1000 Gifts, Vol. 6, #13

121.  creativity, beauty, and wonder

122.  this quote from our pastor tonight: "the repetition of finding wonder in God through prayer" (a la Daniel's thrice-daily Jewish prayer)

123.  hope

124.  opportunities to encourage others even while I'm inside these four walls

125.  the many professionals in our lives everyday, even while we're at home

126.  new flavor - Dalgona Coffee (although the syrup is the same as a glaze in a recipe from my childhood ~ currant crescents)

127.  bright sunshine, blue skies, pleasant temps

128.  the beauty of the lengthening rays at sunset

129.  the incredible imagination of a 6 year old boy!

130.  the beauty of a tulip bouquet on my kitchen counter (part of my online grocery order!)

Putting sounds & words together

I spent 20 years of my life trying to put Japanese sounds and words together to sound like a native speaker. 

And 12 of those 20 years in-country helping Japanese people put English sounds and words together to sound like a native speaker. 

For 6 years I have been in constant communication with speech & language pathologists, as they have helped Little Guy hear, practice, and use sounds and words. 

Now I am in frequent communication with Little Miss's speech & language pathologist. 

My mind is constantly in LANGUAGE MODE.  And I love it!

Yesterday I put a hair clip in LM's hair.  Every time she talked about it, it came out "bear clip," which reminded her of her bear, so she took the "bear clip" out of her hair and put it on her bear. :) 

This morning after breakfast, she kept asking, "Where is my akjd;lakgh;algkh?" All I could get were the vowels, so I guessed at the consonants and put together a word, and asked, "Where is your breakfast?"  No, that's not what she was asking. She kept trying.  Finally, she paused to think about it, and then asked, "Where is my big chewy?"  Aha!! Her chewy necklace!  Great job, LM, in compensating!!

Our days

We made it until 1 PM today without any screen time for the children!  (And even then it was only a YouTube of phonics readers, providing Little Miss with auditory bombardment of sounds she's working on in speech therapy.)

In "news to look forward to" Chicken Salad Chick is opening near us this year!

Lunch today for the children (because apparently I've become a short order cook) is a simple recipe I learned from a gap-year housemate years ago.  Layer bread slices in casserole dish.  Layer cheese. Top with more bread.  Pour a mixture of milk and eggs over that.  Bake. 

Amazon pantry continues to fill our pantry.  As Jim says, "Lots of snacks." Yes, desperate times call for desperate measures.  Except!  I ordered two boxes of gluten-free cookies ... and didn't realize until they arrived that they have buckwheat (which I cannot tolerate) in them.  :(

In my last Walmart online order, I purchased two 8-count watercolor sets.  :)  And, Little Guy needed one in his Zoom class one day.  Good thing I added that to our arts & crafts inventory.

We are zooming through books ... Here's a Penny, Penny & Peter (and we have some of the Betsy books by the same author ready to go), the Grandma's Attic series (middle of book 3 so far), and A-Z Mysteries (ready for H).  The A-Z Mysteries have been a combination of a few I had on hand from used stores, some audio downloads from the library, and some e-book downloads from the library).  Thankful for technology!

We went to town for my allergy shots one day this week (Thursday I think) and to drive-through Chick-fil-A and for a contact-free pickup of Vitamin D drops (due to my choking on the pills). :(  Anyway,  it was surreal to drive. The children delighted in seeing things out the windows.  And, Little Miss fell asleep in the van. She even remained asleep when I transferred her inside to my lap, where we cuddled in the recliner for awhile.  Precious memories of a stage that will soon be gone forever.

Facebook memories tell me that ten years ago today was my "Tea Party" in Japan, a very special farewell to many friends.  I'm thankful for the pictures I have of that day, and I can NOT believe it has been 10 years.  Some of them I will see in heaven.  Thinking of the others breaks my heart. 

Author Highlight

Last night, Little Guy and I started reading, "Little Talks About God & You."  I'm not sure where I found it, probably the really inexpensive used bookstore in the city where his school is.

I fell in love with it immediately, and we had one of the best conversations we've ever had. 

V. Gilbert Beers has been around since I was a little girl (and maybe longer!).  One of my aunts and uncles gave me the book, "The Magic Merry-go-round" when I was young.  A year or so ago, when some neighbors were downsizing, they offered us (and I gladly accepted) the 7-book series that that is a part of.

A few years ago at Goodwill I found the Muffin Family Picture Bible series, also by Beers, which I also remember from childhood, though I think I knew it from a friend's home and not ours.

His "One Year Bible for Children" is one of our favorites (found by searching the Sonlight Curriculum website in order to find good books)!

I would be content if our only "Jesus books" on our children's bookshelf were by Beers, Kenneth Taylor, Carine Mackenzie, and Ella K. Lindvall.

Lindvall's Read-aloud Bible Stories series is the BEST! And our 6 year old still loves it (6 years in!).

I grew up on Kenneth Taylor's "The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes," and have been delighted to find that he has several other books (which are seemingly newer, or at least have more modern pictures)!

I was introduced to Carine Mackenzie when a friend sent a baby gift for LG: "Little Hands Learning to Pray."  I have fallen in love with the publisher and Carine's (and her daughter Catherine's) books.

What are your classic children's books that teach and reinforce the Word of God?

Quarantine Cuisine

So, what have you been cooking? (For those 450 dinners you've cooked in the past month!)

We've enjoyed:

Garden Salmon Loaf

Baked Oatmeal (this was for breakfast)

Lasagna (for Easter)

Sausage quiche (hashbrown crust)

Broccoli Souffle

Homemade cranberry sauce

Hamburgers

Chicken salad

Homemade pizza (a long way to go to perfect that!)

Corndog Mini Muffins

Peanut Butter & Jelly Cookies (pb thumbprint cookies)

Empty Tomb Cake

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Birthday cake (a box mix) :)

Apparently we need to find a few healthier options. :)

Insane

Insane ... the number of online meetings/ appointments/ classes we have this week!

Most of these would have happened anyway, and would have taken a lot more time to get to (& get dressed for!), arrange childcare, etc. 

But I'm still on the learning curve of figuring out how to do them from home:

Making sure the necessary device is charged, that all of Little Guy's supplies are ready (iPad stand, chair with booster seat, Roger pen, paper, pencil, markers - or whatever was requested for that particular class), correct headphones ready if I need them for a meeting, children fed & hydrated and DVD on or RightNow Media connected to TV before I sign on, cooking & dishwashing & laundry done OUTSIDE of LG's class times, etc.

I have so many alarms set on my phone for all of these. Haha!

• Sunday School
• worship 
• Monday - Friday 8 AM & 7 PM Facebook live with our pastor (10)
• M-F individual academics for Little Guy (5)
• M-F group academics for LG (5)
• T-Th individual speech therapy for LG (3)
• F individual speech therapy for Little Miss
• small group 
• family zoom chat
• telehealth appointment
• post-adoptive counselor appointment
• women's ministry brunch (virtual), and 
• the Getty Family Hymn Sing ...

That is 32 Zoom sessions this week in addition to ... online grocery pickup, allergy shots, and IVIG.

Not to mention ... cooking 785 meals a week and dispensing 3,469 snacks. Ha!

Mary on Horseback

I spied five books on Facebook this week being sold as a lot by a homeschooling mom in the next town.  Five brand new books they received as gifts but already own.  Jim put $5 under her porch mat and brought home the bag of books.

I am sure the others are good, too (one is a Newberry Honor Book), but I was most interested in “Mary on Horseback.”

I grew up hearing about Mary Breckinridge, because my mom heard her speak while in nursing school, and the week my parents met (at her uncle's Bible camp), she asked her uncle if my dad would take her to see Mary Breckenridge’s place on Saturday.

It is a thin book, only about 50 pages, but the chapter I read first (about a 19-year-old nurse from Glasgow who answered a newspaper ad, sailed the Atlantic, and took the train to the last stop, and had never ridden a horse) was fascinating.

When libraries open, you might find it interesting.

And that’s your daily book recommendation :)

1000 Gifts, Vol. 6, #12

111.  He is not here. He is risen!

112.  the stone was rolled away

113.  Easter at home

114.  our family of four

115.  learning together in online SS and online worship

116.  enjoying Good Friday service from a church we spent Easters at pre-children

117.  empty tomb cake

118.  our children's first Easter basket hunt

119.  a lovely table with tablecloth, runner, and good china (even for Little Miss, who just rubbed her hands all over her plate before lunch, admiring it)

120.  a special meal to celebrate & feast

1000 Gifts, Vol. 6, #11

101.  waking up to the quiet of snow

102.  amazing support of the staff at Little Guy's school as we go through the IEP process

103.  wonderful IEP planning meeting (virtually of course) this morning with 13 professionals (from current school, future school, and the hearing itinerants)

104.  the amazing school he has been blessed to attend the past 3 years

105.  the amazing school he plans to mainstream into in August for 1st grade

106.  good rapport in our meeting

107.  so many supports they have in place which will benefit him

108.  allergy shots for the first time since my anaphylactic reaction (5 1/2 weeks ago)

109.  another box of books from Orphans Treasure Box (deeply discounted used bookstore that I am now using as our library - ha!)

110.  moving into the second half of The Grandma's Attic series, and re-starting the A to Z Mysteries series in our read-alouds

Kitchen table

Our kitchen table is actually very nice, beautiful wood, and well-built.

But it has also been well-loved. 

As I was lamenting all the mars, marks and blemishes on the finish recently, Little Guy reassured me, "Mom, it's okay. A table is still a table."

This morning our table is home to:

Leo the lion (a stuffed animal that came with LG's new hearing aids),

two random pieces of mail,

a much-loved cloth Japanese coaster with my cup of hot tea,

a stack of books that came in the mail from Orphan's Treasure Box (try them out & get free
shipping on orders over $10 in April),

this laptop I'm typing on,

an iPad from which I hear LG's teacher's voice as she teaches him a lesson on patterns,

LG's Roger pen lying next to the iPad,

LG's water bottle,

Jim's bowl of cereal & the milk jug, and

Jim's iPad as he reads the news while eating breakfast.

Our table is still a table. And it's well-loved & well-used. 

Four weeks

Today marks four weeks that the children and I have not gone in another building (except for my infusion ... and now I remember that I went in our village library on March 14th).  Jim goes to the farm regularly and has had to go in some farm stores.  He picks up mail at the post office, and had to go in a bank once.

I don't have any deep thoughts.  I feel like I'm in the numb stage.  Our church bought a subscription to Right Now Media, and I reach a point almost every afternoon when I log in and let them watch ... Boz, Veggie Tales, Penguins 1-2-3 ... while I go in another room and veg.

Early on we were following a few expats in China.  One family had 40 days of lockdown.  Another family had 76 days of quarantine (51 of which were on lockdown).  Jim and I kept remarking, "Can you imagine?"  Well, it's a lot easier to imagine now, isn't it? 

We have so much to be thankful for, though honestly I'd be more thankful if a certain 3 year old girl took naps! ;)

We've done puzzles. We've read a few of the Penny books by Carolyn Haywood and are on book 2 of The Grandma's Attic series.  The look of *sheer delight* on a certain 6 year old's face when I finish a chapter and suggest we read the next one is a precious, precious sight!

We've worked on Little Miss's 1000 Books Before Kindergarten (she is woefully behind on her list, compared to where Little Guy was at this age).  We've attended 13 Zoom classes each week, and today added Zoom speech therapy for LM and learned that we'll soon be able to start Zoom occupational therapy, although I can't even imagine how that will go?!

We've pulled out the play house tent that I had stashed away for a rainy day, the children have found a "secret hideout" under the pine trees, LM now has her own balance bike and enjoys riding it all over the back yard. 

We've made banana bread and pb&j cookies and eaten too many snacks, and I have cooked and cooked and cooked. 

The highlight for me so far has been participating in a Porch Portrait! If you know us in real life and want to see one, email me and I'll send you a photo.  A local photographer is participating in the porch portraits being taken all over the U.S.A., standing on the sidewalk and photographing families on their porch. 

I had already washed some windows, but I took time to wipe down all the porch railings & posts and clean the porch a little.  It was fun to coordinate outfits (without being able to buy even a new accessory to tie it all together), get dressed from head to toe (except LM's shoes; she was barefoot!), and even put on makeup!  It was the first day of planting, so it turned into a Mommy & me session, but that is special, too. 

How are you surviving?

1000 Gifts, Vol. 6, #10

91.  the moon tonight

92.  warm days ~ the promise of summer

93.  talking with neighbors on our walks around the block

94.  the sounds of children playing outside at dusk

95.  lovely read-alouds lately (Here's a Penny and In Grandma's Attic)

96.  spring cleaning (Why am I always amazed at how beautiful a clean window is?!)

97.  something to look forward to ~ a porch photo shoot :)

98.  motivation to clean the spindles, railings, and posts on our porch (!)

99.  how nice it looks (Why am I surprised?!)

100.  a new recipe that is on our weekly rotation (sausage quiche with hashbrown crust)

1000 Gifts, Vol. 6, # 9

Things I'm thankful happened before the quarantine:

81. we had our floors & ducts cleaned

82. LG got his new hearing aids & Roger pen

83. LM started OT & speech therapy

84. we started post-adoptive counseling, and she got to know us, and we got to know her, before our relationship became a phone-based one

85. we had the coils replaced on our van (not that it's getting much use these days...)

86. Jim had his weekend hospital stay for a kidney stone

87. LG got to observe (the day before the governor closed schools!) in the 1st grade classroom at the school he will be attending in August, Lord willing

88. I got to meet the principal there, so we each have a face to go with a name, as we communicate by email now

89. my kitchen was organized by a professional organizer last August (even tho' my kitchen was basically closed for 2.5 years while LG was commuting, it is definitely NOT closed now!)

90. Jim and I got to go on our annual pre-planting get-away (we "just so happened" to go a month early this year!)

20 days in

Literally 20 days in(side), and I've learned a few things ...

You have to give yourself grace. No one has a playbook for this.

Even if you're an introvert, you need people.

Just because you're home 24/7 doesn't mean you'll accomplish all those projects around the house you've been meaning to do for years (especially if you have young children and no longer have options for them to spend time at other people's homes for a few hours here and there).  If I clean one drawer a week, that's progress.  Baby steps!

You have to pace yourself.  Some days I cook a lot. Some days I catch up on washing all the baking pans.  Some days I fold & put away lots of laundry.  Hey! Some days I even wash windows. :)  But I can't do it all on the same day.

Some days are screen days, and some days are outdoor play days.  It (hopefully) all balances out, and I feel no guilt. 

When your son has 13 hours of ZOOM instruction a week, your small group meets by video conferencing, and your son Facetimes with friends (read "gives them tours of his house"), people get to see your house no matter what it looks like ... and your hair ... and your clothes ... and your face. :)

What have you learned?

Easter plans

"Easter cannot be cancelled. 2000 years ago, all the forces of hell tried that. They failed." (seen on Facebook)

So, we'll be home for Easter this year.  Hmmm....  What shall we do to make it special? Memorable? Meaningful? What will you do?

This year I have decorated more for Easter than I usually do.  (Looking back, I see where I even decorated for Easter when I was in Japan.)

Easter is one of my favorite holidays!  In the past I have written about my Easter reading, Easter memories, and Easter in Japan. 

We have a couple dozen picture books for Easter that I am putting into our daily read-aloud rotation.  Little Guy and I are reading one page a day in Benjamin's Box.  I am sure we have Amon's Adventure, but I have misplaced it. We'll save that for another year. 

I've been listening to my Easter playlist on my ancient iPod (!). 

We have been doing the Resurrection eggs almost daily. 

Little Guy always looks forward to making resurrection rolls (or "The tomb is empty" rolls, as he has called them).  That's our one tradition we have kept.

This year I'd like to make a lamb cake again, and try the empty tomb cake, hot cross buns, and Easter cookies.  I'm noticing a definite food theme!
 
What are you doing? We'd love to hear some fresh ideas!
 

Top Seven

And just like that, March of 2020 will go down in the history of this blog!

If you count the number of posts per month since our wedding, March 2020 is one of the top seven months.

Being home gives one more time to write ... and more time to think. And being home means I need an outlet, and writing is it.

We'll see how many posts I put up in April. :)