Wordless Wednesday

Grandpa took Leah to Canada at the end of the summer… I don’t think I ever posted about that.  Her best friend,her best friend’s dad, and grandpa went along too.

Pam

To visit more Wordless Wednesday blogs or to play along click here.

Tackle it Tuesday #6

Today I will give you an update on my cupboards!  But this isn’t my tackle that I did on Tuesday.  I worked on them last Wednesday and Thursday. 

This is the top of the cupboard.  I used steel wool to sand the paint off in areas to bring the distressed look to it.  Then I used a dark walnut stain, and ran that over the paint to create the old look.  In this picture the left side is unstained.

It’s really hard to see in these pictures, but the top cupboards are done.  The bottoms aren’t even started.

I still need to put a coat of varnish over these, and then this part will be done!  Still no cabinet doors, but I did straighten the cereal at least!

To see more of the before pictures and the process click these links…

Tackle it Tuesday #5

Tackle it Tuesday #4

I promise not to tell you about the process every week!  But I will give you updates on how things are coming!  I will get this done!  A little at a time!

I am very pleased with how it looks so far.  I am also very pleased with how easy and how low cost it has been!  I will give you a cost amount when I get done! 

The real tackle today is helping a friend of mine, Tammy,  learn how to do yarn braids in her daughter’s hair!

I didn’t get any before pictures.  I wish I had.  Mya is only 2 1/2 years old, and her hair is very short.  It will be interesting to me to see how the yarn stays in. 

To read a post all about yarn braids, click this link.

This was taken when we were just about done…

Tammy and Mya…

Together, we braided Mya’s hair today for 6 hours!!!  Mya was excellent!  Jadon was helpful!  Kiahna was jealous! 

We braided outside, inside, in front of the TV.  Ate lots of candy, but took surprisingly few breaks!

Jadon and Mya…

I was thrilled to be able to show Tammy what I have learned about yarn braiding!  I really hope that they stay a good, long time in Mya’s hair!  I am confident that Tammy can do this on her own from here!  AND so is she!  YEAH!

Click here to play along with Tackle it Tuesday, or to see more Tackles!

Pam

Especially Today.

1086 days ago today.  It was an average day.  Home Schooling 4 kids.  Dealing with 3 preschoolers.  When HSSH left for work, I remember being worried about him.  But, he was shutting me out, so there was only prayer.

I have made it my choice today to focus on all of the good of the past 1086 days.

The World Book Encyclopedia says this about remembering…”Memory is a vital part of the learning process.  Without it, learning would be impossible.  If your brain recorded nothing from the past, you would be unable to learn anything new.  All your experiences would be lost as soon as they ended.”

There are many things in my memory of the past 3 years that are negative.  Hurtful.  Horrid.  Devastating.  Unbelievable. 

Trust me when I say that these would be much simpler to focus on than the good.

Our human nature is to be negative.

So, that is why I call it a choice.

“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live”  Deut. 30:19

The counselor I went to when this all first happened, asked me if I knew what satan’s favorite game was?

I didn’t.  All I knew was that I wasn't enjoying being his pawn. 

Dominoes.

It was satan's plan to take my family and destroy each of our lives.

But, what would happen if, I, the second domino, removed myself from this plan?  What if I made choices NOT to cooperate with satan's plan.  What if I made different choices?  What if I choose life?

"...so that you and your children may live?"

If I'd have known how hard it was going to be I am not sure I would have chosen it.  But, then again, How could I not have?

Dear Jesus, You have brought me 1086 days into this wilderness... It  has not been fun.  It has not been easy.  It is not over.  But, YOU oh GOD are FAITHFUL.  YOU will be with me to the end.  YOU say to keep going.  Don't stop.  YOU say that I can do all things through YOU who gives me strength.  YOU say that YOU can bring beauty from these ashes.  YOU say that YOU will give me mercy every morning.  YOU say that YOU are the ABBA FATHER.  That YOUR grace is enough.  That YOU do not forget us or forsake us.  That in my weakness YOU are the most strong. 

I say, AMEN.  AMEN.  AMEN.  AMEN. 

I used to only believe it by faith.  Now I believe it because I am living it out.  One day after another.  And HE is faithful.  He is faithful.  He is faithful.

Today I bring GLORY, HONOR, AND PRAISE to the ONE who carries me.  In nail scarred hands that died so that I might have this choice of life.

THANK YOU.

I LOVE YOU.

I WORSHIP YOU.

"But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen."  2 Tim. 4:17-18

Pam

143,000,000 Orphans

This amazing video was created by Loving Shepherd Ministries.

Pam

Menu Plan Monday #3

Well… We have another very busy week ahead of us!  LOTS of Football, ISTEP testing (Indiana’s statewide tests), the Street Fair… I would love to pretend the Street Fair isn’t going on.  Doubt my kids will let that happen.  But, I am not sure where it fits into our week!

Here’s my best shot at a meal plan… we will see if any of this actually happens.

Monday:  Frozen Stouffer’s Meal.  Carrot sticks. 

James has an away football game.  I want to go to it.  I shouldn’t go to it.  I should stay home and be mom to the 5 other kids.  But, I really want to go.  I am planning a simple meal that the older kids can take care of themselves, if I travel to James’ game.  They need to stay home and get to bed early so they are their best for their tests.  Will this happen if I leave for the evening?  Maybe if I take Jadon with me??  Maybe.  I doubt it. 

Tuesday:  So You Forgot To Defrost, (slow cooker chicken).  Rice, Peas, Muffin.

Wednesday:  Hearty Beef and Potatoes, Pineapple, dinner rolls.

Thursday:  Mom’s night out with friends for MEXICAN!!  WHOO HOO!!  (no guilt this time!!)  Pizza casserole, green beans.

Friday:  Another AWAY football game.  I am helping with the foot to feed the team again.  So we are planning to go.  We’ll eat out this night.

Saturday:  BBQ Muffins, Homemade Fries, salad.

Sunday:  Reunion:  Crock pot of Mac and Cheese. 

Recipe for So You Forgot to Defrost.  pg. 172 Fix It and Forget It

Makes 6 servings

6 boneless, skinless, frozen chicken-breast halves

2-10 3/4 oz. cans cream of chicken soup

4 oz can sliced mushrooms, or 1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms

3/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp.  pepper

1.  Place frozen chicken in slow cooker

2.  Mix together soup, mushrooms, salt, and pepper and pour over chicken.

3.  Cover.  Cook on Low 10-12 hours.

4.  Serve over rice.

I really like this recipe for days when I am going to be gone all day and want dinner to be ready when I return.  I have added milk and rice to the crock pot in the past.  It is better if you cook the rice separate, but it works if time is really an issue!

At least I have a plan!  Now, we’ll see what happens to it!

Click here to play along with Monday Menu Planning or to read more menus!

Pam

Pondering another year…

All That I can Say: David Crowder Band

Lord I'm tired
So tired from walking
And Lord I'm so alone
And Lord the dark
Is creeping in
Creeping up
To swallow me
I think I'll stop
Rest here a while

And didn't You see me cry'n?
And didn't You hear me call Your name?
Wasn't it You I gave my heart to?
I wish You'd remember
Where you sat it down

Chorus:
And this is all that I can say right now
And this is all that I can give

Bridge:
I didn't notice You were standing here
I didn't know that
That was You holding me
I didn't notice You were cry'n too
I didn't know that
That was You washing my feet

This week is the three year anniversary of HSSH dropping his bombshell and walking out the door. You can read about it in the testimony links, if you don’t know the story.

This week I want to make the choice to focus on what God has done. Where God has been, and not on what hasn’t happened.

If you remember last week in my post last week about my blog awards, there was one that I said just going there for the song on the site, Bring The Rain is a blog written by a mom who lost her baby. The lyrics are pasted above.

In the bridge… it says it all. He’s been with me through every tear. Holding me. Crying with me. Washing my feet… It’s more than my heart can comprehend.

Pam

YOUR gonna miss this…moment…

Welcome to the 2nd week of playing the new meme, Your Gonna Miss This...Moment. Click that link to see the first week with all the rules on it! Not many rules really! I will (try really hard to do much better at getting this on here much faster) to post a “moment” and a Mr. Linky on Saturday (okay, probably should get this written on Friday) I’m learning!! Sorry! Post a moment on your blog that you already miss or know you will miss. Link it back here so we can all see your post! Visit others posts and leave nice comments! If you don’t have a blog, and still want to play, leave your “moment” in the comments box!

Today we are going to talk about FOOTBALL!

I LOVE HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL! (okay middle school football too) I love football where kids I know are playing!

I miss the days when I was cheering and HSSH was playing...

Yes, I am posting... big hair an all... I am in the upper Left of this picture...

My parents and I on senior night...

HSSH...

My kids go to the same small town school that HSSH and I graduated from. I probably miss football the most from high school. Our team has been very good over the years. I will never forget being in middle school the first years that our team got so close to going all the way to state. It was so much fun to be there on a Friday night and win!

Our team is having a little trouble in the win column these days. It is hard to see them struggle. I was pretty bummed last night after losing again.

James is a junior. I will miss watching him play.

Reality is that my days of sitting watching my kids play sports is going to go on for along time. But, watching James is going to be over so fast. I know how fast it went when we were in HS.

Zach's team is longing for it's first win...

After that long run, Zach is under that kid...

For me... For now... I will savor every moment... I will get to every game I can... win or lose... those are my boys... this is my team... and I am gonna miss this...

photostory friday… swiss heritage day

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Another Friday with Lucas and the 4th grade…  this time we traveled to learn more about our Swiss background at the annual Swiss Heritage Day.  Fourth graders studying Indiana History came from all over to join in the fun.

I’m exhausted.

It rained all day.

But, it was fun.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Off to sit in the rain again… football here we come!

Pam

Odds and Ends… 9.11.2008

Prayers for those who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attacks 7 years ago today. 

Prayers for those who are fighting for our freedom, still. 

My blogging friend Stacey, who blogs at 4evermom, gave me my first ever blog award this week!!  Thank you Stacey!  She is also shamelessly promoting my new meme on her blog for me!  (We will get to that)  Thank you again!

The instructions for the award are that I am to pass it on to 7 more blogs that I HEART!  Whew, I am not sure I can do it!  Limit it to 7!! 

First of all, I make it a practice to visit the blogs of all the people who leave me comments.  And I make it a practice to leave comments back.  Comments are so wonderful!  They are bloggy love!!! 

I will start with my friend Tammie's blog.  Maybe with some bloggy awards she will post more often!  Tammie, Travis, and their 3 kids are friends of ours from the days we were in the military.  Travis is still active in the army and they are now stationed back on the same base we met them on 16 years ago, in Heidelberg, Germany!  We both had our little toe-headed one year olds, were lonely as ever, and became fast friends!  I love seeing the pictures of the country we lived in.  I wish that I had appreciated it more when we were there.  But, that is another long story of my life for another day! 

I have loved getting to know people that live near me, but they have become friends rather than only acquaintances through the world of blogging!  Sarah Flying Kites,  Tara and her life with 6 boys, Jamie at Just a thought, Janel the farm mom, and Vanessa.  I am enjoying getting to know each of you through your blogs! 

Okay, that is 6 already.  Can I totally break the rules and give away more?  I think I can!  It’s my blog after all!  NEW RULES!  Give away as much bloggly love as you want!!

My friend Holly just started a blog... her blog needs some pretty stuff on it!  Have a heart sign Holly!!  I am glad she started this blog, they are in the adoption process and are going to need lots of support along that road!  Plus, her family lives away from them, I am sure they are going to love the updates! 

Speaking of adoption.  I’ve “met” some wonderful adoptive mom’s through blogs!  Kateri has adopted a little girl from China.  Their new daughter just had her cleft-palet repaired and is adjusting to life in her new family.  Lori just brought home their new baby girl this week!!  You have got to go look at the beautiful pictures, I MEAN BEAUTIFUL pictures, of baby Ahnier Mirlande!  GORGEOUS!!!  The Riggs Family Blogs at Where laughter lives.  They have 3 adopted children.  One is Abby, she has recently been diagnosed with leukemia.  Of course I can’t leave out my other friend Stacey, who blogs at Is There Any Mommy Out There.  I really appreciate many of her points and her hard topics she dives into. 

I just recently found these two blogs.  First is this one called Bring the Rain.  This is an amazing blog, by an amazing woman.  She gives glory to God in the trials of life.  Her blog has been very encouraging to me.  The song that she has playing when you first click on I really like.  It is All that I Can Say by The David Crowder Band.  It is worth going to the site just to hear.  She is Angie, wife of Todd, who happens to be in the singing group Selah.

Another blog that I have enjoyed reading is my charming kids.  Just go read it.  I am running out of time!  It will be worth your trip over there I promise!

I am about out of time… let me go back and count how many awards that was!  13!  I give 13!  I’d give more if I wasn't running out of time!

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Speaking of time.  I do not have enough hours in the day!  My blogging is really suffering from it!  I know, hard to tell.  But, my kids now have clean underwear again and so I got a moment!

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WHAT IS A MEME???

No one has asked.  But I know you are wondering!  I started a new meme!  You couldn’t have missed that!  Click here to see the very first Your Gonna Miss This...Moment post.

A good description of a meme and a good list of them can be found on the Christian Women Online website.  You will have to roll down the page almost to the bottom, but it is there.   Mine is supposed to be listed there, but I don't see it.  I'll have to check on that!

It is a great way to get to find other people's blogs!

I hope a bunch of you start playing!  I plan to post a new Mr. Linky on Saturday, and then you can post your "moment" and link it to my site.  Then everyone can look at eachother's posts!  Fun.  See.

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I've been working on my kitchen cabinets again!  Look for that update next Tuesday!  My blogging time is officially past over.  The bus is here, dinner is in need of being cooked, and life needs to happen!  See Ya!

Pam

Adoption Day!

Today is Kiahna’s Adoption Day.  This has not been an event that our family has been in the practice of celebrating.  I am not really sure why. (okay, maybe because our lives went to pieces at 1 and 2 years old)  But, as the kids get older, our lives begin to go back together again, and they begin to understand adoption better… we are going to talk about this day.

Kiahna became a part of our family through adoption at 12 days old, 4 years ago today.  We drove to Arkansas on a Thursday afternoon.  Drove to the cradle care home and picked her up, drove to the court house and the adoption was finalized that day.

HSSH and I out side the court house in Little Rock with our new baby girl!

Kiahna and I… the wonderful foster mom who took care of her during those first 12 days had her all dressed up.  They took such good care of her and still send her cards and ask about her!  Thanks again!

Leah meets her new sister… finally…

And today… I tell my girl the story of her adoption as I know it… it isn’t much.  I tell her that one day we got a call from an agency that they had a baby girl for us.  And today was the day that we went to Arkansas and picked you up and brought you home with us.  See, there is a picture of mommy and daddy picking you up.

Her reply to me today was, “are we going to Arkansas today, mommy?”

I don’t tell her the heartache of the journey it took us to get there.  I don’t tell her of the babies we thought we were getting who’s mom’s decided to keep them.  Or who DFS came in and took because their moms couldn’t make up their minds.

I don’t tell her of the costs involved.  Or the tears of disappointment.  Or the waiting.  Or the wondering.  Or the frustrations.  Or the doubts or the fears.

I can’t even tell her the real story yet.  I can’t show her anything from her birth mom, except that one snap shot I took of her outside the restaurant we met her in for lunch one day before Kiahna was born.

This is the letter I wrote to Kiahna that day…

Tonight we are stopped for the night to sleep after meeting with your birth mom, named A, for lunch.  She is a beautiful African American young woman.  Right now she is 19 years old.  She wore her hair in long braids.  She says she is 5’4” tall, the same as me.  When she is not pregnant she says she weighs 125 pounds.  I would have guessed her even smaller.  She seems so petite.  She is soft spoken.  Sometimes it was hard to hear her because she didn’t speak very loudly.  She didn’t talk a lot.  Basically only politely answering our questions.  She seemed pretty nervous and uncomfortable.  Spent quite a bit of time, especially after we were done eating, in a daze.  Kind of staring off.  I would have loved to know what she was thinking.

A showed emotion only once.  When I asked about your birth father.  She said his name was B, and he is 5’9”.  That is all she said about him.  We could tell by the pain on her face how he broke her heart.  She was fighting off the tears.  According to A, he ran from the responsibility of the pregnancy.  He is 27 years old now.

A has another child older than you.  Right now she is 20 months old.  Her name is C.  She said that she is friendly, active, and cute.  She weighed 7 lbs at birth.

A lives with her mom.  She told us that she has one brother who is older than her.  No names were given.  No father mentioned.  She told us her mom works a lot.

At this time A has no job.  On Tuesday the adoption worker said she is taking her to try to get a job.  She is going to help her get a job that will allow her to work while she goes to school.  A told us she dropped out of high school during her first pregnancy.  She plans to get her GED, enroll in college, and become an RN.  She seems to have done her research on the job and feels she would enjoy it.

She feels that by keeping you she would…

pause…. I can’t give this letter to Kiahna how it is written now.  How can I tell her these things?  How can I tell my little girl the truth?  My heart aches with the hard truth that is Kiahna’s life.  How can I tell her why she was given away?  It sounds so lame when I read it now. 

Here is that baby today… (making an absolute disastrous mess out of her lunch while I was not paying attention) she has had another hard day of adjusting to preschool (not as bad as the first day, but it wasn’t as good as Monday)  There has been so much hurt in her young life.

For SOME reason FATHER GOD, YOU chose me to be the mother of this child.  Knowing all the pain that would come, I was Your choice of parent for her.  I confess I don’t understand why.  But, then again, I confess to not understanding much about what You do.

This was given to us by Kiahna’s Adoption Agency 4 years ago today.  It hangs above my kitchen sink…

“For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

I pray for this child, for all my children, for our family, to live out the plans God has for us.  That hope, that future, that prosperity…

I wrote a letter to Kiahna's birth-mom on her birthday, last month.  I will send a revised version of that with some pictures soon to the agency.  For Kiahna’s sake I hope that she picks it up and responds one day.

Pam