Forever Mom Winner

The winner of the giveaway for "Forever Mom" by Mary Ostyn is....

Danell Hilliard (who commented via Facebook).  

Congrats, Danell!  Your book is on the way!

Thanks for all of the great questions everyone.  I'm working on a series of Q and A for January, so if you have more questions for a mama of a large adoptive family, I'd love for you to post some more below!  

Don't miss out on reading all of Mary's awesome books!

 

How Could You Be So Good To Me?

That God would allow me to share in the joys and sufferings of these children is truly a part of His Incredible Grace!

If you would like to help me tell more people how good He is and how He really can take children from hard places and heal their hearts, please consider taking a minute to "vote" for me at Circle of Moms. . . it really isn't about this blog, I just want others to know that God's Word and Truth can make a difference in healing the hearts of their adopted children!

you can vote once each day. Help me spread the Good News!

To Blog or to Tweet?

A big thanks to Jennifer at Conversion Diary for making me laugh today:

"I try not to use my blog as a platform

for ungrateful whining about the inconveniences

of my overall lovely life (that’s what Twitter‘s for)."

On my Computer Today

Well, you could try:

The President Who Would be King for a little on what the President is up to this week.

or take your kids and head over to:

Meet the Giants for a fun music video about the Periodic Table of Elements.

For a painfully truthful look at ourselves this Lenten season:

visit our good friend, Ann's post - The Real Fast of Lent

Need a new dinner plan? Stop by and get some great recipes:

Black Bean Soup is on the menu at Large Family Recipes.

Belated Valentine

My wonderful dear husband blessed me with a Kindle today! This thing is amazing. I had no idea that it could do all of the things it can do.

one of the greatest things is that books for the Kindle cost just a fraction of what a paper or hardback costs!

of course, I'm not sure I can fully give up the feel of curling up with a good book made of real paper. . . but we'll see. . . maybe I'll become an e-book convert.

Anyone else have and love, or want to have a Kindle?

Any tips for finding free books on Kindle? I've heard there are a lot available.

How do you use your Kindle for other things like PDF's, magazines, etc. . .

I'm all ears!

Thanks dear husband!

I Love it (and hate it)

While I fully realize that my blog here is a visual mess (that's the part I hate). . .

I LOVE the family photos we had taken this fall.

I am finally getting around to organizing and ordering some of them for our walls and I just had to share a few here via the new blog header.

I LOVE how this collage shows how God brought all of the parts of our family together to make one whole.

I LOVE how colorful they are.

I LOVE how colorful WE are!

And now, for our big announcement:

Our adoption placement is FINAL!

Our six precious children whom we have been fostering for over a year are finally "officially" ours.

We celebrated with a big pizza party with friends and family.

It truly has been one amazing year.

I LOVE it.

Made Me Laugh Out Loud

(click on it to enlarge)

Maybe it's just because I'm tired, but this made me laugh.

I wonder if I'm the mouse or the pig?

Large Family Sarcasm

From another GREAT blogger I don't really know but do really love (Tamra):

For Those Who Asked.

I have put a permanent link to my Incredible Husband's "Disco Man" performance in the "Also Featuring" section of my sidebar.

If you need a good laugh, check it out! (you can fast forward to about 45 sec. and skip the talking after the music - then it is only about 5 minutes long)

He's awesome. I know.

View from a Treehouse

Last month we were blessed to be able to spend some time with new friends who just happen to have five children including one sweet boy they adopted from Uganda about a year ago.

How wonderful it was to pray and eat and chat and watch our 15 children enjoy the summer sun in their incredible backyard - complete with a blow up water slide AND a great treehouse!

Dad had to try out the treehouse too. . .

He snapped this INCREDIBLE picture of all of the children.

Aren't they precious?

Maybe it's just the view from the treehouse, but everytime I look at this picture I think,

"hmm. . . 15 children doesn't really seem like much more than 10. . . "

Crazy Cousin Camp (part 3)

(the rest of the pictures from Teamworks! Soccer Camp - see CCC part 2 )

Here is our Sweetie who decided Teamworks! was a great place to decide if she wanted to actually play "real" soccer in the fall. . .

She doesn't!

BUT, she did come to me on Wednesday evening and announce that she knows what she wants to do now

She wants to "take art lessons, draw in her sketchbook, play the guitar, be a mama and write music."

WOW! (this coming from a girl who had ZERO sense of vision for her future when she came into our family just 9 months ago)

That is absolutely how God has gifted her. She is so creative, thoughtful, reflective.

Even the little guys, Happy and Mama's Angel, got in on the action. Mama's Angel is throwing a small fit because Happy has the ball. Hee hee

They played a little soccer. . .

BUT, mostly

they REALLY liked sitting with their coaches at "half time"

and took more than a few snack breaks!

Gotta love those grapes!

"You ARE done now, right?"

Check this out: Storing Up Treasures: Me and My Vasectomy

The Rockstar is hilarious! Courtney and her kids must laugh a LOT around their house!

My husband has this same sarcastic sense of humor (and, so do I) so this gets us ROTFL!

Since 9 of our 10 are quite obviously adopted, we don't get the vasectomy or tube tying questions very often, but we are often asked if we are done yet. As in: "You ARE done now, right?!"

Just the other day I was holding a friend's sweet 3 month old baby at church when a lady (also in the 35-55 year old age range that the Rockstar talked about) came up to me and said, "Don't even think about it!"

What? Excuse me? What kind of comment is that? Here, I'll give you a few other more appropriate things you could have said:

"Oh, what a sweet, precious baby!"

"Do I get a turn to hold him?"

or, if you are really wondering if we are planning to have more (not that it is really your business, but. . . ):

"Are you missing the baby stage?"

"Do you want another one?" (of course, depending on tone, this could go either way! LOL!)

In response to the Rockstar's question about how he should reply to ladies who comment on his plans for a vasectomy, I guess you could say something like:

"What! You mean I could snip myself and avoid all of these blessings! Well, why hasn't anyone ever told me this before? Tell me, when and where did you have your tubes tied and for what purpose?"

See, I told you I could be sarcastic. It really is terrible!

Actually, though, I don't think that people are THINKING before they say things or ask questions that are so rude or intrusive. Replying snarkily is probably not usually the best course of action. I'm sure a response of grace and truth is better.

Didn't someone once say to speak the truth in love?

I guess I'll need to work on that!

A Few Good Games

Originally I had titled this "A Few Good Board Games" but, as you will soon see, I decided to broaden the scope a little in order to include some of our favorites.

Games are a big part of our lifestyle of learning way of Tidal Homeschooling. My children LOVE having a morning or afternoon where they are completely free to just play the games from our bathroom cupboard.

Yes, you heard me correctly. We have an insanely large bathroom cupboard in the boys bathroom. Since we only have "a few good bath towels" (as in, ONE for each child) that hang on hooks, we have nothing more than a few rolls of toilet paper to store in this pantry size cupboard. A great place for games!

Hey, we go with what works!

I recently realized that this bathroom game closet was bulging and unorganized which meant that no one was really enjoying actually playing the games and so we purged and ended up with just what we love and use:

A Few Good Games

• Playing cards

This gives you a relative treasure trove of play possibilities such as Nertz/Dutch Blitz, Hearts, Go Fish, Spoons, Rummy, Solitaire, and, our current favorite: Golf.

• Yahtzee

A GREAT way to work on those math skills without even knowing it! Also, you can use the dice for other games like Shut the Box or Two's and Fives.

• Sorry!

This just might be my children's favorite. In fact, we have 2 sets so all 8 "big kids" can play at once!

• Monopoly/Monopoly Jr.

Another great way to work on math skills. Monopoly Jr. is very fun for the younger crowd!

• Settlers of Catan

This is one that our oldest 4 have just learned to play. They LOVE it! It is sort of like Monopoly; only, you barter stuff like "sheep for wheat" and it only takes about an hour to play. Dads love this game too.

• Uno, Phase 10, Skip Bo

Card games we love to play as a family. I think we have gone through about 3 sets of Uno cards and 2 sets of Phase 10 cards. My children even invented their own version of "team Uno."

• Parchesi

• Chess/Checkers

If you have the board, you might as well have the pieces for both games.

• Memory

The "littles" love this, but my older kids will often join in on the fun.

• Pick up Sticks

For some reason, this game often results in disagreements over if it "really moved" or not, but they seem to work it out and keep coming back to it.

• Candyland

In the realm of "little kid" games, we prefer Candyland to Chutes and Ladders. It teaches the "littles" the idea of flipping a card and moving spaces. You can move right from this game into Sorry!

• Apples to Apples

A VERY fun party game. It requires reading, so it isn't great for little ones but it is a wonderful resource for vocabulary development and one that my husband and I enjoy playing with friends.

• Who Done It?

I think this game is still around. It is a little like "Clue" only slightly more complex and much more fun.

• Life

Come on, you know you LOVED this game as a child! I was always hoping to land on ALL of the baby spaces so I could fill up my car with little pink and blue plastic people. hmm. . .

• Mancala

• Tri-ominos/Dominos/Quad-ominos

• Pass the Pigs

Oh my goodness. This is a really funny little game that comes in its own small plastic case and is sold on the end rack where Uno and the other card games are sold. This one makes everyone laugh and laugh. It is also a good "math" game.

• Othello

This is a strategy game for just 2 players. It is great to pull this out when I'm sensing a child may need a little fun one on one time with mom.

um. . . it still counts as a "few" if I keep it under 20,

right?

My game closet is still rather full, but please let me know if I missed any great ones.

I may just have to make room.

What are your family's favorites?

If you love(d) Laura. . .

I LOVED Laura Ingalls Wilder when I was a child. I read The Little House Series over so many times that I completely wore out my cherished boxed set (I still have it though; couldn't bare to throw it away!).

I'll have to admit here that I still REALLY love to read any of the Little House books aloud to my children and I always hope they will love Laura just as much as I did (oh, o.k., as much as I still DO!).

I'll have to admit, I've never really thought about the political views of Laura before, but this post is quite enlightening and has got me wondering how much her writings may have actually helped to form some of my political views! LOL! Who knew!

Check it out!
The Politics of Laura Ingalls Wilder

Posted using ShareThis

Camping on the Coast

We had such an awesome time on our camping trip to the Oregon coast! The kids look forward to this trip every year (well for some kids this was only their 2nd year but for them, that is a tradition!). We went with some other families who have children about the same age. One family has 4 kids and the other 5 so that made 13 children in 3 adjacent campsites (plus another 2 teenagers who joined us later in the week for a total of 15). They had LOADS of fun riding bikes around the campground and hanging out in "kid's kingdom" which was located somewhere back in all of the bushes where adults are "not allowed." LOL!

Here they are on the beach having a great time burying themselves in the sand and enjoying some driftwood houses to get them out of the wind for a few moments.

And, you can tell we go to the freezing cold river all of the time because here they are playing in the Pacific Ocean when it is only about 65 degrees outside! They were actually down rolling around in the waves!

I love these kiddos!

Freddy, these are for you!

What happens when you let your 7 year old, who is an insanely gifted athlete, build a skateboard ramp and then watch the X games?

This is the boy we affectionately call "Speedy Mo!"

I must be the mother of many boys: this wasn't worrying me a bit! In fact I was telling him to go faster to get more air. LOL!

Oh, do you see our pop up tent trailer back there? I'll have to post about our trip to the Oregon coast! It was awesome!

Frances, incase you were wondering, he was consistently landing these jumps AND then started trying to kick-flip the board while in the air! Crazy!

Just in case you were wondering

If my last post left you thinking we were some "crazy homeschooling family," I thought I'd just post these pictures to totally confirm your suspicions. LOL!

I guess Mr. Z and daddy were having a bit of fun with the laptop's built in camera!

I wonder where he gets this from?

New Music on my playlist!

(D'Lynn, this one's for you - Happy Belated Birthday!)

Hey everyone, 

Don't ask me why I'm up so late~!  A little too much coffee maybe?  

I just added some new songs to my playlist (bottom of page) for you to enjoy!  This will really date me, but I just had to add it since it was one of the songs we had sung at our wedding:

If You Could See What I See by Geoff Moore!  LOL!  I still love it though since it reminds me of my wedding day!  Geoff Moore though?  I AM getting old!

Well, just to reassure myself that I'm not THAT old, I did include a few great new(er) artists that I love:

Nicole Nordeman - "Legacy" and  "Gratitude" - talk about great lyrics!

Starfield - I especially love "Hosanna" (really love "Reign in Us" but the link is broken)

Coffey Anderson - have you heard of him yet?  Check out "Holy is the Lamb" and "all ye!"  My kids LOVE to sing along to these songs.  He also has a great kids song about a frog. . . but it isn't on "playlist" yet.  =(

o.k.  I really MUST get to bed now!

Just for fun

If you've never taken a personality test before, here's a pretty good one that doesn't take too long.  I don't know how they ever figured out how to test these things!  It is pretty funny to read about your personality and say "Oh yeah - that is what I am like!"  So, here are my results:

ENTP - The "Originator"
Jungian Personality Types (Free Test)

ENTPs are logical, innovative, curious and downright inventive. They see possibilities for improvement everywhere and possess the ability to understand complex concepts. ENTPs are introspective and carefree nonconformists. They often neglect the more common areas of life while pursuing new solutions. ENTPs can be good conversationalists and exciting company.

ENTPs are idea people. Their perceptive abilities cause them to see possibilities everywhere. They get excited and enthusiastic about their ideas, and are able to spread their enthusiasm to others. In this way, they get the support that they need to fulfill their visions

So, this is why my wonderful husband always has a little smirk on his face and sarcastically says,

 "No way!" 

whenever I say (only about 20 times a day), 

"Hey, babe. . . I had an idea!"