Our first Christmas as a family of 11 was delightful! The kids were enthralled with everything... even though we stay pretty low key and simple with celebrations and gifts. A highlight was watching the kids open gifts from each other on Christmas eve. After weeks of secrecy, the name exchange was finally revealed and the precious dollar store gifts were distributed. It was our best sibling bonding moment yet.

After a great Christmas break, it has been time to launch back into school. The following is an excerpt from an email I sent to sil Judy the first week back to reality (Jan. 7):

"We survived day 3 quite nicely - plowing on! It was a difficult day of teaching, however. We reached the chapter in history which I hate to teach... post civil war. It sounds so wonderful that slavery is abolished, and Lincoln wants to fully restore the South to the Union. But then there's that ugly piece of America called racism. When I had to read about the forming of the KKK, I cried ... both from sadness and anger. I had hoped to delay talking about this stuff with the girls, but here it was in the book... they need to know... and the time was right.
We had already talked yesterday about the fact that there were very good people in the South and very good people in the North; but also very bad people in the North and very bad people in the South. Today we talked about 'white' people and 'black' people (the girls still refer to themselves as either 'brown' or 'Ethiopian' - both far more accurate in my opinion). I explained that in America, people would refer to their skin color as black and my skin color as white. There is some hilarity to that notion - I'm actually more peach colored, and they're more chocolate. But it is what it is. Then we had to talk about how cruel some white people have been to black people... and about the evil and Godlessness of KKK people. With sorrow, I told them that there are some places in the South and North that people would be very mean to me because my skin is peach. And there are places in the South and North that people would be very mean to them because their skin is brown. I told them that it has nothing at all to do with the color that we are, and everything to do with the lack of knowledge and love on the part of those being mean. Racism and cruelty is a tool of Satan to keep people hating each other. We talked about loving people even when they hate us... even though it's not our fault that they hate us. We talked about how Jesus handled it when people were mean to Him.
It was a great lesson in the end, but rather gut wrenching for me. Another day we'll talk more about things like segregation and the civil rights movement. Interestingly, the assignment for G, E, and A this week is to memorize either Martin Luther King's speech "I Have a Dream," or Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. I'm excited about both."

English practice

One of the joys of home educating is the freedom it gives the children to express an interest in a topic and explore it either in depth or at a leisurely pace.
Obviously, English as a Second Language has been the primary course of study for Me, L, and Ed. Ed has taken an interest in repeating phrases to practice her English speaking skills. Today's phrase (spoken slowly and deliberately with heavy accent, repeated dozens of times):

"She.. is.. peeking.. her.. nose."

Followed by lines from a Little House on the Prairie episode:

"Dat man loves me... And I am talking to de cat!"

Snow and Sinterklaas

Eating Yellow Snow

Waiting for Sinterklaas

St. Nick

While E is trying to get some decent photos of the fireplace hearth adorned with nine shoes filled with carrots, I thought I'd jot a quick note with our Sinterklaas Day greetings.

Our day was full of preparations for the Christmas tree, including the normal things like moving furniture and cleaning up the inch of dust from the window sills in the newly vacant spot.
It also included the unexpected ~ cleaning up dog puke from the living room carpet first thing in the morning and, due to the horrified feeling that we couldn't possibly get it clean enough, shampooing a large section of the 'did we miss a speck of it' carpet. The bonus surprise ~ dog poop in the shower! At least Pups was discreet.
Add in the "I brought this upon myself" chore of cooking an entire meal for 40 people. Cooking in advance, really... we're feeding the college students at church tomorrow. Two huge vats of soup and 12 loaves of homemade bread later, I ponder the strong possibility of bad weather = low turnout.
To fully picture all of this, you need to imagine the hum of nine children in the background. The hum occasionally flames into an uproar as drama develops - yet another bicker-fest, or pesky brother incident. Even in the "quiet" moments, the hum is punctuated by L's high activity, high volume voice or I and B's rough and tumble tackle play.

But finally, the tree is up! It's not your normal, run of the mill tree. Rather, it was cut by the men of the family - Berny, I, and B - from our friend's new farm. It won't be necessary to run the humidifier for the next couple of days, due to the 2+ inches of snow clinging to the tree's branches when it entered. Within a few minutes, we had rainfall under the tree. I'm sure the tree skirt (fancy name for the old tablecloth I hastily plopped on the floor) and carpet will eventually dry.

Berny is filling shoes with goodies now, so I think I'll go join him and scout out some odd count chocolates to eat.

Happy SinterKlaas Day!

Puddy Tat

The next generation tormenting cats through application of fashion ~ same doll clothes we used when my brother and sisters and I were kids!

It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that my Aunt Judy did the same stuff the generation before me...

Beauty Inside and Out

Refill

I intend to post at least once per month... but let me explain how things have been working for me.
I start to feel overwhelmed ~ which makes me start to feel cranky ~ which moves on to being crabby ~ which causes me to feel guilty ~ which makes me more overwhelmed ~ which starts to slip toward being depressed ~ which shuts off my interest in communicating with the 'outside world' ~ which puts a strain on friendships and distances family ~ which leads to a feeling of isolation ~ which increases the stress ~ which makes me incredibly overwhelmed, and I run all out of 'nice'...
Until God finds me on my emotional edge, takes me by the hand, and leads me back to the realization that He called me for this purpose and provides everything I need to attend to it. He finds just what I need and refills me.
My God shall supply all my needs, according to His riches in glory.

Then my eyes are once again opened to the joys of parenting a big crew of great kids. Here's a story I posted to the adoption yahoo group today:

This reminds me of what I overheard from two of mine the other day. Ic (bio) and L(home 7ish months) are almost the same age (7/8), so we often refer to them as 'the twins.' They get along beautifully.
I overheard Ic saying to L, "Well, we're not actually twins, cuz.." and I tuned in more closely, expecting to hear a comment about race: brown/peach, country of origin... but he continues, "We're not actually twins, cuz you're much more bossy than me."
I stayed in the kitchen to snicker to myself.