Help bring Alyssa and Piper home!

Quick post...since its Monday and I need to get to our homeschooling  this morning...

  My dear friend, Michelle, is trying desperately to adopt and bring home two beautiful little girls from Eastern Europe.  They have opened their home to adoption many times already and are called again to adopt these two little ones:

They could really use some help with the next phase of their adoption...there are still a lot of costs left to pay before they finish this race to get their girls.  Michelle...bless her heart....has tried to auction off a vacation rental without any success.  They are also trying to coordinate fundraising with some other adopting families as well as organize a pancake breakfast at Applebees and she hasn't had too much luck with selling tickets for that, either.  MaryKay....she's offering that, too.  They are doing all they can to raise the funds and they could use some help.

They've come so far!  Dossier submitted....hopefully traveling sometime in May to meet the girls!

I'm sorry the above picure is not a link...

Here is their blog...please go visit them and give them some fundraising love, would ya?

http://findingrdaughter.blogspot.com/

Also, here is their page on Reece's Rainbow...

http://reecesrainbow.org/29937/sponsorhills

Your donations to the Reece's Rainbow grant page are tax deductable.


When I was full of adoption questions and just really needed a real person to bounce questions off of, Michelle was the one who came over and met me, a perfect stranger, to try to help ease our concerns and help us feel confident to press on into the world of adoption.  She is a great person.  And these girls are going to be blessed to join her family.


Blessings,
Kimberly

Nature Study...

Found these bones under a bush in our yard....and the bird skull in another area of the yard.
The skull is definitely a bird skull but we are still working on figuring out what the other bones are from. 

Our turkey vultures...

Very disgusting but interesting creatures :)

Sprouts and blooms

Busy today...but thought I'd post a few photos...

Bradford Pear trees on the outskirts of our property are blooming...

 Our vegetable seeds are sprouting indoors and waiting to go in the garden bed. 
 

 Some more seed trays outside in the sun...I've got tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, summer squash, broccoli, and basil growing.  I still need to find a non-hybrid, heirloom green pepper seed.   I've also got seeds for corn and beans waiting to be planted directly into the ground after the last frost date.  oh...and I picked up a few strawberry plants to stick on the outer edge of the garden just for fun for the kids.  We're excited about planting this year because we bought all heirloom quality seeds that are non-hybrid so we will hopefully learn how to collect seeds for re-planting next year.  We've never done this before but we're glad that we using quality seed.

 The garden bed...this is the before picture.   This was after I tilled it all up.   I have since separated it all out into sections and rows and mounds.  I've also added some compost to the rows to help improve the soil for planting.

Hoping that we can get some productivity out of this garden bed this spring/summer :)

Our Family Daybook

Our Family Daybook

Around the Homestead...

Still working on the garden bed.  Adding good organic matter to the soil.  My seeds are sprouting!

Our adoption process...

Honestly, I hit a bit of a breaking point last Friday.  I am an introvert.  I am also a relatively sensitive person.  I am passionate and feels things pretty deeply.  It has been exactly one year since I found Reece's Rainbow and knew God had placed it before us TO DO SOMETHING.  We were not in the place to do it then.  We have moved now and it was a green light to start the process.  But I had gotten so entrenched in other adoption blogs, stories, experiences that it was getting hard for me to function...the need is SO GREAT.  14 yr. olds that weigh 14 pounds and are the size of 3 month olds because caretakers in Eastern Europe thought their Down Syndrome made them not worth feeding or caring for...older kids watching parents adopt a child from their orphanage and begging for families and wanting parents of their own.  Kids waiting for years.   Its been a lot.  I took a break.  Didn't read a single thing, Dan and I stopped talking about it for a bit.  We prayed.  We waited.  I think I might be in a better place to move forward now.  We're talking about it again and looking to God to lead us.

Learning at home...

This was supposed to be a very light week because of the season and the need to garden and prepare for the chicks coming.  The boys did a bit of Math, read lots of library books and helped make compostable planting cups from newspaper as well as help me in the garden a bit.
Elijah was awesome and planted tulips for me :)  We will definitely read some history today. We'll get back to the books more next week.

What we've been reading...

"The Backyard Homestead Guide to Raising Farm Animals" and "Backyard Livestock"  Both of these books are from the library.  We really like Guide to raising farm animals one.  We are reading about the proper care of chicks from 1 day to 6 weeks right now the the boys so they will know how to properly care for them. 

I will also be reading a organic gardening book from the library.

What we've been thinking about...

"We have lost the theology of risk. There is an inner confidence that we've lost. We've lost zeal. We've lost guts. Unless you are willing to do the ridiculous, God will not do the miraculous." (Mother Angelica)

Thanks to http://bringinghenryhome.blogspot.com/ for the quote!

I'm thankful for...

My husband.  Its St. Joseph's Day today and I am truly thankful for the hard worker that my husband is.  He is a great supporter of his family.  And he never gives up trying to do his best to balance all that life throws at him.  I love you, Hon.

I'm praying for...

The Archer Family and their soon-to-be adopted children, For the children at Pleven, for Michelle to raise the funds to bring Alyssa and Anya home where they belong and for peace and holiness in our home.

Something I'm pondering during Lent...

"I think the world today is upside down. Everybody seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater development and greater riches and so on. There is much suffering because there is so very little love in homes and in family life. We have no time for our children, we have no time for each other; there is no time to enjoy each other. In the home begins the disruption of the peace of the world."

-Mother Teresa


"In the home begins the disruption of the peace of the world." 
This last line has stuck with me these past days...everything our Blessed Mother Teresa has ever said resonates with me but this line really struck me during this Lenten Season.  

So very grateful for the reminder...

Blessings,
Kimberly

Out of doors

People who live in the country know the value of fresh air very well,

and their children live out of doors,

with intervals within for sleeping and eating.

~Charlotte Mason, Home Education, Vol 1, p.42

My kids spend a lot of time outside...playing, pretending and creating.  We really need to work on the garden and do some spring cleaning this week, too, so we're cutting our school time down a bit and taking advantage of some spring fever to clean and garden.
 

(Thanks to http://bugsknightsandturkeysintheyard.blogspot.com/ for the great quote from Miss Mason.)

Blesssings,
Kimberly

Current Tree Fort Progress

So like Kim mentioned, I'm working on the tree fort and it's going to be great when it's done...  I did a bit of research and found the best way to attach stuff to trees with minimal damage to them.  The main thing is to minimize the number of connections to the tree and Garnier Limbs help in that.  These massive bolts mimic how a tree branch connects to a tree to create a strong mounting point in which to connect stuff to.


Given how this tree is shaped I couldn't really wrap around the trunk; though I didn't like the idea of having a hole in the roof for the trunk anyway.  So I decided to build the fort off to one side and have a deck off the other.


I bought two GL's, as they're called, to hold up the two 4x6 beams you can see horizontal in the picture on the left.  I then used two 4x4 posts to create diagonal braces to hold up the fort side of structure.  It was a challenge to connect the diagonal beams but I thing I arrived a reasonable solution with some advice from a friend.


The next step is to finish laying out the jousts and putting the decking and floor down so that I can start having the boys help in the construction.  I'll post more progress as I find time.


Dan