Field Trip

Leeann's class took an end of the year field trip to the Discovery Village in Salem. And I got to chaperone! We brought 60 kids and there were two other groups the same size. It was a zoo. An absolute zoo! But, it sure was fun.

Sleeping Angels

During the school year we've let the kiddos sleep together on non-school nights.

I actually caught this picture a while ago. I went to check on them and this is how I found them!

I love when they crawl in bed with me in the mornings and sprawl all over me. Rob... well, he likes his own sleeping space. They've learned to crawl on my side, and I'm not complaining :0)

VBS

It's the time of year where there is so much to blog but not an once of leftover time to blog about it! Or should I say, it's the end of that time of the year, hence my return after a 16 day absence. That's gotta be a record!

That time of year--Vacation Bible School. It's been a crazy bunch of weeks for our whole family as we prepared for, set-up for, participated in, and cleaned up after VBS. This year was exceptionally crazy for a whole host of reasons. One of which was the obvious addition to our family just 2 weeks prior to the big event. Poor Abby, she's put in a lot of time at the church with me in these last several weeks! She's been very helpful though, and a delight to be around, so that was actually quite nice in a lot of ways.

The kids had a blast. I slept several hours early in the afternoon and after an incident with a wii remote that was part of a Lego Starwars brawl between my two overly tired, over exerted, completely exhausted kids (who didn't get to sleep until 11:00 last night!)... they are both sleeping peacefully too. And Lego Starwars is in time-out for the foreseeable future.

I'll hopefully download some pictures of my kiddos when I get a chance. Though VBS is often like Christmas. There's so much to blog about, and it comes after such an exhausting (though rewarding) time, that I often never get around to it. We'll see. But just in case I don't get around to the rest of them, here are a few I already have on my computer:

Titus hanging with the "Big Boys" during extended day VBS (extra fun stuff for just 4th and 5th graders). We let the kiddos of the leaders staying for extended day be a part of the fun.

The day you see pictured here? Messy Olympics!

Because who doesn't want to slip and slide in top ramen, creamed corn, mustard and baby shampoo?

Sadly, I couldn't participate. Someone has to take the pictures! I was devastated. Absolutely devastated!

"Twister"

And one heck of a food fight. I stayed far, far away from that action!

Confused?

If you're confused as to why my last post seemed out of place... it's because it was. Somehow I posted it on the wrong blog. These are the kind of things I'm trying to keep off Robyn's Nest. If you'd like to read more about FlyLady and my efforts (if you could call it that) at organizing my little piece of the world you can hop over to Real Life Pastor's Wife.

Flying as I can!

I like to think of myself, not as a failure, but as a little late at getting things together. See, I decided to do the 31 day FlyLady beginner steps (as you all well-know) several weeks ago. I think I'm still on day 3 or something!

I have been following her on facebook and via email so I am implementing some of her ideas, but I haven't been precisely following the baby steps as I originally set out to do. First we had a holiday weekend, then a couple of house showings, then we randomly started fostering a 15 year-old foster girl. Oh, and VBS is a week and a half away (I almost panicked as I wrote that... is it seriously just a week and a half away?).

Anyway, she hasn't been on the forefront of my mind, but she has been there. I've actually been thinking a lot about the control journal. I have my notebook, paper and plastic sleeves. I've even started writing some things in there. I really hope to actually make good use of it because it sounds so logical, helpful and useful. We'll see I suppose!

I am one of those people that will think through a logical, fool-proof, fantastic system that I never get around to implementing. The idea works. The function works. I just have to use it.  Novel, eh?

I'm really hoping my control journal isn't that way. The best tools are only helpful if you use them. I think FlyLady told me that!

Maybe I need to stick my baby-steps in my control journal so I don't have to log on to the internet and remember to go to the site first thing in the morning... which I obviously haven't been doing! Though it would require me to actually open up my control journal. Uh, am I beyond help?

Because we're crazy!

Last Wednesday I got a call from our adoption case-worker (she's still our case-worker from when we pursued adopting a teenage girl 2 years ago, as our case hasn't yet expired.) She asked if we were interested in doing foster care for a teenage girl with some special circumstances.

I found out a little more about her and her situation and told our case-worker that I'd chat with Rob and give her a call back. Much to both of our surprises, I think, Rob and I agreed to take her in. We had just been commenting a few days earlier about how we have the extra room, and a good home that we could share with someone in the right circumstance.

We've had several situations where people lived with us in the past, and it's usually worked out well. Over the years we've had a teenage boy live with us for 8 months, Rob's sister and her two boys live with us for 8 months, my half-siblings who were 4 and 5 lived with us for 6 months and we fostered a baby for 10 days a few months ago.

The hard part is in this situation, we had no idea what her personality was like or what we'd be getting ourselves into. She was a perfect stranger outside of the few details we knew about her. And frankly, you never know what you're going to get with a 15 year-old! Nevertheless, I left work early and headed down to DHS to meet Abby. We met together with her case-worker to find out a little more about each other and I brought her home.

I can't imagine being 15 and driving in the car with a complete stranger to a strange house, with no idea of what's in store. But, that was almost a week ago, and we're not strangers anymore! She's a sweet girl and I think it's actually been a really good fit so far. The kids are enjoying having her around, and she's good with them. Personality wise she's been a joy, but the sheer nature of having a teenager around is a little over-whelming. I'm suddenly managing social calendars, appointments, friends, shopping trips, etc.

I'm trying really hard to remember what it was like to be 15, and to have as much sympathy for her in her situation that I can muster. I'm attempting to parent her the way that I would have found most helpful if I were 15 and in foster care. We'll see how it goes. Like all of the rest of the kids we've interacted with, she doesn't come with an instruction manual!

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know our current family dynamics. I find it beautifully humorous that in spite of the fact that we're not on any sort of 'list' for foster care, we've know had 4 kids placed here in the last year. It seems like God's got a plan and is determined to work it in spite of whether or not we're on a 'list'. God is good, all the time.