Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful!

Really!  In Phoenix… in December… it snowed only 25 miles from our house!  We had rain … but we are not used to harsh conditions where we need closed-toed shoes… and a jacket!  I can imagine the sympathy in your heart for us!  haha.

December brought out Christmas decorations with a vengeance… lights, wreaths, trees, snowmen, etc.  First year EVER… I got the fake tree up with all the silver, blue and white ornaments… on December 1st!  A week later, we are still waiting to go buy a tree for all the non-blue ornaments.  A few years back, I came to the realization that red is not my favorite color.  In fact in the ROYGBIV list… I’m basically loving the rainbow in reverse order.  I’m a violet, indigo and blue gal from the boots up.  SO…. I went blue Christmas shopping and the blue tree was born.  I love it more each year… as the ornaments accumulate.  There are a few homemade preschool ornaments that made the cut… we have a popsicle stick Star of David with blue glitter…. and a dough star painted royal blue.  Yes, they are on the back, but they did make the cut for MY tree.

I love these stained glass snow flakes.  Rick and I bought these in Mexico two years ago at Christmas time.  Love them!

This stained glass trio was purchased last Christmas in Bogota, Colombia.  Yes, it’s supposed to by Mary, Joseph and the Babe Jesus, but I also like to think of it as Rick, me and our little colombian princess who joined us last Christmas!

Nora has loved the thought of Christmas since her first days in the USA.  She arrived to her forever home on December 22nd and it was one big blur of Christmas bliss her first week home!  Her eyes sparkled when she saw Grandma’s house all decorated in every corner!  A village with ice skaters and lights in the windows… a sleigh full of teddy bears… brass reindeer with ribbons… embroidered Santa pillows…. snowmen that play the piano and sing…. little Christmas mice climbing candles… matching wreaths on the front doors… and Santa himself waving the lantern from the top of the tree…Spendid!  All year long she has repeated that Christmas is her favorite!  We have stressed over and over that it is our favorite too, because Jesus was born then and THAT is the reason we celebrate.

We are doing the Jesse Advent Tree devotional with the kids.  We bought a little tree for the kitchen table that looks pretty lame right now with only five ornaments, but it looks a little better each day as we add to the story of Jesus!  We review every night and Nora basically gets it so far…. just a bit off on a few stories!  It is a bit alarming that of the first five stories, death is talked about three times!  (Adam and Eve’s disobedience, Noah’s neighbors and Abraham starting to sacrifice Isaac!)  I never thought of it before, but it’s all part of the story of our salvation!

So thankful for a relaxed Christmas month to share with our little girl!

Minor Victory in my Post Adoption Life

As I have confessed here before, my life is so much different now that I have four children.  This week we will have been home from Colombia with the Colombian princess for five months… also marking HALF A YEAR that she has been our girl.  My, does time fly when you’re having fun coping issues. :o)  But a light has begun to shine at the end of the tunnel for me.  I’m back on top in a few areas that I feel are worth sharing for my own cathartic needs.

1.  I am back to being a coupon queen.  With the aid of my son (who loathes de-collating coupon books, but loves his mama) my coupons are all up to date in the file box.  I spent about a half hour making a list and checking it twice and headed off to do BIG saving shopping at Fry’s grocery store.  When it all came down, I filled two carts (mainly because I stocked up on paper towel) and the total would have been $280, but after my coupons I paid $106.  My pantry was bare-er than it has ever been in the past four years, but I remedied that in one trip!  My children are much happier now that they see a supply of food that will last more than two days!  Nora could not believe how much stuff I bought!  And she doesn’t even understand the savings yet!

2.  My Tupperware cupboard is cleaned out!  This is almost a miracle.  When do I have time to do mundane chores like that?  Hardly ever!  But this week, with the help of the same son and my little new helper, everything blinkin’ plastic thing was pulled from the cupboard and MATCHED with its lid!  Whoa!  I know!  We filled the recycle bin twice with those containers that were partner-less.  It makes me happy simply to open the cupboard door and look at the tidiness.

3. My master bedroom closet is clean!!!  That means I finally hauled out all the Christmas decorations, wrap and bows that were thrown in there in early January!  I also went through my clothes and threw out items that should have been thrown out years ago.  I also put together a BIG bag for Goodwill.  And filled the garbage can twice!  This does not mean that I touched any of Rick’s clothes or junk quality paraphernalia.  But I did count his t-shirts….. 33.  Why in heaven’s name does any grown man need 33 t-shirts.  They don’t.  That is on the agenda for today! (Don’t tell!)

I’m feeling almost close to normal… about three minutes off.

Pumpkin Pie Pudding

Anyone remember when the pumpkin shortage was announced back in the Fall of 2010??  Well, I, for one, was not going to be short on pumpkin come Thanksgiving time.  I stocked up when I found the cans of orange goodness in a local store.  Then we got our adoption referral and left for Colombia the day before Thanksgiving.  You guessed it, I didn’t cook anything with pumpkin last Fall.  When Christmas rolled around, we had been home from Colombia with our new daughter for three days…. and cooking anything was not on my list.  I was in survival mode.

Fast-forward three-and-a-half months to this week, and envision me standing in front of my pantry staring at cans and cans of pumpkin.  It was raining, even hailing, outside… yes, we still live in Phoenix!  Pumpkin cooking time had arrived and I was ready to fully embrace it.  I searched through the cupboards and took inventory.  Next, I went to www.supercook.com and typed in the ingredients from my pantry.  They ALWAYS can come up with a recipe for you no matter how strange your items are!  Amazing!  Well, I didn’t have any cooking oil, so that severely limited my pumpkin choices, but one did catch my eye…. Pumpkin Pie Pudding.  Sounded divine.  I was salivating thinking that in an hour or so, I could be savoring a yummy pumpkin dessert.

Not so.  As it turns out, the recipe I found was yummy, and easy, and quick to prepare…. but it was a slow-cooker recipe.  SEVEN to EIGHT long hours in the crock pot were required before I could partake of non-shortage pumpkin goodness.  I prepared it anyway… and 10:00 at last night. 

When my husband’s alarm went off this morning at 5:00, I asked him if he could turn off the crock pot.  He replied in the affirmative…. but failed miserably to act on his promise once he arrived downstairs.  When I strolled into the kitchen at 8:15…. yes, it was too late to resuscitate the supposed-to-be-orange-now-dark-brown dessert.  Pumpkin Pie Pudding had morphed into Dark Pumpkin Brick from the HOT place.  Sadly, I got a spoon from the utensil drawer to investigate the darkness inside the pot.  To my surprise, it actually was yummy pumpkin pie pudding, encased in a thick skin.  I scraped off the top layer and removed the savory remains to a separate dish.  YEAH! 

All was not lost.  PPP was a wonderful, cold weather treat today!

Plans Gone Awry

In my perfect little world, I was sending out adoption/thank you/Christmas cards this year.  They are all addressed.  Since the decline of our referral in October, I’ve realized that they will not be sent until 2011.  Another year when I don’t have the heart to send out Christmas cards.  One of our family members is missing!  How can I send incomplete family pictures?  I cannot.  And that is the end of that.  I might do an email update for curious minds and those whom we only correspond with at the time of Jesus’ birthday celebration.  Then again, I’m sure many would be thrilled to get a Christmas card that is a few months late…. that is complete.

This morning, while whipping up Grandma’s Swedish pancakes, I put in the first Christmas CDs of the season.  Not a child came downstairs that did not comment on the yule tide tunes…. and we had two extra childs too.  :o)  BUT, then Third Day’s song came on…. Merry Christmas.  The lyrics came dribbling out of the stereo of another Christmas when your child is not home.  Good grief.  This is not GOOD grief…. this is SAD grief!  Talk about killing me softly with his song!

Staying positive is my goal this holiday season.  But, for heaven’s sake, this is the FOURTH Thanksgiving and Christmas without our baby girl.  My only hope is that we get the referral before Christmas and I can hang her Precious Moments First Christmas ornament on the tree because I’ll know her birth year!  Oh please, oh please.

On Saturday in a hearty attempt at garage saling with my husband… I did find another Groovy Girl doll for my little girl.  It’s the little joys that keep me going right now.

It’s October… already?

Pumpkin time… also, sadly, Christmas decoration selling time in the stores!!??!!  It always surprises me EVERY year! We have three more months until Jesus’ birthday.  Enjoy the Fall and Thanksgiving already.

On the adoption news front, I found out on Sept. 30th that we did have a referral in the end of July, but the child did not match our family file.  So we are still sitting at the top of the family pile waiting for our little girl to be available for us to go and love on.  It seems a November travel itinerary is still in the works.  Good news.  Wait wait and wait some more.

On the Mama-needs-a-distraction-from-waiting front, I have been reading a book titled Charting the Unknown: Family, Fear, and One Long Boat Ride by Kim Petersen.  Kim and her hockey-playing husband went to university with me and my hockey-playing husband.  Her prose is picture perfect.  Her colorful descriptions and parallel existence in her head are amusing and informative.  It’s a story worth reading because it deals with fear.  We all deal with fear, but we deal with different tactics.  After the death of their baby girl, Kim started dealing with fear head-on. It’s inspiring to read about someone who has been there, dove in deep, and came out alive.

I have read some of the story aloud to my husband, as we have laughed and laughed at the antics of his old teammate, Mike.  He was a jokester in college and obviously still is.  Some things never change.  We also had several flashbacks to university including the Sunday meal of roast beef, mashed potatoes and yorkshire pudding in the cafeteria.  The yummy memory made us both grin and smell the gravy 20 years later.

College life was sweet in so many naive ways.  If we knew then what we know now…. life would have been different.  But that’s the ol’ 20/20 hindsight deal again.  Kim’s book and her and Mike’s list of dreams from college made us take a fresh look at our dreams and goals.  Have we settled?  Have the dreams died?  No and no.  We will live out one of our pre-marital dreams in November when we go get our daughter in Colombia.

Do you have a dream or wish list from years ago?  Do you know where it is?  Have you reviewed it in a while?  Go find it.  It’s not too late.

Naked House

Since the removal of the real live Christmas tree (and the fourth or fifth dumping of the water from the stand on the carpet) and the fake Jenny Craig skinny tree with blue ornaments, the regular furniture and accessories have not made their reappearance in the house yet.  It looks quite naked in the living room and the family room. The garage is uncomfortably stuffed at the moment.  We need to bring in two coffee tables, three lamps, one chair, two silk Ficus trees and whatever used to be on the entry table and the piano. 

I think I’m liking the barrenness of it all.  Less to dust.  Not that I ever dust anymore.  I have children who do, despite the  infrequency that it gets accomplished.  Embarrassingly enough, the dining room chairs did not get their seats wiped for months… and in the dusty AZ desert, that is NOT good.  A guest in black pants, who shall remain nameless, came over, sat down, scooted back and unknowingly dusted one of the seats for me.  Yikes!  When said guest was not looking, I caught Larisa’s eye (the living room duster….) and pointed to the dust on our guest’s backside.  Good grief!

We had house guests visit for five days, so the loft/sewing room/school room had to be cleaned out.  I dusted the sewing machine and folded it back into its table.  I even dusted the elliptical machine.  It does get regular use, but the metal bars are a magnet to dust balls.  One of my helpful children loaded all the fabric from its obvious hiding place under the cutting table into a black garbage bag and to the garage. And even the loft/sewing room/school room looks bare naked at the moment.  It makes me feel lighter…. or slimmer…. or something.

All this nakedness needs to rub off in our master bedroom.  I desperately need to clean out the file cabinet drawers and file all the files on my desk.  It is a seriously organized conglomeration of files that simply need a home of their own instead of a pile… many piles… neat piles, but piles nonetheless. 

Anyway, I’m staying downstairs because it’s all naked and clean feeling down here.

AND the WINNER is…… (the envelope please)

I apologise for my tardy posting of today’s winner of my fantastic book Laughing in the Midst of Marriage.  Of course you have the privilege of hearing some entertaining stories before I announce the winner.

On the way home from California yesterday, the highway was closed for several hours due to an accident and the 100 mile detour was not very tempting.  So we after getting off the cruise ship at 9:00 am, we arrived home at 10:00 pm.  It’s only supposed to take 6 hours.   Bhhaaaaa!  Anyway, glad to be home and that’s why I didn’t post yesterday.

Today’s plans were to put up the real live Christmas tree in the family room for all of the precious handmade adornments that my children have crafted with their talented little hands over the past 16 years.  Well, to make a long and agonizing story very short, we HAVE put up the $5 real live tree…. several times now.  (It pays to wait until Dec. 19th!!!! It’s a nice tree!)  Currently, however, it is leaning at a 40 degree angle and is propped up between the wall and the entertainment center.  We have also picked up all the ornaments several times, shop-vacced the water out of the carpet and thrown away several glass ornaments that didn’t take well to being smashed to smithereens when connecting rapidly and repeatedly with the floor.  This is so FUN!  I can’t wait to do it again and again until we get it right.  I’m ready to hammer an ugly nail into the wall and tie the tree up with a bright orange bungee cord.

So, there was a slight delay in getting the names cut and folded for secrecy for the drawing of the winning name.  We also needed eggs, milk, bread, bananas and cheese…..  but I digress.  Child #2 hand wrote all the names. Child #1 verified that he did indeed copy all of them correctly.  I folded them all to improve the random choice.  And child #3 chose the winning name.  I bet you’re wondering who it was, aren’t you??? 

First one last bit of unimportant trivia from my day…. in the midst of the $5 Christmas tree fiasco (which is still not concluded) Besides the Christmas tree I also purchased petunias, lobelia, pansies and alyssum for my naked flower pots.  Keeve and I yanked out all the summer vinca and he asked if he could transplant his peas to bigger pots or a plot on the ground.  “Yes, of course, my little gardener.”  We readied a huge cement pot with new dirt and moved some empty pots of his that didn’t sprout.  Keeve sadly said, “A seed is not a promise!”  as he moved the dirt filled pots.  I previously read the story A Seed is a Promise to him.  So cute! (and depressing when seeds don’t grow!) Well, the peas were planted in peat moss pots and the pea’s roots grew through the pots and down into the soil of my raised flower bed.  BIG roots.  Deep roots.  So instead of transplanting, he just filled in the area with dirt and the peas will stay where they have put down roots.  (I told you it was unimportant!) And the winner is Valeera, aka Gram.  Congratulations.  Please send me your address via email and I’ll send out the book. 

Please come back for more scintillating Christmas tree stories and heart-filled holiday trivia from our home to yours with love.

Time Flies when You’re having FUN!

I just figured out that I’m getting old.  Last week, I figured it out.  All by myself.  Yep.  Old.

The KID that wore the pharmacist badge in the drug store couldn’t have been more than 13 years old.  He didn’t even shave yet.  Isn’t pharmacy school the long version of college?  I’m not getting old.  He was probably homeschooled.  Graduated highschool at 9 years old.  Yep.

The nine-inch zipper on the front of my jeans… is quite lovely.  I can’t imagine a two-inch zipper!?!  What’s the point?  And the back!  Gaaawww.  Say “NO!” to crack!  “Moms will love the nine-inch zipper” is TRUE even if it was on SNL.  We love it for everyone.

Where did these four boxes of Christmas ornaments come from?  We just got married… just a while ago…  seems like last year…. could it really be 23 Christmases ago?  We’ve celebrated baby Jesus’ birthday 23 times as married folk?  That means I was 13 when we got married, if I remember right.  I must still be in my 30’s.  Right?…. Anyone?….

Forty-something-year-olds are almost 50.  That’s half a century.  Old.  That’s the middle ages.  Ouch.

And when did they start letting pre-teens work at the post office?  I thought for government jobs you had to be 18?  I think the postal worker was wearing root beer glossy lip gloss and a training bra.  Goodness.

The phone rang last week.  Caller ID read “Telemarketer.”  Total no-brainer.  Don’t answer.  Well, I knew I needed to clean the whole kitchen and I thought the mental distraction would be proactive on my part.  Plus, with caller ID, who do these poor telemarketers talk to anymore?  The decision was made in a nanosecond. I would take a survey.  I would be the nice person.  I would make Mr. Telemarketer’s entire evening by being cheerful and peppy with my answers.  Come to find out, it was about jams, jellies and preserves!  I love jams, jellies, and preserves!  This would be more fun than I originally thought!  Well, question #3 was “What age group do you fit into?”  I’m always in the third group, I thought patiently, waiting for the age groups.  His monotone voice began, “Group 1: ages 18 – 21, Group 2: ages 22 – 25, Group 3: ages 26 – 29, Group 4: ages 30 – 34, Group 5: ages 35 – 39, Group 6: ages 40 – 44, Group 7: ages 45 – 49, Group 8…..”  I hung up.

The stupid jam guy said I was old.  Group SIX!  Nearing Group SEVEN!  That’s how I figured it out.

It’s the Holiday Season

After all the pictures of my messy house in pre-home visit haphazardness, I decided to let you see a glimpse of our Christmas house decor now that things are put straight and purty.

Jesus and his posse are on the piano this year.  There is far more room in the stable now, because there was no room in the inn.

My favorite part of getting ready for Jesus’ birthday is getting out all of our ornaments and reminiscing of those who gave them to us, or where we purchased them.  When we go on vacations, we try to remember to buy and ornament for the tree.  This is our first year where we’ll have two trees, but the real one that will inevitably drop pine needles in my shag carpet is not being purchased until Dec. 19th, the day after Rick and I get home.  So the fake Jenny Craig blue and silver tree is up and shining, but the remainder of the not blue and silver ornaments are still in their boxes.

My second favorite part of getting ready is finding the on-sale decorations that I bought last year.  I never remember them!  It’s like opening surprise Christmas presents to myself.  This year was no exception.  I found these silver balls and pinecones in their packages… all ready for the silver snowman basket.  So cute… and there’s mirrored disco balls too.  Perfect for the Crosby Christmas Dance-Off.

Because the Nativity scene took over the piano top, the Christmas village moved to the entry table… and of course, any pilot’s Christmas village has a hangar and an airplane or two.  Duh!

Here’s the love birds that are sitting behind the lit archway… it’s so cute.  He’s playing his accordion and singing to her…. probably “All I Want for Christmas is You.”

All we need is a roaring fireplace, some hot cocoa with marshmallows and some snow outside.  Well, one out of three ain’t bad.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

So, I’ve been coughing for four days.  On day #3 my wonderful husband located and purchased the famously horrible Canadian cough syrup, Buckley’s.  It’s been at least 6 years since I’ve tasted that putrid concoction.  Man, is that creamy white liquid potent.  It’s a cross between drinking Pinesol and Vick’s vapor rub.  It certainly cleans you out.  But sadly, I’m still coughing.  Enough about me.

Then new ICBF waitlist for adopted children just came out!  It is the Colombian government’s official list of the ages of those kids who went to their forever homes.  It does my heart good to see movement and know those 10+ kids will be home for Christmas.  However, it is truly sad how long these families have waited.  The shortest was 4 months.  That’s just a plain fluke.  Most were between 40 and 52 months.  And that is from the time of their accepted referral.  So add on all of their paperwork, homestudy and fingerprint time!  Wow!  We are at 23 months currently. For the last 5 and 6 year olds that went home, the families waited 12 and 30 months.  So we should be sooner, rather than later.  Whatever that means.  I’m hopeful.

Last night we did the family thing and put up the Christmas tree together while Christmas music serenaded us LOUDLY.  I had not been out of the house for three days and was donning my pink fuzzy jammies and wild bed-head, so I made many threats to those who insisted on videotaping the occasion.  I know they got me when I wasn’t looking… and they’ll pay for it.  Not that I’m into retaliation, but a moms gotta do what a moms gotta do.  We put up the slender Jenny Craig tree in the living room with all the blue and silver ornaments, ribbon, lights and beads.  It’s quick and easy, doesn’t take up much room and looks festive through the front window. 

As I was digging through the ornament box looking for white, blue or silver ornaments, I vaguely remember leaving 60% of the ornaments in the box last year… the red ones… brown ones… green ones.  So, I made an official decision, followed by an announcement that we would have two trees this year.  A fake, skinny blue and silver Jenny Craig tree in the living room and a real, fresh, full pine tree grown in Oregon with all the other colored ornaments in the family room.  My relations were elated.  They begged to head off to Home Depot RIGHT NOW!   Alas, it was too late.  And they don’t have vivid memories of dead pine needles in the shag carpet…. I know the value of waiting until Dec. 19th to buy the real tree!  Freshness is where it’s at, baby.  Plus Rick and I are going away for 5 days, and who would water the tree???

There is much more decorating to be done.  The opened boxes are all over the downstairs staring at me.  But I coughed too much and needed a nap.  They can wait until tomorrow.