The Miracle of the Moment

Precious lives...

2012-01-06T22:24:00.001-06:00

On December 16th, Austin went to be with the Father. He had a severe heart defect and needed surgery. Unfortunately, his surgery didn't come in time.

Austin Xie Minhuang

March 14, 2011--December 16, 2011

But precious Amity's story doesn't have to end that way...

Amity, one of our new arrivals, is a little 4-month-old girl from Hohhot Inner Mongolia who has a complex heart condition. When she arrived at Shepherd's Field last month, her condition was stable but recently her oxygen level has dropped. It is now at a point where heart shunt surgery is necessary in order to save her life. The Huaxin Hospital in Beijing has a bed for her and they can do the operation prior to the Chinese New Year holiday. It is important that we get this done ASAP not only because she is in great need, but also because the hospitals in China almost completely shut down during the holiday. The total cost for the operation was estimated at ¥80,000 RMB ($12,500 US) but they will take a deposit of ¥30,000 RMB ($4,800US) just to get started and we can pay the rest later.

Update: Amity survived her heart surgery this morning and is in relatively stable condition, but she's not out of the woods yet. Please pray for a full recovery for her. She is very weak and needs lots of prayer support.

If you would like to donate to help Amity please email us at HelpAmity@ChinaOrphans.org. Anything you give will go toward her life saving surgery.

I also have a new batch of bracelets to sell. All proceeds go directly to SFCV and will go to help pay for Amity's surgery. If you're interested in purchasing bracelets to help Amity and SFCV, email me @ troyandcharlene93@yahoo.com. Tell me which card number and which bracelets counting from the top. Bracelets are $10 each (price includes shipping).

Card #1:

Card #2:

Card #3:

Card #4:

Thank you for helping Amity!

Ever have one of these days?

2011-12-10T10:22:00.000-06:00

I'm not one to give him too much attention, but do you ever get the feeling Satan's trying to stop a divine intervention?

I'm having an open house today to sell Thirty-One for our adoption and I have other stuff to help SFCV. I have been VERY dizzy the past 3 days, the kids have dropped and broken more things than I can count, my shower head appears to be broken behind the wall and durning my shower this morning it flooded the a/c closet and part of the hall and my closet, and I put fresh coffee on for whomever shows up today and forgot to empty the morning's coffee--yes, all over the counter and onto the kitchen floor.

The last time I had this kind of morning was a few years ago. I almost didn't go on this field trip, the obstacles were too many to recount. But I pressed on (and on and on) and I still remember the moment I felt the higher purpose. I met a sweet new friend and had the joy of following their journey to adopt their daughter from China. (Hi, Mollie!)

So I wonder what, or who, today will bring?

My new adventure...

2011-08-18T09:07:00.000-05:00

I was so excited to get my pink box!!

So what was in it, you ask?

Super cute (and affordable) Thirty-One products--from signature purses and totes to storage solutions that help organize my life (and you know how much I LOVE organizing!). Here's just a sampling! This is their fall line, there's many more fabrics to choose from.

(stock photo from Thirty-One)

I had heard of Thirty-One before, but never really gave it much thought until I received an email from a sweet friend of mine who was a consultant for Thirty-One. She shared the fall starter kit info with me. When I started looking through the catalog, I was hooked!

From their philosophy:

I love that Thirty-One is a Christian based business, even their name. Their name comes from Proverbs 31 in the Bible. The Proverbs 31 woman is dearly loved and respected my her husband and her children, yet she is an individual. She manages her home with kindness and integrity. Her savvy business skills are partly brought about by her desire to serve others, to do good deeds and prosper.

To their mission:

To celebrate, encourage and reward women by offering quality products and an outstanding opportunity to become successful business owners. We have seen this mission play out through the years in the individual lives of so many women who now have their own "Thirty-One story." Many work full-time jobs and use their Thirty-One income to help pay for those extras in life like vacations. Some of our Consultants had a dream to be debt-free and have paid off houses and cars. Others have seen Thirty-One become a lifeline to their families in difficult economic times.

What's my dream?

My decision to join was twofold. I want to be able to contribute to our adoption fund and to be able to give more to care for the orphans. Being a Thirty-One Consultant allows me to do both.

I'm having a get together this Saturday to introduce my friends and family to their awesome products! Hop over to my website to get the details!

Our 2011-2012 curriculum

2011-08-11T15:48:00.001-05:00

Our school year has actually been underway for 7 weeks. We try to take off more time in the spring and fall. We took off half of May and half of June. We have some extra time scheduled off in November to go hunting. It's just too hot to be outside right now!

I've tweaked our schedule a bit since we started, but overall I've kept it pretty much the same. I think I'm pretty pleased with our plans for this year.

Raising Arrows Christian Academy

Curriculum for 2011-2012

Subject	Connor	Jacob	Shaoey & Grace
Bible	One chapter a day	One chapter a day	Bible story a day
History	SCM Module 5 Early Modern & Epistles (1550-1850)	SCM Module 5 Early Modern & Epistles (1550-1850)	SCM Module 5 Early Modern & Epistles (1550-1850)
Bible Study	Who is God?	Who is God?	Who is God?
Scripture Memory	Simply Charlotte Mason Scripture Memory pack	Simply Charlotte Mason Scripture Memory pack	Truth & Grace Memory Book 1 (TAG)
Writing
Literature	American Literature	American Literature	Learning to read
Math	Saxon 8/7 & Teaching Texbooks	Saxon 6/5 & Teaching Texbooks	MUS Primer
Language	Simply Grammar	Simply Grammar	Language Lessons for Little Ones
Spelling	Phonics Zoo (EIW)	Phonics Zoo (EIW)	--------------------------
Copywork	Student chooses	Student chooses	--------------------------
Science	Nature Journal & Apologia Physical Science	Nature Journal & Apologia Flying Creatures	Nature Journal Christian Liberty Nature Reader 1&2 More Mudpies to Magnets
Poet/year	Robert Browning	Robert Browning	Robert Browning
Composers (using the CM method and Getting To Know the World’s....)	Telemann, Joplin, Sousa, Gershwin, Copland, Foster	Telemann, Joplin, Sousa, Gershwin, Copland, Foster	Telemann, Joplin, Sousa, Gershwin, Copland, Foster
Artists (using the CM method and Getting To Know the World’s....)	Georgia O’Keeffe, Frederic Remington, Norman Rockwell, Thomas Kinkade, Wolf Kahn, Grandma Moses	Georgia O’Keeffe, Frederic Remington, Norman Rockwell, Thomas Kinkade, Wolf Kahn, Grandma Moses	Georgia O’Keeffe, Frederic Remington, Norman Rockwell, Thomas Kinkade, Wolf Kahn, Grandma Moses
Hymn Study	Hymns for a Kid’s Heart	Hymns for a Kid’s Heart	Hymns for a Kid’s Heart
Spanish	Getting Started with Spanish	Getting Started with Spanish	Spanish songs and books Flip Flop Spanish
Family Bible Study	A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays	A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays	A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays
Handwriting		New American Cursive 2	New American Cursive 1
Character	Book of Virtues for Young People	Book of Virtues for Young People	Book of Virtues for Young People
Poetry	Favorite Poems Old & New	Favorite Poems Old & New	Favorite Poems Old & New

I tried to link to each book that I use. Some of these click through to my Amazon store. This is another way I am helping build our adoption fund. THANKS!

I realize the chart may look overwhelming. Keep in mind that I have it listed out for the whole year and some subjects we only do once a week. Here's a chart showing how often we do each subject.

Subject	Times per week
Bible	Daily
Math	Daily
Science	Daily
History	Daily
Scripture Memory	Daily
Literature	Daily
Copywork	Daily
Spanish	Daily
Spelling	Daily
Handwriting	Daily
Family Bible Study	3 x week
Copywork/Dictation	3 x week
Language	2-3 x week
Writing	1 x week
Nature Study	1 x week
Poetry	1 x week
Composer	1 x week
Artist	1 x week
Hymn Study	1 x week
Art	1 x week
Character	1 x week

Jonathan Park sale!

2011-08-11T09:56:00.000-05:00

My kids, especially the boys, LOVE listening to Jonathan Park!

Today and tomorrow at Vision Forum, save 40% when you purchase any three or more individual Jonathan Park albums. Or, save 50% when you purchase the 7-album Jonathan Park Complete Adventure Collection or the 4-album Jonathan Park Creation Guide Series. That’s as little as $12.50 per album!

Sale ends Aug. 12, 2011!

I am a Vision Forum Affiliate. I earn a small percentage of each sale made through my link (http://www.visionforum.com/1219.html). Everything I earn through VF is going into our adoption fund. THANKS!

Shaoey turned 6!

2011-08-07T15:59:00.000-05:00

Our sweet Shaoey turned 6 yesterday!

Where have the years gone?

She has such an incredibly sweet spirit about her. She is my little helper and is always looking to see how she can be of service to others. I love her passion for God. I love how she sees His hand in the day to day things around her. Precious!

Shaoey had a few friends over yesterday to celebrate her special day.

She is into horses these days. She's begging daddy for one!

Happy birthday, sweet Shaoey!

We love you!

What does attachment disorder look like? Part 2

2011-08-07T14:06:00.001-05:00

I realized that I jumped ahead of myself in the last post. I want to step back and give you some signs and symptoms to look for. Remember, not every child will have all the symptoms and not all will show them to the same degree.

Attachment Disorder Symptoms:

• Superficially engaging & charming

• Indiscriminately affectionate with strangers

• Lack of eye contact on parents terms

• Not affectionate on Parents’ terms (not cuddly)

• Destructive to self, others and material things (accident prone)

• Cruelty to animals

• Lying about the obvious (crazy lying)

• Stealing

• No impulse controls (frequently acts hyperactive)

• Learning Lags

• Lack of cause and effect thinking

• Lack of conscience

• Abnormal eating patterns

• Poor peer relationships

• Preoccupation with fire

• Preoccupation with blood & gore

• Persistent nonsense questions & chatter

• Inappropriately demanding & clingy

• Abnormal speech patterns

• Triangulation of adults

• False allegations of abuse

• Presumptive entitlement issues

• Parents appear hostile and angry

My info comes from Nancy Thomas.

(I boldfaced the ones that I was seeing in Grace.)

What did this look like in real life? One frazzled mama! One of the first things we noticed was that when someone would come over (especially a man), she would be all over him--sitting on his lap, touching his face, getting all worked into a feeding frenzy of attention. When we would go to remove her, she would act as though we were in the wrong, that we were the stranger. I lost count of how often she did this one. Of course the person she was playing would think it all cute and precious and be flattered that she wanted him/her so much. She would get so worked up that she was hyperactive and had no self control. Grace is a very physical little girl. Everything she does is full force and full of gusto. She has broken more toys and books than all the other 3, even more than Connor on asthma meds! And she wouldn't care. Tornado Grace would strike again and again with no remorse. She can be quite rough with pets. On this one, I'm not positive she was trying to be cruel as much as she just doesn't think and acts so physically in everything she does. She would often just babble and chatter and not care if you understood her and she loves babytalk. She asks the most obvious and nonsense questions. Nonstop. And could she ever play one parent/adult against another! (That's triangulation.) She would get mad at one of us and go climb on the other parent and look back at the first parent and smile this victorious smile (out of sight of the parent she was on). Very manipulative. Ahhh, and entitlement? She thought she deserved everything even if it wasn't hers--things, time, activity.... She couldn't stand to think someone was getting something she wasn't.

And after all this, don't you think the parent would feel a bit hostile? Add to this that most parents (of a normally attached child) a RAD parent talks to will tell them, "my child did x too, she'll out grow it" or "she looks so happy and well adjusted, you're exaggerating," or "she's just outgoing." It's not just one or two of the above signs. It's the multiple signs, the repetitive signs, and it's what the child allows the other person to see which is probably not at all what she shows her parents. One thing I cannot stress enough is that God has given us wisdom and intuition. Trust your parent's intuition, if you feel something's not right, it probably isn't. You are around the child the most and you see the child in his/her most natural state.

Tune in to Part 3 to see what we have been doing to help Grace to heal.

Mama, you really love ME? (Part 1)

2011-07-25T09:18:00.000-05:00

Mama, you really love ME?

Yes, those were the words that came out of our precious Grace's mouth yesterday. It was both a statement and a question all in one. Grace has had such a harder time of adjusting and attaching and understanding our love for her than Shaoey did. I haven't posted much about her attachment lately, well, probably not much at all. Why? I guess because it's still such a work in progress. It's so hard to explain to those around us that she's wounded, fighting our love, unattached when all they see is the silly, loving, attention getting little girl that she lets them see.

We are making some really good strides forward, but then there seems to be an innate fear that senses we're getting too close and she goes into fight or flight and misbehaves all she can to try to keep us at arms length, to keep us from getting in. (Doesn't that sound just like how we relate to God and others?) I've been incorporating a lot more of Nancy Thomas' stategies and philosophy into our parenting. We are having good results with Strong Sitting and using some of her tactics on Dealing with Defiance.

STRONG SITTING

Strong Sitting is a gift to the child. It is a gift of time. Grace sits cross legged on the floor with her neck and head in line and arms relaxed in her lap. She is facing a blank wall, preferably in a quiet area near you, without too many distractions. This works well for us when I'm cooking. The research shows that the yummy smell of food cooking is a positive sensory input. Grace has built up to 4 minutes at a time and we aim for 2-3 times a day. A big thing to note is that this is NOT punishment, I repeat, it is NOT punishment. I make sure NOT to do it when I am annoyed and cannot place her there in a peaceful loving tone and be there to cheer her on. Yes, I get to give her positive input such as "I like how you are sitting so straight." I try not to interrupt too much, but a little encouragement goes a long way. I can see her smile from the back of her head when I do! Why do we do it? Nancy says it well. Here's an excerpt from her website:

Strong Sitting gives the brain an opportunity to shift in the most successful position. Children who have been traumatized have the wiring in their brain more developed in the inner core (R Complex). This is defense or survival mode. (Fight: arguing, defiance, negative behavior, Flight: running away, Freeze: shutting down) This inner core is where children with RAD are most comfortable because it is the most highly developed section. They seek negative attention and criticism because it puts them in their comfort zone The parts of the mind with RAD that are less developed are the Limbic system (Love and Attachment) and the Neo-Cortex (Logic, reasoning, school work) In order to do it correctly (sitting still, straight and quiet) they must shift gears in their brain to the Neo-cortex by going through the Limbic system. It stimulates both of these parts of the brain! Each minute they spend doing it correctly exercises the logic and/or love parts of the mind. Brain power!

I love it--exercising the love and logic parts of the brain--

helping our girl to get stronger and healthier!

In Part 2 I'll share how we are dealing with Grace's defiance. Nancy has some off the wall ideas that really seem to be making a difference in our relationship with Grace.

Cat on a hot...

2011-07-21T11:58:00.000-05:00

shingled roof?

It is with MUCH sadness that we announce that the 3 kittens are gone. We don't know if they ran away, were hit, or eaten (our guess). It happened one at a time; first Leia, then Luke, and then Sagwa; about a week apart. We are heartbroken. They were absolutely, without a doubt, the BEST kittens we've ever had. They were so loving and snuggly. We're still sort of reeling from it.

We think that something got them. Why? Because a neighbor told us a coyote got a couple of her cats. And because of Little Boy. Little Boy started acting weird the day that Leia disappeared. He started laying in the middle of driveway. Then we started finding him on top of the pool pump house. This is where he spends his days and nights now:

Until he sees us come outside...then he does this:

He has spent the last week inside as much as we'll let him. I really feel terrible for him. He is apparently very spooked by something. He won't go near the trees along either side of the house, he spends all his time up high--either the house, Troy's truck, the van... When he comes in, this is where he likes to be:

His favorite human--Jacob! He will "allow" the rest of us to hold him, but he is rigid and doesn't relax. With Jacob, he crashes. You can hear him purring. He's also become more vocal. Poor thing also seems to be having dreams. His poor little feet are moving while he sleeps.

Mud Island River Park, Memphis, TN

2011-07-21T11:17:00.000-05:00

I just love weddings- the love and sweet tenderness, the hope of years together, the joy that radiates... I love seeing young men and women of God who see the value of marriage and aren't swayed by the culture that says wait until...until you've experienced the world, until you've tested out a few potential spouses, until you have established yourself... but I digress.

A few weeks ago we had the joy of being able to go to another family wedding. We were so touched by the devotion to God and each other that we witnessed in these young adults. We pray God's blessings over the newlyweds and their marriages.

Of course, if you know us, we'll turn any trip into a fun field trip! This time the destination was Memphis. My husband is sweet to humor me. He took off Thursday at lunch and drove us to Memphis.

What post would be complete without a sleeping girl?

We stayed at an Embassy Suites. This was our first stay and it was pretty nice. It had a beautiful atrium with ducks and koi which the girls loved watching. It was great to have that extra space of a separate bedroom, and no one had to sleep on the floor! Oh and the breakfast was pretty nice too--a free cooked to order omelet and pancake/waffle station along with the usual breakfast fare.

Grace figured out how to cut her food by holding the fork in the crook of her pokey arm and the knife in her hand. Pretty ingenious!

Friday morning we headed off to Mud Island River Park

I think the Monorail was one of the kids' favorite parts of the day! (NOT mine....)

30" equals 1 mile--so basically one normal step was a mile
If you click on this photo, you can read more on what the River Park is all about.

And each 1" ridge you see in the river is equal to 8'
(Love being able to use math!)

Our dancing girl...

Shaoey's is testing out the current by sending her shoe downstream. Grace was the first to figure it out, I just didn't catch a picture of it...

Discussing that this is one of the places that they go hunting (near Raccourci Island and Angola--LA State Penitentiary).

Connor caught (and released) a cicada! It was floating in the water. That makes 2 live cicadas that we've seen this year.

Near "New Orleans:

We reached the "Gulf of Mexico!"

Connor and Shaoey pedal boating around the gulf.

I love that you can see how hard Grace is working at pedaling. Jacob is kicked back here letting her do the work!

What we thought would take an hour or two ended up last about 4 hours. So we had some hot, tired, and hungry children. We decided to skip over to Beale street for lunch and to say we've been on it. (And to compare it to Bourbon St. Granted it was day time, but much cleaner than Bourbon St.! I wonder why he didn't make it "I think He'd prefer Bourbon St. to the stained glass crowd?")

BB King's Blues Club on Beale St.

Having a stare down. You HAVE to click on the photo and enlarge it to see Grace's eyes! Too funny!

Here we are ready to go to the main event:

Cutest window display I've ever seen!

Look how big the room was. The bedroom is back to right. The suite had 2 double beds and a sleeper sofa.

Grammy and our children

This table was the HIT of the reception! Who'd have thunk it? Even the adults were raiding it!

Back row: Connor, Troy, & Jacob
Front row: Aunt Paulette, Shaoey, Grammy, Grace, & Aunt Susie

Beautiful bride, handsome groom, and an amazing cake made by "Aunt" Linda!

Troy likes driving at night, so we left Collierville around 4 pm and drove on through. It was nice to wake up in our own beds Sunday morning and get to go to church. Thanks, Troy!

I must say, have mixed feelings. While we are ready to spend some time at home "doing" school and not packing and unpacking, our trips are SO much fun that I miss them. Our next scheduled trip isn't until our annual November hunting trip. I may have to squeeze a little something in between now and then. There just too much cool creation to explore!

AMAZING fundraiser for SFCV Vocational Center

2011-06-30T13:46:00.000-05:00

I am so excited to introduce this fundraiser. It is a very special project that is sure to be a blessing to all who see it.

Are you ready?

One Day at Shephards Field Children's Village coffee table book!

This book is beyond fantastic. It is hardback, 11.5" x 9", and has high quality glossy pages with photos and narrative about the lives of the children and staff at SFCV.

Take a look inside and you'll see:

the children and the wide variety of special needs represented there

and an incredible photo journal of a day in the life of SFCV

Breakfast time

School time

There are many more amazing pages of life at SFCV---the buildings, playtime, mealtime, school time, napping, therapy, the medical clinic, bathing, etc. There's the arrival of new children and the adoption of others. And of course the precious CHILDREN--pages and pages of beautiful children. (The photos were mainly taken in the summer of 2009.)

This fundraiser has a special purpose. As many of you know, sadly, there are children who will not be adopted, who will never know the love and care of their own family. When a child turns 14, they are no longer eligible to be adopted. What happens to them? Many older children/young adults are either turned out of an orphanage to fend for themselves or are put in an adult social welfare institution. This a more certain fate for the older orphan with special needs. SFCV is working to change that for the children they care for.

They are building a Vocational Center-- a place for these young people to learn a trade, to learn to care for themselves, to support themselves...to live a full life. There will be training rooms, small apartments, and even long term care for those that need it. It will truly be a life saver for many orphans. It will be 4 stories high. They have the first floor built, but now they must raise the money for the second story.

So how do you get one of these phenomenal books and bring hope to the orphan? This book is a limited edition. There are only 150 of them. For a donation of $100, you will receive one of these books and also have your name engraved on the sponsor plaque on the Vocational Center!

ALL proceeds from this book go directly to SFCV.

Just email me at troyandcharlene93@yahoo.com and I'll give you the payment information.

(Shipping & handling is $5, shipped media mail. You may choose another method if you prefer.)

In closing, this book is truly a treasure. Grace (known as Vira or ShuangShuang at SFCV) LOVES to look through it and see "her" China. It is beautifully done and a touching testimony to the love and care that the children get at SFCV.

Location:Broussard, LA

For all our BLR friends

2011-05-29T18:33:00.000-05:00

Troy had a rare opportunity today. A dear friend offered to take him on a fly over of BLR. I thought I'd share a few so our friends with camps down there can see it. It's been under mandatory evacuation and we haven't see it in a couple weeks. (Although I hear that as of tomorrow our section will become voluntary evacuation and we just need to show proof that we belong there.) So here we go and don't forget that you can click on a picture and it will enlarge it:

This is the point where we use to go swimming. On the part that dips in on the opposite side of the river you can usually see lots and lots of rocks that they put there to keep it from washing away...

Holly Pipe (2 away from ours. Look toward the top of the photo, that's us.)

Happy town (this one's for Ms. Sarah and Mr. Harvey!)

Neva Bayou Self

Slingshot

Here's ours!

A view of the river

Here's a link to our local news with video footage of Happy Town.

We are very thankful that it is much less than expected. Our place is safe and dry. Please pray for those who did get water in their homes and camps. And while it has officially crested, there still may be some back flow that could cause flooding.

Spring Nature Study

2011-05-29T14:04:00.000-05:00

God seems to be bringing us insects, so that's what we've been doing for nature study. We've had rolypolies, horseflies, some weird bug on my cucumbers and this odd assortment of critters:

a grapevine beetle:

tobacco hornworms (stripping the leaves off my poor tomato plant):

And our coolest find--a live cicada nymph! Jacob found it climbing near the chicken coop and came running in with it. We put it in our butterfly cage. It immediately climbed up the side and hung out. I (mistakenly) thought it would take a while. Within about 45 minutes, I noticed it had already changed shape. I gathered the children and we proceeded to watch the mature cicada emerge from the nymph. Really neat (although a bit yucky looking at times)!

These are in time order. Sorry, some are taken through the netting and didn't come out clear, but you can get a glimpse of the profile.

Definitely looks like something out of sci-fi movie!

Never dull around here, always something to learn and explore.

Dance class

2011-05-23T19:53:00.000-05:00

Academy of Christian Arts is such a fun dance studio! One of the last weeks of dance, they had a sleepover party. The girls didn't go, but during the week they got to wear jammies to class and have lots of fun! Here are some random shots of the giggly girls and their friends:

(You've got to click on this one to enlarge it and see the giggly grins on the girls!)

I just love this group of girls. So sweet and precious and tender hearted. They're all moving up to the next class together. I'm looking forward to them becoming closer friends.

Sunday Snapshot--Connor

2011-05-23T19:38:00.000-05:00

My baby's growing up! Look at this handsome young man. He's definitely not a little boy anymore, atleast not in size, but he is in my heart. He is starting his eighth grade. He's an amazing student. He's turning into such a wonderful gentleman--opening doors, not letting me carry heavy stuff, protecting me.... he's got a great daddy to learn from. Unfortunately, like his mama, he does not care to have pictures taken so these were taken very quickly and with the promise that it wouldn't hurt, too much.

Me and my boy... sigh, he's bigger than I am now.

Don't you love the "hurry up and get this over" look?

The boys were off to build a wall around their fort. So fun to see them working together and creating stuff. They have dug a--bunker?--in the back corner. I've heard it's now about 4' deep. He's all boy, loves hunting and shooting. He's been practicing shooting his bow and dad says he's a natural. We're hoping he'll get his first bow kill this fall. He's still into war/military/weapons. He's also getting into current events and likes to get into discussions about them.

We are so blessed to be your parents. We love you, Connor!

Awards night for dance

2011-05-23T07:29:00.000-05:00

The girls take dance at the Academy of Christian Arts. The girls have finished their first year and were eager for me to sign them up for year 2! They had their award night this week. Here's a few photos from that night:

Here's most of their class minus 2. (The two that are missing are also from China. My girls just love that they get to hang out with other little girls from China!)

What a wonderful studio! The owner and teachers are great with the girls. I love the uplifting Christian music that they dance to, the praying during class, the graceful and modest costumes... If you're looking for a dance studio in this area, I HIGHLY recommend this one! We love it!

The coming flood

2011-05-09T08:51:00.001-05:00

Thought I'd do a quick before-flood post. Unless God gives the Mississippi river states a miracle, it's looking like we will lose the house in Butte La Rose. Talk about making you aware of God's knowledge and awesomeness. We have been wanting to live out there. In our humanness, we couldn't figure out why He wouldn't want us living there. If we had gotten our way, we could be packing up and facing losing our first home. We are fortunate ones. I cannot fathom what others are facing right now. There are so many that are going to lose their homes. Please join me in praying for them. They will need so much peace and comfort. They will need Him.

This is what we were met with when we went to the house yesterday to check things out. Never thought I'd see one of these:

Here is the water as of Sunday, May 8, 2011. See that little tree in the water, normally the water is well past that (farther out). The water is close to 18' right now. The forecasts predict it to rise to 5'-10' above flood stage which is about 25'.

Here's a pic of our house as it is now... This is how I hope we'll remember it. It was surely a place of refuge and peace, a place to refuel and reconnect, a place to focus on the awesomeness of our God and His creation.

The kids and I are headed out there today and tomorrow to empty everything we can. Then we'll have to get help to move furniture and appliances. Pray for sanity!

Fundraising...

2011-04-27T15:20:00.002-05:00

I want to thank everyone who has helped us support SFCV. Words cannot express how much we appreciate your prayers and your financial support. I also wanted to make sure that everyone understands my heart. While I wish it was everyone's passion to care for the orphan, I know that's not the case. I feel called and honored to be able to advocate and fundraise for the orphan. Please know that as I put these opportunities out there to pray for and support the orphan, I have no expectations. If you choose to financially support these opportunities, it needs to be between you and God, not just because I am asking. Of course, prayer support is a priority and something that everyone can do. We would appreciate you adding orphans and specifically SFCV to your prayer list.

Ok, having gotten that out of the way, I want to reshare a few ways you can help orphans and/or SFCV. (There are many other wonderful organizations out there to support, we choose to focus on SFCV because they cared for our Grace for over 2 years before she joined our family and we believe in what they are doing.)

Here's a couple of ways I have set up to raise money for SFCV:
1. Currently I'm selling Faith, Hope, and Love pendants and God is Love pendants, both with 16" chains. Soon I'll have a SFCV coffee table book to sell.
2. I have a JustLoveCoffee store set up to benefit SFCV. Just click through the link here and SFCV makes a portion of each sale!
3. Looking for some good books? Check out BarefootBooks and purchase some great books! A portion of each sale goes toward SFCV.
4. Vision Forum has some AWESOME books, toys, videos, and audios on raising a godly family!
5. and VERY importantly--you can SPONSOR a child at SFCV!! For $35/month, you can sponsor a child. You will receive updates and photos about your sponsor child. You can send small care packages. And you get the privilege of praying for a specific orphan, knowing that you are actually helping to care for this precious child.

We are also praying that in late 2011/early 2012 we may be blessed with adopting another precious daughter. I have a few other sites set up to add to our TingTing fund, bringing another orphan into a family.
1. My Amazon store has books and such set up, just make a purchase through my store and a portion goes into our TingTing fund.
2. Join us for the Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2011! 50% of the ticket price will go toward our adoption fund and I know that you will be blessed by the wonderful speakers, encouraged, uplifted, and also challenged in your walk as mom and homeschool parent!
3. And of course I am still making some bath and body goodies to sell on the side--lotion bars, soap, lip balm, oil face cleansing mixes...and I'm learning how to make more as I go.

Feel free to pass this post on to others who might be interested in supporting the orphan!

Thank you and may God shower you with His blessings!

Friends

2011-04-27T15:15:00.001-05:00

Oops, I meant to post this weeks ago. Our sweet friend Julie came down with her four children. Our Shaoey and their Caroline were adopted into our families at the same moment. Our families are forever joined at the heart to have shared that moment in time...

Not a whole lot of text today, mainly pictures. The kids played, played, played!

Prejean's Restaurant--it's one of those places every tourist has to go to!

Caleb eating a frog leg!

Julie was quite the sport and ate alligator and a frog leg!

They got to visit our house at the river. Unfortunately the "beach" at the point was under water for the time being.

The next handful are from our trip to New Orleans. We took them to the Insectarium. If you're ever in N.O., this is a cool and different place to go. Don't forget to stop at the Cafe in the back where you can sample things like cricket cookies, waxworm mango salsa, and other yummy insects...LOL

Caroline really (honestly) enjoyed her cricket cookie!

In true Reeve fashion, Caleb looked....

smelled...

and ate waxworm salsa on a cracker! Way to go!

We ate dinner at Bubba Gumps and the food was great! Loved the signs:

If you needed something, you turned the sign to stop and one of the waitstaff would help you.

Cute way to serve a kids meal--in a boat!

And my boys wanted me to take a picture of this:

(click on the photo to enlarge and read the sign.)

Kittens, crawfish, kitchens, and more

2011-04-20T15:30:00.000-05:00

Here's our week in pictures:

Oh my, the kittens are just too adorable! They climb and wrestle and play. Who can resist kitten pics??Going to pick up the third one today.

Crawfish

We seem to be having crawfish quite a bit this year. We had them when my friend Julie was here, we had them Friday (these pictures), and we had them again last night. I actually think I'm getting crawfished out, if that's possible.

I accidentally painted the kitchen in flat paint a couple of years ago. I still don't know where that can of flat paint in that color came from, but the kitchen was in DIRE need of being painted. I decided to change it up a bit. I painted the far wall of the keeping room with magnetic paint and chalkboard paint, so we now have a whole wall that is a magnetic chalkboard! The kids think it's cool, I like having a place to hang artwork easily. Granted the magnetic part isn't super heavy duty, but it works to hang up regular artwork.

and more...Here's my garden. I planted it about 3 weeks ago. So far this is what's come up: The top 2 on the far right are pole beans, under them is a tomato plant. The second column from the right has marigolds and a small lettuce plant at the very front. The third column from the right has cucumbers. The farthest left column has green onions and carrots, but you can't see the sprouts much in the photo. I have high hopes for my garden! Maybe I'll finally have success in gardening!

This is Jacob's garden. He planted about 2 weeks before me. The two big growing boxes are cucumber. He has several lettuce squares on the second row up and the first row is carrots.

And lastly, we've had a cute visitor in our yard this week. I pray he stays around. We'd love to have rabbits running around the yard!

Have a great week!

Sunday Snapshot--Charlotte

2011-04-17T16:35:00.001-05:00

Charlotte

Who's Charlotte?

For those who don't know me in person, she's not my daughter, she's my sister. Charlotte is 7 years younger than me in age. She is a very special person. The girls love hanging out with her in her room. The boys love giving her some "sisterly" teasing (like surprising her with the gerbils!).

I guess I could fill you in on her. Charlotte was born 3 months premature, fluid on the brain, etc. Over time my parents found out that she has mild mental retardation, hydrocephalus (had--shunt removed the fluid and hasn't needed any repairs even though it's not even connected any more!), vision impairment, hearing impairment, and cerebral palsy. But these things don't define who she is. She goes to all sorts of Special Olympics events (softball throw and a 25 meter "run" are her events!). She loves to listen to music, do word search puzzles and latch hook rugs. She ADORES the kids and dotes on them when she comes over.

When mom and dad were alive, Charlotte lived at home and worked at their local ARC (Association for Retarded Citizens) and didn't really do anything else in life. Dad died in 2003 and mom died in 2007. That left just the two of us. After mom's death, she lived with us for a few months, but it wasn't working well for any of us. We hired round the clock caretakers for her in the family home, but it was difficult getting her every weekend, logistically and just the constant readjustment for her. In 2009, we sold the house and moved her into town! What a big step for all of us. She had a room mate for a while, but it wasn't a good fit. We were blessed with an opening at a subsidized apartment complex which has been AWESOME! She has NOW waiver that covers caretakers and our local ARC. I had meetings this week to get her set up at a new Day Learning Center which sounds promising. Right now she just counts out gumbo bowls, 10 at a time and packages them, day after day, 10, 10, 10, 10... But I KNOW she is more capable than that. The new center will teach her health, money, current events (so they can converse with others), exercise, arts and crafts.

(Special Olympics when she spied us in the stadium!)

(Charlotte and 2 of her best friends)

She has quite a full social calendar these days. She goes bowling every Monday. She has set laundry days. Then there's girls' night out every Friday--a group of her friends go out to eat every Friday! Church and sometimes going visiting at the park on Sunday afternoon. I'm so excited for her that she finally has a life of her own. That was one reason it was hard for her to stay here, I basically had to treat her like my daughter and she tacked on to what we were doing. I didn't want that for her. She deserved more. I think we've found it...

The last few hours of a Max's fundraiser

2011-04-17T15:31:00.000-05:00

Check out my friend Karen's awesome fundraiser to bring Max home!

Max

You could enjoy a $500 Visa gift card for helping them by donating to their adoption fund. For a mere $5, you get one entry. For $10, you get 3 entries. And for $25, you get 6 entries! Friends, I know Karen personally. She and her family are the real thing. They have such amazing hearts for the orphans, for caring for God's children. Please, hop over there and help them bring Max home.

THANKS!

p.s. I know some people don't believe in give-aways and see them as gambling. If that's the case, then please consider going to their site and just making a donation. What a blessing you could be to this little boy on the other side of the world waiting for a family to call his own.

SFCV Spring Fundraiser

2011-03-29T10:42:00.001-05:00

Mother's Day fundraiser

It's time to start thinking about what to give our moms this Mother's Day as a token of our love. What do we get for the mom who gave her all to us? How about making a donation in her honor to SFCV! What better way to honor the one you love than to help children without a mother's love and care.

These two were once without a mom to care for them and love them. They were without a mom to kiss their owies and to wrap her arms around them and hug them and tell them it would be ok.

(Shaoey)

(Grace)

During that time, each child has ayis (nannies) to take care of them. We don't have any pictures of Shaoey with an ayi, but we are very blessed with this special photo:

It is of Grace and Song Ayi. Song Ayi was one of Grace's main ayis. Grace had to move from one SFCV house to another before we could travel. Song Ayi was able to move over with her. She took care of Grace from her early days at SFCV.

While waiting for a family, the ayis do the best they can to care for them and love them. We are very blessed that Grace was at SFCV where they strive to give each child a semblance of a family life. The ratio of children to ayis is kept to about 4 or 5 per ayi versus 10, 15, or more children to one ayi in a traditional orphanage. This of course does mean more staff, which means more funds are needed to operate, but what a gift to the children. SFCV is funded through donations and sponsorships. Which leads me to..............

I am excited to debut our newest fundraiser!

We have 2 AWESOME silver pendants to offer. Shaoey (left) is wearing the Faith, Hope, and Love (in Chinese) pendant; while Grace (right) is wearing the God is Love pendant (also in Chinese).

Faith, Hope, and Love

God is Love

For a donation of $35, we will send you the pendant of your choosing on a silver chain. There will also be a small certificate letting the recipient know that a donation to SFCV has been made in their honor. Another family has been working on some very unique envelopes for me to ship them in. I know you're going to enjoy them! (Chain one is more rope style, adjustable length from 16"-18". Chain two is a slender box style, 16" length)

If you feel led to do more, please consider sponsoring a child. For $35 a month, you can sponsor a child. You will have the privilege of helping support your sponsor child and being able to pray for him/her. You will get quarterly updates and photos. You can even send small care packages for holidays and birthdays. You get the chance to be a blessing in their lives.

You can email me at troyandcharlene93@yahoo.com to make a donation or with any questions about SFCV.

Spring has sprung!

2011-03-28T16:45:00.000-05:00

Spring is here, the pecan trees are blooming and you can't fool a pecan tree. It won't start getting it's leaves until frost is over and as you can see...

leaves! And we're moving rapidly into warm summer weather. Sadly spring weather only lasts a few weeks here. I thought you might enjoy a glimpse of our spring here.

My rock princesses:

My sister Charlotte:

(I don't know if I've posted much about her here. Maybe she'll be my next Sunday Snapshot...)

Fishing spiders in the pool (also called dock or wharf spiders--learned that from our nature study this morning!)

Ok, the kids made me take this one...the poor creature flew into our pool fence and didn't make it all the way through. It is a pretty cool picture of it's eyes!

Jacob's garden has started to grow!

He has a handful of cucumber plants coming up:

This next set was too difficult to choose from. We were outside doing together schoolwork this morning. We were doing our composer study, listening to Shostakovich's 6th Symphony and the girls decided to get into princess dresses and do some interpretive dance:

(I just counted legs, did you?)

Costume change...

The boys took the four wheeler to the barn and decided to do some creating.

Ta da! They built a wall around their tree fort. This is in preparation for a horde of testosterone filled boys coming over in the next week for airsoft wars.

Our chickens are doing well. They've started laying eggs later in the day now. So this is how I found them today at 3 pm.

Azaleas are in bloom and if you look closely you can see a huge carpenter bee. Tons of them around right now. Our flowering bushes are humming with them.

This....this is my view from my rocking chair on the front porch--heavenly!

I haven't just been chilling. We are on our last six weeks of school, actually last 4 weeks. We'll be taking off the month of May. I've chosen all our schoolwork for the next year and have already gotten most of it delivered. I love selecting curriculum. Especially since I have really come to terms with how I want my children to learn and what feast I want to put before them. More on that in the coming weeks!

Happy spring!

Square Foot Garden

2011-03-21T10:06:00.000-05:00

If at first you don't succeed, try and try again (and again and again...).

I am a determined woman. So despite several (many?) failed attempts at gardening in my past, I am determined to eventually get it right! I am determined to eat something that we have grown. And most importantly (LOL) I'm determined to prove my husband wrong!

I recently came across Square Foot Gardening and it looks so doable!

Jacob, the girls, and I decided to start our gardens this weekend. Jacob and I built the boxes. They're 4' x 4' x 8". They say you can use 6" deep boards, but I liked the weight of the heavier looking ones in our big yard.

(Look at our two beautiful flowers blooming!)

Once the boxes were made, we placed them just outside our sunroom. We spread newspaper down to help with weed control and then we filled it with the special mix that the author of SFG recommends--one third compost, one third peat moss, and one third vermiculite. You mix it all on a tarp, moistening it as you go, and then fill your box.

I misjudged the amount needed for slats and only had enough for Jacob's, I'll finish mine this week. The reason for the slats is that it helps you to visualize the garden in terms of square feet instead of long, space-wasting rows. You are maximizing space and it allows you to do crop rotation easily. When one crop is done, you just pull up the plant from that square, no tilling, add a bit of compost, and plant the next crop. Here you can plant a different item in each square. The size of the plant determines how many of each you can plant in it. For example, one square can be one bell pepper plant or 4 heads of romaine lettuce, or 16 carrots. Jacob chose peppers, lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, and marigolds. The marigolds are for color and to aid in pest control. They give other ideas of plants that help keep garden pests at bay. You can also think in terms of growing using trellises, etc. I'll be planting beans and tomatoes so I'll be needing some upward real estate.

You'll notice that these are RIGHT outside our sunroom. This is quite intentional. Think about a traditional row garden. You plant it out on the back 40 because it's so big and not overly attractive. Watering it is a pain, you need to put weeding on your schedule to make sure you REMEMBER to do it. With these cute little garden boxes being close, you can't help but remember because they are right there near your house. Weeding is easy because you're not using your soil which is already full of weeds. Here weeds can be quickly plucked at the first sign. Watering is done quickly and easily with out dragging out the hose. You use a bucket and a cup and water directly at the base of the plant that NEEDS it. No mass watering from above with a hose. This will help prevent leaf rot and get the water where it really needs to go--the roots, not the leaves.

I can't wait to see how this works. We should start seeing something in a week or two and be able to start harvesting the first crops within about 5-6 weeks! Can't wait to keep you updated on our growth.

Sunday Snapshot--Jacob

2011-03-21T08:36:00.001-05:00

My Jacob...

This week I decided to spotlight Jacob since we spent the day together planting our new garden. He wanted one just for himself that he could be in charge of and plant what he wanted to eat. (He ended up planting bell peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, and carrots. He also planted some marigolds for pest control and color.)

Jacob is my funny, kind-hearted, helpful, peacemaking, sensitive, handsome young man-child...(I'm not ready to admit he's growing up and just say young man!). He is GREAT with the girls and will play with them and entertain them with his antics. He's also our outside child. He LOVES to be outside. It doesn't matter if it's riding bikes, four wheeling, running through the woods, or even doing schoolwork-- outside is where he wants to be!

Sunday Snapshot--Shaoey

2011-03-14T07:58:00.000-05:00

(Yes, I realize it's now Monday morning...I just forgot to hit publish last night.)

This will be my first time joining Stephanie at Ni Hao Y'all in Sunday Snapshot. I've chosen to spotlight Shaoey this weekend. She is such a sweet little girl, with a huge heart for others. She amazes me with her ability to think about what others need or want. She is such a blessing to us and to others.

"Children Of God" - Official Music Video

2011-03-13T19:17:00.000-05:00

This is so true. I began to understand my adoption into His family so much clearer. I really began to grasp the magnitude of it, of His heart for me, after we began adopting. As I witnessed my love for our adopted children, it was such a tangible reality of His love for us. What an awesome song--ENJOY!!

Children in church

2011-02-28T21:36:00.000-06:00

Here's a quote about children in church from Voddie's Baucham's church Grace Family Baptist Church's website....

"Nurseries tend to hide problems that need to be corrected. Children who cannot sit through a service need training and discipline, not isolation. Moreover, if these children cannot sit through the service, they are probably giving their parents fits at home (thus their desire to dump them off at the nursery on Sunday morning). We patiently teach inexperienced families how to walk with their children through this process and it blesses their home, their marriage, their relationship with their children and the testimony of the church."

Amen, amen, amen!

As I've been broaching this sensitive (almost as sensitive as when you mention that you homeschool!) topic with friends, these are basically the defenses I keep hearing: 1. you don't know MY child, he would never sit there, 2. I wouldn't get anything out of church, 3. children need to hear a lesson on their level and be around other children their age, etc.

You're right, I don't know your child, but God does! What better lesson than to hear God's word preached from the pulpit? I would rather my children receive the gospel from a pastor that God has chosen to lead our local church than someone filling a time slot. (I understand that many/most of them are loving adults, I just don't feel that they all have the gifting and annointing of teaching/preaching...) If we go to church to worship God, get a message from God; are our children any different? Can't they worship God and get a message from God? I also don't see how children being around other children will encourage them to reach higher and press deeper into God and not stay at the status quo. By being around the adults of the church, they have a higher exposure to the Titus 2 principle--to be mentored, exhorted, and encouraged by Christian men and women.

As for getting God's word for us at church, church isn't all about you. I also believe that it is just a season, a season of training. God is the God of seasons (Ecclesiastes 3:1). I believe the effort we put forth for this season will reap such benefit and dividends! What a legacy we can leave our children. I love how this paragraph from The Family Worship Book discusses the importance of children being in church with us as a family:

"How does this commitment to public worship relate to the family's spiritual well being? The effect upon parents is clear enough. Spiritually nourished parents make for better families. But the "family pew" has more in mind than sanctifying parents. When your children are brought with you into public worship, they too are sanctified. Your children, from their earliest years, will be ushered along with you into the presence of God. They will be brought under the means of grace and will experience the fellowship of God's people week after week as they mature through childhood. Beyond this, they will sit by you Sunday after Sunday, watching you publicly humble yourself before God and submit to His word. Among their earliest and warmest memories will be those of holding their parents' hands during church, sitting close to their sides, following along in the hymnal, placing money in the offering plate, and bowing their heads in prayer. Do not underestimate the cumulative effect of this witness upon covenant children. No doubt it is considerable, even incalculable."

I don't think I can say it any better. Isn't that what we want for our children?

{Two books in particular that I have been reading on this subject are Family Driven Faith: Doing What It Takes to Raise Sons and Daughters Who Walk with God by Voddie Baucham Jr. (Especially from chapter 9 on) and The Family Worship Book: A Resource Book for Family Devotions by Terry L. Johnson. They discuss the correlation between the rise in the children's ministry movement and the rising loss of our youth from the faith. From Family Driven Faith, "According to researchers, between 70 and 88 percent of Christian teens are leaving the church by the second year of college." (Report to the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee).}

A special visit from our China sisters!

2011-02-20T22:18:00.003-06:00

My great friend Dawn and her 2 girls, Bekah and Leah, flew down to visit with us this week. (They're not really my girls' sisters, it's just become a sweet term that the girls in our group call each other.)

Here we are at the airport waiting for them to arrive.

Leah has taken a liking to Jacob.

We took them to see the house in BLR today. It appears to be lady bug season again. There were MANY inside the house. The girls decided to capture them. Here they are letting them crawl all over them.

Leah took this stunning picture of Shaoey! What a photographer! Of course she also had a beautiful model to work with...

Our 4 Chinese girls:

Bekah and Shaoey

Shaoey and Leah

Marveling over the popcorn maker! The joys of childhood.

Bekah playing frisbee with Troy.

Dawn and Bekah

OH MY--How stunning!

Jacob enjoying being taller than Connor!

Bekah has attached herself to Connor and seems quite smitten with him. She is beside herself with joy to be playing with the Nerf guns.

We are having such an awesome visit. The girls are getting along fabulously. The boys are being awesome big brothers to ALL the girls. And Dawn and I are having so much fun visiting in person. Thanks to our wonderful husbands for allowing us to arrange this visit. We are so blessed!

Awww...

2011-02-14T20:09:00.000-06:00

I'm so indebted to a family that was just at SFCV. These pictures are my lifeline and my heartache. I love to see photos of our sweet girl. She is growing so big and even more beautiful, but my heart aches for her.

Hope you enjoy them like I do:

The love of my life....

2011-02-14T10:40:00.001-06:00

The love of my life....

He just keeps growing more and more handsome and irresistible as the years pass....

It's with such fond and precious memories that I look back on our first Valentine's day 24 years ago. We thought we were so grown up....pizza and wine coolers at Mr. Gatti's. It's a tradition that, like our love for each other, has stood the test of time. To this day, we still celebrate with pizza, only now it's home made and one little heart shaped pizza wouldn't feed our crew! (This picture from January 1987 was the closest I had to our first valentine's day. Isn't he just adorable!)

(Wedding day, June 1993)

Who knew God would lead us on such a wild roller coaster ride to where we are now. I thank God for such an amazing husband. I am so deeply and richly in love with you, honey. I am honored to love you, serve you, and be your helper.

I love you!

Xin Nian Kuai Le

2011-02-04T07:53:00.000-06:00

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Happy (lunar) New Year!

[For some reason, I never really gave much thought to the fact that it's not just Chinese New Year, there are other countries that also celebrate the lunar new year. Thanks to a new friend for making me more aware of that! Obviously we've celebrated it as Chinese New Year with out 2 Chinese princesses, but I am always glad to learn more about the asian culture.]

But I digress..

We celebrated the new year yesterday. The girls wore their Chinese outfits:

atleast until Grace got sick all over her's before I could get a picture. She ended up napping ALL day until about 2.. (no wonder she was up at 3:30 this morning, sigh.)

eating a popsicle...the first thing she kept down all day

The kids decorated the table with red paper lanterns, panda bears, chopsticks and all!

I cooked one of the kids favorites--pork fried rice. I thought I'd show you our recipe. I think they liked it---they asked me if I could cook it every night! (recipe is at the bottom of this post)

Rice is obviously an important ingredient in fried rice. Did you know it comes out better when you cook the rice the day before? It's true.

Some of the other ingredients--

It really helps to have everything ready to go because the cooking stage moves rather quickly

Grace decided she was ready to eat. Here she is in outfit number 2.

Here's the finished product. We also had potstickers and pork buns. (BTW, the pork buns were not yummy. We bought them at our local oriental market--don't think we'll be buying them again. We loved the ones in China...)

And our grand finale..........................Chocolate Wontons (from The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook)

These are so easy and SO yummy!
All you need is one egg and a tbs of water mixed together, wonton wrappers, 12 pieces of chocolate (like Hershey's nuggets), oil, and powdered sugar.

Lay out the wrappers, place a piece of chocolate on each one (more on one half than the other), use your finger (or pastry brush) to put the egg mixture around the outside of the wonton, fold it in half and press to seal. Heat about 2" of oil. Slide a few of these in at a time. Cook about 1 1/2 minutes per side until golden brown. Remove and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Ta da! The kids LOVE these!

Pork Fried Rice Recipe:

2 cups long grain white rice

1/4 cup oyster sauce

2 tbs soy sauce

3 eggs, beaten until just blended

2 tbs peanut or vegetable oil

1 cup frozen baby peas, thawed

3 scallions thinly sliced including some of the tops (about 1/3-1/2 a cup)

1 cup mung bean sprouts

2 cups cooked pork (or chicken or shrimp...)

Sesame oil

Break up any clumps of cold rice. In a small bowl, stir together the soy sauce and the oyster sauce.

Coat a wok (or large skillet) with nonstick spray and heat over medium-high heat. When it's hot, add the eggs, swirling them around to make sure they coat the pan. Cook without stirring (I just continue to swirl around) until the eggs are firm and cooked but not browning then slide onto a plate for cutting.

Add the oil and return the wok to high heat. When the oil is hot, add the peas and scallions and cook, stirring constantly, until the scallions are limp (a minute or 2). I then stir in the meat and bean sprouts and stir and heat a moment before adding the rice, sauce mixture, and eggs. Continue to cook until the rice is heated through. Drizzle with sesame oil to taste (it doesn't take much!)

This week's menu

2011-01-29T23:14:00.000-06:00

Thought I'd share what's on our menu for the week:

Sunday:

Breakfast-baked oatmeal and boiled eggs

Lunch-EMFH (Every Man For Himself--aka leftovers)

Dinner-slow cooker French dip with salad and homemade bread

Monday:

Breakfast-cereal

Lunch-cheeseburger cresents

Dinner-lettuce cups (The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook) and rice balls (Basic Asian)

Tuesday:

Breakfast-biscuits and sausage

Lunch-leftovers

Dinner-cheddar & potato soup with spicy spare ribs (cooking double to use in fried rice on Wednesday) and homemade bread

Wednesday:

Breakfast-cinnamon bread

Lunch-homemade Mac and cheese

Dinner-stir fried rice, potstickers, and chocolate wontons--recipes from The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook
(due to other commitments, we're celebrating CNY tonight, it's on Thursday.)

Thursday:

Breakfast-toast and sunny side up eggs

Lunch-leftovers

Dinner-chili taco salad

Friday:

Breakfast-pancakes

Lunch-sandwiches or homemade lunchables

Dinner-Dh is hunting, so it's leftovers and sandwiches for the weekend...

Saturday:

Breakfast-banana nut muffins (the boys make them!)

Sunday:

Breakfast-grits

Lunch-??

Dinner-PW chicken spaghetti (cooking extra chicken to make 2 chicken pot pies-one to eat this week and one to freeze) Both recipes are from The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl

Our newest gizmo is a popcorn popper and we're loving it. The kids are into having popcorn with nuts/seeds for a snack and we were going through the microwave bags too fast! I also bought a Kindle book called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I made my first batch of bread today and it turned out great! One of the kids said it tasted as good as Great Harvest Bread Co.--I'll take that as a compliment!

We (Troy) ended up grinding 53 pounds of venison from one deer!

Ingredients for baking bread today (minus the oil)

This is what it looked like right after I finished mixing it:

This was 2 hours later--it had tripled in size!

Getting ready to go into the oven...

Fresh out of the oven. I sprinkled a little too much flour on top, not a big deal...

The kids LOVED it!

~Excitedly waiting on popcorn~

What we do in our spare time...

Could you be this young man's family?

2011-01-16T20:51:00.000-06:00

Liyuan is 13 years old and is running out of time to find a family.

Liyuan was born on Dec. 1997. His mother left home when he was little and her whereabouts are unknown. His father died of illness in August 2007 and that's when he came to the orphanage. When he came in, he was depressed and rebellious because of the changes of environment and his father’s death. He didn't listen to others’ advice. Later under the loving care and concerns of all of the staff in this orphanage, he slowly became outgoing, can greet people around him proactively, help caretakers look after crying children, help elders in the institute sweep the floor, and carry water etc. The institute applied in September 2007 to declare that his mother was dead. People’s Court judged to declare his mother’s death in December 2007. Because Liyuan’s parents all died and he has no direct relatives in his family, he became an orphan.

This institute knows from the residents’ committee of the birthplace of Liyuan that the he is a hardworking and kind-hearted child at home, can help family members do farm work that he can do, and gets along well with neighbors. He began to study in preschool class at the age of 6 years and is a pupil who loves studying lessons and doing labor work. Normally in class he engages in difficult and dirty tasks actively and can finish them successfully. In the beginning due to his different dialect, he had academic difficulties, but now he has good academic results and is praised by teachers and classmates. He is currently enrolled in Grade 5. Usually he rides a bike to go to school and comes home from school by himself, has great independence, usually has meals alone, takes a bath, and washes clothes alone. At school, he can listen to lessons attentively and seriously, gets along well with classmates, but in the beginning because of his different dialect, his academic results can not become good. Usually after class he plays games with other classmates, joins in some small outdoor activities. Now he has become more and more outgoing and active.

Liyuan honestly doesn't have much time. When a child reaches the age of 14, they are no longer considered adoptable. They either go into the adult portion of the welfare institute (think nursing home with no hope) or they are put out on the streets to beg and work in any way they can to support themselves.

Please pray about it. Could you be his family, his hope for a future? Time is running out.

Contact Xiaoqing with BAAS at xqcai@comcast.net for more information.

Midyear checkup!

2011-01-11T14:14:00.002-06:00

We've almost finished 24 weeks of school! I thought it would be a good time to look back and evaluate what we've done and see if anything needs adjusting or tweaking.

Overall, this year has gone pretty smoothly (said in amazement!). I honestly have to say it's been our best year ever. One thing that testifies to that is how little I have changed course over the year. In previous years, I would get swayed by "new" curriculum I'd run across. I'd switch and change and realize that it had it's problems too. Here and here I posted about our upcoming year--schedule and curriculum. It was fun just looking back over those 2 posts, because not much has changed (unless we finished a book)! To me that symbolizes a peace with where we are, a peace with the curriculum, and with the style of learning (Charlotte Mason).

I thought you might be interested to see the minor tweaks I've made and what we've kept.

Bible and devotions: The boys are still reading one chapter a day in their bibles and we have moved on to a new devotion book Grace for the Moment Morning & Evening Edition. Both boys finished their bible study books and we started The Book of Proverbs God's Book of Wisdom . We still do scripture memory daily. For the girls, we have started Truth & Grace Memory Book #1 and they love it!

Character issues: I've added in Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends. Jacob seems to be having a tougher time than usual with Connor and his AS... Jacob longs for a brother to play with him in a more interactive way. I am hoping that using this book will be a good sort of social story for Connor and of course, what brothers and sisters don't need to work at being better friends. We also still read one selection a week from The Book of Virtues for Young People.

Math: Both boys are still using Saxon Math and it's going well. We'll stick with it! We also finished reading Mathematicians are People Too. The girls use the Math-U-See Primer a couple times a week and LOTS of life skills--counting, helping mom cook, etc.

History: Gotta love the SCM History guides! We're on lesson 146 of Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation, & the Epistles. I can't believe how much we (yes, we) are learning. We are learning so much about the reformation that I never knew. We have about 30 lessons left and then we move on to some American history (hoping to time it right when SCM comes out with Module 5...). I really enjoy these guides because they aren't overwhelmingand they give you such a nice outline of daily readings, a little less work for me. We've tried numerous ones (Weaver, SOTW, MOH...) and I always felt like it was too much--too much for me and too much for them. Lots of stuff that was just fluff thrown in just for the sake of filling it up with activites. SCM gives you what to read as a family (the spine and other books) and what to assign each level to read independently (if possible). We've loved most all the books this year--The Man Who Laid the Egg, Thunderstorm in Church, The Beggar's Bible, Around the World in a Hundred Years, Christopher Columbus...and that's just our together reading! Connor has read The White Stag, The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, The Shining Company, The Magna Charta, In Freedom's Cause, and he is now on The Prince and the Pauper. Jacob has read The Pied Piper of Hamelin, The Vikings, Adam of the Road, and he is now reading The World of Christopher Columbus and Sons. Wow, kind of an eye opener for me. Sometimes when you're in the middle of it you don't see the big picture. We've covered a lot of history.

Spelling and Copywork and Grammar: Jacob does SCM Spelling Wisdom 1 and Connor does Spelling Wisdom 2. They do it 3 times a week and Copywork the other 2 days of the week. It is amazing to see their skills increase without using dry, boring, contrived lists. And their handwriting! To flip through their pages of writing and see the improvement....sure gives them a burst of encouragement. They didn't believe it would happen and they don't see it in the day to day of it, but to go back and flip through...good stuff! They both finished their Analytical Grammar for the year. Connor does have to do one review selection every other week.

Reading and Handwriting: The girls and I have been working on Get Ready for the Code - Book a and Handwriting without Tears. Shaoey is into writing all of our names and then Grace copies Shaoey's paper!

Literature: I added this in. They have a literature piece to read 3 times a week and a science selection to read 2 times. Connor has read Gentle Ben and now The Deer Slayer. Jacob read Gentle Ben and is now reading In His Steps. We were using Jacks' Insects for science reading, but we found it too dry for us so we switched to The Story Book of Science. We really like the conversational tone much better.

Foreign Language: After dragging it out longer than I should have, we finally ~~ditched~~ changed from Latin to Spanish and it seems to be a better fit. We're using Getting Started with Spanish and SPANISH in 10 minutes a day®.

Science: We are reading Discover Nature in Winter: Things to Know and Things to Do a couple of days a week and we try to take a nature walk and make a nature journal entry on Fridays. The girls and I are reading Christian Liberty Nature Reader Book 1.
.

Picture, composer, and poetry study: This seems to be hit or miss. We only do each one one day a week, but some weeks we don't hit all 3. This would have bothered me in the past, but I feel that we have such a rounded selection that we are hitting quite a bit. No guilt!

Extra: We still do The Fallacy Detective and we added in Mavis Beacon Typing.

In addition, we've had numerous field trips so far this year--Houston (NASA, Houston Zoo, and the Cockrell Butterfly Museum and Museum of Natural Science), a corn maze, a Christmas tree farm, hunting in Sonora (both boys killed bucks)...

I know this looks like a lot, but would you believe we are done by noon most days! Honestly! We don't do every subject every day many of these things only take 10-15 minutes each. It really is such a delight to spend the days with my children. (Please don't read that as we never get under each other's skin...we are human, not saints!)

How are you doing this school year? Have you made changes? I'd love to hear about it! I've been wanting to try my first Mcklinky and this sounds like a good place to try it.

As I emerge from the battle...

2011-01-04T21:51:00.000-06:00

I feel victorious over the kitchen! I thought you might appreciate some before and after pictures. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures before we unloaded the island, but I think you can imagine what it looked like with every thing in the chairs, on the floor, and on the island INSIDE the island! FULL and stuff falling out every time we opened cabinets!

BEFORE:

This one wasn't too bad on the top, just the bottom had bottles falling out every time we opened it!

All this and more was under the island!! (I had 2 wonderfully silly helpers.)

All this--25 coffee mugs, 2 sake sets, travel mugs, coffee, tea mugs and accessories, and 2 escargot plates (don't ask...we've used them once in 15 years and I don't eat them!)....

Came from this small corner cabinet!

AFTER:

One of my favorite kitchen places now--all my measuring spoons in one place, all the many chopsticks in one basket, AND only the items I ACTUALLY use--novel idea!

(Above and below back up to each other.)

(The above and below back up to each other.)

And my 2 helpers going strong. What hams!

Tomorrow I think I'll tackle the sunroom (where we actually spend most of our day).

Word/Verse for my year

2011-01-03T08:53:00.003-06:00

A few days ago one of my friends from the ChattyGirlsGroup mentioned how she was choosing her word and verse for the year. She directed us to this blog that she follows. I'd never really thought about it or read much about it. Then in a totally unrelated confirmation, I "stumbled" upon this blog that also talked about it. Hmmm... I am learning that when God has things show up a few times, it probably means that I need to take notice! After thinking and praying about it, I have come up with my word and verse for 2011:

Simplicity

Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith. Proverbs 15:16 (KJV)

How appropriate considering so much of what I've been into lately--natural, simple, back to basics... From the books and magazines that I read--Mother Earth News, Grit, Suburban Farmgirl, MaryJaneFarm--to cooking from scratch and raising chickens--thanks to Pioneer Woman and the above magazines--to the products I use--homemade lotion, lip gloss, natural shampoo & conditioner, cleaning supplies, etc...

After reading Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider, I am inspired to regain control of my stuff and put it in it's place--literally and figuratively! She gives a 10 day "plan" to go through your house. The goal here is based on a quote from William Morris "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." To go through your house one room at a time completely emptying it of stuff (except furniture and wall hangings, unless you want to), cleaning it from top to bottom and then... THEN comes the hard part. Going through your piles and filtering it through those 2 things: useful and beautiful. It doesn't mean living with nothing or a barren house, but making the decision--is the item worth more to me or is the space and having less to care for worth more? Oh how attached we are to stuff... She also addresses souvenirs and momentos, giving us "permission" to let go of them, that it doesn't mean we loved the trip or our time with family any less.

Please understand me, the goal is doesn't deal with just the stuff though. I recently read this about simplicity: the simplifying of one's life in order to focus on things that are most important and disregard or avoid things that are least important. I want my focus to be about the "things" that are important, that have true significance--God and people/relationships. But by choosing to deal with my physical stuff and it's hold on me and to live simply, I free up my time, resources, and attention to pour into the most important things--loving God and loving people! I want to be free to be used as God sees fit without the stuff holding me back. You know what I mean, that thought that "oh, I can't invite them over, the house is cluttered and a mess" or "I can't make a meal, drive her somewhere, spend an hour or two listening to her, etc for her I've got laundry, cleaning, etc... to do." Can you tell I've heard those in my head before? By getting rid of the excess and waste, the house should run more efficiently, freeing me up to spend more time in God's word, more time seeking His face (and not His hand), and more time loving and worshiping Him which will overflow into loving others as God loves them, not as I see them, but as He sees them.

The beginning of the year seems like a good time to do this, so I started it a couple of days ago. I did the living room yesterday. Should be heading on to the front room (library) and dining room today, but I feel that the kitchen is REALLY what needs it. Time to get rid of all those extra gadgets that I know don't get used! If in doubt, I love the suggestion to put it in a box somewhere else and if I haven't gone to get it in 3 or 6 months, apparently--I don't need it! So time to go empty the kitchen, if you don't hear from me in a few days, you may want to send in a search and rescue team!

Simplicity

Jacob turns 11!

2011-01-01T20:34:00.000-06:00

And finishing up the year on Dec. 30th....Jacob's birthday! My sweet, servant hearted, loving Jacob turned 11! We celebrated by having a handful of friends over for an airsoft war, pizza, and chocolate heaven cake. Doesn't get any better than that!

11 years ago...what a weekend that was! We were going vbac and early because his head was off the charts for a 38 week baby, so we induced at 6 am. He didn't decide to come out until 8:48 p.m. Troy was on call that weekend and had office hours the first half the day. Then came to my room and napped before rounding in the hospital. We were discharged by 1 p.m. the next day. It turns out that that weekend would be the worst flu season in Lafayette...pharmacies ran out of meds, Troy got over 50 calls in just over 24 hours, and we had a newborn with jaudice... Ok, more than you probably wanted to know... But it was all worth it! Here's by boy:

Christmas 2010

2011-01-01T20:19:00.001-06:00

What an amazing Christmas! The kids are all at a fun age. We were able to spend time making presents for friends, building gingerbread houses, visiting friends... We did our traditional Christmas Eve chicken and sausage gumbo with Troy's family. Then Christmas day we read Luke 2 and opened presents, then we visited his parents for lunch. We had a wonderfully quiet and peaceful day. (compare to Christmas 2009--my have they grown!)

The grandkids then and now:
2009

2010

To get the fun of this picture, you need to look in the bottom right...that would be a pokey arm!

Granddad and girls

Dad had to try out the boys Christmas present a few days before...had to make sure it works, right?

My handsome husband...still makes my heart smile and gives me goosebumps!

Festival of Lights, Natchitoches, LA

2011-01-01T20:09:00.000-06:00

Being the super cool mom that I am (LOL), I braved the Festival of Lights with 6 kids. Troy was hunting and the kids and I wanted to go...so we went! We picked up a couple of friends along the way. I think they had a great time--junk food, face painting, rock wall, lights, and the amazing fireworks display! It really was a great outing. I just love doing these kind of things with the kids.

Grace's Family Day

2011-01-01T20:05:00.000-06:00

Christmas is an extra special time for us. We get to celebrate Grace becoming a part of our family! This year we went to PF Chang's in Baton Rouge. What a change from when we first met.... We are so blessed to have her for a daughter. She is so full of love and giggles. She amazes us with her tenacity and determination. And yet she is so sensitive and loving. Praise God for this sweetness in our life!

December in BLR

2011-01-01T19:53:00.001-06:00

During the winter, we spent a good bit of time in BLR during the week. It's close enough to town for Troy to go to work. The kids and I got in some great reading time and nature walk. Check it out:

Sonora, TX

2011-01-01T19:10:00.006-06:00

I know...this is a little late. Where did December go? Where did 2010 go? So much to catch up on, but I'll start with our trip to Sonora for Thanksgiving week. A great friend has a hunting lease there. The kids just love going to Dr. Jeff's lodge! This trip was no different. Lots of food, fun, and fantastic hunting. All the young men killed deer and Shaoey and Grace were in the stand with Troy when he killed a deer, so they claim it as theirs! Enjoy the video collage of photos from our trip.

Depraved Indifference

2010-12-03T09:36:00.000-06:00

What a great video...

God has so changed our lives and our hearts toward these children. It's so hard to explain to my friends and family. I know some of them are tired of hearing it and want to close their ears to the call, but it is undeniable--God has called us to care for these children. And it's not all about adoption. I know that not everyone will answer the call to adopt, but it is bigger than that. It is about caring for them, praying for them, having your hearts broken for what breaks God's heart....

What would you do if that was your child? How do you think God feels when He looks down and sees one of His children abandoned with no one to care for him while we sit in our abundance and ignore the situation or sit around talking about it without action? I stand by my beliefs that everyone can do something. I KNOW it seems overwhelming and you begin to believe the lies of Satan that what one person does doesn't make a difference, but believe me, IT DOES!