Impromptu Learning

Maya has been sick all weekend; fever, cough, occasional nausea, fatigue etc. We are on day four now and she is still spiking fevers. Unfortunately she won't be able to enjoy going on a fieldtrip to a local college tomorrow with her class. I was supposed to work this weeknd but ended-up taking four nights of sick leave instead. I am so thankful that I work in a place that doesn't question when your children are sick and will let me take numerous nights off without penalty.

Elias did not have school on Friday so we were all home that day. Most of the day I let the kids watch movies and just play with their toys. Later on though I decided to have them work on a map of the USA. I found an outlice map of the US and printed it for each of them to look and and had them start naming states. I marked each states with its abbreviation as they named it off. The first dozen came pretty quickly, then Maya had to stop and think a little harder, Elias was pretty lost after the first 5. With some hints from me they finished the map in about 30 minutes. The last state was Oregon. I gave them the first 2 letters and the clue that my dad had been born there, Elias kept guessing Oreland regardless of how many times I told him that was not correct. Maya finally called my brother and got the correct answer. We then went off in our separate directions. ABout ten minutes later as I passed through the living room I noticed Elias painstakingly copying the state abbreviations on to his copy of the map. He even included my crude drawing of Alaska. I think he may have actually like the little lesson.

Hair doesn't do itself you know

Last weekend I did hair. I decided that Maya needed a hairdo other than the ponytail she usually sports. She washed and condtitioned her hair on Friday night, I then braided it in about 5 fat braids for her to sleep in. Saturday afternoon she watched a movie while I put her hair into multiple two-strand twists. She has really thick hair so it took the entire length of the movie to finish it (90 minutes). Next time I'll do it while it is still wet so I don't have to keep wetting it. She likes it because it is now "swingy". SHe had a number of compliments forom classmates, teachers, family and friends. We undid the twists this weekend and now she has a kink "dread" kind of look that is equally as cute on her.

Sunday afternoon it was Hannah's turn. She decided she wanted to be like her big sister so I did the same type of two-strand twists. It only took 40 minutes to do her hair and that included the detangling before hand. The difference was that I did her hair right after she got out of the bath and her hair is much thinner than Maya's. Monday night Hannah went to swimming lessons, since her hair is so fine most of the twists undid themselves. I re-did her hair in a new do, pigtails with a zig-zag part. Then I separated the pigtails into sections and coiled each section. Very cute hair-do for a little girl.

Last weekend I cut Elias' hair and, at his request, shaved a big "E" into the back. It is starting to fade now as his hair grows quickly. He told me a lot of the kids in his class liked his hair. I'll try and think of something different to do for Thanksgiving.

$$$

Elias is a good runner. He hasn't been running consistently in the mornings for the last few weeks, we've either been out of time or it's been too wet out. I had heard about indoor track programs for youth so one day I did a google search for programs in my area. I found one that was starting up November 1st. I e-mailed the program director and he then invited us to check out the program. So last night we went to the first training night. I paid a $25 application fee, filled out a form and Elias was off with the 20 other kids, running around the indoor track, working on running form, doing sit-ups and push-ups. He learned a lot about form, got a lot of exercise and wore himself out. I learned a lot just watching them coach these kids. The group was made of about 8 elementary aged kids and the rest were jr. high or high school age.

I reviewed all the info I was given when we arrived and asked questions. This program is for 7-18 yr olds, they have been successfully running the program for 10 years, they have had numerous students go on to earn college scholarships in various sports because of the rigorous training they received. The program costs $170 for each 6 week session. If I keep him in the training I will have paid out over $1000 by the end of June. $1000! This seems ridiculously expensive to me. Elias is only 7 yrs. old. Right now I have 3 children in 7 week long swimming lessons, I pay less than $170 for all three. I can't justify that amount of money for one sport for one child. So for now I will let him keep running at home and work with him on his form myself.

This morning Elias ran about a half mile, already his form looks better.

Happy Halloween

My children finally decided earlier this week what they would be for Halloween. Hannah chose to be a cowgirl, Elias picked the Davy Crockett costume and Maya decided on being a witch. We borrowed Elias and Hannah's costumes from my parents. Both of those costumes were my mom's when she was young. Maya borrowed a witch hat from my parents and then we made a trip to Goodwill to find a dress.

While I was perusing the racks of dresses at Goodwill today I noticed a group of college age boys standing near one end of the rack. They were chuckling and pointing and looking around nervously. A couple of them looked my way to see if I was watching. They then quickly left the area. A few minutes later though as I was looking through shirts the boys were back by the dresses. One of them pulled a red flowery dress off the rack and sheepishly put it on over his clothes. The other boys busted out laughing though they too were soon picking dresses off the rack and trying them on over their clothes. I guess they were going to a costume party tonight and needed a last minute costume. Goodwill was a great idea by the way, the dresses were only about $7 each; way cheaper than anything you could buy in a costume shop, plus Maya will wear the dress again. I also bought her a very cute pair of barely-worn dress shoes.

Tis the Season

Apparently the respiratory/flu season is here, it is going to be a long 6 months. This week every single child I cared for, except one, was in the hospital for respiratory reasons. They were having difficulty breathing for one reason or another. Those children with asthma were having a particullary difficult time earlier in the week when it was dry and windy outside. We are already seeing a lot of pneumonia and of course H1N1. It's not that every child that is having respiratory symptoms actually has H1N1 but the doctors are testing for it anyway. The test takes several days to be confirmed. In the meantime every child tested for H1N1 is put under isolation precautions. This means that any time I want or need to enter their room I need to put on the following -
1. Isolation gown - it covers me from neck to calf.
2. Gloves - they need to overlap the cuffs on the gown.
3. Mask - covers the nose and mouth and makes everything I say sound quite muffled.
4. Eye protection - this year the hospital has sprung for reusable "glasses" we each have a pair to use until we loose them or they break. They fog up easily as your breath escapes out of the top of the mask making it that much more difficult to see things in the dark.
No more running into a room when an alarm is going off. In the least I need to throw on a pair of gloves and a mask. This is going to last until at least April. Yay me!

Instant Gratification

Hannah and Elias reminded me today that we live in a culture that is used to instant gratification. We went to an apple orchard to pick apples. The orchard itself was about 35 minutes away from home. Not terribly long but long enough for Elias to start complaining that it was taking too long when we were still 10 minutes from our destination. Later in the day after waiting in line for a few minutes to buy food Hannah started whining that we were waiting too long and that she didn't want to stand in line anymore. Shortly after getting the food Elias showed up in the building to complain that we were taking too long. (He had been left to guard the table and our apples).

In the afternoon as we got out of the car to go into Ikea Hannah began complaining that she was thirsty. I ignored the whining until she directed it at me, "Moooommm I said I am thirsty!" I reminded her that I am not a drinking fountain so she would have to wait until we git inside where they do have a drinking fountain.

These incidences didn't seem like much at the time that they were happening but then I began to think of how many of our wishes and expectations are met instantly on a daily basis. We can walk into a fast food restaurant and walk out with a hot meal in five minutes. If I want to know the weather forecast I don't need to wait for the news to come on at 10pm I can just log-on the Internet and find out. Most grocery stores and large stores like Target and Walmart have express lines for people with a small amount of purchases. I can pay my bills online, no waiting in line at the post office to buy stamp, no waiting for the check to get to the biller and clear with the bank. If I want to send a message to a family member I just need to access my e-mail and presto they get the message minutes later. My daughter needs to get home from school, I just jump in the car and drive there to pick her up. Sure she has to wait but not as long as she would if she had to walk or rely on public transportation.

How different would my world be if we had to grow all of our fruits and vegetables then can them so they would be available all year. What if we didn't have a car, or computer or TV. Would we be better people or bitter people? I'm not ready to make any of these changes but I think I would like to get back to a simpler and somewhat slower way of life. Elias and Hannah lived in a village in Ethiopia that didn't have running water, no electricity, no one had a car, they lived off the land. Their family worked hard to care for each other and their neighbors. Tow years later that village hasn't changed but my children have. I need for them to stop always thinking of themselves first. Maybe that will change their attitudes about what they are owed instantly.

First Day of School

Elias, first day of 2nd grade

Earlier this week Maya and Elias had their first day of school of the new school year. Elias is in 2nd grade this year. This year he has a new teacher and different students in his class than he had the last two years. He was nervous for the last week leading up to the first day. He was really worried that he wouldn't know anyone in his class and he was worried that 2nd grade would be too hard. His nervousness led to some angry, rude and inappropriate behavior. All of that has disappeared since the first day. He knows a number of other kids in the class and has found that the school work is right at the level where he left off a month ago. He has also started running in the mornings to wear off some of his energy. One time around our block is a half mile. He can run around it in 5 minutes. I told him if he practices every day he will be one of the best runners by the time he gets to high school (only 7 more years).

Elias getting off the bus

Maya, First day of 5th grade

Maya is in 5th grade this year. She is now in middle school. Maya, too, was nervous for her fist day because this year she is in a new school, an all-girl charter school. Her classes start at 8:30 and I have to drive her there every day so our mornings are becoming pretty streamlined. One hour between getting up and walking out the door. Four other girls in 5th grade transferred from her elementary school, a few 6th graders are from her elementary school as well. Though she was worried about meeting new people she already made a friend in her violin class. Her friend has a brother and sister who were adopted from Ethiopia two years ago! Sounds familiar.

Maya getting off the bus

Hannah continues at her same day care. She has been working on recognizing letters and numbers. She surprised me earlier this summer by knowing so many letters. She loves to do work book pages of copying letters, finding matches, opposites, dot-to-dots and other preschool activities. One more year for her until she starts school.

I am continuing to co-lead Maya's Girl Scout troop. We split our troop over the summer since only some of the girls would be at the new school. We have 4 girls so far and hope to have more from the school join us soon. In addition I'm spending a lot of time in the car driving to soccer practice and games, Cub Scouts and swimming lessons. Not to mention all the driving to school and back each day as well as back and forth to work. I need to make some more CDs to listen to in the car.

Camping 2009 edition

A couple of weeks ago we went camping at a nice campground on a nice big lake. We eplored the trails, threw rocks in the water, made campfires, cooked hot dogs, made s'mores, held races through fields and around the campground. We played card games and board games, games of catch and beach ball soccer. All was great. Then it started raining during our second night and rained all day the next day. It was a light rain so we drove to another state park to explore their wooded trails. We stayed pretty dry. We returned to our campsite for lunch, ate it in the tent then played games and read books in the tent to waiting for the rain to stop. The tent started to leak after 14 continuous hours of rain so I decided to just pack up and go home. As soon as I made that decision it started to pour. All the kids help to get packed as quickly as we could, however, Maya really helped a lot. She stood out in the rain helping me to pull down the tent, gathered our camp chairs and other supplies left out in the rain that still needed to be packed in the car. She didn't complain once even though our clothes we were completely soaked through. I rewarded them with a stop at DQ on the way home. By the time we arrived home a couple hours later it was sunny. At the campground was rained on for another 24hours after we arrived home so it turned out to be a wise decision to leave.

Even though the trip ended on a wet note my kids still want to go camping again. I am glad they like camping because I love it. Next year I am hoping to go on a longer trip. Maybe a trip to the Black Hills of SD to see Mount Rushmore.

Last Night

Today I have been thinking a lot about God. I don't consider myself to be deeply religious but I did grow up attending church and believing in and loving God. There have been many times that I have felt His presence or influence in my life and accepted it as normal. There are times that I am taken aback by His work though and realize that He really does work miracles. Case in point; last night.
I am a nurse at a busy children's hospital that is connected to an equally busy adult hospital in fact the ERs are just a short hallway away from each other. Last night I was helping out in the ER early in my shift. It was fairly busy and getting close to midnight. A team of doctors and nurses had just finished performing a procedure on a teenage boy. The boy's father left the room to go to the restroom and he collapsed either in or near the bathroom. A nurse quickly helped him get up and into an empty exam room and alerted other staff about what was happening. The father was complaining of chest pain, was diaphoretic (sweaty) and clammy. A team made of nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists and a nursing assistant went into action. Within minutes of his fall he had an IV started with blood work drawn, he was hooked up to monitors and had oxygen applied via nasal cannula and an EKG was performed. The doctor looked at the EKG for 5 seconds and announced that we needed to get this man to the adult ER NOW. He was having a heart attack. They rolled him out and down the hall to the adult ER. His wife accompanied him there after being assured that her son, who was stable, would be well taken care of and would not be left alone in the room. From the time of the man's collapse to the time he was wheeled into the adult ER about 10 minutes. He likely was taken to the cardiac cath lab within the half hour. I was able to follow up with the nursing staff later that night and found that the man was doing well.
At first I looked at the event as a tragedy. Here is this 50 something year old man suffering a heart attack, his son is in the hospital, his wife is torn about who to be more concerned about. But what if he hadn't been in the hospital when it happened, what if he had been at home? Would the paramedics have arrived and get him to a hospital in time? Would he have just died in his sleep? Maybe there was a reason his son was suffering last night. Maybe he was suffering so his father could be saved. It wasn't his father's time to go, he needs to be here still. He needed to be saved. I am in awe of His work. I am confused by the way He does his work but it saved a life last night and for that there are many who are thankful.

I heart Facebook

I just had a friend from Kenya contact me through facebook. He moved back to Kenya about 5 years ago. We kept in contact for awhile through e-mail. But he didn't always have internet access, then I lost his e-mail address when I changed service providers. The last time I had heard from him was almost two years ago. Apparently Facebook has made it's way to Kenya, he created a profile, looked me up and added me as one of his first FB friends. I love Facebook!

Mini vacation

We took a mini vacation last weekend to see Lake Superior. Oh we met up with friends too but the main attraction, in my perspective, was the lake. Growing up I lived 5 blocks from Lake Superior, our lives revolved around the lake even without trying. We spent many days at the sandy beach torturing our bodies "swimming" in the 60 degree water then building sand castles and eating food that was just a little sandy. We also visited the rocky beaches often, throwing rocks, eating more picnic meals and collecting the beach glass. My favorite place is a rather secluded rocky beach that we had to walk through yards to get to. I took my kids there last weekend.

Our hotel room had a view of the lake. That's an understatement, we were a mere 200 feet from the lake. Maya and I watched a ship come in with lights on around 10pm while the other kids slept. In the morning we raced to the canal to watch a ship go through and under the lift bridge, a first for Hannah and Elias.

I hadn't realized how much I missed the lake as an every day occurrence until a recently. One day I was driving around running errands, it was 55 degrees and windy, a typical spring day near the lake. Suddenly all I wanted was to go to the lake to sit and lose my thoughts in the water. Of course the lake was 2.5 hours from home and I had children coming home from daycare and school in about an hour. I did the next best thing. I went home, booked a hotel room and called a friend to let her know we were coming to visit. I'm glad I did.

I will never go to Chuck E. Cheese's again!

About 3 years ago I took Maya and her friend to Chuck E. Cheese's (CEC) just for fun. I hadn't been inside one since I was little so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Well the restaurant was older and therefore a little dingy. It was small and very crowded with all the games inside but the girls seemed to have fun. I bought pizza, pop and a bunch of tokens we spent a couple of hours there. A CEC you are awarded tickets when you play a game the tickets can then be turned in for cheapo prizes. The girls were pulling tickets out of the machine like crazy. Chuck E. Cheese even made a couple of appearances and tossed tickets out to anyone willing to gather them up off the floor. So by the end of the night we had a lot of tickets. Shortly before the girls ran out of tokens the mom of two adorable kids gave me her tickets (about 10 in all) before they left and I added them to our stash. Her kids were little and hadn't done many games, mostly just rides. As the door shut behind that family a woman, who was sitting close by me, came over and told me that the tickets we had just received had been stolen from her son. I told her I didn't think so because I had noticed that family playing some games earlier in the evening. She tried asking me just how many tickets I was given and how many my girls had. Ignored her and gathered up my girls as soon as they were done. We fed the tickets we had through the ticket counter and printed a receipt. The girls had collected around 300 tickets, enough for a couple of nicer prizes. As they were pondering over their choices the woman approached us again and asked "Just how many tickets do you have?" as she tried to look at my receipt. I ignored her. She went to the 19 year old manager and complained. He came over and told me there was a problem. I explained how the girls got so many tickets and offered to show him my receipt for all the tokens I bought. He admitted that he didn't think we had done anything wrong. The girls picked out their prizes and we left quickly.

Fast forward 3 years. Our Girl Scout troop decided to spend their hard earned money at a day at Chuck E. Cheese's. I convinced my co-leaders to go to a store in a different suburb than I had gone before. The evening started out okay. The restaurant was bigger and cleaner than the one I had been to before. WE got our food fairly quickly and then the girls and Hannah and Elias started playing games and the trouble started.
1. A teenage girl approached Maya asking her if she could have her tokens. My refused then turned to me and told me she wasn't sure what this girl was asking her. The girl took one look at me, said "Oh?!" and walked away.
2. Elias found me after about a half hour and told me another child had taken his cup holding his tokens and tickets. He had set it behind him on the seat of the driving game he was playing. The boy just walked up and took it while he was distracted.
3. The same teenage girl walked up to the ticket counting machine I was using, reached around to the front and hit the print button. I called her on her scam. She said "Oh, my bad." I told her it wasn't her bad she did it on purpose and that I had seen her trying to scam my other girls all evening. She walked away. I did get my receipt and finished counting my tickets.
4. A girl walked up to the table one of my co-leaders was sitting at with all the tokens (before we ate) she was eyeing all the cups with tokens. My co-leader asked her is she could help her - the girl gave her a disgusted look and walked away.
5. At the end of the day several of the Girl Scouts reported kids trying to take their tokens or tickets, kids pushing their way to the front of the line to play a game, and people (adults and teens) asking them questions they felt uncomfortable answering - how old they were, where they lived, what school they went to etc.
Apparently Chuck E. Cheese's attracts people who do not have the same morals that I have. Therefore I will never go to a CEC again.

He Bikes

Yesterday afternoon I finally fixed Elias' bike. The chain kept coming off and this time it was really stuck between the gear and the bike frame. I got it apart, got the chain back on, and tightened the wheel up to the frame and made some other adjustments. The back wheel now spins perfectly.

I had taken the training wheels off weeks ago but Elias still needed to practice balancing before he could practicing pedaling. Elias, happy to have his bike back, started coasting down the driveway with his feet inches off the ground. HE kept veering off to the left, I reminded him that he needed to look up and steer. He still veered off to the left. He blamed the bike. "The bike doesn't have a mind of it's own. It does what it is told to do." I told him. He grumpily agreed but still was blaming the bike under his breath. I went off to investigate the lawn mower.

After awhile I noticed that Elias was now coasting down the driveway, turning onto the street and pedaling a few feet before losing his balance. He even started on the street, pedaled a few feet and lost his balance, falling into the grass. He was yelling at the "stupid bike." "That's right," I said " the bike is saying to itself that it doesn't like this boy riding on it so it's just going to keep pushing you off." He giggled at that and went for another go at it. He continued for awhile until I told him to come in for dinner. He was furious at the bike at this point and shouted over and over that he was going to put his training wheels back on. I kept silent and just led him into the house.
After dinner there was still enough time to go back outside. I went to work in the garden, Elias started back up with trying out his bike. The dinner must have worked wonders because after a few minutes he yelled at me to watch. He was riding. More than a few feet, he was riding down the street. He turned himself around and started up again. Again he rode down the street again, and again and again. He did it all by himself. I never even got the chance to run down the street behind him holding onto his seat. Though I supported him from afar and encouraged him he did it himself.

That's Elias. He can't stand to be wrong or not be able to do something and he won't give up until he can get it right.

Way to go Elias!

Oh! I figured out the trail-a-bike problem and attached it to my bike too yesterday. Hannah and I took a few trial runs down the street and back. She loved it. Now that Elias can bike on his own we can go on some bike rides around the neighborhood. Now we have a whole new batch of parks and playgrounds we can get to without driving.

Happy Birthday Maya!!

Ten! Ten years ago today at 1:28pm, 33 hours after my water broke, 2.5 hours after I (completely exhausted at this point) started pushing Maya was born. All 10 pounds, 2 ounces of her. I can't believe she is already 10!

Yesterday she had a slumber party with a few friends. I took them all to a giant indoor playground, then we walked around a nearby park. Maya opened her presents while we waited for the pizza to arrive. We watched Hotel For Dogs (very cute) with our pizza then they ran outdoors for some fun in the back yard with the dog while it was still light out. I got to read my book while they played outside. Cake and ice cream didn't happen until about 8:30. They exhausted themselves out enough during the day that they only stayed up until 11:00pm.

We won't be celebrating her birthday with extended family for a few weeks so I gave her my present last night as well. A digital camera in her favorite color, purple. She has been using it non-stop since she opened it. I love that she can take as many pictures as she wants but only prints the ones she really wants.

Everyone was awake by 7:30 this morning so on account of the short night of sleep and the busy day yesterday we took it easy today. We watched Hotel For Dogs again with lunch and had cake and ice cream again since it's her real birthday today. She got to blow out her candles again too.

Happy Birthday Maya!

Devestation, Fustration and then Happiness

I had known that my blood pressure readings were high the last couple of years. I just sit in my chair of denial and tell myself that it was because I was nervous to visit the doctor, or I had just taken the stairs instead of the elevator to get to the doctor's office. Three weeks ago I was at the doctor again, my blood pressure was high 136/84, they re-checked it 15 minutes later and it was still high 138/88. Hypertension is diagnosed after 3 BP readings of 140/90 or greater. I was getting too close to that. I have family members with hypertension and will likely develop it someday. I am making changes in my like to keep that diagnosis as far away as possible.

I am now on a low sodium diet. Sounds easy enough until you go to the grocery store and look at the sodium content of all the foods you normally eat. I cried through that first grocery store visit. I am on a 1200-1500mg sodium per day diet. I felt like a commercial for sodium:

Tomato sauce - 450mg

Bread - 130mg

Deli meat - 290mg

cereal - 250mg

soup - 500mg

cheese - 730mg

Finding that you can't eat a lot of the foods you normally would eat - Devastating!

The good news is that I can eat raw fruits and veggies, meat that I prepare myself. I can eat most bread, eggs, rice, and shredded wheat is sodium free as well.I found low sodium peanut butter, unsalted nuts, and chocolate is very low in sodium as well. My mom even found low sodium tortilla chips - they taste great. However, it all comes at a price. Low sodium foods are more expensive than their sodium filled counterparts. Who knew it cost more to NOT ADD an ingredient.

I have found that I still can make my kids mac'n'cheese or chicken nuggets and I'll just make myself some parmesan noodles or an egg salad sandwich. We all still eat fruits and veggies and salads on the side. I can make more foods from scratch though that is tough for me time wise some nights.

I've been working on this diet for nearly 3 weeks. I have also been working on fitting more exercise into my week, everything from walking the dog, taking the stairs at work and running around on the playground with the kids. All of this has lead to more energy, less bloating and feeling happier all around. In addition I am pleased to report that when I last checked my BP at work it was 122/73 and I have lost 3 pounds. I'm feeling great!

Enjoying the weather

We have been enjoying the beautiful weather lately. We went on a day long excursion to the zoo a couple of weeks ago, took the dog to the golf course to run around one last time before they opened for the season, we had an outdoor Easter egg hunt and egg toss, we are going on walks in our neighborhood about 3 times a week and the kids are riding bikes almost daily.

I decided not to sign Elias up for baseball this summer and he and Maya decided they don't want to do any other organized sports this summer. I told them that meant they would be required to get out and exercise on their own or as a family at least 3 times a week. They agreed that this was an o.k. plan. So far we are succeeding in this plan. All three kids will continue to go to swimming lessons this summer accounting for a fourth day of exercise.

Growing Up

Lately Hannah seems older. It started after she turned four. We no longer have wet pants issues during the day, she buckles her car seat straps herself, she figured out how to count without skipping numbers, she can carry on short conversations, she tells jokes and laughs at others' jokes as well. She now carries on a continual make believe game with her dolls or little toys. Making up story lines as she goes that actually make sense.
I keep telling everyone that since Hannah turned four she has gotten sillier and seems happier. I just thought that she was growing up. Then one day it hit me. She has been with me almost as long as she was with her family in Ethiopia. Maybe it just took her this long to completely adjust. I am glad that she is happy but am saddened that maybe she wasn't happy for a long time. I know I shouldn't beat myself up about it because I can't go back and change things now. It just makes me feel like somehow I let her down.
I've learned from this. I'll think about how quickly I change her environment in the future. We'll take our time transitioning to pre-school in the fall. I am hoping though that smaller transitions will be easier now that she is happy at home.

Service Project Idea

As you may know I am one of Maya's Girl Scout Leaders. My co-leaders and I decided to have the girls start doing some service projects to give back to the community. Last year we donated toy to Toys-for-Tots, made breakfast bags for the Ronald McDonald House and donated boxes of Girl Scout cookies to them as well, then we went to Feed My Starving Children, a non-profit that schedules volunteers to pack meals to send worldwide.

This year we were a little slow getting time scheduled to work on a new service project but I would like to report that we successfully pulled it off these past Monday. The girls decided they wanted to do something to benefit animals. We had a hard time finding a time that all of us could go and tour the Humane Society so I scheduled to have a pet rescue group representative come and talk to us instead. About two weeks ago the girls made cat and dog toys and dog biscuits to donate to the rescue group. This week a rep from Second Chance Animal Rescue came to tell us about why animals are in rescue, how they get there, who cares for them and how they find homes. We even had a visit from Tracker, the four legged rep. from the group. Unfortunately I cannot post the picture of the girls with Tracker but I do have pictures of the toys and biscuits we donated. The girls had great questions and, I hope, learned a lot about animal rescue. Tracker ended the evening freely giving out his "autograph". All the girls left with a paw print magnet.

dog biscuits - recipe here

Felt leaf cat toy with jingle bell, hang it on a door. I got the idea here. I just modified it a little to make it easier to cut out.

Cat nip stuffed cat toy - Instructions

Braided fleece dog rope toy. To make these cheaply I found a lot of fleece remnants. You can find the instructions here. Again, I modified it a little. We cut out 3inch wide strips (from selvage to selvage) but when we braided them they were way too long so I cut each braid in half and knotted the new ends. I made one of these for Minnie last week from scraps left over from Elias' blanket. She loves it, pulls it out every day to play with it and even brings it into her kennel.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELIAS!!

Happpy Birthday Elias!

Today Elias turns 7 years old. We celebrated his birthday with family on Sunday. He had a great time eating pizza, cake and opening presents. Tonight we are going out to eat at his choice of restaurant, Old Country Buffet. He decided this after Maya reminded him that last time they were there (with Grandpa) the each had 2 or 3 desserts. I do have one more gift for him, the book Henry's Freedom Box .

Surrounded by presents. That is his I don't really want to smile right now face.

Fleece tie blanket from me. He also got a card game, race cars, paint-your-own night light, High School Musical Chad doll, and the lovely orange baseball cap he has on in the picture. My parents gave him jeans and a MN Wild Jersey which her wore to school yesterday.

Today I went to Target after the kids went to school and day care and picked up 54 cupcakes to bring to the school. I happened to get to his class while Maya was in the common area outside their classes, she helped me with the door. When I brought the cupcakes into the class all the kids lookedtoward Elias and thanked him for the treats. He gave me a sheepish grin and a wave then turned back to the teacher. Obviously I did my job well and embarrassed him thoroughly.

Preschool

I've been looking for a preschool for Hannah to attend next school year. Currently she attends a home daycare. I really, really like my current daycare provider. She has been Hannah's only daycare provider since she came home in 2007. A lot of the potty training was done at daycare, Hannah learned how to color, draw, do puzzles and have fun being a little kid. In the winter they go sledding in the backyard, or bounce on the Bounce Master for large muscle time. She goes on a field trip every couple of months to places like the zoo, apple orchard, to see Santa at Christmas time, petting farm, big playgrounds, etc. When the weather is nice she brings all the kids across the street to the high school's track to let the kids run around or she'll bring them to a park for a picnic lunch. They sing songs all day long, play dress up, have story time, take naps and eat healthy food.

So why am I looking to send her somewhere else? I feel that she needs a little extra help to get ready for kindergarten. Kindergarten has changed sine I went to school. Schools these days expect kids to already recognize and write letters and numbers. They really would like kids to already be sounding out letters so they can jump into reading. While I can do some work with her at home, I am limited to short amounts of time I can work with her. She had grown in leaps and bounds from the shy, frail toddler I brought home but I feel she needs more. More challenging tasks, new teachers to work with, new children to learn from.

I visited church preschool today. I wasn't super impressed with it. The learning area was small, the play area was small, the building was old and every child in the school was white. When I walked out of that school I sat in my car and called the Montessori school that Maya had attended from the time she was 3 years old through Kindergarten. Yes, they said, they have openings for the fall, they have openings right now too. I drove there right then. I had resisted sending her there initially because, they are much more expensive that what I am paying now for day care. Once I got to the school I realized it felt right. Some of the teachers have changed but the school is the same, the philosophy is the same, the methods of teaching are the same the school is like a big family, it felt like coming home. Why did I resist this for so long? This is where Hannah belongs. The school is multi-racial, Hannah will have other children in her class who are adopted, children who are not adopted, children who look like her sister, her cousin, her uncles, her mom, and like her.

Hannah deserves this. So without a second thought I have decided to send her there. Maybe she'll even start before the spring is over. I'll cut costs in other places if I need to. I promised to take care of Hannah and give her the best that I can. I can give her this.

Next Blog Button

Have you ever clicked on the "Next Blog" button at the top of a blogger blog? It's at the very top of this blogger page on the left, close to the middle of the screen. Over the last week I have tried it several times from blogs I am reading just to see what would happen.
Last night I spent quite a while looking at the 'next blogs'. There are a number of blogs that are in different languages, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese too. Since I don't understand nor can I differentiate between any characters of Japanese, Chinese and Korean I have no idea which language is which. I saw some stunning photos of a crater covered in snow, pictures of people all over the world, funny poems, pleas for families to take in rescue pets and even some items for sale. One page had flip flops for sale, they were dollar store flip flops with some ribbon added to make them cuter. The site was in Spanish and there wasn't any information about what country the blog was from but the blogger was selling them for R$28,000. I hope that converts to only a few US dollars because they weren't worth more than about $5.
Next time you want a little adventure on the internet try the "Next Blog" button. You never know what you will get.

Whirlwind Weekend

We are finally all healthy again. We went through a two week period of sickness. Something gastro related- yucky. Thankfully we are all better and were able to enjoy this past weekend. All of my siblings and their families gathered at my parents house for the weekend. It is the first time in almost a year and a half that we have all been together.

Our weekend consisted of two birthday parties, lunch out for all the moms, brunch on Sunday, a family talent show, a Take 6 concert (phenomenal), delicious dinners, walks around the golf course, playing outside, playing with cousins, movies, and more playing. Sunday night there were 22 of us at dinner. We did manage to get a family picture taken.

Here is a photo of all the cousins.

I hope your weekend was fun too.

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Today Hannah turns 4 years old. We celebrated her birthday with family over the weekend. Today she brought chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting and party bags to day care. Hannah picked out all the party bag contents with a little help from me.

She had a strawberry cake with pink frosting on Sunday. It was the closest I could get to a blueberry cake. She kept changing her mind about what color of frosting to have. She settled on pink after about 10 minutes.

Hannah got a lot of creative presents for her birthday, legos, markers with construction paper, scissors and glue, an art set with paint, stickers, markers, clay and chalk, and she got a princess coloring book/painting book with paints and crayons. In addition she got a little barbie girl riding a pink sparkly pony and a purse filled with purse things. I look forward to many days of creativity in our house. Thank you everyone for the great gifts.

Facebook

I am finally on facebook. I opened an account last year some time but never did anything with it. Today I finally updated it and started adding friends. So far I like it. Now I just have to remember to go there.
In other news: I really am buying the book from the post below as well as a couple of other books illustrated by Kadir Nelson. I am told that they were shipped yesterday. One is for Maya entitled Coretta Scott. It is about the Civil Rights Movement and Coretta Scott King's involvement. Maya really likes learning about the Civil Rights Movement. She is especially in love with the stories of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks.
The other book is for Elias and is titled Henry's Freedom Box. It is based on a true story of a slave boy who mails himself in a box to freedom. You can find other books illustrated by Kadir Nelson on his website. Did I tell you that all three books are signed by Kadir? Yay!
I first found out about Kadir Nelson's illustrations when my sister, Jess, gave a book to Maya titled Waiting in the Wings, about a tall girl who is ballet dancer but can never dance in recitals because she is too tall for any partners and she just so happens to be brown skinned like Maya. I love his illustrations, I love that he draws brown skinned people and children in books that I am willing to give to and read to my children. Hopefully my children appreciate the books as much as I do. I wish I had enough money to collect all of his books.