Leksa lost another tooth!

She pulled it out herself this morning. I wanted to do it, but she isn't a thing like her sister... She didn't want me to touch it!

What was funny was the first thing she said was, "Now you can make soup!"

The last time Liana lost a tooth, I teased her that I was going to make some soup out of it... (I know, "EWWWW," but you really had to be there... I thought it was funny anyway!)

So, I told her I prolly needed about 17 more of them to get a decent broth. So, she opted to put it in her toothfairy pillow to get her buck instead.

Motherhood is such a riot!

Crab Soup?

Another funny kid story...

Yesterday when we were up north with John's extended family, they had oyster stew along with all the turkey leftovers. The kids love most soups, so the older two had to have a bowl. Adam was tickled to see that it had oysters in it because he'd had them before in Ukraine - even had them raw, he said. But, he mistakenly called them crabs, which I somehow missed.

Anyway, I was sitting at the next table, and not really paying a whole lot of attention to them when Liana shouts over to me, "Mama!" I ask her "What?" She says, "Do I have to eat this crap?" I paused a moment unbelieving that I heard her right. I say, "What did you say?" She innocently says, "The crap. Mama, do I have to eat it?"

I pause a few more seconds weighing my words. Then I asked her who told her it was called "crap." She shrugged and said, "Adam did." Adam piped up and said, "Yeah, it's crab soup!"

OOPS.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a wonderful holiday so far! I consider the holiday started on Wednesday, when I hauled out the baking/cooking ingredients. I LOVE Thanksgiving! I love to cook and bake, and I love the little hands around my table who love to pitch in and help out. So far, we've had a rather untraditional Thanksgiving dinner - We had borscht and verenyky at my Dad's house along with three different kinds of pie and a pumpkin log (to-die-for-yummy). Dad doesn't like turkey, so if I couldn't make a turkey dinner, then we were gonna give him a Cultural Experience. Dad sweated out whether he would like the soup or not, but he ate it, and said it was good, (but that doesn't necessarily mean he really liked it! lol!) Anyway, all of US enjoyed it very much! LOL!

I have to back up to Wednesday again. My back has been bothering me for a bit, and rolling out pie-crust and doing other cooky-baky things sends me into back-pain 911 sometimes. So, during one of my breaks, I was laying on my tummy on the couch and Aleksa was trying to massage me. Well, while she was doing so, I heard a couple "angry-voices" in one of the bedrooms, and then Liana started to cry. So, I called them into the livingroom to find out what happened, and Aleksa started saying, "BLOOD! BLOOD!" Liana put her hand to her head, and then started SCREAMING. (She had stopped when she heard me ask them to come to the livingroom to tell me what was going on.) Apparently, Adam had thrown a shoe at her. Nice. *sigh*

Just then! The timer on the oven went off telling me my apple pie was done. So, being the good mom I am, I sent Liana to the bathroom so she didn't drip on the carpet, and then I tended to the pie first. (No flames please!) ;o) I then heard Aleksa announce to Liana, "Liana, Mama already told us we were NOT going to the hospital today, good job!" (Earlier the children were being rowdy, and I calmly told them they needed to play nice because "We are not going to the hopsital today under any circumstances." ) I had to laugh.

Anyway, I ran down to the bathroom to tend to the Victim, and meanwhile Adam started to really freak out. He absolutely HATES it when his sisters are hurt. Can't stand blood, and can't stand them crying. He gets really, really freaked. Usually, he declares ME at fault for whatever blood-situation there is, but this time he knew it was his hand that threw the shoe... So, he was pretty miserable. I washed Liana off, and basically, it was just a little cut, but it bled a lot. After I explained to Liana that heads bleed lots even if it is just cut a tiny bit, she instantly stopped crying. I layed her down on the couch with Adam's lap as a pillow, and tried to make Adam feel better about the whole thing. Leksa and I tried to give him hugs, etc. Liana even reassured him that "Heads just bleed a lot, Adam, that's all!" He still kept saying things like, "She's going to die!" and crying lots.

So, I did what any Good Mother would do, and I declared Liana "Healed!" and then ordered all the kids to pick up their tent-mess. (The kitchen chairs had been moved to the livingroom during my baking frenzy, and that means "Tent Time!" for the Fisher kids. Poor Liana had to hold a rag on her head, and then try to bend over and pick up toys and blankets. Adam almost instantly shut off the tears. I guess he thought that she probably wasn't going to die if I was putting her to work! lol! (SORRY LIANA! tee-hee)

This week we have been given a TON of venison. I'm soooo thankful for the meat. For those of you out there hoping to adopt little girls, you really need to watch how much beef you feed them (among other things); there are lots of little girls coming home and then starting puberty wayyyyy too early because of the extra hormones in meat, dairy, etc. Liana's body symptoms have reversed, except that she has facial hair on her upper lip. I haven't mentioned that on here before, because I haven't wanted people to NOT come home with little girls for fear of this happening to them. It is more common than you'd think though, so do your homework on this subject. I know quite a few families whose girls have had this happen to them.

Anyway, about the venison. I was surprised that my kids weren't completely Grossed Out seeing a deer hanging from Grandpa's tree, or by us cutting it up. They just matter-of-factly asked to help grind or package. Liana has become a pro at the vacuum-sealer-thingie. She's become an old pro at lots of things. She can now make oatmeal from start to finish for the whole family. She's gonna be dangerous in a few more years! She's really Miss Susie Homemaker in a lot of areas. And she's only SEVEN! Wow!

Today we're headed up north to visit the Fisher side of the family. We'll only be ther through Saturday, so just a short trip. I plan to sleep, sleep, sleep in the car (or try to!); Thanksgiving has worn me OUT!

Hope you all are having a great holiday weekend too!

Science Experiments

Homeschooling has such endless possibilities for natural science-learning. Adam planted some of Susie's hamster food on a whim this fall, and was amazed to grow clover and a berry-producing weed of some sort (it has small, smooth, round, black berries on it; any clue?), in just a few short weeks.

Today he learned that if you put cream cheese on your bagel and THEN put it in the toaster, that you can make a full-fledged FIRE in the kitchen! Isn't that AMAZING?

So, we're minus one toaster (had to throw it in the sink to get the fire out), but we've had a wonderful learning experience. I think we'll be holding off on further cooking lessons for him for another few years...

*cough-cough*

Fifteen Months Home

Fifteen months home. Seems like they've been here forever, and it seems like they just stepped off the plane. It's kind of a weird feeling.

Everyone is doing really well! Aleksa has overcome all her fears of going upside-down, (which, if you've never seen the terror on her face and coming out of her lungs, you don't quite get why this is awesome news). She even ASKS to be flipped upsidedown now! Never thought I'd see the day.

She's also really developed good patience for the more difficult books we've been reading with the other two for their school. She sits in to hear the read-alouds, history and science, and throws in comments here and there, so I know she's getting quite a bit of what's going on. She's also writing her name on her own, though half the time her s's are backwards. I think it's adorable, but we're still working on getting that fixed.

The other day, Aleksa said, "Mama, can you do me a favorite?" (How could I say no!?) She's the little machine for "cute comments" lately. The other two just don't come up with them like she does.

Liana is still doing well with school. She's reading almost better than Adam is. (I think we've hit a plateau with him for a while.) Neither of them are convinced that they can just pick up a book and read it, but they actually can. For some reason they think if it isn't in their reader for school, they don't know how to read it, so they don't bother trying. We're working on that!

Adam has been doing really well too. Math is coming slowly, but it is coming steadily, and we haven't had to park at any point for a while now. He gets his page a day (or whatever) done without any frustration lately. Big relief for me, as this was the Most Dreaded subject for me for a long time. He's reading is ok. His comprehension is wonderful, but he is slowwwwwwww. His workbook level is about 3rd grade, but his oral reading is nowhere near that. He can decode long words, but it takes him a while. I'm busting him back to some much easier readers so he gains some confidence and fluency.

Speaking of fluency, he's been doing really well. Still doesn't consistantly put is/does in sentences, but whenever we say, "Can you say that better?" he always fixes it perfectly. If he is excited, among friends or acquaintances where there is even the slightest "stress," he'll resort back to incomplete sentences filled in with sound-effects. I'm so glad we've got him at home for school so we don't let him get away with that all day long.

The kids have been talking more and more of Ukraine, their birth families, etc. John and I have been discussing doing a birth family search, but we need to work out the timing a little better, and talk out what we'll share with the kids, how much, when, etc. It would be really good for us as their parents to know the "full" story too.

Baby Talk

Aleksa has been commenting on some of the Russian phrases that I still try to use with them, telling me that was her "baby talk." Out of the blue yesterday, I started to say a nursery rhyme that the kids taught me when they were freshly home from Ukraine. It is a little Russian version of "Georgie Porgie" called "Cola, Cola, Nicolai." Aleksa looked at me excitedly and said, "Mama, that was my baby song!" Then, remembering how much she *loved* a different rhyme ("Ladrushki" for those that have Ukie/Russian kiddos home already), I started singing that one, and she said, "Another one of my baby songs! Oh, I was such a small baby!"

I just thought it was interesting that she connected anything Russian/Ukrainian to her "baby" days.

Liana's New Smile

Just took this one a few minutes ago... I took a bunch of others too, but for some reason, while the quality of this one isn't the greatest, I really think it is cute anyway. Thought I'd share.

Misc. update

I've been slacking off bigtime on this thing. It's a constant nag in the back of my head, "Shelly, you've been slacking on your blog. Sit down a minute and write!"

*sigh*

So, here I am! School has been a huge energy-sucker, but I'm loving every minute of it. Our curriculum is literature-based, so we are cuddled on the couch for a big chunk of the day pouring over really cool books, and getting hooked on some great stories. One of the most recent read-alouds (chapter books) has been "Mr. Popper's Penguins" which we finished up last week. It's about a man who acquires some penguins as pets, and it is basically a silly little story that apparently kids L-O-V-E. We went to the Madison zoo a few weekends ago, and you should have heard the squeals as they got to see the penguins! They were hopping and shouting, and laughing, and could hardly stand still for me to take their picture.

Liana lost her second upper front tooth today. I yanked it out at Grandpa Peaslee's house today. It wasn't ready, but she kept asking me to work on it, and finally, it came out. I've been teasing her that I wanted to pull it out so I could make soup. Won't she freak when she finds out that I actually DO have soup on the menu for tomorrow! *tee-hee* Dad told me that we should have had that on video because he'd never seen such a brave girl... I was really pulling hard, and she really hardly blinked!

Adam has made some big progress lately in his attachment to us lately. Just today he hurt his finger (he actually stapled it as he was trying to fix the stapler...), and I made a big deal out of it, and he let himself really cry, and he let me really cuddle him and rock him like he was a little boy. (This guy is now nearly 80 lbs., so this was no small task for me!) He's been my shadow all the rest of the day. I wish I had a switch that I could pull to make all his heart hurts go away... He's so hard for me to reach sometimes. He is an awesome kid, but he just can't let himself fully love and be loved. He often will search for my hot-buttons, and not only will he push them, he jumps, hops, and stomps all over those buttons just to see what will happen. He doesn't do that with John though. Just me. And almost always when John isn't home. Usually it comes in the form of him pretending he doesn't know something. For example, I'll say, "Adam, show me the last letter in this word." He'll point to the first, second, middle, second-to-last, a letter in a completely different word, etc., but he will flatly refuse to acknowledge that the last letter of the word is "e." (or whatever.) Then, he'll go on about how he's never heard the word "last" so he doesn't understand. *sigh* He's getting much better, but I can see also that we have a way to go in the area of trust. Our Adam went through a lot before we took him home. It is foolish to think that a new address is going to fix all his hurts. Time, consistancy, love, patience, etc., etc., have taken him a long way, but it is going to take a lot more of the above for him to let go.

Leksa is still my hair-in-her-food-findin' little sweetie.

I joined the FlyLady's group today. Looking forward to learning a TON. I've been really learning a lot lately on my own about meal-planning/budgeting, and it feels good. I've been planning our meals out a month at a time, and shopping monthly for groceries. (We still have to pick up bananas, milk, etc. during the month, but you know what I mean). We've saved a ton of money by shopping once a month instead of more frequently, and I'm loving that I know exactly what meals are in my freezer/cupboards without having that 4:00pm panic of not having a clue what's for dinner. Hate that feeling. Anyway, it's taken a long time, but I'm turning over all kinds of leaves. I am seeing more and more that families with either a gazillion kids, or families who are broke, really have to be organized. They don't have the luxury of slacking off and ordering pizza every other night. Know what I mean? I've been reading a blog of a lady who has a big family. I met her on one of my homeschool db's, and boy have I learned a lot about planning. Planning for menus, planning schedules, prioritizing everything, planning jobs/cleaning/etc. You just gotta be together to pull off that lifestyle! I don't necessarily agree with everything she says (just as y'all don't agree with everything coming out of my brain!), but it has been interesting and thought-provoking. (And very convicting... I'm such a lazy, wasteful bum sometimes!)

Anyway, that's what's been floating around my head lately.

Oh! One of the ladies who has been faithfully following the Fishers since our trip is finally in Ukraine! I'm so excited for them!!!!! Here's the link to their blog! http://www.becomingafamily.blogspot.com/