Jubilee Fife & Drum Corps

Our church's Jubilee Fife & Drum Corps marched in a local parade on Saturday. Our neighbor, Dennis Anderson (far right), stepped off. Missy is in the front row (center) and Bethany is front (left).

Curtis is in the center here. Missy & Curtis have been in the Corps for several years. Though Curtis has "retired" with work and college he did help out this weekend.

Curtis may have "retired" but Andrii (left) is stepping up!

Bulk Grocery Shopping vs Weekly Shopping

My weekly routine has been to keep a grocery list for the basics and then prior to shopping day make a list of 7 dinners and add those necessary items to the list. Then I head off to Walmart where I purchase household items, certain grocery items, and socks or underwear if anyone needs them. After heaving all that stuff into the vehicle I trapse over to Price Chopper where I proceed to gather the produce, deli, meat, dairy, bread, and any items I forgot while at Walmart. The car is stuffed, the wallet is empty, and I head home exhausted.

I've been pondering for some time now that maybe I should join the bulk shopping crowd. Many years ago when I only had 4 young kids I used to go to Sam's Club or BJ's. However it seemed that buying in bulk didn't make it last longer, my kids just ate more because we had more! So I quit going and started the above mentioned routine. Now I'm seeing that with the bigger family and jammed packed schedule it is costing more money & time doing it weekly. This week I've put together a 20 day dinner menu (give or take) and a HUGE grocery list. I invited my husband out on a date...to BJ's. I've questioned several friends on which they prefer, Sam's or BJ's (feel free to leave a comment to vote for your favorite). BJ's is closer, so that got my vote.

Jesus Died On The Cross

Today during school Jordan was drawing on a white board. He announced he had something sad to show me. He then proudly presented this picture he drew. He said it's Jesus on the cross (complete with nail holes in his hands). Oh yes, just another reason why we home school!

"And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when your are away on a journey, when you are lying down and when you are getting up again. Tie them to your hands as a reminder, and wear them on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

Deuteronomy 6:5-9

This was one of the Scriptures God touched our hearts with when He called us to home school our kids 9 years ago. Basically His point was this: How can you obey my Word if the children I gave you are away from you most of the day?

Please understand that I'm not taking the credit for this. God called us, we said "yes", He equips us daily; mostly I just try to stay out of His way because if I attempt to do this in my own strength I fail miserably...sometimes several times a day. The good fruit that has come of it is by His grace not anything good in me. When I am weak He is strong.

Anyway, good job, Jordan! You've learned the most important lesson of all. It's all about Jesus!

Labor Day Weekend At Camp - part 1

Here is more of our weekend at camp. The first post is actually labeled "part 2" because I'm still not used to blogging. What I put in first ends up last, and it doesn't take much to confuse me. So make sure you scroll down and read that one first. Thanks!

Bree, Jordan and Mark. Andrii's in the hat.

On Sunday afternoon Wayne & Mark volunteered to take all the kids go-carting. Bree and I remained at camp by the in-door fire place reading & chatting in the peace and quite! Thanks Men. And they took all the kids, except Anna who chose to stay with the Moms, into Old Forge for frigid fireworks that evening. Bree & I remained at the cozy camp...someone had to stay behind to watch the camp fire! All in all it was a great time, if we don't count the 5 additional pounds I gained. Can anyone spell I.s.a.g.e.n.i.x.......or whatever it is?

I told ya it was cold!

(at least I did in the post below!)

Labor Day Weekend At Camp - part 2

We spent Labor Day Weekend at our camp in the Adirondacks. It was really refreshing especially since all week at home it was in the 90's, but up north we enjoyed 50-60 degree temps! My brother and sister-in-law, Mark & Bree, and their kids, Jack & Gracie joined Wayne & I and Sierra, Andrii, Anna & Jordan. I'm still adjusting to our big kids not always coming up with us.

Brothers, Wayne & Mark

Jack, Sierra & Andrii enjoying a game of Scrabble.

Anna, Gracie, Mark, and Jordan all cuddled up.

We spent alot of time inside since it was rainy and cold, but we had lot's of fun. Saturday night we went into town. The kids enjoyed hitting all the shops while the men went into Big Moose Yamaha to drool on the new snowmobiles. We then went out for pizza. Afterward we drove to the town of Inlet on Fourth Lake. They have a movie theatre that was playing Toy Story 3 for $3 per person. Most of us had already seen it, but I still cried when Andy was saying goodbye to his toys. I watched the entire movie with my hands over Jordan's ears because he does not like loud noises....even though he's usually the loudest of all!

Thursday Afternoon Chaos

Upon arriving home with some groceries several things happened all at once. My parents were here dropping off Jordan for they had taken him for a few hours, Missy announces she's got plans with a friend, Curtis tells me he's going somewhere, all the other kids have Karate, and Wayne calls from work wanting he and I to go out to dinner tonight with our daughter-in-law's parents. Ooookkkkaaaayyyyy. Who's going to watch Jordan? Who's going to get the kids to and from karate? I need a nap never mind dinner! But dinner out with my husband is a priority. Soooo after some phone calls and negotiations: my mom will come back and take Jordan for a few more hours, Bethany will take Anna and Mary to Karate at 5:30, Missy will take Sierra & Andrii to Karate at 6:30 and then go with her friend, Beth and Ruth will bring all the kids home from Karate and then my mom will bring Jordan home. I have no idea where Curtis is or what he's doing...he sort of fell through the cracks. But Wayne and I are going to dinner!

Today I learned about a travel agency called Golden Rule Travel. They are a Christian agency which help arrange mission trips, adoption trips, etc. I emailed them and they are working on our trip even though we have no travel date yet. I learned about them in the FRUA chatroom. Other families were discussing booking flights to Ukraine and Golden Rule was mentioned several times all with positive comments, so I contacted them. We used a travel agent out of Minnesota for our first adoption. They had been recommended by the agency we were using. We are not using an agency this time and I don't wish to use that travel agency either. The travel agent was fine, but the adoption agency which was supposed to be a Christian agency was a nightmare. Maybe some time I'll post on that topic if anyone is interested in the story. Anyway, we are still waiting, so please keep praying.

It's September!!!

We're in the midst of changing seasons, even if the thermometer says otherwise. Our days are filled with home schooling and fall activities will be starting up soon. I am savoring this time of year, especially since we hope to be spending a chunk of it in Ukraine.

Here Anna plays with her barn and horses. Actually I had to assign her this task. She is not good at entertaining herself. She always wants a friend, tv, or food when she's "bored". Today after school she'd already watched her quota of TV, her best friend was unable to come over, and she'd already had lunch and a snack of pickles. So I had to sentence her to play time. Rough life.
Sierra is working on Amazing Grace. A piece she'd like to do in church with her big brother Wayne.
Jordan is busy doing school here. He's had some real productive days recently. We're reviewing phonics and he's already blending and reading words! Someone at church gave him a roll of Life Savers which I confiscated and have been using as little incentives to accomplish each page.

Today I spent some time online looking at airline tickets to Ukraine. Yikes! It's looking like it could cost almost $2000 for each ticket and we need 3 round trip and 1 one way. We'd like to fly in and out of Albany which would mean a stop State-side (Philly, JFK, or DC) and a layover in Europe (Germany, Amsterdam, or Paris) and then finally on to Kiev. Last time we drove to JFK and flew directly to Kiev with no stops. Wayne does not like being on the plane for 10 hours straight, so he'd like to have a lay over somewhere. I don't have a problem with that, but I'm not thrilled with hours and hours of waiting in an airport (with Jordan to entertain) and I think there's a greater chance for our luggage to get lost on the way. Another reason why it's pricey is because we'll have to book on such short notice. Today I checked prices to see what it would cost of we flew on Sept 10th and it ranged from $1600-$1900 without taxes. If you have any suggestions please leave me a comment or email me.

Our box of toys and clothes arrived to our facilitator already. Next week they are planning a trip to the orphanage, so hopefully then I'll have some new pictures of Slava to post. And they will let us know once they've submitted our "Application" which could be any time now. I'm so excited it's September, so now I can finally say that, "Next month we will have Slava!!!!!"

Please keep praying!!!