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Birthdays

I was sitting at my desk when Little Man and Eby raced into the room.  ”We want to message our families,” they shouted.  ”I want to talk to my sister,” Eby said and Little Man followed with, “I want to email my Mommy.”

I wasn’t expecting such significant thoughts and I faltered for a moment, especially at Little Man’s words.  We talk about our children’s Ethiopian families regularly but he had never asked to contact his Ethiopian mother.  After being in touch with her for a time, we haven’t heard from her in nearly two years, which worries me.

As I was writing the post of our Top Twenty Toys, I realized there is another category of favorite gifts worth mentioning. Many times rather than buying our children toys, we give them useful tools.  These aren’t necessarily tools in the sense of hammers and screwdrivers, although we’ve given those too, but something that can be used to accomplish a task or purpose.

Here are some of our favorites.

Need ideas for Christmas gifts?  In my nearly 24 years of mothering, I’ve seen many toys come and go.  As Christmas approaches, I hope I can offer some helpful suggestions. Some toys with longevity are expensive, while others cost nearly nothing or can easily be found at thrift stores and yard sales. You might want to put these on your “watch list.”

Here we go!

The top of Dimples' dresser this morning.

One of Dimples’ favorite birthday gifts was a set of Ruby and the Booker Boys books.  She won a copy of Brand New School, Brave New Ruby in the library reading contest this summer and loved it.  Imagine my delight when she asked for more Ruby books for her birthday!

Ruby is a spunky African American third grader who has a loving family and lives in a friendly neighborhood.  Today I read Ruby Flips for Attention.    There was warm interaction between extended family members and loving older brothers (the Booker Boys) and parents.  The overall message was that it is more important to love and serve others than to strive for your own self-importance.   Very nice.

Our Dimples turned nine on Friday. The celebration didn’t go quite as planned since I had a short bout of the flu, but despite that, she enjoyed her day. Thursday night, her birthday-eve, everyone gathered for dinner (except Sweet Pea who couldn’t make it home). This is becoming an increasingly greater feat with all of their busy schedules, but they do a good job making family time a priority.

Dimples chose grilled burgers, stuffing (yes, stuffing), spicy Doritos, and carrots with dip for dinner. A slightly odd combination to be sure, but we all enjoyed it. She even loved her presents, a set of books, a University of Idaho hoodie, and a cookbook.

She was notably content — notably.  I’ve been sitting with that short sentence for a few minutes trying to say it without sounding negative,

Enough of the heavy stuff!  There is plenty to be happy about today and it would do me good to make a list.

  • I just got an unexpected invitation to see Beth Moore in Spokane tonight and tomorrow.  The ticket and hotel room are already paid for.  Can you believe it?  The great thing is that I had been hoping to go with a friend, but in the end we weren’t able to pull it together, so we canceled, BUT, I had left tonight and tomorrow open on my calendar all of these weeks.  I only got the call an hour or so ago, so Russ and I are hammering out the details, but it looks like I’m going!

Thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway for The Connected Child and the companion guide, Created to Connect!  I wish I had 79 copies to give away.  Rusty is going to help me figure out how many total entries there are and then randomly select the three winners.

Today is Little Man’s birthday!  My baby is four.  Can I just admit that it is bittersweet for me?  He is an amazing little boy, and I love watching him grow up, but he is my last baby, and I love mothering babies.

We celebrated his birthday last night with spaghetti and chocolate cake.  He loved his Playdough Ice Cream Factory and his dollar store flashlight and sword.  Today he had his birthday cereal and I hope to get some nice photos of him that I will share later.

I’m packing our bags for a trip to Seattle.  We usually have therapy appointments on Mondays, but every three months we also have appointments at Seattle Children’s and our clinic only sees patients on Thursday afternoons.  I’m picking up Honeybee, Dimples, and their friend Jubilee, after school and heading west.

Eleven candles on her cake -- again!

Last Thursday Honeybee turned eleven.  If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you know that last year she also turned eleven.  Such is the world of international adoption.

While in the process of adopting Honeybee, we were told her birthday was sometime late in 1998, but nobody knew for sure.  Our agency gave us the opportunity to request a birth date for her and since she was small and had received only minimal education, we requested a birth date of September 9, 1999 (9-9-99 seemed nifty to us) .

Rusty last week on his first day of school.

Me: “I make a terrible blogger.  I just can’t seem to find time to be on the computer.”

Rusty: “But you make a terrific mother.”

I guess that sums up my week!

Today was Honeybee’s birthday — her second time turning eleven — and tomorrow she’ll have her first ever birthday party.  I have a post in the works and photos to share.

Lots of posts are swirling through my head — maybe I’ll have a quiet moment soon!   Don’t forget to add your thoughts to this week’s Tuesday Topic: Changing Birth Order

Happy almost Friday.

~Lisa

Honeybee with her friend Jubilee

Our science class field trip to Seattle was great. We got home late Wednesday night after three full days of educational fun. On Monday we drove to Seattle and went directly to the Seattle Aquarium where we got a behind the scenes tour and enjoyed the exhibits. Tuesday was spent at the Woodland Park Zoo, which was probably my favorite, although it was very cold, so it was a little bit harder to enjoy than usual. Wednesday we hit the Seattle Science Center; which was Ladybug’s favorite.

The kids were all happy, well-behaved, and fun to be with. I grew up near Seattle, so I was able to experience these places as a child, but many of the girls were seeing it all for the first time. They took it all in and enjoyed every minute of it…except perhaps the long drive to Seattle and back.

Thursday our future son-in-law’s family arrived from Texas for a visit. We had spoken on the phone but not met in person. They are just as wonderful as we hoped and we look forward to many years of sweet friendship with them. I was struck by the knowledge that we will share grandchildren with them and it will be wonderful for our children and grandchildren to have us be a happy extended family.

Now I am catching my breath and making a big list of all that needs to be accomplished for this special Easter weekend. We have a Good Friday service at 6:00 followed by dinner that I need to have cooking before we leave. Saturday we are celebrating Andrew and Mimi’s 21st birthdays – Andrew’s is the 8th. Sunday we are hosting a potluck after our Easter service.

I’m feeling behind and not quite organized. Remember those special Easter dresses…definitely not happening. My goals are small:  color Easter eggs with the kids, put together baskets, plan a simple birthday for Andrew and Mimi, get lots of groceries, and cook lots of good meals.  I’m praying for health in the midst of it all.

I hope you have a wonderful, glorious Easter and I’ll see you next week!

Ladybug

~Lisa