Shoot me now...

As I said a while back, we're planning a few fund-raising activities to help pay for our adoption expenses, and one of those is selling our homeschool materials. I stupidly thought that this was something I could get ready for over a weekend, but it's now Wednesday and I've got at least another two days ahead of me. I knew we had a lot of stuff, but holy smokes! We have a LOT of stuff!

We used Sonlight as our main curriculum, with lots of other things to supplement. I still love Sonlight, and homeschooling in general, and I admit I've been a little emotional seeing all these books that hold so many memories. Reading through old reports and looking through art projects pulls at my heartstrings, too. :o( But I'm also proud of my kids for making so much progress, and grateful for the time that I got to be involved in such a significant part of their lives. I don't know if our homeschooling days are over for good (I suspect we will homeschool Song Guo, at least in the beginning), but they sure were wonderful while they lasted.

I'm hoping that tomorrow I can finish up getting everything sorted into cores and like items, and then Friday I hope to inventory everything and make up a temporary blog where I will list everything for sale. We're trusting that this will make a bit of a dent in our expenses. Our next big-ticket costs are about $1000 for our I800A and fingerprinting, and $5500 for the remainder of our China fees when our dossier goes to China in the next 2-3 months. After that, we have some time to scrape together the rest of the funds, which we won't need until time to travel. Wish us luck!

The little things

I don't know what it is about Sundays, but it always seems to be on Sundays when I notice more than the typical amount of - I don't know - sweetness? coming from my family. I always think my family is awesome, but we do have our shared of bickering, breakdowns and bawling. ;o) Today at church, I caught my 16 year old daughter actually singing the hymns, and she did it the whole meeting. I also saw her hug, genuinely hug, her older brother. Sofie, our 8-year-old, spontaneously got up in front of the whole congregation and shared her testimony, including expressing gratitude for the opportunity to fast and receive blessings. I saw older siblings comfort younger ones, and I got "just because" hugs from two of my older kids, and a request for a mommy-daughter date on Saturday from another.

Cora helped me make lunch, Jackson and Beck put together tomorrow's school lunches, and Curtis and the other kids brought down all the dirty laundry and got it sorted. After lunch, everybody pitched in and helped clean up the mess without being asked. People thanked me for the good food (which they are always great about doing) and told me specific things they liked about the meal. For Family Home Evening, Zoe and Maizie put together a great activity of scripture charades, and everyone participated and had fun. As I type, I'm listening to Ethan play the piano. Everything has just worked today, and having a day like this makes me incredibly grateful for the amazing family that God has assembled for us. I miss my daughter in Billings, and it's hard to be separated from Song Guo, but I look forward to the special holidays and other occasions when our entire family can be together. I love them all so much.

Here are a few pictures from Family Home Evening today. I snapped them with my phone, so most of them are blurry, but they make me happy to look at. (Well, except when I see the lathe and plaster in the background... Sigh...) :o)

I think this one was "raising Lazarus from the dead" ;o)

Healing the blind

Sofie

I'm not sure what Maizie was supposed to be!

Still not sure...

Curtis and Cora in a boat

Loundia

I think Lily was Daniel in the lion's den. Poppy isn't visible, but she was the lion, ferocious corgi that she is. ;o)

Beck is sitting on Joshua's friend D's lap. He comes over for lunch and FHE on Sunday a lot.

Weekly menu

I am finding myself awash in potatoes, kiwi, mangoes, bok choy and Napa cabbage after picking up my Bountiful Baskets today. The menu for the coming week will use up the majority of our produce, but I was able to freeze a gallon size bag each of Napa and bok choy for later, plus I roasted, diced and froze our Anaheim peppers to use this week and beyond.

Here's what came in today's baskets (3) and Asian add-on pack (2):

• 3 cantaloupes
• 3 pineapples (plus 2 I bought at Costco last week)
• 18 or so apples
• 3 bunches bananas (plus 2 big bunches from last week that are just now ready to eat)
• 15 or so mangoes (plus at least 6 from the last two baskets)
• 24 or so kiwis (plus we have 3 bags of organic kiwis ripening from last week)

• 2 bunches celery
• 2 huge heads of bok choy
• 2 huge heads of Napa cabbages
• 2 bunches green onions
• 12 or so water chestnuts (fresh water chestnuts are AMAZING and nothing like the nasty canned ones!)
• 6 English cucumbers
• 6 bell peppers
• 2 heads garlic
• 4 yellow onions
• 2 bags of snow peas
• 3 containers of living butter lettuce (my favorite lettuce!)
• 12 Anaheim chilies
• 2 bags of white new potatoes
• 3 bags of Brussels sprouts (plus a big bag I bought at Costco last week)
• 2 bags of Thai basil

We also have 6 gorgeous yellow squash from last week, and a ton of tomatoes, oranges, apples and pears. And then there's the stuff I've frozen from previous weeks.

I shouldn't have bought the pineapple and Brussels sprouts from Costco, but I only get there about once a month and sometimes I just can't help myself. I never learn. Still, I love that I don't have to buy any produce at the store anymore. I usually wait to get my baskets on Saturday, and then fill in a couple of things that I'm missing either Saturday afternoon or Monday morning. This week the only thing I'll have to buy is some strawberries and raspberries.

In case you haven't figured it out, I seriously love Bountiful Baskets. There's no way I could get all that comes in one basket for $15 at the store, and I love that it forces me to be more creative with my cooking. I've even learned to appreciate eggplant, which I've always hated, and we've been able to try some things that are difficult, if not impossible, to get around here (celeriac, Jerusalem artichokes, the aforementioned fresh water chestnuts, just to name a few). I usually buy organic baskets, and although they're more money ($25), it's nice to have that option. Only Albertsons here in town carries any organic produce to speak of, but it's always the same things: broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes, kiwi, apples, onions, and strawberries when in season. And it's expensive! Maybe people in big cities can beat the price and selection of BB's organic basket, but I sure as heck can't.

Anyway, without further ado, here is this week's menu. As always, any reference to milk or cheese always means vegan versions. I'm most excited about the mango curry. Yum!

Best Friday ever!

I just found these pictures in my email this morning. We sent Song Guo a celebratory you-have-a-family care package a couple of weeks ago, and these are some of the photos that were taken of her with her cake. OOOOOOhhhhhhh!!!! I can't wait to get my hands on her!

Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss!

My little guys headed off to school today for a breakfast of green eggs and (not) ham in celebration of Dr. Seuss' birthday. I give you: Thing 1 and Thing 2, Daisy Head Mayzie, and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. :o)

Three surprises in the mail today

Today was a good day on the paperchase front. The mail yielded our corrected financial letter and our passports, so the only dossier document I'm now waiting on is our homestudy.

Later, the FedEx guy brought surprise number three: a 5-pound box of Haribo gummy frogs! It wouldn't have been such a surprise if I had actually ordered and paid for said frogs, but they were shipped to me by mistake. I was thoroughly confused for a while! I contacted Amazon, but the tracking number and order number couldn't be traced back to any particular order, so the customer service rep told me to keep them. Since they're made with gelatin, I think I'll donate them to the food bank. Why couldn't they have mistakenly shipped up licorice or some other vegan candy? ;o)

I can't help thinking that there's some cupcake baker out there about to have a coronary because her frogs didn't arrive in time for little Joey's froggy birthday cupcakes. I've witnessed my sister (also a baker) similarly freak over missing fondant or decorative doodads. ;o)

A peek into my brain...