Adolescence 1

I put a 1 at the end because I'm sure there will be more!

Two adolescents

We have two adolescents in our home right now, a boy and a girl. Our boy is the oldest but as nature dictates, is now shorter than his sister.

He has taken it rather well. We started to prepare him years ago for the fact that his sister will be taller than him-- for a time --then a growth spirt will come and he will be taller again. (He hopes anyway!)

We did however, neglect to prepare for the hairy underarm race. We never thought that our girl would have fur under her arms before her brother but a few weeks ago I had to give her a 'class' on shaving her armpits.

I never thought about the boy's reaction until the other day. He told me, "Her being taller doesn't bother me as much as her having hair under her arms!"

After that he must have been on the look out because, he happily told me later that he can't SEE the hair, but he can PULL it. (Ouch!!)

Now he's sure he can see it. I think it's there too, my eyes are just too old to focus on it. :)

Sharper still!

I previously wrote how sharp my daughter was getting, here's more proof:

The other day the boy stole the girl's bracelet. He came running upstairs with it on his wrist and wanted me to hide it. Being the good mother I am, I said,"Hurry she's coming!"

He gave it to me then hid. She came into the room and asked where he was. Before I could answer, her eagle eyes spotted him.(his foot sticking out from under the bed may have helped)

An interesting conversation then began.

Girl:" Give me my bracelet!"

Boy:"I don't have it!"

Girl: "Where did you put it?!"

Boy:"I'm not telling you!"

Girl:"Mom, where's my bracelet?"

Mom:"I can't tell."

Girl:"Boy, where did you put my bracelet!?"

Boy:"I'm not telling you!"

Not getting anywhere, she pauses.

Girl:"I've got it!"

Boy:"No you don't"

Girl:"Yes I do it's on my wrist!"

Boy:"Mom! Did you give it to her?!"

Mom:"No, but now I have to."

I gave her the bracelet, congratulated her on outwitting her brother, and died laughting.

Her brother took it well and maybe learned a lesson. I'm not sure what that will be. Maybe it will come up in another post.

Doggie Safe????

Last year my brother and his family visited. It had been about 10 years since we had seen the whole family. One of the days we decided to go canoeing. We took our dog with us. He didn't like the water and it took some effort to get him into the canoe. He and my husband were in a canoe and everything was going well.That is until doggie leaned way over the side and it capsized---throwing doggie and hubbie into the water.

My husband took it well but doggie didn't like it one bit! He jumped back into the canoe. By this time the canoe was sitting on the bottom of the stream full of water.It was a hysterical sight to see this big dog standing in the submerged canoe-- very pleased with his achievement. He was 'safe' from the water now--silly dog!

Sometimes we do the same thing. We are in a safe place moving along progressing in life, then we make a decision that totally messes things up. We try to go back but things aren't the same anymore. We sometimes get stuck in that spot.

Our dog was stuck there. He couldn't continue down stream until something changed in his situation. My husband had to get doggie out of the canoe again, empty the canoe, then get doggie back in. It took quite a bit of effort to get them going again.

That's what happens to us also. We make that decision and get stuck. Sometimes we need to clean things up a bit, make a few good choices to continue moving along in life. Continuing the journey is very important.
One amazing thing that came out of that experience is that doggie isn't afraid of water anymore--- Hmmmmm...could that apply to our journey too?

Art and Ouch!

Art can come in many forms. We do a lot of impromptu art at our house. The masterpiece below is what happens when girl with wet socks meets dirty kitchen floor.

She is very talented :) Encouraging my children's artistic ability is a good excuse not to keep my house spotless. Right?

This little blurb is also about my daughter. She is growing up and has lived in a house where good natured teasing is the norm and we all enjoy it. I found out a few weekends ago that she is getting pretty sharp.

We were coming back from a parade on the 4th of July and I had decided to take the long way back. The kids were tired and weren't too happy about it. After I turned onto a different road I told them that it was the scenic route.

My daughter asked if it was a short cut. I told her that scenic routes usually take a little longer.

After a few twists and turns in the road, one of the boys asked if I knew where we were going. (He always thinks I'm lost)

I proudly replied that "I was raised on this scenic route!"

Not missing a beat, my daughter commented, "that must be why it took you so long to grow up!"

OUCH!!!!!!!! SHE GOT ME!!

Choices

I was reading my Bible the other day and came to the part about Jesus's trial. Pilate gave the people two choices, Barabbas, or Jesus?

I was thinking about this and realized that I give my children choices much like this one. Usually one is the one I'm sure they won't want. It's usually awful! Then the second one is the one I want them to choose.

I gave my daughter two choices tonight. It sounded something like,"You can either stop buying clothes or you can make sure the ones you have are in your drawers or hung up." You see I'm pretty sure I know which one she will choose. I think this is a common parent 'trick'. It kind of makes the child want the one you want and is worded a little gentler that the "Do this or else!!!!" strategy that we also use at times.

Well it seems like Pilate wants the people to choose Jesus. The other choice, Barabbas, was a 'notorious prisoner' an insurrectionist who had committed murder. Which one do you think Pilate would rather release? Which one would you want released to live in the world with you?

A robber and murderer? - OR - A gentle healer and miracle worker?

Pilate wasn't expecting the answer he received. Even though he would have picked Jesus, the people picked Barabbas.

Do we always pick the choice that is best for us? Do we let others influence us so that we pick something that we later regret?

Sometimes with God's help our bad choices can turn into something good. Jesus's death and resurrection led to a second chance for Barabbas. It also gives us a second chance. Our bad choices will be forgiven, if we ask for His forgiveness. We must only choose to believe.

Helping out.

The days are getting warmer. We've come out of our shells a little. It's still nice and warm in there!

Today the kids and I helped out at a local park. We volunteered 3 hours of our time and raked a ton of leaves! Boy am I going to hurt. It seems like my muscles are still hibernating and as they wake up I definitely feel it!

Anyway, It seems like I also hibernate from others. You know- It's too cold out to go see______ or I'm nice and cozy, I don't want to go________. I need to get my social muscles moving. What better way than to volunteer some time to help a neighbor or to go visit a friend.(they may need help with something also.)

Those who know me better beware - I may show up on your doorstep one of these days. Remember- If you hide I'll be back later!

Boy or Girl?

My daughter has been invited to a friend's house to stay over night. Many girls have been invited and I felt sorry for the girl's only brother so I invited him to stay over that night.

Tonight we were talking about it and one of the boys said that he's a boy so he'll stay overnight here and that only girls were staying at his house. I enjoy teasing my kids so I asked him,"What if he stays at home would that mean he's a girl?"

"No! He's a boy," my son replied.

"How do you know?", I asked.

"He has short hair, so he's a boy!"

"His Mom has short hair. Does that mean she's a boy too?"

"No she's a girl and he's a boy!"

"How do you know that he's a boy?"

"His Dad gave him a Y and his Mom gave him an X. So he's a boy!"

How can ya argue with that?

Adoption 4

The next thing we had to do were interviews. We met with our adoption worker 4-5 times and gave her more personal information about our family. The first was about our education and work history. The next was information on our parents, siblings, half siblings and step siblings. I have all three and my husband has step siblings he has never met. It seemed odd to need information on all of them. It was fun connecting with some of my siblings who I only see occasionally. We are terrible at staying in contact but we enjoy hearing from each other.

The next one was about my husband and I. Why did we get married? What do we like about each other? What things do we do together? What is our relationship like?... Our adoption worker wouldn't accept that we got married because we loved each other. We had to give more specific answers. I'm glad my husband was answering her questions first! How would you answer those questions ?

Finally, we talked about the kids and our discipline. How would you describe each of your kids? Any behavior problems with any of them? What activities do you do with them? How do you discipline them?... I have some trouble describing people. I kind of look at them as them. The whole package is who they are. It's a good thing our worker gave us an idea of what we would be talking about the week before. She did this each week.

Each session lasted about 1 hour. Every now and then we sent her an e-mail with more information. All this information will go into a report that will help match us with some children.

One of the final things we had to have was a home inspection. We had to put up fire extinguishers and fire alarms, put in outlet plugs, lock up chemicals and medications, ... The adoption worker came and walked through our home to make sure we did everything on the list. This is to make sure our home is safe. We passed.

Now, we are just waiting for the report to be finished so we can proof read it. Then finally we can start to actively look for children.

Al o What!

There is a song that has been used in cartoons. I believe it is french. It sounds something like this "Al o wet a. Jon ti al o wet a. Al o wet a. Ja ti plu ma ray..." We heard it the other day in a movie and were singing it to each other. I told the kids it was french and the youngest said he knew what it was about. I asked him 'what'. He replied,' it's about boats'. I asked him 'how can you tell' and he said because it says they are all wet!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hi ! I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New !

We had a quiet Christmas. We slowly opened our presents and enjoyed each other's company. Our last gift that we opened was a Wii game system. My husband had wanted to set it up and try it out when we first got it. It took a lot of self control for him to wait till Christmas! He did great. He set it up and loves it. Our kids love it too!

I actually don't like the kids to play video games too much. Last year we thought about getting a Wii but I didn't want another system(we have a game cube). This fall I tried out a friend's and realized how much movement you have to do to play some of the games. We could use it for physical education during home school! That was a big selling point. The systems also went down in price. Another big selling point!

Our New Year's Eve was a fun one. We went to a friend's house. We met new people, hung out and played some games. We also ate a lot! It was great fun. On the way home I was a little nervous though. I started to worry about drunk drivers. I think we went home early enough that they probably weren't on the roads yet, but I was still worried. It was kind of funny. We just left a party that had 10 adults at it and none of us drank any alcohol. We had fun and didn't need any help doing it.

May God Bless your New Year!!