Monster

He arrived.

This is the dealer photo. He has running boards and a trailer hitch now.

Isn't he handsome ;o)?

I always wondered why any family would drive one.

Now I know :o).

We're just not sure where to park him....

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Multitude Monday

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. ~ Melody Beattie

Even though I wasn't blogging for a bit, I was still counting the gifts God has given:

• singing girls while doing dishes
• timers to help keep my helpers moving
• safety for the boy on his first ever ski trip
• the sound of the Engineer's voice
• doggie footwarmer
• hand lotion
• roof trusses going up
• shingles going on
• safety for our construction crew (one took a fall)
• a kitchen design that we LOVE
• BIG windows for amazing natural light photos. Can hardly wait to try them!
• windows going in
• apple crisp leftovers
• delicious tummy warming soups for kids' lunches
• my fellow GEMS counselors.Oh can we laugh!
• travel vouchers from our 2010 vacation passed on to others who can use them
• a very busy week completed by a restful Sunday
• five girls laughing in the kitchen while baking cut out chocolate chip cookies
• more fresh snow
• neighbours (yes plural) who clean our lane for us when needed
• extremely successful retail therapy
• jeans "made just for me". I DON'T wear jeans (until now).
• birthday excitement
• band aids
• libraries
• post offices
• rice cookers
• successful business trips for the Engineer
• safe travels for the Engineer
• sunshine!
• above freezing temperatures
• washed, dried, folded, and put away window treatments in anticipation of the work to be done in the already existing part of our home.
• organic lavender hand and foot lotion -- heavenly!
• a Saturday away with our family listening to some awesome Christian bands
• new music to listen to and be inspired by
• a clean from top to bottom bathroom
• praying friends (You know who you are)!
• travelling husband meeting precious blogging friend  and her husband for a delicious home cooked dinner (I still would have shared the chocolate pie with you, Annesta :o). Yum!)
• a much anticipated book arriving in the mail
• the nighttime sound of dripping. It means it's almost ten pm and it's still not freezing out
• much anticipation for blogging friends who are flying to the PI as I write (on 02/16/11) to meet their adorable and precious little boy who spends his days playing with our daughters
• excitement for another couple who have after much anticipation flown to the PI to meet and fall deeply in love with their beautiful little girl 
• meals shared with both sets of parents
• freshly falling snow (again). It is so beautiful when the world is a blanket of white!
• laundry days. I love doing laundry!
• freshly laundered flannel sheets
• lavender fabric softener. (The only scented laundry stuff I will use).
• finally finding a second fleecy soft blanket for each of the Wee Three's beds.
• a third (and final) quilt being worked on for a precious little girl.
• suitcases that are starting to be packed (Yes, I'm a little OCD that way).
• phones that work -- even though I want to check it a hundred times a day to make sure it's working
• answering machines to catch the all important call (which has not come yet) in case we aren't home
• email that tells us that we'll be waiting for awhile yet
• an evening reading in our favorite bookstore
• a trip with gramma to pick up 'Monster' who accidentally didn't have his plates yet, so he gets delivered to our door today
• roll up the rim to win. We're hoping for the car :oD. Just kidding!
• coffee beans, freshly ground 
• friends over for a relaxing lunch and some great laughs
• the God given strength of a blogging friend during a time of loss and sorrow. Lifting up prayers!
•  a head injury on our little girl that was only minor

Thanking God for His gifts to me #'s1009 - 1068.

If you'd like to find joy in the everyday, join us at Holy Experience. You'll be glad you did!

Ouch!

This morning while getting ready for church we heard tears -- not the kind when the children fight, but the I'm hurt and frightened kind. Beans came down with her hand covered in blood as well as the back of her head. She and Squirt had been playing (as is very common) instead of getting ready for church and Beans ended up smacking the back of her head on the bunk bed.

Long story short, I took her to the emergency room where she had a fantastic attending nurse and doctor. They both made her smile. She had two staples put in, we stopped at Timmies to get her a lemon raspberry doughnut and were back home again within the hour. It's only now that she's saying that her head hurts a little. I adore our neighbouring small town's emergency room!

Hopefully your Sunday started out a little more quietly than ours :o)!

Book Review Saturday (Edition 6)

I simply CRAVE learning as much as possible about our daughters' birth country. So when I discovered the book Totally Surrounded by Christina Di Stefano Davis, I knew I had to read it!

This book will keep you on the edge as you read this true story of a nineteen year old young woman who loves the Lord so deeply that she leaves all behind to go into the jungle of Philippines for Him. Your heart will be touched by her sensitivity, warmth, and love. Christian's testimony is inspiring to young and old. ~ Quoted from a book review on Christianbook.

I did find it kept me on the edge of my seat. Both the Engineer and Peach read it as well and enjoyed it very much! It was a real blessing to see such a deep abiding faith in a woman so young. Di Stefano also has an uncanny ability to write with lots of foreshadowing -- thus why one is kept on the edge of their seats! It also gave me more of a glimpse into the culture and lifestyle of the Filipino peoples! (What beautiful people they are!!)  I can't wait to read this one to my girls when we're back at the home schooling again! Now if only I can keep it out of Beans's hands or there will be no surprises for her!

If you get the opportunity, read this book! It's a fast, easy and riveting read! What are you reading these days? I'd love to know!

Blessings!

Book Review Saturday (Edition 5)

At the end of January, I ordered the book Large Family Logistics by Kim Brenneman. I expected it to be a moderately sized soft cover book, but when it arrived, I was surprised to find that it's a text book sized hard cover book. It made it a little difficult for me to take everywhere like I do with most of my other books, but I have managed to read it in it's entirety -- well almost, as I skipped the chapter on Pregnancy and Preparing for Baby.

This is another book that I found difficult to get my head around in some areas. Brenneman recommends that the woman manage the finances as this is what the Proverbs 31 woman does. My husband happens to enjoy being in charge of the finances. It is not an added burden for him.

I was also disappointed with how she goes about relaying and setting up her systems. I would have liked to have seen several full week by week detailed schedules written up in order for me to be able to understand how she gets everything done that she does on a daily and weekly basis.

I seem to be a little unusual in that I have never had a problem with keeping up with the laundry, but I am generally clueless when it comes to housework. Although Brenneman has great ideas for keeping up with the laundry, when it comes to her explanations on how to keep up with the housework she has me completely lost. It sounded much to me like she simply gives everything "a lick and a promise" and gets on with the next thing. I'm trying to get past the lick and promise stage.

In the end, I'm saying that I personally was rather disappointed by this book. I would not recommend it for the struggling mom at home.For establishing better cleaning routines and ensuring that your children are involved in helping you keep your home cozy and inviting, I would rather recommend reading Sink Reflections by Marla Ciley, Managers of Their Homes and Managers of Their Chores by Steven and Teri Maxwell. The three of them combined are very helpful in setting up and establishing cleaning routines that work for you and your family.

*** Edited to note: For a completely different review of the same book, read Gina's Review at Home Joys.

Sad Girl | Bad Dog

Poor Squirt is minus a flip flop today. She got this cute pair of flip flops (that I found at the thrift store for $0. 99!! Oh yeah!!) on Valentine's Day that she absolutely loved!

Chilly toes.

Last Friday while we were van shopping, the temperature climbed into the double digits Celsius. So the fact that there was grass mud largely exposed due to our melting mountains of snow, she just HAD to wear her flip flops. (She now had quite the cold. Wonder why?)

Pleased as punch!

They ended up covered in mud and neglected in the bottom of the coat closet. I keep reminding the children to shut the closet doors, but someone forgot (again) and the temptation became to great for one big black dog.

Doesn't he look guilty?

Now we have a sad girl and a bad dog. Good thing she loves him lots because later in the day, she was hugging him and chatting away to him again.

*Sigh* What would the world be like without our pets?!

In God's Timing

I'm back at the blogging. We received news today that our girls' medicals are not until March 21, so we're trying to retrain our thinking from "we could get the call any day" to sometime in April/May. Truth be told, I am getting a little weary of people asking if we have heard anything. I know it's just that they're excited for us, but delay after delay is starting to grate on our nerves. We just want to hold our precious daughters and love on them, but it's all in God's timing -- not ours!

On the upside (because there is always an upside :o))our house will be much closer to being completed before they arrive, we likely won't have negative 15 degrees Celsius, we will have our new (to us) twelve passenger van (lovingly named 'Monster' :oD), and Bub will be able to work March break.

So even though we're disappointed, there is some positive in it. Now if only we can stand another eight to twelve weeks of waiting :oS! We know many of you are keeping us in our prayers. We thank God for you and your prayers!

Blessings!

The Overrated Family Day!

Hi, I'm blogging today. Just wanted to whine about a dumb stat. holiday invented by a  provincial government guy. My hubby doesn't get it off, so we never plan anything. Today, I  finally ripped a computer out of one of my sweet children's hands simply so I could connect with the world outside. However, laundry is almost done, cinnamon buns are rising, I have my last quilt for the one of the Wee Three almost finished and well, my mood is perking up. I still say Family Day is a big joke though. I can think of a much better time of the year to add in an extra stat. How about late June, for example?

Wishing you all a great Family Day, President's Day, and if you don't get this Monday off, don't be sad -- at least you won't be confused the rest of the week about what day it is!

Blessings!

Time for A Blogging Break

I have lots of posts in draft including this week's 1000 Gifts posts, but I just do not have time to fit in any blogging or blog reading right now. I would love to, but there is just too much going on at home right now to enable time for blogging and blog reading right now. No worries, nothing bad, and no we haven't received THE CALL, but I'm feeling like it could be any time now -- and between the reno, the Engineer travelling, and feeling like it could be any time that we get THE CALL, I must focus solely on unfinished projects, and home life for a bit. Know that I will be lifting many of you up in my prayers (you know who you are) and I will certainly blog THE CALL, you can count on that! And I WILL be back. I love blogging and my bloggy friends too much to give this up.

Blessings to you my friends!

Book Review Saturday (Edition 4)

Passionate Housewives Desperate for God by Jennie Chancey and Stacy McDonald.

I have some strong opinions on this book, but they will remain unsaid because I do not want to get on my soap box. My feelings are mixed. I thought Passionate Housewives was going to be more about finding joy in the everyday busyness of full time momming and not about the whole feminist movement. However, there were some times in the book where I could feel a relaxing of my spirit and feeling confident that I am exactly where God wants me to be.

I found the following passage nicely sums up a life at home. Being a full time stay at home mom is not perfect in any sense of the word, but it's good when you know where you're called to be.

"Building a rich and vibrant family culture takes time. It takes initiative and perseverance. There will be seasons when a wife's "culture-building" activities will be dominated by a steady stream of diapers and dirty laundry. Yet we must not miss the significance of these menial tasks -- for they can be compared to the broad brush strokes upon a grand masterpiece.

The home is a place where memories are made, meals are shared, truths are learned, stories are told, and lives are formed and defined. It is a place of industry and usefulness; a place where thousands of cultural expressions are conveyed and where a family's unique flavor and character are cultivated."

The defining light bulb moment for me came in the last chapter, so it was good that I didn't form too strong of opinions on the book and put it down before I  finished reading it in its entirety. In the end, Passionate Housewives Desperate for God has given me -- if nothing else, inspiration to continue to be a keeper at home.

Do They Know Any English?

We get asked often if our little girls know any English. My first answer is always, "I have no idea." Then I follow it quickly by saying, "we think they know a little because the couple that runs their orphanage is American."

I am going on the premise that the girls know a wee bit. Enough to enable us to communicate in the early days as we begin to get acquainted. We have ordered two books on conversational Tagalog and we are working on learning a little ASL (American Sign Language) to help us along as well. Words such as hungry, thirsty, tired, bathroom are some of the important ones we're learning.


I will be homeschooling the girls as recommended by their reviewing physician. (I'm so excited to be homeschooling again that you can envision me doing a happy little jig. I can hardly wait)! The first few weeks will be just a time of getting used to each other and our family routines. I'll be doing lots of interactive playing with the girls. We'll be building towers and houses with Duplo, playing with the farm toys, rocking and feeding our baby dolls, playing with beads, designing with Playdough, painting, and of course, I will be doing lots and lots of reading with them. I'm already looking at using the Sonlight curriculum with them next year. I'm so excited about this!

For this year, I simply gathered up a few books from various different places. We'll work on letters, numbers, colours, shapes, and whatever else I think they will enjoy that will encourage them to learn English and feel confident about learning. Here's some of the stuff I have gathered for school.

Well , the sun is shining brightly here showing me how badly I need to dust! May you all have a day filled with small blessings -- both big and small!

A Wednesday Wander

I, in fact have not gone anywhere, but this post is a bit of a mental meander.

• The big blizzard of 2011 fizzled in comparison to the Snowmaggeddon of less than two months ago. Lots of snow, some wind, but once our neighbour came and plowed our lane, the Engineer tooted off to work in his wee car like he would on any other day. It sure is pretty again though and it has continued to gently snow all day.
• I'm giving my toaster oven a serious workout. I made a HUGE batch of granola yesterday, and cinnamon buns today. On the stove I have a great big pot of bean soup that we dined on for lunch, and in one crock pot is a batch of pumpkin butter, and fajita fixin's are smelling great in the other one. Peach made some bread pudding that is curing? aging? soaking? in the fridge. It will not be ready to bake until tomorrow.
• I power walked three miles today (in my basement). Most days of the week, I only do one or two miles, but at least once a week I like to do three. Now that I'm feeling a little more toned and in shape again, it's time to work the weight training back in. Hopefully with no injuries this time.
• There are piles of messes everywhere right now. I can only get the kids to do so much. The one thing that I have noticed about them being in school that I do NOT like, is how tired they always are. I am really hoping to have all six girls home with me next year. You trade one thing for another I have discovered. They're only young for a season and I really like teaching and learning with my children.(Side note: Squirt has fallen asleep in the chair downstairs. I knew she was tired!!)
• I really need to do some serious housekeeping tomorrow while they're all at school. We have a gentleman from one of the kitchen companies we're considering coming out on Friday to measure up and give us some ideas. We went to their showroom a couple of Saturdays ago, and I was super impressed with their knowledge and service. I really really hope they have a good albeit competitive price for us.
• Now that it is February, I feel like the countdown is on. A sort of nesting
  
  phase has hit. Unfortunately, there is not a single thing I can do until the addition/renovations are done. I'm feeling just a tad squirrely these days. I mostly just want our little girls' room done, but it's a little hard to work in with three car seats, three single beds, a queen bed, two dressers, and multiple boxes filled with clothing, plus some other items laying in wait.
• Speaking of our little girls, I saw some new photos again today on Facebook. I am awed and amazed every time I see new photos of them. It all still seems so surreal! I can only imagine how surreal it will feel when we are winging our way on a 19.5 hour flight to the Philippines.
• I realized this morning that I've only made two blankets for the Wee Three. I better get cracking on the third, since my mental countdown is on. Yikes!
• I've been reading a couple of books on homemaking and being at home full time. Interesting, confusing, sometimes frustrating, but on the whole, I cannot disagree entirely with the authors' thoughts. I'm still mulling my thoughts about the second one, but I'm not done it yet, and if it helps me be a better wife and mother, then it's a very good thing.

Well, there you have it. Thoughts from my wandering brain. Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday!

Blessings!

Bracing for a Big One

The first clue I had that we are expecting more snow was the big road grader on our side road.

Generally the only time we see these machines in this neck of the woods is well, almost never -- because we rarely get enough snow to require their use. However, there is still lots of snow hanging around from Snowmaggedon as it is now affectionately called, so the normal plows can't push it back any further.


Nuff said. :o)

My next clue was Facebook. Generally, I'm blissfully ignorant of the not too concerning things of this world. If I want news that impacts my worldview, I use Twitter. On fb there was blather of canceled appointments, and travel changes. Of course in my out and about errands of the past two days I've heard lots of discussion about the weather, so now I'm up to speed. I even checked the Environment Canada weather. Sounds like another snow day tomorrow. I'm ready. The kids are too. (I hope they don't mind all the jobs I have lined up for them, heheheh). I restocked our milk and hot chocolate supply. There's lots of food in the cupboards and the freezer, and even better, we finally have some sleds for on our snow hills again. I say, "bring it on!!!"

Except, it does mean another delay for the addition. :oS.

How about you? Do you enjoy an unplanned day off on occasion?

Blessings!

Basketball

One thing about Peach and going to school this year. She has embraced athletics. She did cross country and soccer in the fall, volleyball just before Christmas, and more recently basketball. I did no athletics whatsoever until university and then it was the recreational league.

I think partly the reason that she's joined every sport team is that our school is small enough that it's pretty much required that all the students in grade seven and eight participate. Regardless, she quite enjoys it.

Yesterday, was the Christian schools basketball tournament. Our school placed second. Not too hard to do when there's only three schools competing :o). Bub and I were able to stop by and watch one of their games as I had to pick him up after completing his last exam. Peach's team is so cute! Pigtails and purple and white war paint under the eyes. It was a very good game, despite the fact that they were skunked by the opposing team in the end.

We're really not into watching sports, but there's definitely something about watching your own child play that really gets you into the game. Does anyone else watch sports simply because their child is playing?

Blessings!