Celebrating

Late Sunday afternoon a few of us went to the bay to celebrate Mother's Day and the twin's birthday (a day early). To be honest I wasn't really in a celebrating mood. The situation with morning church and other continuous behaviors has somewhat robbed me of the desire to go all out. So it was low key. We took the jet ski out for the first time this season.

Tyler had to work, Jessica wasn't up to it and the other family that usually joins us had other commitments.

I was hoping we'd have a 9th child by now, but the whole process is going very slowly. Our caseworker is moving soon, so I hope he finishes our home study before he goes. When we finished classes before Thanksgiving and they said it would be at least March before we were certified, I thought surely they were mistaken. They weren't.

With the issues with the twins, we have to be careful not to get a child with the same issues or too close in age. That takes out one of our top choices. Our first choice just went off the list, so he must have gotten a home. That's good news for him, but we had really wanted to find out more about him. He looked like a good match.

Hopefully we will have good news to share soon about the home study.

The twins on their birthday:

Huh

Today Rick and the three youngest kids and I were in church together. 

The pastor preached on families. At the end he addressed the mothers, then the fathers, then the kids. He talked right to the kids about honor, respect and obedience. When he closed in prayer, Jasmine and I slipped out to go to the shop.

As soon as we left, the twins started acting up. At our church we close with a song. Everyone stands and sings and those who want to make spiritual decisions can go to the front and pray or talk to someone. The twins refused to stand. Rick lifted them to their feet, and they sat right back down.

If we had not already planned something, they would have both gone to bed way early since they were clearly too tired to stand. But I find it ironic they did this bit of defiance immediately following a clear challenge to live God's way by being respectful and obedient and showing honor.

Tomorrow I will post about the afternoon's activity.

The Girls

 I went over to J's house to help out with the girls. I sent her to do errands while I stayed with the baby. It's much easier to do errands if you aren't dealing with two children in car seats.

I also went with Jessica to book babies at the library because you really need one parent per child for it. It involves a lot of moving around and songs with actions and motions. So part of the time I worked with River. and part of the time I held Winter.

Then on Thursday we went to the mall and played in the toddler play area and rode on the the little animals you can rent. I have video of that on a phone, but it's not on my computer so I can't share it.
I will work on that later.

Life is Crazy.

Truly it is. There are just not enough hours in the day. Between keeping up with the shop and dealing with issues, I am not getting much else done.

But I am calm about what we are going through with the twins. It started when Kaleb was supposed to be selling candy bars for band and decided he could keep the money. And spend it all on sweets. He got a taste of having big bucks and it has escalated. But we have enlisted appropriate help, both the school SRO and the local sheriff. And since Kayla willingly covers for him and accepts part of the money, she was talked to too. She seems to realize the seriousness, but to him it is merely a game.

I am hoping that the five weeks at a very regimented, closely supervised mission camp this summer will make a difference.

Here are some general updates.

Rick got a new job a few months ago. God really opened the door and he walked right into a job that is closer to home and pays better. So that has been a big blessing.

Tyler is busy with the shop. He is becoming an expert garage sale shopper. He sniffs out the best deals. He also can buy bits and pieces and assemble things. He sells the geeky stuff--action heroes, Marvel, Ninja turtles etc. I have the dolls, stuffed animals cute stuff.

We are really full. After I took the pictures below, we packed a bunch of it to sell at a church sale tomorrow. It's a different group of shoppers so we took some of the things that aren't selling at the shop.

Jessica took Winter to her two-week appointment today. There is a concern, so she is being referred to a pediatric endocrinologist. I wonder if she'll get the one Jasmine has? We were sent over an hour away, but the dr was worth it.

We had a get together for those who hadn't met Winter to meet her. River got some presents too.

And River had her modeling debut at a local boutique

Adam came over to meet River and brought his whole crew. I think they are going to be joining us in NC this summer.

Jasmine is really, really, really stress about school. We only have four weeks left, and it looks like she'll be taking algebra for the third time next year and repeating English 2 and possibly one other class. She is really looking forward to to choir tour which leaves about three hours after school ends!! Then we leave for NC/IN and OH a day after she gets home. Crazy summer!

The twins turn 12 next week. They leave for camp the day after NC. Unfortunately they are very short on money and will have to drop to the Florida team. They are even very short on it.

Kaleb was there, you can see his hand in the picture, but I didn't get one of just him.

Anyway, this is a brief update, and it's taken me three days to write it!