Archive for April, 2009

He is risen indeed!

Posted by KK on Sunday, 12 April, 2009

What a beautiful Easter Sunday! We attended church this morning and went home for lunch and to change clothes and then went off to the zoo to wish all the animals a Happy Easter! (Not really, we just have a membership and the weather was perfect). On the way, Lake and River (who have an entire empty seat between their car seats which doesn’t help at all) got into an argument over sharing a toy. I asked “Lake, what would Jesus do in this situation?” I have been asking the boys this a lot lately when they are faced with an obstacle. Lake said, “She’s right, River. You should just share so we can get this ‘what would Jesus do’ thingy over with.”

I hope everyone had an amazing Easter holiday and were reminded of the true meaning of Easter!

Easter Fun

Posted by KK on Saturday, 11 April, 2009

easter-eggs-april-misc-071.jpg We had a fabulous time dyeing eggs this year. This gets more fun as the kids get older and Jason and I always tap in to the fun as well. This year we tried using some natural dyes made from things around the house. Blueberries for blue, paprika for orange, strong coffee for brown and ground cumin for yellow. The cumin didn’t color well, user error probably. The paprika wasn’t so hot either so I pulled it out while it was a tad yellowish-orange and dropped it in the blueberry liquid and it turned out a lovely green. The boys mostly used a kit we had leftover from last year except I tossed away all the silly stickers and plastic melty things that don’t promote as much creativity. Each egg was a canvas and they all turned out so incredible. Wheat worked for hours, of course. His all turned out looking like they had been tie-dyed. Very cool. Enjoy!

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Blue Birds

Posted by KK on Friday, 10 April, 2009

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My grandfather passed away in May of 2002 while I was pregnant with Lake. He was an incredible man and father and grandfather. He was a dairy farmer and woodworker and truly a man of many talents. Half of the furniture in my house was built by him including this wooden table I use as a desk in which holds my computer I am typing on now. When he passed, we were all able to go through his many barns and pick and choose things to remember him by. Jason and I picked a lot of things no one else seemed to want but they were things we thought were golden. An old wooden hammer with severe signs of hundreds of hours of use….a straw hat which shielded the harsh sun of his face while he tilled his gardens. I should mention that my grandfather was legally blind when he died and had poor vision for many, many years so many of the things he made have multiple flaws or are simply not very symetric but I love that. My tables are a bit wobbly, too, but I love them. I love that when/if he needed a table for something, he built one instead of buying one. There was also a pile of cedar planks that absolutely no one wanted and we quickly grabbed them and are storing them in our barn. We have a very peaceful & creative vision of a long dining room table built from them one day by a professional woodworker in which we’ll cherish for the rest of our lives. That wood came from trees on his land…the many, many acres where his cattle roamed grazing on grass.

Another item we acquired up was a hand made blue bird house that was laying in one of his many barns like it was a castaway or a “reject”. Jason uncovered it in our garage about a week or so ago and decided to finally hang it. It was one of those moments of frustration where you find yourself so behind on so many little projects you have been trying to do for years but that have just been piling up collecting dust. We have a lot of these, especially Jason since he has worked more 70 hour weeks in the last 9 years than he cares to dwell on. He yanked it out of a box, grabbed a hammer and some nails and picked a fence post and just nailed it up with very little thought thinking it would ultimately end up becoming a charming, rustic little yard ornament. After only 3-4 days, we noticed two blue birds flying in and out carrying pine needles to prepare their nest. We couldn’t believe how fast they occupied the house. Now they are all over our backyard all of a sudden and they are so incredibly beautiful. Jason sits on the deck and watches them often. He told me he gets cold chills knowing my grandfather built that and now it is here, on our property, housing beautiful birds. Jason wasn’t able to know my grandfather very long but grew a great fondness for him. Both of Jason’s grandfathers passed away before he was born. He could chat with my papaw Johnny about plants and woodworking and farming and all sorts of topics for hours. I miss him dearly and wish my boys were older when he was alive because I know he would have loved to take them down to wade in the creek just as he did me when I was little. My memories of my grandfather and visiting his farm are grand.

Here are a few pics of our new family of bluebirds. I enlarged one a great deal so you could see him with a mouth full of pine needles. It’s truly amazing…

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Monster Juice

Posted by KK on Thursday, 9 April, 2009
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Time to give props to the good stuff. This is what has kept my kids so well this Winter and for the last couple of Winters. It is called VitaMineral Green and they love it in fresh apple juice or orange juice. These pics were taken a few weeks ago before their hair cuts and I just found them. Too cute not to post…

You can find VMG here.
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Let the games begin…

Posted by KK on Wednesday, 8 April, 2009

We are officially on the list for our PATH training! PATH = Parents as Tender Healers
PATH is required for all prospective adoptive or foster parents. We have to attend 30 hours of this training, every Monday evening for the next 11 weeks. Our class begins this Monday, April 13th, through July 6th. So, anytime after July 6th we will be officially open for placement as I am told the additional requirements (fingerprinting, home study, etc.) are completed during the PATH training. If I am being honest, my impatience was hoping for a Saturday class in which we could attend with longer hours but fewer days in order to complete our training sooner. But I know we can use all the extra time we are given to finish preparing for whatever may come and I have plenty I can do in the meantime. The walls could use some paint, we’re still hoping to lay our bamboo flooring but just a bit scared still to spend the money during this economic crisis AND I need a crib….just in case! That is low on the scale of priorities as I do have a pac-n-play still and who knows if we would even get a little one small enough to need a crib. But the crib I used for Wheat & Lake I put 4 coats of paint on and ultimately sold at a yard sale (pretty toxic!) and then the one I used for River I bought for $20 at a yard sale and it barely held up for him jumping around in it for two years so it went to Habitat.

My only real concern, and one I am asking prayer for from anyone who is willing, is that Jason is able to get off work each of these Mondays in time for us to make the class in time. He, as most of you know, has been working 70-80 hours a week for the last 5-6 weeks although the large project they have been trying to complete has finally peaked so I couldn’t be more thankful that we have actually seen him before 7 pm the last 2 nights this week! This to me is a blessing and in perfect time for his work to slow down so that we are able to attend this crucial training that is not optional and cannot be missed for any reason. Childcare is also a concern on all these nights, however, my mother does live next door to us and has agreed to try and leave work a few minutes early each Monday so she will be home for us when we need to leave. She is headed to Germany tomorrow for 10 days but my sister, Carmen, lives in Knoxville and we are dropping the boys off at her house on our way to our first class.

SO…..we’re off! :) Hope everyone is well and enjoying your Spring!

Highlights

Posted by KK on Monday, 6 April, 2009

My mom has kept up a Highlights Magazine subscription for the boys for years since they were too young to really enjoy them. I have saved them all, of course, and just stacked them on a shelf. Several weeks ago Wheat really took notice of them for the first time and began reading them so of course Lake fell in right behind him and now both sit and read these magazines all day every day. Their favorite part is the jokes and they repeat them constantly. River ultimately picks them up and memorizes them from hearing the boys recite them over and over. It is so cute to hear River tell the jokes because you know he only half understands them at best. Below is a vid of him telling one in the car yesterday. He still doesn’t pronounce his “Y’s” very well so Yellow = Lellow. Here is a translation in case you need it…

Mommy: “River, can you say green, pink & yellow in the same sentence?”
River: “Yes. When the phone says ‘green, green’, I pink it up and say ‘yellow?’.

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For Beckett…

Posted by KK on Wednesday, 1 April, 2009

The boys have a close friend, and fellow rock star, Beckett who has a blog which plays this music when you open the blog. They love it and here is a vid of them dancing to his music. We love your blog, Beck!

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