A Year in the Life of a Big Family-Back to Week One

Me and Anna at Balboa Park

June, June, June

June has turned out to be so far my busiest month. I haven't danced through it gracefully at times, in fact I can usually be found doing that funky dance that Elaine Benes did on Seinfeld. But July is just around the corner.

We've had school finals and MAP testing, two school pool parties, two used curriculum sales where I shopped not sold, a dermatology appt., eleven dentist appts., Awana Awards, my oldest son's 30th birthday and his party, I had two haircuts in one day, helped on a field trip, helped at the Wacky Olympics at school, my high school senior went to his senior prom, threw a graduation party at the bay for Joe and his friend, our third son and his wife are here visiting, went to two school award ceremonies, high school graduation, my two middle school boys went to Mexico on a short-term mission trip, I've worked in the preschool and nursery at church, helped out at the Ethiopian church on two Sundays in the 1st-2nd grade rooms, VBS for a week, and we're hosting a combined co-ed baby shower for two of my sons and their wives. WHEW! Are you tired yet? I'm losing my noodle.

                                                       Joe ready for prom.

I found this chart online and reconfigured it. At the Ethiopian church the kids were told to have the names of   

Jacob's wives, their handmaidens, and his sons memorized. I found this and found it helpful for myself.

Joe receiving a scholarship from the PTSA.

Dad with Abi Mulu and Addis

The birthday boy

                                                         Arianne & Scotty

                                      Distressed Makenna because she has sand on her hands.

                                                         Smiley face Elizabeth

                                                     Miranda & Makenna

                                                 Sarah & Elizabeth

                                                    Meskie

                                                               Anna

                                                         A boy and his stick

more pics tomorrow......

Healthy Changes

This last week I joined Weight Watchers for the umpteenth time. I'm going to devote until August to lose the weight I need to lose. I'm doing this for my health. I was advised years ago to lose fifty pounds, but you moms know how it is. We take care of everyone else but ourselves. This is the year this mama needs to reclaim her health.

I was surprised when I weighed in heavier than I thought I was. Our at home scale is obviously light........ I'm on track now with 29 points a day. I've done really well so far, and I've gone out to eat almost every day.

I went out to Panda Express twice (I couldn't resist the second time). I changed up the fried rice for the vegies which are a big fat 0! Added the Black Pepper and Mushroom Chicken for a points value of 10. When I went back the next day I had a Panda bowl with vegies and Black Pepper Chicken and that was only 5 points.

We went out for bbq and I ordered the steamed vegies and 1/4 chicken with sauce. The chicken was breast and a wing. Since this restaurant isn't in the WW Eat Out book, I guesstimated that it was about 7-8 points for the meal, add in an ice tea and I was set.

We got pizza for our Friday night in-house date. Two pieces of that with raspberries and water, came to about 14 points.

On Thursday we went out for our weekly get-away-from-the-kids date and ended up at Olive Garden. I looked on the Lighter Menu and found a Lasagna Primavera and it was really scrumptious. Turns out that was eleven points. So I've been able to enjoy my food, I'm just making healthier choices.

I needed to go to the grocery store so I ended up in the misc. aisle. I bought the cup featured above. You can find it at Cool Gear. It has been my faithful friend all week. I just wish it were bigger so I wouldn't need to keep filling it up all the time.

I did give up Diet Sodas in 2010 because my joints were always so sore. Getting away from the aspartame fixed that problem for me. I switched to Iced Coffees at home recently and have shied away from those too this week.

The next thing I did to make a healthy change was to buy myself some new tennis shoes. I've been looking for months, but I hate to commit to shoes and purses so it takes me forever to decide on the right one. I found mine on the clearance rack at Famous Footwear for only $30-Nike's to boot! My husband is convinced I like them more than him, but I don't. (not yet :-) )

Then tada!!! I joined the YMCA yesterday. I signed up as a one-parent family and all nine of my kids get to go too!!!! Sarah will get to go to since she is moving home in May. Her husband is going to Korea for a year, so we get her for a whole year! The boys are excited since their friends go, and Joe wants to train for possible entrance into the Coast Guard. He passed the first round, next is the ASVAB.

Look out 2013, here we come!

This is how we make stuffing

 

Kylie, my niece, and Joe mixed the stuffing for me. I tripled my recipe so we had to use 27 cups of bread cubes. Thus, the big stock pot to mix in. We outgrew regular mixing bowls many kids ago.

This is the recipe I used, but I tweak it here and there; http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/classic-bread-stuffing/129aa22f-2203-483e-a7a9-dde5b5c6b715

Fall Festival & Halloween Week

I volunteered to organize and run our church's annual Fall Festival which we put on October 31 as a safe alternative to Trick or Treating for the kids of our church and community. We have a carnival type atmosphere where we play games, sell hot dogs and nachos, have a fire going for the older folks, big and little jumps for the kids. We then have a Trunk or Treat where the kids can go from car-to-car in the parking lot collecting candy. We have the cars preregister so we know who is supposed to be in the area. We rent hay bales for a hay ride and decorations, we rent a cotton candy machine. We'll have a popcorn machine, as well as a balloon sculpturer

I've been busy shopping and organizing. Today I'm putting all the games together since I will be pressed for time tomorrow. Our church hosts BSF so we can't set up until 11:30ish and we start at 6pm.

Last night we went to our first ever school carnival. It was fun for the girls. Their teachers, principal and the reservation firefighters all ran the games. We only had tears at the end when Adah lost her candy bag. One of the firefighters quickly filled her another which was greatly appreciated.

Meskerem enjoyed herself and dressed up as Belle. I think this may have been the first time she dressed up, but not sure. She doesn't remember going out for Halloween or going to a Fall Festival or a pumpkin patch in the last two years. Both of our cameras are non-operational so the first grade teacher offered to take pics for us to capture this momentous moment!

I'm also in charge of our youth group's monthly rummage sales. That means when someone from the community has something to donate I hustle on over or down to the church to meet them so we have great things to sell. We use the money to help the kids go to the various camps offered throughout the year, or they can use the money on a mission trip usually planned for the summer. Whoever shows up and works gets a cut of the funds. Having six kids in the youth group it is advantageous for me to help.

I'll post pics when our cameras get working again.

Enjoy your day tomorrow and stay safe!

What I've done the last 24 hours.

I took the girls to a birthday party at Pump It Up. They had a really fun time jumping around on the jumpaleens as Adah calls them for about an hour and a half. Then they had pizza and ice cream cake before we went home.

I asked the girls on the way home when the last time was that we had washed hair. We remembered that we had gone to a birthday party last Sunday so we didn't wash it then which meant it was hair washing night. I take the little girls one by one and wash their hair twice and then put conditioner in and we leave it in for twenty minutes. While this is sitting in their hair I put them in the bath and start on the next one. I bring them back into the shower where we wash all the conditioner out and they're able to rinse all the bathtub yuck off of them. This method works well for me since they're not old enough to wash their hair themselves. Thankfully Addis & Abi are able to wash and style their own hair.

This morning all five girls were to school by 8:00. Addis does their hair in the morning for me while I prepare lunches and breakfast. After I drop them off I come home and pick-up the lunch and breakfast mess, get a load of laundry going, and do some type of cleaning or organizing.

 Today I organized my coupons. I have been cutting them and filing them which takes a lot of work. The way I'm going to try it is file them by date and/or coupon publisher. I have Red Plum, Smart Source, Proctor & Gamble. I took it a step further and put my grocery store ads in a file and then also one for other stores. I use www.grocerysmarts.com which tells me what coupon to use for a particular item and the coupon source.

After getting that accomplished my jr. high boys needed help with math. Those pesky uncommon denominators were getting the better of them. They also had a three paragraph essay due on a Mark Twain story called The Californian's Tale. http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/mtwain/bl-mtwain-cal.htm I read the story to them since they weren't getting the gist of it. They wrote out their summary and I'll look over that tomorrow. I had never read it before and was taken aback by the ending.

In between all that we were also working on their 3D animal cell project that is due this week. We got the idea for the project from YouTube. 
http://youtu.be/HhtkCYqRIFg   

Last week we took our coupons to Michael's to buy the supplies for our animal cell project, and bought the styrofoam balls, white foam sheets, and some other things. We used some black spray paint that we had, and Steve brought home some wood from work for the base. I did most of the cutting because I didn't want them to get hurt cutting out a piece from a 10" styrofoam ball. I used my serrated knife for most of it and it was challenging. Our nucleus accidentally got thrown away so the boys used the end of a badminton birdie.

This is John's finished project.

After we did that I did a few pick-ups from school. Some of the girls like to come home after school and a few like to stay for the after school program. I let them stay and play a few extra hours. I only allow it a few times a week because of our schedule and they get so tired.

Steve & I went out for dinner and let the kids fend for themselves. They had leftover chicken from our dinner on Friday when we had company and James made rice and biscuits to go with it.

We're home now and I'm chatting on fb with my daughter. I have one son at soccer practice. One is sitting behind me trying to download iTunes to a new computer, one is working on schoolwork, three girls are in bed, and I don't know what the other three are doing, but it's quiet. Which is always a good thing.

I finished my scarf!

I felt like paparazzi and kept snapping.
Like Sarah's Ashley Simpson haircut? It's cute!

I finished the pink scarf I was knitting for Sarah. It's cotton candy in color. It was just a knit stitch because I can do that at the drs., watching tv, listening to the boys read, etc.... I had nineteen stitches across with a size 11 needle using one skein of yarn.

Dinner is almost done. Roast beef, mashed potatoes and canned veggies. I have found if you rub chopped garlic, salt and pepper all over the roast then put six pieces of bacon on top and roast for about two hours on 350*, it makes quite a tasty roast. I made it last week and everyone raved about it. They raved about the Mexican Lasagna too! I like it when I cook and they like it. :0)

Took James to the dr. this morning. He has a rash on his hands. The dr. thinks it's from his mono. It's only on his palms and it's itchy. I think I might as well just keep a pillow and a sleeping bag at the drs.

Talked to my case worker through email today. It's possible our new girls could get their second medicals before they're moved from the orphanage to the foster home. Meaning this would speed up the process considerably. I told our case worker that we should have our I-171H in two weeks. This means that they can schedule a court date for us! We might have these girls sooner than later!!!

Library Reading Program

Yesterday I took James and Joel to the library. We signed up for the summer reading program. James is to read 800 pages and Joel is to read 300 pages. I'll have to read Joel's pages to him as he didn't do too well trying to read on his own. James has finished about six-seven books all ready! He picked out dinosaur books and has been devouring them since we've been home.

I signed up for the adult program. I just have to read five books. I'm in the middle of two books right now. I did pick up a book about Ethiopia that looks very interesting.

Before we went to the library we walked and I got two miles in and then after the library we went for some frozen yogurt. Yum!

Walking

Yesterday I started walking. Four (Steve, me, James & Joel) of us walked a mile yesterday and today three (Me, James & Joel) of us walked. I was able to do 1 3/4 miles today and was ready for more, but needed to go. I had my IPod on and could have went forever listening to Blake Lewis & Chris Richardson from American Idol. I really need to figure out how my IPod works, I have no idea how to adjust the volume. I went to Junonia.com and found a sport skirt that's 20" long. That's the longest I've been able to find in the running, tennis, sport world. I've worn my regular skirts, but they're a little cumbersome. Tomorrow I'm going for the 2 mile!

Beach fun!

Yesterday we went to the beach and had a wonderful day! The boys swam and played in the sand while I read The Family Nobody Wanted and visited with a friend. Here's some pics to enjoy:

Fishing Pictures

These are pics from our fishing adventure on Saturday.

Joel and his first fish of the day! James
John eating his fish
Okay, so he decided against it
This is what it's all about

Board Games

Do you play board games with your children? I do. My six year old son LOVES board games. His favorite right now is Scrabble, Jr. He also loves Connect Four, Trouble, and Guess Who? I just bought some Quizmo games. They're educational bingo games. The ones that came are the Sight Word Sets 1 & 2. I found they have a web site so I went to it and ordered the phonics game and some math games. I figure it will be a way that we can "do school" in the summer while having fun at it. I also bought him Boggle, Jr. to help him with his letter recognition.

My seventeen year old son loves Risk. I don't know how to play Risk, but I've heard once you play you're addicted; especially if you're competitive. I'm not, but my husband is. Last night our youth pastor and our pastor's son (late 20's-early 30's) were over until 11pm playing Risk with Jesse. They have Risk parties.

When we go camping or on a Friday night Steve and I will play Dominoes. On July 4th last year we played dominoes for about five hours. Sarah played with us and we had a blast.

What games does your family enjoy?