Easter Pics

On Easter Monday, we went to the Botanic Gardens and dodged spring rains to get some pictures of the cousins.  Ok, our kids and one cousin.



So beautiful I had to share

Vlad.  Our family and the big boys' Conquest Club in San Antonio prayed & prayed for this little boy and we raised & donated the first few hundred dollars in his adoption account with Reece's Rainbow.  I listed him as a prayer of thanksgiving in the sidebar here when I found out from the amazing AMT that he was to be adopted.  This is the link to Vlad's new family's blog.  So, so beautiful.  God is so good, so faithful.  You have to see for yourself.

The story of him in our lives started w/ me looking over the Reece's Rainbow website, talking to God and praying about international adoption.  I have always felt a call to adoption since I was a much younger single woman and Jesse & I talked about it before we married.  But I, we have always felt a call to domestic, foster adoption.  (We fostered two sisters during Jesse's residency who were with us for 2 months over the holidays in 2006/2007, our own "hosting" experience now that I think about it.  They returned to biological family- but that is another story for another night.)  Anyway, I was thinking & praying a lot about international adoption (b/c I had multiple friends interested in it that I wanted to really support & b/c of non-profit work AMT was leading us to do) and asking God to help me really understand that call.  From my own limited perspective, I just couldn't see how families could fall in love w/ a photo of a kiddo across the world and know God's will, God's plan from the beginning.  Not that I didn't believe them, but I wanted to truly understand it.  Well, God answered my prayer.  I truly fell in love w/ Vlad from 1 photo and, most amazingly, so did my husband.  At the time, we thought he looked like such a Gorley!  And we seriously considered adopting him but pretty quickly discerned that that wasn't God's will.  Both of us felt the same way and felt sad but at peace.  We kept praying for Vlad & donated some money ourselves and then the boys' Conquest Club did the same.  We lost a baby to miscarriage and knew that what we wanted, what it seemed God wanted for our family was for us to have another of our own biological children.  Then we conceived Mary.  And Vlad's family found him & committed to adopting him the month she was born.  And again, here he is now: http://bigvandlittlesy.blogspot.com/. 

Praise God.  Thank you for Vlad.  Thank you for Mary.

A Slice of Red-State-American-Pie

Last Saturday was Opening Day for Little League here.  The weather was beautiful.  This is Texas, one of the last towns before Oklahoma, and people are serious about the national past time.  All the teams from t-ball to the "majors" were gathered in uniform to be introduced.  There is a highly-desired-to-be-on Texas Rangers team (they were in last year's World Series) at every level.  The organizers had fun music playing over the loud speakers, like what you expect to hear at a MLB game: "Put me in Coach, I'm ready to play..." 

After all the teams were out on the field, a local Baptist youth pastor prayed a very Christian prayer; then, his wife sang the National Anthem.  Everyone stood, most with their hand over their heart facing the flags.  American and Texas, of course. 

*Edited to remind you, dear readers, that I was not expressing any political opinions in this post, just relaying a slice of life in Texas.  It still strikes me sometimes, after growing up in Maryland.  I am neither red, nor blue, but... purple.

A Lenten Daybook (& Your Flowers, J!)

Outside my window...it has been so windy.  Hot & windy (almost 100 already one day) and cold & windy (in the 50s the next day).  Texas spring.  And the bluebonnets have blossomed here!

I am thankful for...so many things. I'm still counting them since I posted the first 1-100...now I'm on #275: surprise flowers & chocolate from Jesse yesterday:

How did Penelope, Abigail Adams, WWII wives survive without the internet, not hearing from their husbands for months and years?  I am spoiled.  And, no, I did not give up chocolate (or coffee) this year.  God already had my Lent mapped out for me.  :)

I am hoping...to see my mom & sister soon!  It is so nice to have another adult around in the morning & at night.  Most of all, we will get to see my new nephew again finally!!!

On my mind...and in my prayers...dear neighbors who lost a mother last week, Felicity & family, an auntie also in need of prayer.

Noticing that...I'm drinking less coffee & walking more.  Who'd have guessed?  I'm getting the walks in during baseball practice w/ the younger pair in the jogging stroller.  It makes for several nice evenings a week b/c there is a pretty park w/ a pond & ducks across from the baseball complex.  It does take an Act of Congress to get us out the door.  I committee w/ Mark about what he wants to do after my walk.  It takes me 45 min to pack up snacks, diapers, change of clothes, more snacks for big pair afterwards, water bottles.  I've started bringing Mark's big dump truck & scooter and he played happily w/ those last night after my walk in a quiet spot we found on the church property where they practice.  I even got to do some more exercises after my walk b/c Mary had fallen asleep.

A few plans for the week...baseball and more baseball.  Schoolwork as always.  The visit w/ my mom & sister.  Taxes.  Yuk.  :(  Sayeth the lawyer.

From the bookshelves...Jesse just sent the boys/Mark a new picture book & DVD w/ him reading: Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed.  Pretty cute.  And the book is too.  :)  The big ones are re-reading some favorites: Swiss Family Robinson and The Indian in the Cupboard. 

In the kitchen...a store-bought cinnamon bread we ate during some tea & reading on ants today.  We set up an ant farm for some insect observation.  Not in the kitchen.

On the Church calendar...Laetare Sunday or the 4th Sunday of Lent just passed. I did not know until Mass this past Sunday that the 4th Sun of Lent has this name and is a liturgically joyful one, like the pink-candled 3rd Sun of Advent, marking the half way point in our time of preparation for Easter. We have had a good one this year. I've tried harder this year to make it a special time to prepare for the most important feast of the year. From Catholic Icing, I got the idea to make a Crown of Thorns and remove the thorns by Holy Sat with our sacrifices, to be replaced w/ jewels for Easter. Here's ours:

We made the crown and the desert scene below for our dining room table on Ash Weds.  

I also put out the purple cloths for our family altar and the kids' prayer table.  I love changing out the pieces in our prayer spaces- I find it very filling for some reason, to mark the seasons of the Church...Montessori for moms...  like being a sacristan of our home church.  I loved being a sacristan of our Regnum Christi chapel in San Antonio.  And Jesse just trained to be one at his Camp in Kuwait.

Those are icons of Jesse's patron, St. Luke, and mine, St. Catherine of Siena.

We also "Buried the Alleluia," which I think is supposed to be done Shrove Tues b/f Ash Weds.

I'll end with a pic of Mary, who has started trying to pull herself up on Mark's train table.

Life with 3 Older Brothers...

Mary got her thumb stuck in a wiffleball the other night. I could not get it out just by pulling on it- I had to run it under cold water to get it to shrink up a bit after being stuck...ahem..so long...during a warm part of the day. It was that way through dinner & a diaper change, during which I thought to myself  "Wow, she sure is having fun w/ that [developmentally appropriate] toy her brothers provided."  It was only when we sat down to nurse that I processed "Oh, it's stuck..."




Mary also loves paper. She started military crawling last week. Her motivation was to get to a catalog on our bedroom carpet. These are her other favorite paper products to chew on:

That same night she started babbling. Her first syllables are "Ba, ba, ba...". I really think it is her attempt to say...baseball.

What else we've been up to...

Catching up on some pics for you, Jesse.  This was the boys all watching their first DVD.  (The USO at Jesse's Camp has a program where deployed parents can make DVDs of themselves reading to send to their kiddos & the parent at home can take photos or make a DVD of the kids enjoying it to complete the circle.)

The coveted Daddy Doll.

Fort & accompanying map of the Back Acre.

Wichita Mountains over Spring Break.

Mark loves to entertain Mary with his instruments.  It's so sweet of him & she thinks he's hilarious.

Happy 7th Birthday to our Sweet Boy!

Our boys love cookie cake.  "Ki-ki kak," according to Mark.

Icecream out of retro Rangers helmets from my brother's birthday parties 20+ years ago.

Opening the new Wii game- he could already see it through the tissue here.  The only thing he asked for.

Joy at being given a well-used Percy Jackson collection & note from his big brother.

Mary's chubby knees on Mimi's lap.

Wild man.

These last two were today, his real birthday.  We had his birthday lunch and icecream sundaes.

The boys wanted their sister to have a helmet, too. No ice cream, of course. 

(Although Mark did put his on his head just like hers, while it had some ice cream in it!)

our Winter Term & some mid-year thoughts on homeschooling

We continued our bird watching by setting up a feeding station b/f the cold weather came.

It came.  Their first real snow.



They did not even have winter coats or warm quilts for their beds b/f we lived here. 

Snow suits may be on the horizon- at least for the child who continues to give us new ways to use duct tape.  He went out w/ mittens on but they promptly fell off.  He played until his hands were red & frozen and he was crying but he refused to come in.  Hence, the tape.

It was already melting here but we managed to make a snow man.

We started "feeding" the soil in our little garden of 3 raised beds, kitchen scraps/compost that we turn in the soil every few days.



We read the original Little House series and the Rose Wilder series. We did some related hand crafts including candle making, wood working, and sewing. These are the candles above.

We ate a lot of S'mores while Dad was still here to direct. 

And foods from the Little House Cookbook, including our Christmas Eve dinner of chicken pie.

The actual wood craft had nothing to do w/ pioneers or westward expansion.

Scary.

Then came Daddy Departure Day.  We all went to the airport.

We did not do any math or language arts lessons during our extended Winter Term, mostly b/c I was busy w/ Christmas prep and then deployment prep and then I wanted us to have fun w/ Jesse while he was home for a few weeks b/f leaving the country.  Our summer break may be shorter this year but we will work our new school year around when Jesse gets home in late August (hopefully) anyway.

So, that is one thing I like about homeschooling- the flexibility.  I also love the sibling time, all the outdoor time, the creative time.  I know we are always bonding and making special family memories of books read together, faith shared together.

I don't like- having so much power over their little lives.  Does anyone else feel this?  Maybe I just do alot b/c they have gone to school and I remember the greater freedom within broader limits they had there.  This may be why some parents choose to homeschool but not me, not us.  It was a choice to bring them home for now b/c we believe we can give them more of what they really need right now.  But that does not mean I want to dictate their every daily decision, which sometimes it feels like b/c of the necessity of coordinating everyone's different needs and wants.  So, there are definitely some things I think homeschooling does not give them or my homeschooling does not give them right now...which I will post about another time...

when I am not so tired, which shines light on my real issue: the challenges of homeschooling w/ a toddler & infant, now while being a single parent for 6 months.  This I know, though, no school is perfect.