02.23.2011

Two years ago we were united with Mastewal and Afton in Ethiopia.

7 Quick Take Fridays: #4/2011

1. Afton’s Birthday: We had a wonderful party today for Aftio! He turned 5 years old. We enjoyed a good time with some family and friends.
2. I was able to ship 15 shirts/onesies for Mandie in Uganda!
3. Today was a hectic day. Party planning. Cleaning the house or shifting stuff around so it doesn’t appear that 5 people, a dog and a tornado live here…because a realtor also came today. AND I’m still not packed to leave tonight for North Carolina–and it’s 11:26.  We’re not leaving tonight, it will be early morning.
4. Illness. Yuck. I am tired of it. We making our rounds again with congestion, runny noses and coughs. We’ve had our share, I’d like for it to move out of this household.
5. Stuff. Wow. Isn’t it funny how much stuff we all have? I’ve noticed that we still seems to have a lot of “stuff” even though I feel like I make a weekly run to the Goodwill.
6. Househunting. We are going tonight early morning to NC to house hunt/check the area out. We will be staying two nights one night with my friend Heather who I’ve known since second grade.  How fun is that? To end up in the same place after these years that our lives have taken us in different directions. I look forward to the “break”.
7. Roper. We need to find him a home. He needs more attention than what we are able to give at the moment. He’s a wonderful dog. He’s great with kids. He’s an enthusiastic greeter and housetrained.  You know anyone?

You can participate by going here.

7 Quick Takes Friday: #3/2011

1. thanks to readers: Thanks for all the emails, facebook messages etc. regarding the rockin’ mama challenge. I’m just putting myself out there, because I know there are other families that may have similar struggles and I think there comfort in knowing you are not alone.
2. illnesses: whew.  this week has set me back a little.  I feel like I’ve had a little bit of everything and now as I finish up this post (on Sunday instead of Friday) I have some type of eye irritation that has my eye looking a little pink and bloodshot.
3. africa: I’m ready to go back. haha. no surprise there. maybe whenever this move happens i’ll be able to work on that a little more 🙂
4. tax return: completed.  happy about this.  i’m always relieved to get it done.
5. myer is coming along with his speech.  he’s made significant progress since we began therapy in the fall. my favorite right now is when i pick him up from preschool and he runs to me saying “momma”. he said “momma” before but he just seems to be putting more thoughts and words together.
6. sleepovers. i found myself getting choked up when i dropped mastewal off at a sleepover this weekend. she has good friends here. it really makes me happy to see how people love and accept her….and how enthusiastically they greet her.
7. afton: he made it one night without an accident. it was awesome. we’re working on this. he also seems really interested in new york right now.  he actually read the words the other day on a sticker and has been talking about it since. he’s even gone to the bookshelf and grabbed the new york tourist book to read over.

Seven Quick Takes Friday #2/2011

1. nail in the swagger wagon tire this week AND lost a hubcap. awesome. you know you can’t top that.
2. the snow days are really out of control around here. i don’t know what else to say. i know its dangerous in some areas, but i know i reached my limit on wednesday, because i usually don’t mind them–but enough is enough.
3. the workshop. love it. and my hair is getting long. woot.woot. seriously, if you need some upkeep go see amber at the workshop.
4. so today i drove the kids to kentucky to surprise my mom for her birthday (yesterday). it was a true surprise for her. the kids were great as usual on the car ride.  we stopped at target in huntington for a break and then in lexington for chipotle lunch and a quick trip to meijer.  we picked up balloons, a flower and a cake.  parked a couple of houses down and walked up to the door to surprise her.
5. david crowder band’s remake of flyleaf’s all round me song. wow. i love it. listened to it several times on the way to kentucky today.
6. starting to think about when i can get back to ethiopia. would love to go at easter time, if easter falls differently there–so i don’t miss easter here. i was daydreaming about a move there—how and when—unknown.
7. rockin’ mama challenge: going well. i’m grateful to my mom this evening, she questions whether or not i’d rocked mastewal today, urging me to do so–even though it was later than I would have liked for her to be up (9pm). so i did.

you can participate as well go to www.conversiondiary.com

rockin’ mama challenge: day 7

Day 7

01.19.2011

7:00-7:10

Rocked immediately following meds, so she could get to bed.

I was very exhausted after being up with Myer the previous night in the ER.

She talked a little about her school “career day”

This is a day that I’m just doing it to get it done.

I wish I could stop thinking of it like this,

but I’m happy we are keeping up with it.

We only made it 10 minutes today, because our schedule has been a little off this week due to multiple illnesses.

 

rockin’ mama challenge: day 6

Day 6

01.17.2011

7:20-7:35

She brought her blanket down.

I think she is starting to take partnership of “the rocking”.

We sat in silence.

I made it 13 minutes without looking at the clock.

I tried to completely relax.

I was successful.

I could have sat like that all night.

My eyes were heavy.

I feel like we both just gave in today.

No games.

 

rockin’ mama challenge: day 5

 

01.16.2011

7:40-7:55

 

We rocked immediately after our return from church.

We talked about church a little.

Then she began making disgusting noises with her mouth.

Asked her to stop.

After a few moments. I RELAXED.

She laid her head on my chest.

Started making more noises (flicking things).

I just asked if she would like to make these noises or rock.

She chose to rock.

I made it only 7.5 minutes.

I was struggling.

I’m tired.

She also asked how much time was left at 14.5 minutes.

I think we were both just doing the rocking to get it done today.

There was no eye contact today.

She has trouble just being. I’m noticing that she has trouble receiving attention without doing something to cause it.

**thinking a lot about this and how it applies to me and other areas of life as well**

01.16.2010

We had 4 snow days this week. Is that right? I lost count. Seth went down to Fayetteville, Wednesday-Friday. Whew. Kids all day and night by myself. It truly wasn’t bad. But with so many days off in a row, we ended up having a different schedule, which became the norm–for the week.

We were able to go sledding, the kids enjoyed it. I enjoyed it.

01.10.2011: We’re Relocating

So our big news is that we are moving. Seth was offered a position at the DuPont in Fayetteville, North Carolina. We are trying to take one step at a time and be patient, but it is a big deal to move us and our family. There are so many things to work out and plan. We wanted a move for a while and now that it’s actually here-it’s crazy.

More to follow—AND—I’ll let you know a little more about the rockin’ mama challenge that I’m participating in for the next 28 days.

01.09.2011

Yesterday I was able to get out and do a snow walk. Keeping up with the plan, I put on my waterproof tennis shoes and new earwarmer headband and headed out.

In the afternoon I took Mastewal and Afton to see Tangled. We enjoyed it. We ate too much popcorn.

We had breakfast for dinner. Pancakes, eggs, sausage and hashbrowns.  It was a lot of food. We don’t usually have this much for a meal, but thought it would be fun-plus we were using some some food that we had from the holidays.

It was really low key day. I worked on my blog layout a little.  I really like this new template and found my perfect “bird” picture as the header.  The photo is from my last trip to Ethiopia. I intend on doing some more with the blog (adding links/deleting links, adding my last trip (May 2010) to Ethiopia, finishing up some other posts from my 2009 Ethiopia trip as well).

I ended my day watching Pretty Woman and The Soup on television and falling asleep.  This is how many days end around here. Always crashing from exhaustion.

Christmas Eve Pictures