L is for the Least of these

^{Matthew 25:40} “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’"

I have a passion for orphans.

I'd bring home a dozen if my family would let me, but then our house would end up being little more than another orphanage.

But you don't have to adopt (or adopt again) to help the Least of these.

This Easter, my kids got advocacy t-shirts as their Easter gift.

From 3 different websites,

I found something that would work for each of them.  At the same time, donating to organizations that are making a difference for kids I'll never see.

The Wild Olive Tees

dragon shirt was perfect for Eli

Who even has his own dragon to go with it.  

And the fact that the front says Fear Not, well, as you can see, he's pretty fearless.

When we were adopting Hannah, we applied for a grant from Show Hope.

Even though our family was not chosen to receive one, I've heard of enough other families getting grants to know that they're a huge blessing to the families they assist.

Josiah did not want to model for me. 

At all.

In fact, he took his shirt OFF so I would stop taking pictures of him.  Hmm.  Counter productive.

My shirt is a fundraiser shirt through Adoption Bug for a family adopting with our agency.

My shirt is here

other adoption shirts available here:

Brianna, Furby and Annaliese all got shirts from:  Ordinary Hero

Annaliese is rocking hers on the way out the door to softball practice.  It says Heart For Africa.

My dream is to take her on a humanitarian aid trip for graduation.

We were looking at possibilities all over the globe, and she chose Tanzania.

Hannah's shirt is from Wild Olive.

While I was taking her picture, she asked me, "Mama, what does this says?"

It says BELOVED, baby girl.  Mommy and Daddy love you so much.

And this amazing little firecracker girl

Who took her first steps EVER less than a year ago and now goes bounding down the sidewalk yelling, "I'm a airplane!"

is the one who inspires my passion for orphans.

She has so much curiosity about the world around her.

Such a sweet temperment

Such a hilarious sense of humor

And so much potential as a part of a family.

Oops.  I cheated.  I got myself two shirts.

This one is also from Wild Olive, and the part Josiah cut off, lol, says Love Others.

Have you thought about how you can help the Least of these today?

If t-shirts are not your thing, do you drink coffee?

 What about here?

Or here?

Or even here?

K is for Kids

K is for Kids.  I have 8 of them.  Why do I have so many, you ask?  Well, the short answer is that I was raised an only child and rebelled.  ;)

taken autumn 2003

The long answer is that it's my calling.  It's who I am and what I do.  When I was a little girl and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I used to say, "I want to be a housewife and have 6 kids!"  It embarrassed the heck out of my mother, who worked.  She used to tell me to tell people I wanted to be a teacher or a doctor.  Something important.

summer 2003

I've known from an early age that I wanted a big family because growing up an only child was lonely.

So when Paul and I were dating, I told him I wanted 6 kids.  He agreed to 6 kids.

Count the picture above carefully.  See the belly?  Whoops.

Baby Jack, April 2004

But not really whoops, in the long run.  I adore our surprise #7.

Jack, June 2011

No matter how adorable he was, 7 kids in 10 years of marriage is a lot for anybody.  We decided we were done.  I think Paul was afraid we'd end up with 23 kids if things kept going at the same rate.

Easter 2006

As the kids got older, things got easier.  

They turned out to be quite a helpful bunch, actually.

Thanksgiving 2008

And when we were faced with the realization that they were growing up and would start leaving home soon, and we had the chaos fairly under control for the most part, we decided that we'd be up for a couple more.  

2009

After mounds of paperwork and 2 years time, we found ourselves in China adopting.  

November 2010

And the following summer, when Zachary came home on leave from the Air Force to visit, we finally got pictures of the whole family together!  

I love my kids.  They make me laugh.  They inspire me to be a better person.  There's nothing I'd rather be doing than being their mom.  

J is for Jealousy

I think blogs can be dangerous.

It's easy to look at someone's blog and get a snapshot of what their life is like and think they've got everything together.

I find myself looking at a blog and comparing my world to their world.  "Oh, they're off to China for another adoption!"  Insert little green monster of envy here.  Or, "Wow, they have more kids than I do, and their oldest is only 13!"  Or, "They've got twins!  I've always thought it would be so cool to have twins."  Wistful sigh.  Or, "Wow, they do such cool homeschooling stuff!  All I ever do is nag my kids to finish their book work.  I wish my kids would work harder to get the boring stuff done so we could do more fun stuff."  Even reading about loving gestures from a husband to a wife can make me a little more  sad and lonely when Paul is gone for days at a time.  

Jealousy is an ugly thing.  

It's important to keep things in perspective and realize that you're only seeing what the blog writer wants you to see.  The hard things they may not be writing about are just as much a part of their life.

I've deliberately NOT created an account on Pinterest.  I don't want to go there.  I don't want to see all the amazing things that other people are making/doing.  I don't want to diminish what I *am* doing by feelings of inferiority.  

My life isn't perfect, and I hope no one who reads my blog thinks that it is.  I've got my challenges just like everyone else.  But my life is a good life, and I need to remember to appreciate where God has me, and not covet where He's placed other people.  

I is for Independent Homeschoolers

We are independent homeschoolers.  I have been home educating since 1998.

Our motto is "Education is a year by year, child by child decision."  Which means some years we have an interesting mix of school situations.  There were several years where everybody was homeschooled (or too little for school).  But we've also utilized both public and private schools for certain children, during certain years.  Not because we're wishy washy.  But because we take everyone's needs into consideration, and then decide for each person based on the good of the family.

Right now, Annaliese and Josiah are in private school, Hannah is in public school with an IEP (Individual Education Plan--accommodations that take her special needs into consideration), and the middle 4 are taught by me.

Unfortunately, sometimes die hard homeschoolers get their panties in a wad about what other homeschoolers are doing.  You see that with the independent vs. charter issue, and unschooling vs. a more formal approach.  You also have homeschoolers who think that sending any child to any school is bad.  That's unfortunate, because I think that really boxes you in.  I always suggest to newbies looking into homeschool when their oldest child is 3, "Don't say, 'We're homeschoolers.'  Say, 'We're homeschooling.' "  It's a subtle difference, but I think an important mindset.  If you wrap you identity up in being a homeschooler and then for whatever reason your child ends up in school, you're going to feel like you've failed.

Homeschooling looks like different things in different families. But in our family, homeschool looks like this:

The "desk" that Furby is sitting at, working so diligently (snort) is actually the base of the high chair that was given to us 17 years ago when Annaliese was a baby. I used contact paper to give the surface a face lift about a year ago, but other than that it's still going strong, long after the actual chair part of the high chair has disappeared. (The chair Furby is sitting in is from Ikea.)

The main curriculum we use (found here: www.schooloftomorrow.com ) is workbooks and score keys.  Every subject is color coded.  Brianna is pulling out a spelling (Word Building) score key in the photo above.

Part of Sam's daily responsibility is getting Miss Hannah on the bus each morning.  

This desk sits next to my desk, and is shared by Sam, Bri, and Eli, depending on who needs my supervision.  

If they're getting their work done, I don't mind them working elsewhere.  

Two of the kids use the computer for Math.  

 

Since Josiah was home on Easter Break, I roped him into reading Furby's spelling story to him for me.  Furby is using Reason For Spelling.  These books are adorable.  Level K Reason For Handwriting is my favorite cute curriculum book of all time.  

After the story comes the pretest each week.  

So there you have it.  This is what homeschooling looks like at our house.  Sometimes.  

Other times, it happens in front of an educational DVD (The 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic is this week, and I have a documentary to share with the kids).

Sometimes, it even happens in the car, a waiting room, or at the park.  

Reminds me of a Dr Seuss book.  We could do it here or there, we can homeschool ANYwhere!

H is for Holiday

Originally, I was going to do H is for Hannah, or H is for Homeschool, but since I wanted to share a bunch of Easter pictures, today H is for Holiday.  We can talk about homeschooling tomorrow.  

I couldn't resist getting a few pictures of Hannah all dressed up.  

All 7 kids getting ready to head out to the back yard to hunt eggs.  

It's hard to get a group shot.  

Found one!

You're never too old for an egg hunt.  

Pretty girl.

Sam has egg hunt issues.  He's not very good at it.  Or very gracious about that fact.    

M&Ms?  What M&Ms?

After hunting for plastic eggs, we came in and dyed real eggs.  

Love that face.  Seriously, I just want to smooch that cheekie!

Eli indicates which eggs are his masterpieces.

Hey everybody, look at the camera!  Like I said, group shots are a challenge.

Great picture taken by Annaliese of Hannah playing with the egg dye.  (Yes, I made her take her smocked dress off before dyeing eggs, just in case!)

My Bubba and one of his creations.  

Thank you, internet, for suggesting rubber bands as an accessory in egg dyeing.

Oooh, pretty!  

See the green egg with the white Z on it?  That was one of my eggs.  The Z is for Zachary.  I miss my boy.  Holidays just aren't the same without him.