAH last night!

And Baby BlueEyes was blazing hottest of all...

He scored 7 goals in one game!

It must be those hot new cleats.

Black with flames in orange and red and yellow.

And they beat those green kids, 12 to 1...

Yeah, Baby! That's the way to way to do it!

Link up to join the Wordless Wednesday fun.

And if you've come by today,

leave me a comment. I'll be sure to stop by

and visit your WW post, too!

Such a Creative Ministry!

Recently, I found out about a cool new ministry founded by friends from our adoption agency community. I  just love, love, love how creative our God is! Really, you have to do the links and reading on this one. REALLY.

I'm so excited to introduce you to Mark and Kelly Raudenbush  and The Sparrow Fund.  Their desire is to help families prepare for and bring home their Waiting Children. And they have found a way to do it in such a unique way, one that almost ALL parents waiting for a special needs child can really access and make wonderful use of while they wait. Not only are they responsible for starting up the awesome adoption resource site We Are Grafted In, now they are using what they know and what they have experienced in their own journey to their little Lydia and parlaying that into financial support for other waiting families.  

For a really great introduction to the ministry,

go to this post and read Mark's own words

on the start of The Sparrow Fund.

For another great background peek into the hearts

of this couple and what they desire to do to help families

be prepared and be educated about

their Waiting Child's needs, head over here to this post.

What you need to know, is that for the month of May, The Sparrow Fund will be receiving 10% of the profits of over 30 on-line retailers who have partnered with The Sparrow Fund to get it off the ground with a bang. Click on either of the posts highlighted above for a full list of participating retailers.

Additionally, if you think this ministry to waiting parents is as valuable and creative as I think it is, I highly encourage you to grab their button and put it on your sidebar. Or write your own post about the fund. Get the word out. This creative financial support for families in the special needs adoption community is going to help a lot of families for a long time. And I'm so proud to call them my friends.

Sunday Snapshot

This week, we had a couple visitors.

They come every spring.

I try to be hospitable and make them feel welcome.

The Boss feels quite differently than I about our

annual visitors. He's, in fact, quite grouchy, when

he discovers they have arrived.

Meet Harry and Mary.

According to the previous home-owners,

they've been coming here for years.

I'm pretty cool with their annual appearances.

After all, I know how hard it is to find a great vacation spot

that you can count on for consistent quality and customer service.

At least until the cover of the pool comes off.

Once The Boss opens the pool though?

They will have to find somewhere else to sun themselves.

I'm not a big fan of the tips they leave.

For now, the cover of the pool offers all the

brackish, slimy water they could want.

Teeming with little bugs and other microscopic critters.

Mmmmm, no one walks away from a buffet

dinner at The Gang's house still hungry!

It's Not Too Late

at least, it's not too late THIS TIME!

It's been ages and ages since I entered one of the fun contests over at 5 Minutes for Moms. Mostly cuz my computer is so slow and reading up on the many cool things they offer over there ends up taking me so long to do.  But that's EXACTLY why this particular contest looks so perfect for me.

Click on this button and check it out. They are giving away some really great stuff. NOT the least of which is a very sleek, compact, and FAST notebook. (I had to ask my sons: apparently a notebook is no longer a spiral-bound mass of lined paper waiting to be filled with pretty words! It's a little mini-laptop. Who knew?)

Head over for yourself and see the other stuff they are giving away. Maybe you'll get something great out of the partay?

The Rest of the Easter Pics

Not a lot of original quippy things to say to go with the pics, though. I was up laaaaate and loooong last night with Li'l E. She coughed so hard she threw up. Poor thing. We bonded in the steamy hot bathroom after I cleaned her up and calmed her down enough to loosen up her chest. Somehow, she managed to wake up perky and happy at 6:10 a.m. It's 9 a.m. and I'm STILL dragging, even after Shaggy let me sleep in a bit by taking over the other kids' morning routine for me.

But here's the rest of our Easter fun for your viewing pleasure...

"Is this going on the blog?"

Well, just for that, yes!

"Hey, this Easter thing is pretty fun."

All prettied up for church.

Yes, I realize we do have three other children.

But they are boys. And they have recently

developed an aversion to the camera.

And, unfortunately, an affinity for pranking Momma

at the very last second before I click, when I do get them

in the frame. Ugh.

Two of the three tables set up downstairs

for our capacity-crowd Easter buffet!

Hiding with cousin Gawah from the hustle bustle

while we got the buffet up and running.

Thrilled to have my parents with us for the day.

So thankful for the beautiful family they created.

Cutie pie cousins, hangin' out and hammin' it up.

Something tells me these three are gonna

keep us hopping in the years to come!

There you have it. The Gang's Easter wrap-up.

Celebrating the Resurrection of the King of Kings

was made all the sweeter for the great time we all got to

spend together with (most of) those we love.

I say "most of" because I always miss my Massachusetts sister

more than normal when the others are gathered here and

they are absent. It's a rare thing to have all of us

together for more than one holiday a year.

So Loved. Sharing The Love.

My bloggity crush is hosting two really big, special giveaways, to help raise funds to bring home her TWO precious girls from China.  You really need to check out the fun going on over there.

The first give-away is called SO LOVED. You can ready about it by clicking on the adorable button strategically placed here in my post. It'll take you straight there, like some kind of super-duper high speed magical transporter. Give as generously as you can to help bring home little Poppy and Esther to their waiting family.

You automatically get entered with every donation for some pretty sweet prizes.  And even better?  It's an investment in two sweet little girls who need to come home to their Mommy and Daddy. It's an investment in a family that is heeding God's plan  to build their family through special needs adoptions. It's an easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy way to DO the Love Of Jesus. Cuz we're all supposed to be DOING that stuff.

The second give-away is called SHARE THE LOVE.  You can enter that by posting on Facebook and/or your own blog about the SO LOVED give-away. Literally, you will be "sharing the love" by telling others. And if you do that, you can be entered to win some purty stuff.  Click HERE to see what you can win. 

Purty, huh?

So, there ya have it. Some bloggity clicking to keep you busy and to get the word out about cool prizes, a really cool family, and some fun stalking.

Ooops. Did I say that out loud?

And don't forget, when you click there,

tell her The Gang's Momma sent ya.

I Am a Ditter, I Am a Ditter!!!

~ Or, Scenes from Spring Break at The Gang's house ~

Me to LadyBug:  "LadyBug, you should put the book down now and play with your sister."

LadyBug to Me:  "Oh, can I just finish this little bit? I'm almost done, I promise."

Me:  "Okay, but make it quick, she's waiting for you..."

I immediately hear pounding feet racing through the house.  Li'l Empress bounds up to LadyBug and hops up and down in front of her. Poor LadyBug is trying to finish the last three pages of her final book of Spring Break.

Patting her own chest for emphasis, Li'l Empress declares, "I am a ditter! I am a ditter!"

And when LadyBug didn't move quite fast enough to put down that book and play with her "ditter," Li'l Empress leaned in really close and whispered, "LadyBug, I am a ditter. You can play wit me."

When it comes to girl-time with her "big ditter,"

there is NOTHING wrong with that girl's hearing!

Sunday Snapshot

Food. Family. Fun.

It was a busy Easter holiday.

It started early on Saturday, with a little mani-pedi action

for the girls. Getting ready for their Easter finery.

While Daddy was installing curtain rods

and light fixtures.

And leveling floors for vinyl installation.

We colored eggs.

And talked about the Resurrection.

And sin. And new life.

Look closely.

LadyBug does a great job of keeping

Mei Mei on our minds and in our hearts.

Prepping the baskets and leaving them sit empty

just increased the sense of anticipation!

And all that was just Saturday.

I'll do the rest of our holiday fun and festivities

in a follow-up post.

I might even throw in a favorite family recipe for you.

If you ask really pretty.

Right now, I need another cup of coffee.

I have an Easter holiday hang-over.

I haven't eaten that much sugar in a long, long time.

On Raising a Strong Willed Child

I believe I may have mentioned once or twice around here that our Li'l Empress is working hard, daily, to live up the meaning of her Gaelic name - "little fiery one."  She's sassy, spunky, and opinionated. I may worry about a lot of things with this girl o' mine, but self-advocating is not likely going to be one of those things.  Here's just a snippet of the things that have come out of her mouth recently.

This morning, sitting in the right-turn lane at a red light:  "Red mean top."

"Yes, Li'l E. I'm stopped."

When I see it's all clear, I make the right on red.

Which, in my state, is perfectly legal.

From the back seat, "MOMMMMMMMEEEEEE!

You mut top at red. Red mean top!"

~~~~~~~~~~~

When she's trying to make a point and someone interrupts her, 

she screws up her little face and declares, "I not talkin' to YOU."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks to Dr. D, she's now running around the house mumbling

the melody to "Never Gonna Give You Up" 

and then pointing both index fingers at the closest sibling

and yelling in a growly little voice, "Wick Woh'd!"

We're trying to get that one on video, without her knowing we're filming her.

She's a sly one, tho. Always sees that darned camera coming.

~~~~~~~~~~~

When driving to school on a sunny morning, I've taken to pointing out

the newly blooming trees and flowers. The other morning, I pointed out

a purple azalea bush and a pink tree.

 She got a little snippy with me and wouldn't look at the purple bush.

She said, (in a pitch perfect imitation of her tween sister)

"Mooooommmmmeeeee, I DO like pink trees."

Like, "duh, I'm so over purple, MothER."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Every. Single. Time. The Boss and/or I leave the house, she demands to know, 

"Who gonna be in chawg?"

Like she has some first right of refusal or something.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And the "why." Oh, the why.

All of a sudden, literally in a day and night difference, we are in the "why" stage.

One day, Shaggy got wise to it. And played along.

He answered so many of her "why?" questions that he actually

got down to Original Sin.

Yessir. My oldest teaching my youngest about Adam and Eve

choosing to rebel against God by eating an apple.

WHY? Because he could.

Serves her right!