He thinks I'm cute!!

There is never a dull moment at my house.  My boys keep me in stitches or make me want to pull my hair out most of the time.  Last night was one of those night's where I couldn't stop laughing.

I was cooking dinner and Danny saunters into the room, looks at me and says, "Hey there, darlin'!"  with his hands on his hips and one knee thrust out at me in a dapper looking way.  He gave me a wink and off he went.  I had all I could do not to burst out laughing.

Later that night, I put Danny to bed early because he was exhausted and Joey and I had some one on one time.  As I was putting him in bed and rubbing his back, he looked at me and said, "Mama, you are so cute.  Why don't you have a boyfriend or a husband?"  I was a little surprised and said, "I guess God isn't ready for me to have a boyfriend or husband, yet.  Maybe someday."  Joey then looked at me and said, "Well if you don't get busy soon and find one, I'll find one for you."  (That's a scary prospect considering Joey's first choice for me would probably be the skate guard at the roller rink.)  I told him that I was praying about finding a potential husband, but I would leave that choice up to God.  God would find the right person when it was time.

I found that statement was easy to say, but not so easy to believe.  To be honest, it's really, really hard to be single with two young boys.  I would love to find someone with whom I can share my life, but it has to be the right person for me and for the boys.  I'll also be honest when I say that I'm a little scared.  I've been through so much this past year, more than most people could possibly imagine.  To say that I'm a little hesitant to put my heart on my sleeve would be an understatement.  When you love, you risk.  I took a risk and got pretty beaten up and beaten down because of it.  I don't ever want to feel that type of pain again.

But, at the same time, to quote Leonardo DaVinci from the movie "Ever After", "A life without love is no life at all."  So here I am, scared, hesitant and hopeful.  One thing I do have is faith in God.  I am going to trust in Him to bring the right person to me.  In these days of E-Harmony and Match.com, I'm going to leave my match to the ultimate matchmaker.  God is truly my father and He loves me more than anything.  He wants only what's best for me and for the boys, so I will trust Him.  His plan for my life may not include a future spouse and I will have to trust that there is a reason for that.  Maybe He has planned for me to go to Africa to do missions work or maybe simply to devote my life to raising my amazing children.  I don't know what His plans are for me, but I do know that His plans for me are for good and not evil.  In Him, I have a future and a hope.



"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  ~Jeremiah 29:11

Money, money, money, money

One of the lessons of first grade math that most teachers, students and parents dread is the lesson on the almighty dollar or in particular, how to count the many confusing coins that we have in our american monetary system.  If you view the lesson like a 7 year old, it really doesn't make any sense that the dime is the smallest coin.  You'd think that the penny would be the smallest, followed by the nickel, the dime, the quarter, the half dollar and then the dollar coin.  However, that is simply not the case.  If you could sort by color, that would make sense also, but only the  penny is a different metal.  So, what's a mom to do when trying to teach the concept of money???

I was in the teacher's room at my school the other day and a fellow parent of another first grader was talking about the woes he was facing with this unit.  He and I commiserated for a while and then he mentioned to me that he was telling his son that any coins that were found were his if he could count them accurately.  Knowing my son's love of money, I figured that would be a great motivating factor as well, so I instituted the same policy at my house, however, I added a twist.  If he didn't count the money right the first time, it went into a "kitty" and once a day we would count the "kitty".  If he could count it accurately, he could keep it, if not, he had to wait until the end of the next day at which time there might be more money in it making the task even more difficult.  Joey soon learned to count the money accurately the first time.

So, Joey has spent the last several days counting money everywhere we find it.  When we go to the store, Joey can get the change (coins only).  If he counts them correctly, into his piggy bank they go, if not they go into the "kitty".  At Sam's club the other day, he just about tackled an elderly lady to get the dime under her foot.  Thank goodness she had a sense of humor.    He has been helping me with laundry and has cleaned out our couch about 10 times.  Counting money has turned into a game.  I think in his piggy bank, he probably has accumulated $3 or $4 so far.

Yesterday, we received a note home from school stating that the money unit was a relatively short unit time-wise, however, since most children were still struggling with many of the concepts, the teacher was going to extend the unit another week.  She asked if we would please review the concept with our children.  Attached to the note was our child's unit test over money so we could see how they did.  Well......, my little capitalist got a 100 on his test.  I was very proud of him as he has been working so hard.

I guess money does really make the world go round.   Next weekend, I will be teaching him how to give back.  I firmly believe to whom much is given, much is required.  We will be counting what is in his piggy bank and he will have to save 10% and donate 10%.  He was really good at making money, we shall see how good he is at giving it away.

I think I've lost my marbles!

We've had a crazy few days here, but that's nothing new.  Appropriately, it started on Friday, April 1st (April Fool's Day).  Joey is a jokester and is always "pranking" me and is always begging me to be pranked.  He loves a good joke and lives to scheme about the next way he's going to "get" someone.

So... God decided to play a little prank on most of us in the state of Maine and that was what started all of this craziness.  On Friday morning, I awoke to my phone ringing stating that school was cancelled due to inclement weather.  In other words, we were going to get a huge, honking snowstorm.  When all was said and done, ended up getting 12 inches of snow.  This is unusual to say the least even for this part of the country.  I let both kids sleep until about 8 a.m. and then I woke them both up saying that they had to get up as we'd overslept and it was way past time to go to school.  I got them up and dressed in a hurry and then said, "April Fool's!"  Joey thought it was great!  He laughed and laughed and couldn't believed I'd pranked him.  Then, I realized that I'd started something.  When was he going to prank me?

At about 10 a.m., he came running downstairs and he said, "Mom, please don't be mad at me." I thought for sure this was the prank.  I calmly said, "What's wrong, sweetheart?" and he said, "I swallowed the marble from my mousetrap game."  Playing along, I said, "Oh no, we need to go to the doctor.  I think you'll have to have an operation."  At this point, when I was expecting to hear, "April Fool's", Joey burst into tears.  Uh oh!!  I looked at him and said, "You're not pranking me are you?" and through tears he said, "No, I really did swallow the marble from my Mousetrap game.  I was laying on the floor and I put it in my mouth and when I stood up I just sort of swallowed it."  I calmly said, "I think you're fine, but let me call the doctor just to be sure."

So, I called the doctor's office and was told that as long as the marble was smaller than 2.5 inches in diameter (which thankfully it is) than we should be fine.  I was asked to examine anything that passed from his body to insure that we would know when the foreign object passed.  It has now been 3 days and still no sign of the marble.  I was re-assured by Joey's pediatric GI specialist that the marble can stay in the GI tract for quite a while so as long as he's eating and drinking, he should be fine.

Now we wait and wait and wait....  I keep telling myself.  "This too shall pass!"  I can't wait until it does.

Why do the girls think you're so cute?

We had the dress rehearsal for my school play yesterday. My babysitter, Angie, brought the boys to my school to see the play. While she was bringing Danny into the building, all the girls kept saying "Hey Danny. Hey Handsome! Hi Cutie". So Angie asked him, "Why do all the girls think you're so cute?" His answer (in a debonnaire tone) "It's because I'm a man," LOL!!!

Anyway, I took these pictures of him while he was waiting for the play to start. No wonder the middle school girls all find him cute...

I'm the Winner!!!

Danny has been fascinated lately about his birth and the beginning of his life.  He knows he is adopted and we have discussed this topic over and over again, but like a lot of other adopted kids, he still just can't quite fathom that he grew in another woman's belly.  He still insists he was in my belly even though I always correct him and remind him that he was in his birthmom's belly.

Last night, he was getting out of the tub and he rubbed his belly and said, "Mama, I have a baby in my belly."  I said "No, only women can have babies in their bellies."  He then said, "I was in your belly, right?"  I reminded him that he was in T's belly and he said "Then why isn't she my mama."  I said, "She is your birthmom, but she couldn't be the mom to you that you needed, so she made a plan for me to be your mom."  He then looked at me and said in a very excited tone, "Mama!!  You're the winner.  You won me!!!"

I certainly am the winner and my boys are two of the most amazing prizes in the whole wide world.  I am so blessed.

A Time to Remember

A year ago today my daddy died.  I have been dreading this day for the longest time.  I have been in denial about it.  I have had people implore me to think of a way to commemorate it and if it weren't for my boys, I would have commemorated it by going back to bed and denying that this day ever had to exist.  But, since it does exist, I had to think about how I was going to spend it.  I really, really wanted to spend it with my boys and my Aunt Maggie at the place on the planet earth that meant the most to my dad.  We went to our family camp.  Let me explain how important this camp is to me and my family.  I have spent at least a week every summer at this camp since I was an infant.  My dad did the same.  We both learned to swim here, we spent time with family here, we learned to waterski here, we learned to treat nature gently here, we gazed at an amazing night sky with millions of stars here and wondered about God here, we watched wildlife here, we learned to fish here and the most important lesson we learned here was how valuable family is and how family supports one another and how family is always there for each other.

I had several people tell me that I should bring pictures of my dad to camp, build a fire, talk about him and reminisce about his life today.  I will be honest, that just didn't feel right to me.  I came to the realization about a week ago as to what I needed to do today.  I needed to go to my camp with the people that love me the most and just BE!!  I needed to build new  family memories with my kids.  I needed to be at camp thinking about my Daddy and exactly what he meant to me.  He was the most amazing dad a girl could have and I miss him so much every day.  I feel like in many ways, I'm floundering in my life and my ability to be a good mom.  I know if my dad was still here, he would be helping me and giving me advice on how to be a good parent.  But, he is not here.  I have to rely on all that he taught me and that is exactly what I am doing.  Daddy died way to young, but he did leave me with the skills that I need to help my kids be amazing young men.  That was his legacy to me.  He taught me how to be a good parent.

Daddy, I love you and miss you so much.  I wish you were here with me to still help me and give me advice, but you're not here.  You did teach me how to be a good parent and I am trying with ever fiber of my being to be as good of a parent to Danny and Joey as you were to me.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!  I love you and I will be indebted to you forever for everything you gave to me.  I pray I can be half as good of a parent to Danny and Joey as you were to me.

                                  My Daddy

My boys having fun and making a new memory today.

We saw several deer on the way into camp.  Dad loved wildlife and they made me think of him.

Our mini-vacation

The boys and I went away for the night.  It was just an hour away, but it felt like we went on vacation for a month.  It's amazing how just a change in scenery can do wonders for your outlook on life.

On Monday, I packed the boys, an overnight bag, sleds and a few toys and we went to my aunt Maggie's house.  We hung out with her, she took us on a hike where we went sliding and then we went to Portland and went to Chuck E. Cheese.  We texted my cousin Sally, who responded that Chuck E. Cheese is heaven for kids, but the opposite for the adults.  I wholeheartedly agree with her.  The kids had a blast and I had fun watching them have fun but I was ready to leave when the tokens were gone.

We then went to Whole Foods (for the grown-ups) and ate in the cafe and headed back to Maggie's for the night.

We got up this morning and Maggie made me her famous Peanut Butter pancakes which I haven't had since I was a child.  She used to make them for the kids when we stayed with her at our family camp.  Talk about memories!!  It's amazing how food can do that.

We got dressed, went sliding again at a different hill and then the boys and I headed home.  I was blessed to be able to go to a women's Bible study tonight and I fell sooooo refreshed.

Here are some pictures from our mini vacation.

I love this picture!!  

Joey, my Aunt Maggie, Danny

Cool Dudes in the car

With Chuck

Beautiful Winter Scenery