Foggy Sense of Time

Every Tuesday, Isaac and Daniel go to a homeschool P.E. class. They LOVE it! So, this morning Daniel was telling me that he can't wait until P.E. day because he loves dodge ball. They play lots of different sports each week, but they almost always play dodge ball.

He explained that there are different types of dodge ball: circle dodge ball and elimination dodge ball. Daniel said he likes both, but they don't play elimination dodgeball very often. "Probably only once a week."

hehehehe,

(If you don't get it, reread it.)

Entrepreneurship in Action

We just finished watching this as a family:

Here's the story:

Caine Monroy is a 9-year old boy who spent his summer vacation building an elaborate DIY cardboard arcade in his dad’s used auto parts store.

Caine dreamed of the day he would have lots of customers visit his arcade, and he spent months preparing everything, perfecting the game design, making displays for the prizes, designing elaborate security systems, and hand labeling paper-lunch-gift-bags. However, his dad’s autoparts store (located in an industrial part of East LA) gets almost zero foot traffic, so Caine’s chances of getting a customer were very small, and the few walk in customers that came through were always in too much of a hurry to get their auto part to play Caine’s Arcade. But Caine never gave up.

One day, by chance, I walked into Smart Parts Auto looking for a used door handle for my ’96 Corolla. What I found was an elaborate handmade cardboard arcade manned by a young boy who asked if I would like to play. I asked Caine how it worked and he told me that for $1 I could get two turns, or for $2 I could get a Fun Pass with 500 turns. I got the Fun Pass.

P.S. Guess what my kids are doing now? ;)

Children Are a Blessing

Children are a Blessing from Moore Family Films on Vimeo.

If you don't have time to watch the whole movie, just watch the first 5 minutes. Powerful!

Julia's 2 Year-Old Speech

Julia, the youngest of a bunch of chatty sisters, talks A LOT! Although she has a huge vocabulary, she has several words she consistently mispronounces.

Oatmeal - "Mismeal"

Finished - "Mayish"

She also lisps. Oh and she can't say her Rs correctly. She says "cay" for car and "moy" for more. (These took me a long time to figure out.)

If only we knew a Speech Pathologist. . .

For those who don't know, I was a Speech Pathologist in a prior life. But I'm a full-time mom now; I don't have time for that. ;)

Stop What You're Doing

. . . and go right now to your local library and get this book:

It is fantastic! This book, full of very fun onomatopoeia and plot surprises, was written by the author of other classics I'm sure you know: Blueberries for Sal and Make Way for Ducklings.

You'll love it!

Easter 2012 (A Little Late)

Early Reading Skills

I caught Daniel reading this classic to Judah: Stink Bug Saves the Day!

Warms my heart.

Family News

Judah's wild and crazy cowlick was getting out of control. I decided he needed his first haircut.

BEFORE

AFTER

Seriously, is he handsome or what? (He's only 3 months old. Hard to believe, I know!)

In other news, my twins turn 7 this week! Seven!! That's so old! Lydia still can't fathom that she was outside my belly when we adopted Daniel. She doesn't remember life without him. I just love that.

She has gotten over her desire to marry him one day. (I kept telling the big kids she would!)

She's content just to have him as her best friend.

Adoption is a Ministry

Before we adopted, I read a book called Adoption as a Ministry, Adoption as a Blessing. I've come to realize that adoption will always be a ministry. It doesn't stop being a ministry when the kids are home and life has settled into a new normal. Five years later, when our adoptees talk and act and joke like Clarks, adoption is still a ministry.

Adoption stems from loss. It still does.

Isaac still needs to learn how to communicate his frustrations instead of just giving up because we don't understand the first time.

Maya still needs to learn to ask for help. She still doesn't always remember that we are here to help her.

They both have to be told to come to us when they are afraid. If there is a loud thunderstorm, most of my children will be afraid. But only the blue-eyed children will come to our room for comfort. So we go to them.

This is what they need and we love them enough to love them differently. The way they need love.

They are worth it.

Adoption is always a ministry.

Teachable Moments

The other day, Kyle talked to Isaac about being gentle with girls. He told him that rough-housing is for boys and girls, including his sisters, needed to be treated very differently.

As Kyle and I talked about this later, I realized that I needed to talk to the girls about how to handle boys treating them too roughly.

I took all my big girls on an errand and told them how boys naturally love being rough and tumble. I told them that any boys who aren't taught will tend to treat girls the same way, and they need to know how to respond to it. I said: When you get tired of it or don't like the way a boy is treating you, you need to stop laughing and completely change your countenance as you say "Stop it. I don't like that!" I explained that boys don't understand when you're saying no no, but still laughing and giggling.

The same day, Elena was reading a comic in the newspaper (would love your thoughts on this by the way; they're not as innocent as I remember!) and she asked me: What's a hangover?

I didn't mind explaining that. I told her what it is and Maya jumps in with:

Wine is a mocker. Strong drink a brawler. Whoever is intoxicated by it is unwise.

I had completely forgotten that we had memorized that verse. I had taught it to them, somewhat in jest, wagging my finger and furrowing my brow, so Julia would copy me. But they committed it to memory!

So I asked: What is a mocker? (They all answered that it's someone who makes fun of someone.) Exactly, I said, when a person is drunk, they're easy to laugh at. They look and act ridiculous because they're not in their right mind.

I never had to say that getting drunk is a bad idea. All I had to do was define a hangover.

We're Safe

Thank you so much to all my out-of-state friends who've been calling and emailing to check on us. The tornadoes have not come to our neighborhood. We did have some marble-sized hail awhile ago, which we all stared at out the window while waiting for Kyle to get home from work. :)

Thanks so much for your concern and prayers,