This is MY daughter!

I find it fascinating how different my kids are from me.  Why it always catches me by surprise that my kids have different personality traits and talents, I really don’t know, but it does.  I have zero artistic ability…..and I mean drawing a stick person is the extent of my artistic skill…….one day I noticed that Jeremiah was drawing an amazing tractor…….I was shocked!  My mom drew a tractor for him, he watched and then drew some of his own, with improvements!  Is this MY son! 

I feel the same way watching Natalie play soccer.  This girl’s got game!  Now me……I don’t have any “sports sense” and coordination……forget it!  But Natalie,she is amazing.  She’s only had two practices and played about 4 or 5 games this season, but she knows exactly what to do!  This past Saturday she scored 8 goals……yep, EIGHT!  I love watching her play.  She hangs back…..no “herd ball”for this girl…..she let’s the boys fight it out and when the ball is free, she’s on it.  Natalie has an innate sense to protect her goal (her league does not play with goalies) and she can outrun EVERY kid.  And this is MY daughter!!

Birthmother's Day

 Today is Birthmother’s Day.  And all day I’ve been thinking about Carlos and Jeremiah’s birthmom.  All day I’ve been thinking about Natalie’s birthmom.  And all day I’ve been thinking about Jadyn’s birthmom.  I’ve never met these three beautiful women.  I’ve never been able to look them in the eyes and say thank you.  I wish I could tell them how amazing their sons or daughter is……….and what a privilege it has been for Stephen and me to teach, train and love these precious children. I think about the pain that they have endured and I wonder if tomorrow is unbearably difficult for them.  

I feel like this is a half-finished thought, but I can’t seem to find the right words to finish it.

Fowl Update

 

Guess what?!!?!?  Our chicks have turned into chickens and THEY ARE STILL ALIVE!  Sorry for shouting, it’s just that we’ve never had a “pet” that lived longer than two week and our chicks are now about 8 weeks old and living!!!

About 3 weeks ago Stephen got their new home finished and they moved from our sunroom into the great outdoors.  I’m not sure who was happier, me to have thesunroom back and stink free or the chickens (especially since their box was getting really cramped).  And they are thriving living outside.

We named one chicken Ginger because she kept escaping……silly thing would get out and then sit right beside the hen house…..I’m not sure why she felt the need to escape,but Stephen fixed that little problem and she’s now safe.

The kids still love their chicks, even though they are so big now, and very often I find all four of my big kids in the cage with the chickens.

SO that’s my fowl update.

Shoes

Pick me a strawberry

Friday we decided to skip “school” and opted for some practical education……strawberry picking! The plan was to go early…..my “early” plans don’t usually work out all that great and today was no exception, but we arrived and that’s the important part.  I plopped Jadyn down in our strawberry row and for the next hour she was very happy munching on strawberries, leaves and straw.  The picking was pretty good this year and the berries were delicious.

We picked a total of 2 buckets…..I picked a full bucket and Natalie and Carlos each picked about a half a bucket.  Jeremiah and Ben picked a combined total of 20 berries……not really exaggerating either!!  But they ate their weight in fresh strawberries and were pretty content picking and eating until the very end.

The patch where we were picking had very tall wild onions growing alongside the berry plants.  The kids asked why the onions were there and I speculated…..”perhaps they keep away pesky bugs”  or “maybe the onions help keep the wild animals out of the strawberry fields”.  In the end, I decided to find out why the onions were there.......so when we paid I asked! Jokes on me….turns out the onions are in the field because they’ve not been able to get rid of them!!  Pesky old wild onion weeds.