good enough

See above poster?  The assignment was to do a fun family craft celebrating Kindergarten's 100th day of school.  Take a poster board, be creative, and do something that shows 100 of something..anything.  Sorry, I hate crafting. And, by the time you have 4 kids, plus a job, plus grad school....the above poster is good enough!  I bought a pack of googly eyes and let Hud-man get to gluing.  Umm, there may or may not have been an undetermined number of eyes...somewhere near 100...possibly more like 110. Any other momma roll their eyes at the blinged-up, so obviously made by mommy, cost a lot of money and time, "student" oriented projects at school? You see, I already passed kindergarten and don't plan on repeating it anytime soon.  Hudson rather enjoyed gluing his googly eyes all by himself.  When we turned it in, I'm not making this up, there was one that was on a canvas, painted, and the "child" had glued 100 small feathers in exact places to make a lovely bird on a branch.....GAG!  Who's in the good enough club with me?

in love with olive oil

just wanted to share with you busy moms looking for ways to help your family eat clean in 2014.  My fam is in love with olive oil.  We have greatly boosted our fresh veggie intake by roasting with olive oil.  Sliced egglplant, drizzled in olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt....bake at 400 to desired mushy or crisp and BAM those kids love it!
Same goes for roasted asparagus stalks, sliced cabbage "steaks", roasted raw broccoli, roasted raw cauliflower, and the ever favorite--Kale.
Your family's arteries (not to mention digestive system) will thank you! And, as a cardiac nurse for nearly 18 years, I thank you as well :)

can't talk right now, this class is killing me

and it just started this past week!  H.A.R.D
  I'm taking Advanced Pharmacology in 1 semester (Um Meredith, my dear friend and pharmacist, why can't you live closer?  I need your help!).  We were supposed to have read the first 19 chapters of the pharm book for the first class.  I only finished the first 11 chapters.  So, 4 days after the first class, I'm behind.  Not to mention the reading, but the terrifying pressure. My prof has emphasized patient safety in prescribing, deaths from adverse effects of meds, and lawsuits.  I'm a nervous wreck.

Maybe I don't want to be a Family N. P.  Maybe I'd rather get a plain old masters and teach nursing school.  Too.much.pressure!!!

A boy and his trains--it just never gets old

So Mike is really the luckiest dude around.  Not just because he is married to a gorgeous, hard working, talented, smart woman….ahem, anyways, he is lucky because he wins contests all the time!  The latest was a contest for 2 tickets to the Dallas Mavs game and the child gets to stand on the court with the players for the National Anthem. Now, in itself, that is a cool prize!  But, for a kid like Dillon, that is ahhh-mazing!  You see this child’s favorite part of any game is the playing of the national anthem. He stands at attention and belts it out. Mike and Dillon both wore their autographed Dirk Nowitzki jerseys that we've had for so many years.  Abby got to tag along as well. Dillon called and said Dirk gave him a fist bump.  Now that can't be verified by Mike, but we are claiming anyway ;)

What does this have to do with a boy and his trains??  I was home tonight with Hudsy (as my niece Aspen calls him). What does Hudsy do all the time??  Thomas the Tank Engine, of course.  Look at his sheer joy.

PS.  Carter and his band wrote and composed a song.  It should be available for purchase on iTunes and such by tomorrow evening!
PPS.  I could use some prayers as I consider a job change. SSSScary after 17.5yrs of acute hospital nursing to jump to something different. If only I weren't such a control freak

adoption-related or quirky kid stuff?

A great challenge for clued-in adoptive parents is deciphering some behaviors as regular childhood quirks or deep-rooted behaviors that stem from the child's birth and early infancy story. Often times, kids are just kind of weird...be it birth or adopted children and it has nothing to do with sensory processing or attachment ( we sure don't want to be those crazy parents that psycho analyze everything and play the blame game for their children). One example of this that I'm trying to figure out is why Dillon pretty much can't sleep in a bed.  For several years he has preferred a pallet on the floor.  When we make him sleep in his bed, he gets up frequently, calls out, and has bedtime drama.  I finally clued-in on this just yesterday.  You see all 3 of our Korean born children spent the first 2 months of their lives in a hospital. And while we know they received great medical care, it was still a hospital which means little physical touch, little singing to and cuddling, crying a lot without a momma or daddy to respond quickly to their needs.  Couple that experience with the trauma of suddenly moving from a foster family to our family, a new language, new culture, and the likely not so nurturing environment that was in the uterus...you easily understand some lingering behaviors. Dr. Karyn Purvis teaches on the affects of the in utero environment.  Stress hormones, poor nutrition, and exposure to medications/drugs/alcohol have life-long lasting effects. Hudson, came to live in our family at age 22 months.  He is 6 and still cannot be alone.  He refuses to go in a restroom without me, always asks "will you go with me" for a task as easy as getting a drink from a water fountain at the tiny library near our home.  He is also very fearful.  Sometimes I get so frustrated by this dependence and think he is way to old to act so babyish.  I need reminders that attachment and trust are built after years of "child expresses need--parent meets need--child begins to feel trust and security." Abby is a super stubborn, independent fighter. I have to think that a lot of it is from being born 2 months early, weighing 3 pounds, and having to be a fighter in her earliest of days.  I'm reading The Connected Child for the 3rd time.  I need constant reminders about how to build attachment and healthy neurological connections.  I can't change what happened before they joined us, but I can foster love and security.  Dr. Purvis says "children who come from hard places don't overcome their history in six weeks; it can take years before new, improved life skills and attachment take permanent root for these children."

New Years "Revulsions" (as Abby slipped and called them!)

LOVE making lists!  To do lists, Goals, budgets, calenders, grocery lists...you name it, I love doing that stuff! Writing new year's goals is like a fresh start.


As I reflected  on 2013, I determined that it was a year of "overs".  As in....over ate, over spent on earthly junk, over indulged, over scheduled, over worked, over stimulated by electronics.  These "overs" weren't just about me, but really I think our whole family had a year of "overs". We let the year go buy without any time spent serving others less fortunate than ourselves.  We made no dent in our emergency savings (and do we need that badly...our how water heater died this week). We ate lots of junk food.  The kids spent too much time being shuttled back and forth to activities and sitting in front of brain-sucking electronics, and Lord knows, I over-worried!

I prayed about what the Lord wants for us in 2014.  He has given me 2 words:  love and less
The goals for this year for myself pertaining to love are:   love my husband better and more demonstrative, love my children more affectionately and edify them with my words, love my children even when their behaviors irritate me (and believe me, there are plenty of times that happens), grow in love for the lost and seek opportunities to share Christ, love the poor and orphan in action- not just lip-service or donating a little cash, love my church family and pray for our leader, love my health and stop eating pounds of processed crapola that will turn to fat and clog my arteries. I already accomplished one goal yesterday.  I wrote Hudson's foster mother and will mail it tomorrow.
No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. I John 4:12

My goals for less are:  spend less time watching tv or on the computer(includes the kids and us parents) and more time playing outside, eat less hydrogenated fats and refined sugars, spend less money on first-world "musts haves" (our monthly bill for electronics and media-related products could sponsor 11 children through Compassion International that would provide food and education all month....hold on, I may vomit on our own selfish and lavish Suburban American waste...we've become the same kind of people I have complained and preached against for years), spend less time driving all over North Texas to entertain myself and the kids and more time doing things that are useful...like reading books, spend less brain energy worrying, spend less time comparing myself to people around me, spend less energy nagging my husband, spend less brain and heart energy worrying about things I can't control.

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and [m]wealth.

For this reason I say to you, [n]do not be worried about your [o]life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the [p]air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27 And who of you by being worried can add a single [q]hour to his [r]life? 28 And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! 31 Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But [s]seek first [t]His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be [u]added to you.

34 “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will [v]care for itself. [w]Each day has enough trouble of its own".  Matthew 6:24-35