Busy--and Fun--Times

Friday rest time. Gotta love rest time. They don't always fall asleep but they do often. We have play time with mom, preschool, lunch and then rest time.



Jessica gets home early on even days.

Dance photos were Friday. Gotta get that strap tucked in. It'll probably have to be pinned. Hair will be in a low bun for the recital.


Soccer game. Jasmine goes after the ball.


Kaleb is content to stand and watch the ball go by but Kayla goes after it. Kaleb made two goals--one in the other team's goal and one in ours--just put it in the closest one, right? Kayla made one or two goals also.


At the beach after soccer. We drive to a beach that is fairly family friendly about 20-30 minutes away.










Soccer game, the beach, bike riding...I think I'll just work on a puzzle..ZZZZZZ


Supper--nutritionally lacking but easy and good : )


We have a lot of exciting things going on and coming up in the next few months, but we also have issues we are dealing with. The twins are doing great! Sure, they will test boundaries or run from us laughing sometimes when we call them--which earns an automatic time out. This caused a problem for Rick at the park yesterday when a lady, who was just another mom, decided Rick needed to prove the twins were his. Uh huh. And you prove that child with you is yours too lady. How would you feel about that????


The twins can get stubborn, which also earns them a time out, or they get left where they are to do whatever it is they are suppose to be doing while we go onto another fun activity. We have decided not to take them to church for now because everyone wants to hug them and even though we explain, everyone thinks he/she is an exception and that one hug won't hurt.

We know that one of our teens has an addiction and he is in counseling but we didn't know how serious it was. We caught him on my laptop last August and he appeared to be very disturbed by what he'd looked at, so we talked to him and had him talk to a pastor and thought the problem might be behind us. Then there was an incident with a siblings laptop, which was not passworded because he'd left it running a program. I got the offender into counseling but really hoped these were two isolated incidents. They most assuredly were not. Jessica discovered several months of youtube history on her iPod that very, very obviously was not hers. We are looking for a change in school if possible to a much smaller and more controlled school and have also limited his activities to only those where Rick and I will be with him with the exception of going to and from school. I know some people will think we are horrible but that is just the way it is going to be.

We also need to help Jeff make some decision for himself for after high school. We are hoping that he will graduate May '11, but it is very uncertain. The place where he is at has education as a very low priority unfortunately. They even sent a letter saying that their aim was to salvage lives not necessarily educate the kids. I think they could do both. It's not like the kids are in counseling all day or anything. They are doing farm work, and I think school work could be given more priority. But they are keeping him safe. Jeff wants to come home for his senior year, but it wouldn't be his senior year here. His missing a lot of credits our schools require. And he doesn't do well in a public school setting. He just doesn't catch on to the academics so looks for his self-worth other ways. We are going to bring him home for a few days in June so we can talk to him about some of this.


So, our family isn't perfect, and our kids aren't perfect, but we are making the best choices that we can for each individual child whether it's keeping them home and doing our own little church here at home or getting counseling and requiring a child to be supervised and also to work through the book Every Young Man's Battle, or having a child stay where he is at for his own safety and success. For those of you with older children, especially adopted ones who have issues, these battles are probably all too familiar. For the others, just be gracious as you judge us because we are trying to do what is best for each individual child and to help each live up to his/her potential whatever that potential may be.