Wednesday's News Reel

Abigail Painting Her Birdhouse Attention Grabbing Purple (the Closet Follows)

Family

We sent our preliminary application into Bethany last Friday. I got Chris to sign it minutes before the father-son-grandson door hanging event of 2012. Now we wait for the formal application to become available for us to fill out and the training schedule for foster/adoptive parents to line up with our remodeling schedules. We are warily excited. I have banned myself from forum for the likes of me. The stories are almost always bad, but as a wise poster once said, This is where we go to blow off steam. You are seeing the bad days. Our case worker said nearly the same thing admitting that while the write-ups of the children are supposed to be positively driven, the times they hear from guardians, teacher, other adults about the children are when incidents occur.
Oh how we pray and covet prayers from those who care.

House

Because Abigail and I Are Painting, He Must. It is really paint sculpting.

As mentioned previously, doors have been hung in the newly remodeled basement bedroom and bathroom. A few coats of paint and a closet door and we will be ready for trim 90% painted. The stairs still make a wonderful slide and the children make use of all the corners. I recently had ot spend a morning reclaiming our library (I don't know if library is exactly the right word, but school room certainly isn't, and no matter the size isn't a library a lovely thing to possess.)

My Plea for Picking-Up Cooperation

We are waiting on some semblance of guidance on where we live. We have reopened the door to moving and found an overpriced house we like on acres of property with trees. But we have exhausted our monthly budget on home repairs and while we may not be ready till February to carry out said repairs, it is discouraging. Couldn't we just find a place and stay there? Yes, Mother, we could stay here, but for the trees!

Food

I did one week on the South Beach Diet and lost a depressingly small amount of weight. Declaring that a waste, I decided to return to a moderate approach to dining with more exercise. On Monday, I indulged in a grilled stickies a la mode. Ten oreo cookies later, I understand why the carbs are cut out for two weeks. Maybe a moderate approach with no sugar. Oh, my, do I need some sort of self-control in this area.

School

How I hate thinking about school. It carries such stress with it. I feel like I'm not doing enough, but Abigail is absolutely on track as a kindergartener. I have real issues with the public school system, but so far the issues I'm having with the homeschool system aren't being well resolved. We went to the library and checked out a good number of books, mostly for me, mostly parenting, mostly seeking encouragement.We continue to do ten minutes a day of various subjects with reading and math being non-negotiable.
We've been reading Owl Moon, as I've severely limited the children's book collection due in part to misplaced library books but mostly due to re-purposing as projectiles, sleds, and stools. They are a creative problem solving crew. If you hear the call of the Great Horned Owl in this area, be aware that it may be coming from this house.Whoo, whoo, who, who, who, whooooooo.

Corrections 

I feel the need to address a comment made by me yesterday regarding my friend's article. It is a delightful read; in fact I plan to return to it again today. My comment came from weariness I have been feeling lately with my own faith being more work than friendship, and the seriousness with which I have been living my life and translating that to the lives of my children. Do we pray in the restaurant because we are grateful to a gracious God or because that is what we Christians do to be set apart? Her words came at a particularly vulnerable time for me. They were good words for me to hear even if misinterpreted, or extrapolated from her true meaning.

Lighter Notes

After an embarrassingly long time this chair has been returned to a usable piece of furniture. I used it while it's upholstery was disintegrating. I took said upholstery off and painted the legs, arms, and previously upholstered back this wonderful shade of green when we lived in our rental in Uniontown. I covered it last spring. We used it careful not to wiggle in such a way as to disengage the top and bottom pieces. Today, I figured out how to connect the two and still swivel. It so works for us after five years or so of evolution.

My children continue to love the word butt above all others with the bodily functions that have their origin from said region reign closely in ability to illicit gales of laughter.
The Cosby Show is a wonderful way to cuddle close in the evening.
We've, Chris and I, become fans of White Collar. Now we don't have cable and have only found it though recommendations of fellow Netflix users. We have depleted the offerings of Netflix, and are sad. The mood rallied when we found the show going strong in season three. But hope was deflated when we found that the USA network does not stream its shows. On to iTunes, I fear a wait through summer. All other shows have paled in comparison.