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/