{"id":210,"date":"2010-05-28T23:13:36","date_gmt":"2010-05-29T06:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/?p=210"},"modified":"2010-05-28T23:13:36","modified_gmt":"2010-05-29T06:13:36","slug":"everyday-randomness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/?p=210","title":{"rendered":"Everyday Randomness"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know random <\/em>is the tween catch all descriptive, but these days it just fits our lives.\u00a0 So, in an effort to catch up on my blogging before our big adventure begins, here goes…<\/p>\n

“I guess we’re all done training wheels in this house…”<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Said by Steve.\u00a0 Reason enough for both of us to pause momentarily and feel a little nostalgic.\u00a0 Grace and Garnet have officially figured out how to ride their two-wheelers.\u00a0 We tried and tried to help them (including several on and off manoeuvres with the training wheels)\u00a0and then one day they both took it upon themselves to figure out how to balance and pedal fast.\u00a0 Braking came next.\u00a0 Only a few band aids later and there has been no turning back.\u00a0 The two of them are a force to be reckoned with when they work together!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Happy Birthday Grandma!\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>The family put on a fun weekend for my Mom’s big birthday a couple of weekends ago.\u00a0 The weather was beautiful.\u00a0 The cousins were happy and had a tremendous time playing and dousing Grandma with water balloons.\u00a0 Other than a smoky restaurant and a few shrill chirps from a smoke alarm, the whole weekend was beautiful.\u00a0 A great family time for us to come together and celebrate with\u00a0our much\u00a0loved Mom\u00a0\/ Grandma.<\/p>\n

6 months with our Grace\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>Yes, this should warrant its own post.\u00a0 And yet, when the day passed we were together celebrating Grandma’s birthday weekend.\u00a0\u00a0 She was just\u00a0one of the grandkids.\u00a0 Her English is blossoming.\u00a0 Her accent and slightly husky voice is charming.\u00a0 She had the chance to sit on her Grandma’s lap a whole lot and play with the amazing contents of Grandma’s purse on more than one occasion.\u00a0 She ate ice cream twice in two days (something she tells me,“I no have this in Chwina.\u00a0 Never, never in Chwina.”)<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>And I think that sums up how she is doing quite nicely don’t you think?<\/p>\n

School’s Out\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>Yes folks, we made it.\u00a0 Our first school year with four at home.\u00a0 It has been a defining year for each of our kids in one way or another and I am so incredibly proud of my kids.\u00a0 Really.<\/em>\u00a0 They all outdid themselves.<\/p>\n

Our patio.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 This was our first experience hiring a contractor to do work.\u00a0 It’s been educational and overall\u00a0I think the patio itself is a vast<\/em> improvement over our ill placed, overgrown trees and dead, patchy grass.\u00a0 It was just poured today, so we’ll get to enjoy it more fully when we return from our big adventure.<\/p>\n

End of an Era – Goodbye Ayi Sherri\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>Garnet has been attending Sherri’s preschool for two afternoons a week since shortly after coming home.\u00a0 This was a huge deal for us.\u00a0 We had committed wholeheartedly to homeschooling our older two kids.\u00a0 We had absorbed much material on building healthy attachments.\u00a0 So when our little man came home from from China, we were all set to carry on as planned.\u00a0 God used a few well placed observations by some foks who\u00a0didn’t even\u00a0know Garnet to soften my spirit.\u00a0 Sherri was referred to us by a friend of my sister-in-law and after speaking with her on the phone I was amazed at the peace I sensed.\u00a0 God used Sherri in so many ways to not only help Garnet learn, but also to develop trust and relationships in a safe testing ground.\u00a0 As I wrote in the front of the Curious George book we gave her, “Sherri, you have been such an encouragement to our entire<\/em> family…”\u00a0 We’ll miss her very much!<\/p>\n

Faith’s Year End Dance Production<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 Months and months of tapping around our house are about to be displayed for all her adoring fans<\/span> grandparents to see.\u00a0 Yes, the year end production is set to begin tomorrow.\u00a0 She’s braved blocking and dress rehearsal and is now catching some beauty rest before the big day.\u00a0 We can’t wait to applaud our girl.\u00a0 Way to go Faith!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Our Big Family Adventure <\/em><\/strong>(And yes we have housesitters – just in case anyone out there is getting any funny ideas about an empty house! lol)\u00a0 We are heading out in a few days and taking a long road trip.\u00a0 We’ll be camping some.\u00a0 Doing some touristy things.\u00a0 Spending lots and lots of time squished together in small confined spaces.\u00a0 And you know what?\u00a0 I can’t wait!\u00a0 There will definitely be those tense moments that always happen on a trip like this, but we sort of planned it that way.\u00a0 Life since returning home with Grace has been its normal full, busy, packed, crazy self.\u00a0 Lessons and activities and work and friends and church and therapy and medical appointments and volunteering are all great things, but they leave little wiggle room for working out some of the issues that crop up more readily under the pressure cooker of 3 weeks together on our own without distractions.\u00a0 So, I’m excited!\u00a0 I know God has some big growth planned for all of us and I’m ready for a fresh breeze straight from Heaven.<\/p>\n

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. \u00a0Galatians 6:9\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>This is the verse that God has really been speaking to my heart about the last couple of weeks.\u00a0 I won’t kid you that I have been quite exhausted for some time.\u00a0 Health issues and life, not to mention adding a spunky new seven year old to the mix can be physically and emotionally wearing.\u00a0 When I think to myself that I simply can not step up and be consistent, be a translator, be a mediator, be an instructor, be a mentor, be an advocate\u00a0one more time, He reminds me of this verse and speaks it to my deepest soul.\u00a0 May I offer His encouragement to you as well?<\/p>\n

I’ll update if I get the chance.\u00a0 We’ll have a laptop along, but Steve’ll be keeping up with the goings on at work, so my computer quota may be limited.\u00a0 Take care everyone!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know random is the tween catch all descriptive, but these days it just fits our lives.\u00a0 So, in an effort to catch up on my blogging before our big adventure begins, here goes… “I guess we’re all done training wheels in this house…”\u00a0Said by Steve.\u00a0 Reason enough for both of us to pause momentarily […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,24,10,21],"tags":[65,8,60],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=210"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions\/223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}