Snapshots of Our Life

Koi Bath Bombs

2011-08-29T07:42:00.002-04:00

These turned out better than I thought they would as I was making them - the mold was very soft and I felt I didn't have enough moisture, but they popped out nicely!

Poppy the Country Dog

2010-07-03T00:32:00.005-04:00

Some people look down on little fluffy dogs as some kind of accessory or a yapping annoying little gnat, so I decided to make some scrapbook pages from the point of view of our tiny country dog! I admit my best dogs were probably my Rottweiler, Hannah, and my half-St. Bernard, Megan, but this little dog, not yet 7 months old, has brought so much joy to our lives. She is a tiny blast of sunshine - we just smile goofily when she is around. She is cuddly and sweet but also fierce and sassy - she ain't afraid of nuthin! If I had half her exuberance for life or half her social skills, I'd be a happier person!

My gang

2010-04-25T02:54:00.002-04:00

I love my gang! I love that they not only will go for walks with me every day - usually two unless it is raining - but they are excited about it. It is vital for my health issues and sometimes I am tired and don't have the motivation, but their eagerness always gets me up and going, and it's great for the dogs too. We have some of our best talking time during these walks and find so many natural treasures since we walk not only on the acreage we live on but also at every nature preserve within 30 miles of our home.

Next step on the hope-to-do list - camping! I really want to take my girls camping. Camping with my father is one of my favorite memories. Our complications are all our pets and a car on its last legs, but we are hoping to find a way this fall to start - and also to go canoeing. Wow they are growing up fast and I want to have more adventures with them before they flit away.

Rolling on the couch, gasping for air!

2010-01-30T06:07:00.006-05:00

People, if you're having a hard week and you need something to get your belly laugh going, Mad Libs are a must!

When Jing came home at nearly 7, we began homeschooling a few months later, but the first couple of years, she had great difficulty with English work and was very tense when the workbook and textbook came out (this was not introduced immediately, of course, but after she had learned English). For the life of her, she could not even tell the difference between a noun and a verb. I decided to put the text away and find a fun way to learn where she would not even know she was being educated. Enter: Mad Libs (and many other games and creative ways of learning).

These are simple little booklets with a short story on each page where one person who is holding the book asks the others in the room to give a random word - a noun, a verb, an adverb, an adjective, a part of the body, a famous person, a color, a number, etc. These people do not know what the story will be about. The book holder fills in the blanks with the words and then reads the story, which is often hilarious to the point of laughing so hard you have an asthma attack (me) or maybe a little pee in the pants (me again) (forgive my candor, but it's true).

A few evenings on the couch at our nightly together time doing Mad Libs, and Jing had not only nouns and verbs down pat - after a year of struggling with it in school books - but also all the other parts of speech. Some Libs are not as funny as others. The girls watched the Raiders of the Lost Ark movies last year and we got that Mad Libs book (there's one for Star Wars too), and those haven't been that entertaining for some reason. But tonight Lily drug out a book of Christmas Mad Libs that we did year before last, and honestly we all were in agony we were laughing so hard, tears rolling, weird strangled sounds coming out of us.

Here are some selections from our Christmas Mad Libs. The word in parentheses is what the players were instructed to provide and the bold words are the word they provided to fill in the blank.

"Yesterday I took my friend Alice (person) to see Santa Claus at the department store. He is only 6000 (number) years old, so I had to hold onto his bladder (part of the body) whenever we crossed the flower (noun)....Santa is a bit, fat, plush (adjective) man with a black (color) beard who dresses in a bright red bra (article of clothing)."

"The next morning when the moon (something round) came up, Scrooge jumped out of his bathtub (piece of furniture) and said, 'I am a changed scroll (noun). I only hope it is not too stinky (adjective) for me to become a kindly, generous squirrel(something alive).' He put on his underwear(article of clothing), rushed to the butcher shop and said, 'Give me the biggest Red Tanager (type of bird) you have.' Then he bought cakes and yucky (adjective) cookies and a beautiful cake (noun) pudding....Scrooge said, 'Boring (adjective) Christmas, Bob Cratchit. I have rats (plural noun) for everyone, including Tiny Tim.' And they had a disgusting (adjective) dinner and sang jolly lanterns (plural noun). Scrooge had indeed changed from an exciting (adjective) skinflint into a wonderful dragon (noun). He gave Tiny Tim a solid gold eyeball (noun) and Tiny Tim said, 'Merry Christmas, and may Paris Hilton (famous person) bless us every one!'"

At one point, Charles Ingalls needed some movies to keep his appendix warm, and fifty years ago children got caring electric trains or baby dolls that said "Yee-Haw!" Santa put the presents in the boxer shorts that the children had hung on the mantle. After he did this 5 times, he went home to get ready for Chinese New Year (holiday)! Then we did one on New Year's resolutions where "I promise to help bathe my pet sewing machine and help snuggle the dishes after dinner."

I love to see the Chinese influence in so many of the words they chose and the "famous people" they picked - Charles Ingalls heehee! Lily was really into the body parts and instead of arms and legs would say "sphincters," or "intestines." There are some Junior (easier) Mad Libs for the younger kids, and be careful as there are also some adult Mad Libs! There are Survivor Mad Libs and Nancy Drew Mad Libs, which we enjoyed during Lily's obsession with the titian-haired sleuth. They are a lot of fun and a great way to laugh together as a family while teaching the littles the parts of speech!

Georgie goes all Mao on us

2010-01-12T00:17:00.002-05:00

The girls dressed Georgie up in their Red Scarf someone sent them from China and did a photo shoot. She seems quite proud of herself. Another amusement to fill time during the freeze of 2010 when it's too cold to go outside for a walk (we are easily entertained)!

Cats bouncing off the walls!

2010-01-08T02:16:00.002-05:00

It has been exceedingly cold for central Georgia, and our cats, who normally prowl through the woods like little tigers much of the day, have decided they need to stay inside. But they are very antsy and Daisy, our resident diva, keeps leaving my room and coming back in again and again begging for treats very vociferously! Normally when she comes in for a visit I give her treats and I guess she figures no matter how many times she enters the room she will get treats. So she just leaves and comes back two minutes later. Pretty smart, but she is driving me nuts! She has been playing with her own tail like it's a mouse and galloping back and forth through the house literally crashing head-on into walls. Then she sprawls across the foot of my pitiful little twin bead and I have to sleep in the fetal position. Did I mention she is a diva?!

So while grocery shopping I found an inexpensive pull toy with some irresistable feathers on the end, and both she and her mom Zoey have returned to kittenhood, batting, pouncing, attacking, wrestling and chasing us through the house, which has also turned out to be good exercise for us, as we've been missing our daily walk, not having anything but a light jacket. It's very cute but the dadburned toy has two little bells on it so now I find my nerves being stretched again with the constant jingle, but we have had fun!

The Simplest Things

2009-12-30T01:10:00.003-05:00

I love how kids are so thrilled with the simplest things, even almost teenagers. We only had some clear mugs from Walmart - seen in the background - to drink our hot stuff out of. I had at the time not been able to find any pretty ones and decided it would make a good Christmas surprise. So I ordered us all one from online - Lang for the girls and Leanin' Tree for me because I fell in love with the little Shetland pony on this mug.

I think this was almost their favorite thing they got for Christmas. They have told me numerous times how much they love them. They get up an hour or so before I do because I get them in bed in time to get to sleep before daylight - on the nightshift I always see the sun come up before I go to bed. I worried about them getting hungry but didn't want to give up having lunch together, though I need to get them started making some meals, so I suggested they get up and fix a mug of hot cocoa. They love this new little independent pleasure and do it almost every day.

Good times and no camera. Sigh.

2009-11-21T20:07:00.006-05:00

This is Stone Mountain State Park, where the girls went today after a sleepover with friends. I was all primed for photos of their great time and they get home and inform me they left the camera in our car when they took their suitcases to our friend's car. I am SO disappointed! My friend said she would email me some photos but it won't be this great new experience from their point of view. The Flip video camera was in the same camera pouch so no videos of their fun with their friend Sarah either. Heavy sigh.

I took Lily to Stone Mountain when she was about 4-1/2 or close to 5. She loved Thomas the Tank Engine with a passion, so I thought I would take her and ride the train. Well I don't drive downtown Atlanta much and got lost and we took a tour of several highways. When we got there it turned out to be a holiday - I don't get any holidays off so the more minor ones I forget sometimes, and I had not realized it was Memorial Day. We got there with most of the day gone, and it was crowded beyond belief with a 2-1/2-hour wait to ride the train, so we didn't. The petting zoo I had built her up about was closed. We rode the riverboat and she was terrified and clung to me. The seats were full and I had to hold this heavy child for a long time while a row full of "gentlemen" watched me struggle. We went to the plantation house - such a thrill for a 4-year-old! NOT!

So I was excited about them getting to ride the tram up the mountain and walk down. They rode the cool train. They saw a 4D movie of the Polar Express but only 20 minutes long. They went to the petting zoo and the plantation house and went in some kind of barn where you shoot balls at each other. They had all sorts of fun but I have nothing to show for it. One more gusty sigh and a loud groan.

Lisa Leonard Jewelry Giveaway

2009-11-20T03:04:00.002-05:00

Simple Mom is giving away a gift certificate to Lisa Leonard, who makes beautiful hand-hammered silver jewelry, most of which is customized. I am longing to win the cute Chinese lantern necklace. I have all of one necklace and this one would be special as I could wear it for life and then Lily and Jing could each take their charm to wear. (Not to be morbid or anything!) Head on over and leave a comment on the blog for a chance to win the gift certificate!

http://simplemom.net/a-holiday-giveaway-lisa-leonard/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+simplemom+%28Simple+Mom%29

Old Houses Repurposed = Happy Me!

2009-11-19T02:28:00.002-05:00

The girls and I visited Old Town Morrow just past sunset - passing the No Trespassing signs to take a peek. A gentleman trespassing before us said they didn't seem to mind so we went on in and were met with cold stares, so we quickly left! This is a little pedestrian shopping and dining community being created across from the mall near us. There is a streetfront made of new buildings that look old and several old houses repurposed into a pub and boutique shops.

It was hard to resist the wooden bridge leading to the town and the sight of the old houses taken from the local area and fixed up to be new again. One of them I had sadly lamented when it was removed from a property near us - I thought torn down - to make a strip mall. I was so happy to see it freshly painted and covered in lights. I LOVE old houses and if I were wealthy we would be living in something at least 100 years old! We can't wait until it opens and we can visit without worrying about the security guards from the mall across the street booking us for trespassing!

Operation Christmas Child

2009-11-15T23:55:00.003-05:00

It's THAT week of the year! Pack a shoebox or two and take it to the nearest pickup location. Our favorite restaurant, Chick-fil-A, is accepting boxes this year AND giving away a free Chick-fil-A sandwich if you bring a box. It's a great way to give back and make Christmas a little better for children across the world who may not have as much as we do. My girls had so much fun picking out toys to put inside our boxes - you can choose boy or girl and different age ranges. We chose girls 5-9, and their AWANA class at church is filling boxes for 10-14-year-old girls, so they took some things for that too. You can find info at samaritanspurse.org on how to send your boxes - they must be done by 11/23!

Lily and Sadako

2009-10-27T05:44:00.003-04:00

We read the sad but wonderful book "Sadako and the Paper Cranes" a few years ago and Lily just reread it and then sat and made one origami paper crane after another with some washi we had. (I am addicted to the beautiful patterns and will buy it on impulse even when I have no idea what I will use it for!) I think these are so pretty!

Six years ago today

2009-09-28T23:42:00.002-04:00

This is Jing at the orphanage two weeks before her adoption.

It is so hard to believe six years have gone by since Lily and I arrived in a hotel room in Xi'an, exhausted, and an hour later a wild child was brought to our room - a child we were both terrified of and who was quite difficult in every way she could think of, a child who had lost everything in one day and abandoned yet once more in her short 6-3/4 years. Thus began a journey that began quite roughly but has taken us only to worthwhile places and given Lily the sister and friend she longed for and the second daughter I wanted. Six years ago today Jing became a Johnson!

Civil War anyone?

2009-09-05T20:44:00.005-04:00

We had such a fun time today as well as a thoughtful glimpse of our country's history. We went to a Civil War battle reenactment - The Battle of Cheatham Hill. It was quite exciting! (Lily said, "Mama, why did they call it "Civil" when they did all that fighting?" Good question!)

At first they were mostly at a distance but at one point I was staring right at a horse's bum two feet away! It was a huge production and the cannons were quite convincing! I could feel the booms all the way up through my body and there were quite a lot of them! It was fun to wander around afterwards and see the tents and campfires, the blacksmith, the Ladies Aid Society offering medical car for the "wounded." Lots of tents with clothing, jewelry and even corsets for sale. We didn't want to leave but I was oh so late for work!

We ran into a guy who had actually been on the property we live on documenting a battle they recreated this morning - too early for this night-shift girl - Kilpatrick's Raid, which actually took place on the farm - Nash Farm - that we were watching the Cheatham Hill reenactment. After Kilpatrick's raid the soldiers ran all the way down where we live in one day - many miles - and crossed a bridge over the river next to our driveway, burning the bridge behind them. So much history in this area. It was so interesting to see a bit what it might have been like and wonderful tha the fallen soldiers could get up and walk away after the battle was over.

Looking back...

2009-09-02T03:26:00.003-04:00

I found these sweet photos of Lily while cleaning out today and thought I would post this scrapbook page. We haven't had a working camera for a while and have just been having a challenging time so haven't been posting but I'm sure everyone who has my blog linked is tired of looking at Karl Malden LOL! The designers used are Studio Phong and Ptitesourus.

This man mattered, or, who are the heroes?

2009-07-02T00:18:00.003-04:00

I came home tonight to catch the news and hopefully watch some clips of an old favorite fellow of mine who I heard, before I ran out the door, died today - Karl Malden. Needless to say, after listening through several news and entertainment programs as I worked about the house, I heard maybe one or two short sentences on each one, buried at the end of the program, and saw a flash of a picture across the screen, then it was back to more repetitive coverage of "The King of Pop." Well EXCUSE me, but this man mattered too. I admit I am not a fan of MJ and I do understand that others are. It is always sad when someone dies, especially a father with young children. But the obsessive focus of even serious news programs on this one human being leaves me feeling, hmmm, I'll call it "disgruntled" since I make it a point not to swear. And saddened.

Karl Malden lived 97 years, and even from my limited knowledge lived a full and active life up to the end. He was never accused of child molestation. He never had his lovely big nose altered and was known to be unhappy when asked to use a stage name rather than his given name of Mladen Sekulovich. I'm pretty sure he never did drugs or wandered through stores buying ridiculously useless and excessively priced items (excuse me, just a memory I have from a documentary of MJ). He served his country in the US Army Air Corps, he maintained a happy marriage for 70 years, he had children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren. He worked hard and from what I understand was a gentleman who practiced kindness and humbleness. He made many acclaimed movies, he starred in a television program that earned him five Emmys and was one of my favorites of all time. He served in the Screen Actors Guild. He was fascinating to watch, a truly good steady actor.

So why does his life barely rate a blip on the screen that he gave so much to in comparison to that other person who died DAYS ago?

Who are the heroes of today and why? When you ask my girls who they admire, some of the names they mention are Anne Frank, Helen Keller, Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth, Clara Barton. I am so happy about that and feel somehow I feel I did something right as a parent, though they are the ones who ultimately made their choices. I have to say they didn't even know who Michael Jackson was. Not that I purposely kept the knowledge of him a secret - it just never came up!

Who are the heroes of so many today, these people who rate countless hours of air time when they pass or do something stupid, such as Britney forgetting her underpants or Paris Hilton in jail or the beloved Miley Cyrus in a pose or situation that belies her age? Who do our children admire and want to emulate?

I will always remember you Karl, and maybe considering the mob mentality of today that rates "Speidi" as worthy of airtime, you can call it a compliment that your death went virtually unnoticed in media land. Long after the media obsessions of today have gone, you will live on through your work, as steadily and vigorously as you lived your life.

Cat envy

2009-06-11T21:46:00.002-04:00

Is it wrong to envy your cat?! I sit and stress over work issues, scrambling to survive, and I look over at the most peaceful, contented little being. Daisy spends her days being bathed by her mom (her birth mom, not me!), sprawling out in the sun in the grassy yard, being treated like a princess by her three human slaves, being fed no less than six times a day on demand and gamboling through the woods.

Oh yes, I have cat envy, but in my attempts to decipher something intelligible from Dr Taggart's dictations from her home with the phone lying on the table and her kids screaming incessantly in the background she also provides me a little oasis of peace when I look over and see her sweet contentment. Until I now have to go back to the hair-pulling-out madness! Anyone looking for a long-distance secretary!?

LOVE the Asian Market

2009-06-07T21:28:00.002-04:00

We had another unexpected day off work - there was none, again - and I was antsy with stress so we just set off in the car. We had been trying to get back to the Asian Market, which is a good ways away, for some time and on a whim decided today was the day. Before we even got in I had picked up a full-size seedless watermelon for 2.99 and Lily had whispered, "Even outside, it smells like China!"

Inside we got Napa/Chinese cabbage for 54 cents a pound! I still had the remains of our last head in the fridge that I paid 1.49 a pound for. I love Napa cabbage and it is very healthy. I chop some up and put it in all kinds of things.

We got some huge boneless chicken thighs, my favorite piece of meat other than rib-eye steak, for 1.99 a pound. We passed over the rabbit, beef tongue and cod fish heads!

We also nabbed a full pint of blueberries for 1.99 a pound and some nice onions for 49 cents a pound, as opposed to 1.29 a pound at Publix. I just am in awe of the prices. We had fun looking at all the noodles. I have finally come up with a serviceable Lo Mein recipe but we thought we might find some noodles like they use at the Chinese restaurants. We did not, but on googling once we got home, seems that is an American Chinese restaurant noodle, not authentic Chinese! Sadly the udon noodles were too expensive. I miss my Japanese friend's Nikku Udon, tender beef strips floating with the yummy noodles in broth. We got these rice noodles to try, which were 99 cents a package, and the girls love rock candy and this heavy box for 88 cents proved irresistable!

We never have time to look at everything and I always mean to write down some of the names of seasonings and noodles and things to look them up at home and see if we might like them. We don't have any play in our budget to experiment as I wish we could. Lily kept gloating - "Mom, you look so out of place here!" I told her that was fine, it was far past my turn to look out of place.

China Learning Kit

2009-06-05T23:19:00.003-04:00

A fellow homeschool mom, who happens to be living in China, has paired up with a Chinese friend to help her raise some money to send her son to college. She is offering a little packet from China with goodies and some information sheets. The facts are really great, and even my well-versed-in-all-things-China girls learned a few new tidbits. If you'd like to take a look, click the buttom. Quantities may be limited so if you want one, order soon! We are about to read "Red Scarf Girl," and having much vintage art picturing the scarf, they were particularly tickled to have a real red scarf of their own and they loved the stamps on the package and the money.

While Jimmmie's blog deals mostly with homeschooling, she has some great photos and posts about China if you are willing to dig for them.
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Jimmie/

On her collage, if you scroll down on the right you can find some "life in China" posts to click on.

http://jimmiescollage.com/

Proud mama today!

2009-05-27T23:06:00.003-04:00

Tonight was AWANA graduation and the girls got a nice plaque for finishing their book. Unfortunately my batteries died at the church and I couldn't get any photos there. I still can't believe they did eight months' good work in two months and with no promptimg from me at all! I really love the program.

Their cousin Beth brought them this lovely book originally printed in 1960 - Chinese fairy tales translated from the Chinese. The artwork is beautiful but as Lily pointed out some of it looks more Japanese than Chinese. She used to amaze me starting about 5-1/2 being able to correctly identify art pieces, paintings and photos as being Thai, Indian, Japanese or Chinese. I had pointed things out to her at flea markets and we read together copiously, especially Asian themed books, but it still amazed and delighted me that she developed that eye at such an early age.

That kid has loved the whole wide world since she was a toddler - wildly excited about globes and maps and showing me places I myself had forgotten about on them before she hit 4! At our library, she just checked out a book on Pyramids, Japanese in internment camps, a novel set in Laos, a novel set in Thailand and a book on the Titanic! She just wants to know about everything everywhere! Jing, as usual, had all dog books except for one from her new passion - Star Wars. I looked with a pang at the rows of picture books - it seems just yesterday we were choosing from there and tonight I ran into both of them on the adult side of the library - Jing just to get her Star Wars book but who knows what Lily was looking up LOL! I love love love having bookworm girls!

Field Trip - Trappist Monastery

2009-05-23T01:56:00.003-04:00

Wednesday night one of the girls' friend's grandpas told us about a monastery not too far from our house that we didn't even know about. We decided we needed to go check it out and Lily especially, ever eager for new experiences, did not let a rainy day deter her! Unfortunately we missed the sign for the Welcome Center and by the time we found it, it was closed, but we learned some from their web site. We are going to go back and watch their short film and peruse the bonsai shop, which was closed, but we looked at it longingly through the slats in the fence surrounding it. There was a peaceful lake with some geese and ducks that were very angry we had no food, and the monastery has a house they allow you to stay at if you need some time of quiet contemplation. Boy do I ever qualify! But I'd have to take the kids and all the pets with me, and I think it would defeat the purpose!

The architecture inside the church was lovely. Our jaws literally dropped when we walked through the unassuming little door and into the back of the sanctuary. Is that a nave? Anyway, we stayed a while and listened to the monks sing liturgy. We could not quite figure out what was going on in the sanctuary. There were individual seats lined up along the walls with long lecturns going all the way across covered in papers of some sort - maybe the words to the liturgies they sing? The monk's voices were gentle and beautiful to listen to.

We rounded out the day with an hour at the bookstore and dinner from our favorite Chinese restaurant, so it was a nice Friday before the weekend drudgery of work.

A peaceful place

2009-05-14T22:40:00.003-04:00

We had an unexpected day off work due to problems with the server at the hospital chain I type dictations for, so the girls and I went to Blalock, a series of lakes with waterfowl everywhere and just an overwhelming sense of peace. I sure needed it at the prospect of the third small paycheck in a row! I can literally feel my blood pressure go down here. We saw scores of tadpoles and deeply regretted not having a jar with us, though we agreed they were probably happier where they were. The Canada geese were disappointed we had no cracked corn as usual but I expect they'll forgive us if we bring some next time! We are hoping to get a canoe this fall so we can go exploring out to the ends of the big lake here and also at some state parks nearby.

Artist in residence

2009-05-09T23:47:00.004-04:00

I borrowed Jing's sketchbook and decided to scan a few of her drawings in tonight, and since I didn't take a photo for today, well, here are a couple of them! She has taken to drawing dogs, both purebred and mixes of her own design, that have an entire backstory, name, age, personality, etc. I love her imagination! Between the stories she types into her computer and her prolific drawing, I think she really will fulfill her dream of being an author/illustrator one day.

Our wee little frogs

2009-05-07T19:59:00.002-04:00

We released four of our five former tadpoles last night. They seemed unhappy in the bowl and we did not have a good place for them to rest, just a rather steep rock. Three still had good-sized tails but they seemed happy hopping away in the wet leaves. We all wanted to keep them longer, but I was afraid they were ready for insects and they are so tiny I did not know what to catch them other than mosquitoes that they could eat. I did not expect success at catching mosquitoes, though this year unfortunately we have an abundant supply. Last year, between the drought and our nearby colony of bats we had no mosquitoes, but rain has been plentiful this year and alas it brought a plague of the buzzing marauders. It was great fun watching these little guys go from tadpole to frog. I hope we can find another batch to raise this year.

Three Cups of Tea

2009-05-05T22:57:00.004-04:00

The girls and I are finishing up this wonderful book and have expanded our learning into a little unit study on Afghanistan and Pakistan this last week. The book is the very inspirational story of Greg Mortensen, who was attemping to climb K2 and had to carry down an ill climber before he reached the summit. He got separated from his team and ended up in the little village of Korphe, cold, with no supplies, lost. Haji Ali, the village chief, took him into his home and served him sour yak butter tea - yum!

Haji Ali told Greg with the first cup you are a stranger, with the second a friend, and with the third cup of tea you are family. Greg was saddened to see that the children had no school and met outside trying to scratch words into the dirt in the freezing cold air. The village shared a teacher with another village so there was very little educating going on. Greg promised them he would come back and build them a school.

True to his word, he went home and tried to raise money. He sent out over 5000 letters. At first, only the children at the school where his mother was principal responded with a penny drive, raising something over $600. Eventually he got enough for the school and went back to build it, but ended up having to first build a bridge to the village, as the transportation being used was a rickety box being pulleyed across the river. This was in 1996 and after quite an adventurous story including at one point being kidnapped in Afghanistan, many schools have been built and many girls who never had the chance to be educated are now being empowered with knowledge.

Greg was in Pakistan when 09/11/01 happened and Americans were being rushed out of the area. He, instead, went into Afghanistan to see what he could do to help. The most moving thing was reading of the refugees of war who had nowhere to go and had to just set up a new life with nothing, and he helped bring education to their camps. I love the respect he has for these people and his message that it is not the Muslims that are the terrorists. They are a peaceful people overall and just want to live their lives like anyone else. He met some amazing people on that trip that have stayed in his life for years since.

I love to read inspiring stories about what one person or one kid can do and share them with my girls. This one was well worthwhile and they thoroughly enjoyed it. Greg M. is truly an amazing man as is his daughter, Amira, who in this kid's version of his story has a Q&A in the back of the book about sharing her dad with so many people. I highly recommend it!

Mountain Laurel and Ticks

2009-04-30T22:43:00.003-04:00

Today we braved our Field of Ticks to see if the Mountain Laurel was blooming and were greatly rewarded with mounds of the delicate sweet blossoms. We avoid this area of the property much of the spring and summer as we have to wade through a lot of underbrush to get there and come out crawling with little passengers. But to see the little star-shaped blossoms exuberantly blooming over quite a large area is worth the chore of tick picking later!

Last time we were up there, which is at a point of the South River, two canoes filled with adults and children, most of them Asian and one lady wearing one of those pointy straw hats, drifted by, pulled over a ways down on the opposite shore, and the passengers disembarked and carried their canoes off through the woods. We exchanged pleasantries, but I could see Lily literally quivering with desire to ask who they were, where their country of origin was, etc. (She wants to be a social worker when she grows up, saying this is the perfect job for her because she can ask all the nosy questions she wants and see inside other peoples' houses LOL!). This is our mystery for the month and we hope to see them again and learn more about our heretofore unknown neighbors.

A last look

2009-04-29T05:23:00.009-04:00

Today was long. Back to the mechanic for yet another repair on the car, so we walked down the road to the cemetery at the girls' request, as we did last time. I was taken with these tree-trunk tombstones. Lily said they must have been nature lovers like us. The one on the right is for a wife, Carrie, who was born in 1987 and died in 1913 - 16-year-old bride.

We were very moved by this grave of a young mother, who is obviously still very much loved and missed. I am thankful the kids who vandalized our house and who I believe live in the shadow of this cemetery, have not destroyed or removed the sweet momentos left for loved ones. One grave for a 19-year-old young man who died in 1992 had a little frog statue on top and a silver cross necklace hanging from a stone placed on top of his headstone.

After reading numerous tombstones and wondering about their stories, we walked on down to our house. I can't believe it is 18 months since we moved out. It will be sold at auction on May 5, and the girls and I decided to take one last look. It was quite overgrown all down our long drive (we're sticklers for long drives into the woods).

They are looking out across our pond. There we were often visited by Great Blue Herons, and the girls watched a Canada goose pair make a nest and lay a clutch of eggs. She would actually take bits of twigs and things from the girls and tuck them into her nest, and loved it when they blew bubbles for her, nibbling at them with her shiny beak. They spent hours out there near her and she came to really like them. Just as the eggs were about to hatch the kids living across the pond destroyed the nest. The girls found one of the babies and the mother dead. We were all heartbroken, and that's when the girls got the finches they were wanting! There was a big old catfish who lived in the pond, looking like some ancient creature from another time, who became quite tame, and the girls fed scraps to him. He would speed over to the edge of the pond when he saw them coming.

We could never have fixed all that was wrong, and it was a disastrous place to live, with the pond above that overflowed, the very long drive that washed out every time it rained, the perpetually broken 2/10-mile-long water pipe, and very little that worked the last couple of years, but it was our first home together as a family, so it is special. I'm glad we bid it farewell.

Don't say "Cheese"

2009-04-28T04:07:00.002-04:00

Well I have tried and Jing has tried to photograph this young lady for their China Digital Scrapbook trading cards, and these are some of the better results! Any photographers out there up to a challenge? Come on over and just try to get a good shot of this child! You get fake smile, then when you say please no fake smile you get a glower, then when you tell her to say "rubber underpants!" you get too much of a smile. ACK! But we love her anyway!

Kudos to my girls!

2009-04-22T22:52:00.004-04:00

I am SO proud of my girls! Tonight they finished their AWANA books for the year - despite missing more than 2/3 of the classes this year sitting home with Blind Mama! These books are a LOT of work and only two other girls in their class - who have all been there all year - have finished their books so far, and they have four weeks to go before summer break. They were able to do a bit of the book during the year with one of their teachers who took me back and forth to the doctor for a while but not a lot. I am really, really proud of their hard work and dedication to do all their memorizations and fill in their pages and do their assignments.

Here they are playing War (trying to hit each other with a ball, and at CHURCH of all places LOL) and friend Sarah is demonstrating a fun way to wear your hat on Hat Day! Jing loves the sports portion of the night, but Lily tries to hide or keep going to the back of the line. We can't all be athletes after all!

Spring has sprung

2009-04-22T01:05:00.004-04:00

This was taken from our front porch a few days ago; I didn't get a photo for today. The azaleas and dogwoods are now fading, so shortly after this was taken. I sure wish the spring flowers lasted longer, particularly the wisteria and forsythia!

Georgie raises her hackles

2009-04-21T00:28:00.006-04:00

This is Georgie before our walk. She's 11 months old now - look at those ears! This is just before our walk.

While walking we spotted a critter dashing down the drive. I thought it was a coyote. Jing thought it was a cat, maybe a bobcat. Lily thought it was a wild dog. At any rate, Georgie gave chase, and we gave chase to Georgie and found her in front of a huge pile of rocks and underbrush with hackles raised and a nervous look on her face - Can I handle this thing if it comes back out at me?!

The image of the day for me, too heartbreaking to take but etched in my mind forever, was of my old dog Matilda watching longingly out the window as we walked away without her. This week I finally had to stop letting her go on the long walk we take every day as she gets out of breath and just drags behind and sometimes coughs and chokes. We take her on a shorter walk of her own before we go but I feel like a traitor leaving her inside as we jaunt off, the puppy racing ahead of us. You could pack my sadness and guilt in a tractor trailer and still have some left over!

Happy Reunion

2009-04-20T00:05:00.004-04:00

What a wonderful surprise we had when our dear friends pulled into town from the state below long enough to have a quick meal and for the kids to all go to AWANA together, just like old times. I'm surprised these shots turned out at all as the girls ran ahead and I just snapped and hoped for the best way off in the distance. It was so good to see them and an unneeded reminder of how much we miss them.

Artist in Residence

2009-03-21T19:32:00.004-04:00

Well if I can't do a photo a day, can I do a scan a day? Last night after the girls went to bed, I returned something to the girls' second room and found a stack of drawings like these on Jing's table. They had been watching a movie but Jing never sits idly - dozens of illustrations like these covered several pieces of paper. You can see other images bleeding through the paper from the back, a habit from China she can't get past. I told her she did not have to draw on the back of the paper or combine a bunch of pictures on one page, that I would always provide as much apper as she needed, but she is still a very economical girl; nothing is wasted. Not a bad philosophy for these days especially!

I used to draw a lot too, pretty much all animals like Jing. I could draw a horse blindfolded in any position because I was, and am, a horse fiend. But anything else I drew decently I had to look at a photo or preferably another drawing and copy it. What amazes me about Jing is she draws a multitude of creatures but there is no book in front of her - they are all out of the herds of animals living in her head, images from her own imagination. At times I find pages of, say, a lion face done over and over with multiple expressions, or legs and paws or hooves drawn flat, curled, in motion. It's a beautiful thing to witness, that God-given talent that is so strong and instinctive it flows out spontaneously and freely, if not involuntarily. A gift to be envied!

Woe is me!

2009-03-17T07:22:00.004-04:00

The photo of the day is one I found on the floor yesterday. It must have slipped out of a file as I have been trying to go through things now that I can see a bit better. Today I had to rely on a scan as I can no longer get my HP PhotoSmart scanner to send photos from my memory card to my computer. Which is NOT FUN!

I have googled myself silly and even paid $$$ I could not spare to load one of those file cleaners, which found almost 1200 things to be fixed. My computer is moving faster but I still get the same error when I stick in my memory card - "Application has generated an exception that could not be handled." Then it gives some codes.

I googled those and found two other people asking about the same thing on computer boards but no one had answered them. It says to click cancel to debug the application. Then it says, "Registered JIT debugger is not available." I found the RegCure program when googling this error but it has not fixed it, though I have not rebooted since I installed it, so I have a tiny bit of hope. I've actually had this error for a while but my Microsoft Wizard for cameras and scanners would pop up and take over and did fine. Now it doesn't, and when I try to run it manually it only reads the scanner as opposed to where it used to default to the memory card. It's a very old machine and very much used but I sure wish I could get it to work! I was just about to put some things up for sale and now I can't scan in my photos!

My computer does seem to be a good bit faster already! It was CRAWLING, and scanning through my files to get down to current photo files took so long. Now it is moving along. So I guess I won't ask for a refund! I will have to be frugal with our smallish memory card and save my photos on there for a while. At least I can catch up on my layouts, which are badly behind.

If anyone has any idea how to fix this, please email me!

The photo is from about six years ago, probably almost exactly, just a few months after Jing came home. That sweet smile she has is very deceptive of what was going on behind the scenes, but it's very cute!

Princess Leia Hearts Santa Claus

2009-03-13T23:18:00.003-04:00

Lily had the funniest dream last night, especially considering Jing is the Star Wars nut and neither have ever believed in Santa Claus. She dreamed Princess Leia had a major crush on Santa and was sending him notes, pleading with him to be her boyfriend, saying "Be Mine" and "I Love You!" It was a long dream but it ended with Santa going back to the North Pole but leaving Leia a snowglobe with a little plastic sign inside saying something like "Love Always, Santa" to remember him by. I about drove off the road I was laughing so hard! We are vigorous dreamers but that one is dadburn eccentric! Jing once dreamed there were cowboys riding around on horses trying to lasso the Disney princesses that were flying around in the sky above them. The cowboys were real, the Disney girls animated. Maybe I need to move snacktime up a bit LOL!

Today was our last day of Freedom/Splurge Week, next week back to once-a-week eating out max, and we went to our favorite eatery - Truett's (Chic-Fil-A). They have the best fast food ever. McDonald's, BK, Wendy's, et al, taste like junk next to "Chicky-Fay" as Lily used to call it when she was a preschooler begging to go. This one opened during the time Lily was madly in love with Thomas the Tank Engine, and she was thrilled to see that it had a little train track running around the ceiling with a little working choo-choo doggedly circling the restaurant again and again.

She loved eating in this real vintage trolley. Now we eat outside at a sole umbrella table behind the restaurant, even on a rather blustery cool day like today. We got our exercise bounding after napkins that kept blowing off the table! Unfortunately, my batteries died as I was trying to take their picture on the bench made out of the backside of an old Chevy!

Cemetery and Return to AWANA

2009-03-11T23:58:00.004-04:00

What a day we had! We had to get up early (2:00 p.m.!) so our car could be worked on while we waited and we could still make it to AWANA in time. There was not much near the auto shop to explore, so we walked to this old cemetery. It is at the end of the drive we used to live on, so it was familiar stomping grounds. It was poignant to read the older stones, the sweet sentiments loved ones placed there. Many were war veterans. One said, enigmatically, "She did all she could."

The saddest thing was all the babies and toddlers that were there from the early 1900s. It was a good opportunity to discuss advancees in health care and the importance of the discovery of antibiotics.

From there we went to the Betterway Christian Bookstore and I picked up next year's history text used at a great buy! The tests too! It was gratifying to see the girls excitedly flipping through the pages of the book, crowing over chapters on Japan and China history and the Mayans, who Lily has a weird fascination with. I've found her more than once curled up at the bookstore with a huge tome titled "Aztecs and Mayans." From about 7 to 9-1/2, she was utterly enchanted with Ancient Egypt, mummies, pyramids, the Book of the Dead. Jing's interests never waver - dogs, cats, animals, drawing, cars.

Then we spent an hour at another branch of our library, then off to AWANA for the first time since the year started in August. The girls were a bit nervous but it went fine and their friends welcomed them back. Lily had memorized eight verses and Jing seven, which is amazing. I enjoyed some time to myself grocery shopping and then we went for Chinese! We love China House as they serve on paper plates and you take your own food to the table so no tip, and the price is the same as a fast-food meal - and it's delicious! As you can see we are eating down the last few bits of Almond Fried Chicken! A great day!

New Growth from old Limbs

2009-03-10T22:11:00.003-04:00

I so dread the heat that comes after the all-too-brief spring, but it is hard not to be moved by the beauty of new life in spring. These old peach trees (we think that's what they are) looked dead, but our landlord hopefully pruned them year before last when we moved in. They put out branches last year and this year there are shy little blossoms popping out to charm us, a beautiful juxtaposition against the gnarled old wood.

L and J Discover More History

2009-03-09T21:38:00.004-04:00

Today's photos were supposed to be out and about, but as we got out, our car refused to start back up. We had quite an adventure hiking over to a nearby mall in search of a phone and finding they had removed all the pay phones in the mall! We went begging at the Sear's auto and a nice man drove over where we were and banged on the starter with a tool and it started, but he said to go home as it would probably do it again, so back home we came. We went on a lovely walk by the river. The frustrating thing about living with this river is there are no good places to get down to it, especially for arthritic knees! My little mountain goats, however, manage quite well and found some rocks where they could walk out onto the river today. The bridge you see is part of the highway we live off of.

As they were gazing around at the water, Lily said, "I see human-made rocks!" There was a sawmill and store on the river in Civil War times and I believe these are part of the walls of one of them, coming right out of the river! We had no idea these were down there!

Another nice surprise today was getting Grace Lin's newsletter email and finding she had featured Lily's letter with her little Mandarin dress made out of handmade Japanese paper. It was so neat! Unfortunately I didn't see it on the web link to her newsletter but if you get it by email, that's Lily's letter!

Daisy Doozie - or 3 Girls and a Car!

2009-03-07T01:01:00.003-05:00

I forgot my memory card in my camera today. Otherwise I would have been choosing from photos of our frenzy of running around today. First we just drove in circles, unable to decide where to go out of so many places we have missed! I drove after dark for the first time post surgery - other than a trial run at 4 a.m. - and did so-so. I don't think I will be able to do both rain and dark together at this point but still it was so much better than five months ago when I stopped driving and I was happy to be able to do it at all. I told the girls I thought we could make it to AWANA next week, and Lily said she thought she would rather just catch up on going places! Even as we were running around, we were plotting our route for my next day off on Monday!

So you get a photo of our Daisy. Daisy was born on my bed about seven years ago but that is the last time she would get on it until this last week. She is second generation feral cat, born to our Zoey, the kitten of a rescued feral cat. It amazes me that the instincts carry on still. Zoey wanted me there when they were born, but then she figured out she could hide them up UNDER our bathtub through a hole in our closet, which meant I could not get to them, so until they were able to crawl out on their own, there they lived - the bathtub babies. This gave Zoey time to indoctrinate them into the caution of humans that her mama had taught her. When I began to catch them, I tried to block them in the bathroom for safety and Zoey kept carrying them back under the tub until I finally got them all out at once and blocked the hole!

Daisy mostly wants to be outside. There is a wildness about her. I love to watch her leaping gracefully through the woods, effortlessly bounding up and along fallen trees and skittering up tall ones, and she is an avid hunter. But a few months ago she began coming in and sleeping on Lily's bed. Now she has decided my bed is the thing and has taken to hanging out under my feet in the kitchen. We love our cats but boy would I love an affectionate lap cat again! It's been great to have her in more - maybe she took heart after all my begging at the door for them to come inside on cold nights.

Daisy is such a work of art. The fur on her chin is not white but the palest of gray - on top. But if you ruffle it back, it is medium gray underneath and soft as a baby mouse, and a small bit of this darker gray appears just around her lips. Her fur is lushly thick and rich, each hair four or five different colors - if you ruffle it backwards there are layers of brown, tan, black and creamy gray. The artistry, imagination, colors, intricate details and breathtaking beauty I see in nature are why I find it so easy to believe in a Divine Creator/Artist of Life. And Daisy is a masterpiece.

Love the Library!

2009-03-05T22:48:00.005-05:00

What bliss today to return to the library. That is, until they told me the late fees figure! Yikes! My sister took us a couple of times over the last few months but I thought the last time was just a few weeks ago. It was two months ago and we had checked out a lot of books that never got renewed! I won't say how much I owed, but let's just say I am helping fund part of the renovations they are currently performing!

Before we had this nice building, the library was rather small. It was quite exciting to have this new modern lovely building. However, I am a bit peeved they spent untold sums on a round dome that does nothing but look pretty and yet the books are still so dated! I love to read old novels but the vacation guide books, for instance, are from the 80s. I don't think the hotel prices will hold up 20-something years later! And the craft books are mostly things like macrame and bread dough creations. I can't help but wonder how many new books that useless dome cost us! And now they are enlarging the library, after I heard them moaning about not getting a budget for any new books. And if you take the time to go to another branch of the library system, they tend to have an almost duplicate set of books rather than buying different ones for each branch that can be traded around.

Nevertheless, picking up a stack of free books is pretty blissful, and it's fun to look at the vacation books and PRETEND the prices are still that low!

Sweet Freedom

2009-03-04T21:04:00.003-05:00

Today for the first time in a full five months, I got in my car and drove my children out to have Chic-fil-A, to the bookstore, to Target, to get gas for 1.78 a gallon. Last time I put gas in my car it was 4.12 a gallon. Then on the way home, we all got a movie! The Blockbuster guy said, "WHERE have you been!?" Unfortunately I left my camera at home, but here is a photo of today's treats in celebration of recovered independence, minus the Breyer's ice cream and Magic Shell topping, first ice cream in over five months as we've had to jam our tiny freezer with veggies and meat as the trips to the store were few and far between. Boy is my mood dramatically improved!

Even the months before I had to hang up the car keys, our driving was very limited as my vision worsened, every trip a stress-laden nightmare of straining to see and angry people riding my bumper, so this is just an incredible day. As we were sitting at the umbrella-covered outdoor table eating our lunch and looking at the clear blue sky, Lily sighed contentedly and said, "This is just the Perfect Day."

I was terrified to get behind the wheel as my vision is SO different than it has ever been, and I simply could not tell whether or not I could safely drive until I did it. I meant to drive up and down the drive Tuesday before work but couldn't bring myself to do it, so as soon as I got up today I hopped in the car and drove to get the mail. With not one problem! I figured if I could see on a dirt drive, I could see on the road, and sure enough I had no problems and in fact it is so much better than the last two years - and maybe ever - it was incredible! And no glasses! I have worn glasses since age 8 and had terrible vision even pre-cataracts. To drive with only my post-surgery sunglasses on is like a miracle! Even if I can't read the TV Guide or my watch LOL!

We didn't try dark driving, but it was getting dark as we drove home and it was a little trickier but not so bad. Lily's already hinting about the Terra Cotta Warrior exhibit and several other adventures yet to be had! Bring it on, I say!

Next up, my butane torch and silver clay will be arriving to try my hand at silver jewelry. I can only hope my picture of the day won't be the trailer burning down and my landlord running over with his hunting rifle to shoot me!

Postcards from afar

2009-03-04T00:28:00.003-05:00

We have so enjoyed Post Crossing (postcrossing.com). We mail out cards to an assigned address, which also features a profile on the person, and they register our card number and then we get a card from someone else. Sometimes we get and send replies to the same people.

Today we got cards from a 12-year-old boy in Finland, Joosua, and a 23-year-old girl in Shanghai, China, Iris, who was actually vacationing on Hainan Island for Spring Festival. She was someone we sent a card to, so who didn't owe us one, but she was excited to get a card from two girls in America who came from China! The postcard had elephants on it so Lily was thrilled! She signed it with a cute little chop. Tomorrow cards are going out to another US state and to Germany. Finland and Germany are the most common countries participating it seems, though we have sent one to Japan that never got registered as received, and received one from Canada. It's helped the long months at home have some anticipation as we head for the mailbox every day.

Bye-bye snow

2009-03-02T22:07:00.003-05:00

Early this morning before I went to bed, Matilda and I took a walk on the hard-frozen crust outside and watched the new sun throw shadows between the trees. By the time I got up this afternoon most of it was gone, but what a lovely sight while it lasted.

Snow-rain Georgia style

2009-03-01T18:04:00.002-05:00

This is the view out the girls' back door. We have some pretty snow falling but actually it is raining at the same time, and having been raining very heavily the last couple of days, almost causing the river next to our house to overflow, the ground is a mucky mess. This is why we have no photos of frolicking girls in the snow, though they have been in and out. I do have a picture of them outside cleaning up the trash the raccoons tore open all over our porch, leaving their little footprints as evidence, but I'll save that one for the family album.

I wish I had had the camera when we took our walk yesterday and the river was sloshing over the sides and we saw countless trees bobbing like corks as they sped their way through the rough water. Nature is apparently having a little fun and frolic after a long dry spell.

Swimming and surgery

2009-02-28T00:35:00.002-05:00

Here are the girls having fun on Wednesday while mom is going under the knife. I didn't get to be with them for any of the fun - no room for me in the car. Sitting at home alone I felt like the kid who didn't get picked for the team but I'm very thankful that they got to go have some fun after a long dry spell. They absolutely love their new friend Madison, after dreading her coming, thinking she was going to take Anna's attention away from them. I knew Anna better than that and all four got along great, at least from my two's point of view! Madison let Jing play with her Nintendo DS and Jing has a new passionate desire to own one!

Surgery itself was a breeze - I have no memory of anything coming at my eye, which is what I was dreading. But post surgery has been a let-down. I have strained to do my work so long I was gasping with desperation to be able to DRIVE and to read better and see to do my work without intense squinting of my entire face with resultant constant eye strain and headaches. Well now I can't read hardly at all. They gave me reading glasses which enables me to read large type and computer type, as it is lit up brightly, but I can't read my watch, can't read prices in the store, can't pick up a book and read if the type is smallish. What I do type and read is double letters sliding into each other and just exhausts my eye and me. I know (hope!) eventually glasses will correct this but on top of another bit of bad news I have been pretty blue. Not even sure I can drive yet - too rainy today to attempt driving for the first time in five months.

The surgeon had asked me many times if I had a trauma in my left eye, which at this point is so thick with cataract I can only see vague shapes - no meaningful vision. I told him I knew of nothing. He cannot get a good look behind the cataract with any machine they have or with a slit lamp as it is so thick. He had told me he would try the traditional surgery but it had at most a 50% chance of succeeding. If not, he would go in and scrape my eye and something else I don't remember, some kind of compensation for muscles too weak to hold up the new lens. Well yesterday I said, "Please get this other thing out so I can see! When can you do it?!" He said, "I'm not going to do it. I'm not touching that eye."

He said I needed a specialist and that Lion's Club would probably not pay for that and even if they did I would probably not get accepted as a patient with no insurance. He is one of the top surgeons in the country so I am somewhat concerned about this. One of the ladies there told me he was very cautious. And they told me no glasses until both eyes are done, but they are going to have to change that as I can't live unable to read! My eyestrain between the new sharp distance vision and the double/blurry vision up close mixed in with an eye that is "way past 20/200" is almost worse in ways than when the cataract was in. I know part of it will be adjusting but I am somewhat blue about it at the moment, particularly since it's not the only serious issue on the board at the moment!

But for today, I have two happy chatty girls all excited about their adventure and for preservation of my spirit and need of more income I have decided to take the plunge after years of longing to try my hand at making sterling silver jewelry with Precious Metal Clay. I so need something new and exciting creatively to give me a spark right now. Can't afford it, but I'm getting the cheapest set-up, no kiln alas, and I hope it pays for itself before too long. I may even start a PMC newbie blog when my stuff comes!

Toss out a prayer for me if you can spare one. I could use all I can get right now.

Happy girls with visitors

2009-02-24T03:28:00.003-05:00

We are so happy Anna and Cheryl and Anna's friend Madison are visiting. The girls were ecstatic to have someone playing plastic animals with them - their fave! Now they'll have something a lot more fun to do on Wednesday when I'm getting my eye poked at and cataract removed than waiting in the waiting room! Lily has outgrown her swimsuit and we ended up with a LADIES MEDIUM tonight so she could swim at the indoor pool at their hotel. She's 11, for crying out loud!

Happy 12th birthday Jing!

2009-02-19T19:19:00.005-05:00

Hard to believe a year from today I will have a teenager! As I often say, it goes too fast.

Jing saw part of the Lion King in Chinese at the White Swan in China and then all of it in English soon after we got home, when she was 7, and five years later it is still her favorite thing. The vandals who trashed our house and stole many of our belongings got her CD player with her Lion King soundrack inside. I was going to replace that but I decided to get her the Lion King Broadway show soundtrack instead and found a DVD about a man who lived with lions. Hard to tell in the photo but she was VERY pleased! I have a feeling her school work and chores will be done in record time today, and I'll pretend not to notice if she sneaks a listen of the CD before they're done!

Happy Birthday Jing!

Georgie the aerialist

2009-02-17T03:23:00.005-05:00

So here I am in our little hallway next to the kitchen. We have only a tiny countertop next to the sink, so I use the washing machine for mine. I'm working on assembling tomorrow night's dinner - a pile of fresh mashed potatoes in the middle of a sheet cake pan surrounded by a homemade beef gravy with green beans and a bit of hamburger with onions stirred in. Baked until hot and then for the last minute crisp some Libby's fried onions on top - oh yum! Well Georgie thought so too. When there is food she wants, which is anytime anything remotely edible is present, she jumps straight in the air - quite high! Boing, boing, boing, over and over like a spring. It's quite entertaining! Seriously, I could sell tickets! I have tried to capture it two or three times and this is the best I have gotten.

I have become an expert at painting in my dog's glowing eyes! Every photo I take indoors make them look like dogs from a horror movie. I'm getting quite good at it if I do say so myself! Here's the original.

First crush revisited

2009-02-15T21:55:00.003-05:00

To the best of my memory, my first crush was Sidney Poitier. It could have been James Stacy on "Lancer," the old Western, but I believe it was Sidney. I thought he was so handsome and elegant, the epitomy of a real man. Since young childhood and through the years, anytime "To Sir With Love," "Lilies of the Field," "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," "The Defiant Ones" or any other Poitier movie came on I have been glued to the TV if possible. Even his elderly self makes my heart go pitter-patter! I felt so lucky when early this a.m. while changing channels trying to find something to get me through the last few hours of medical transcription I came across "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" just coming on. Sidney plus Spencer Tracy AND Katherine Hepburn. Delicious!

Georgie Hearts Norman

2009-02-13T23:44:00.005-05:00

If a picture wasn't going very well, I'd put a puppy in it. NORMAN ROCKWELL

When you live with an obstreperous beagle pup, you learn quickly not to leave anything valuable lying around. If it is edible, it is eaten, if it is paper, it is shredded. But sometimes we forget and leave things exposed to danger. Apparently, Georgie took a liking to the kind face on this vintage magazine, and it was spared.

My sister recently brought this forgotten treasure to me from cleaning out my mother's house. Eternal square that I am, as a kid I subscribed to Saturday Evening Post. Norman Rockwell is my favorite artist and this issue arrived shortly after his death, when I was 18. I remember weeping when I heard he had passed on.

One of the shining bonuses of being a homeschool mom is introducing my children to artists, authors and musicians of quality, so it was fun to flip through this magazine and talk about the paintings and illustrations inside, though it wasn't the first time I had aquainted them with Mr. Rockwell. It contains my favorite N.R. painting - The Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. So simple, yet so profound. If everyone would just respect others who are different than them, so much turmoil, pain, hatred and death could be avoided.

When I go to farms or little towns, I am always surprised at the discontent I find. And New York, too often, has looked across the sea toward Europe. And all of us who turn our eyes away from what we have are missing life. NORMAN ROCKWELL

There is something so poignant about his paintings. The boy going off to war, both his father and his dog sad-eyed and grieving. The mother, chin in the air, marching her children out to church while the dad sinks down in the chair and sheepishly hides behind his newspaper. The doctor holding his stethoscope to the chest of a little girl's doll. The grandma praying over a simple meal in a diner with her little grandson as others look on. The beaming family being served Thanksgiving turkey. Little slices of life. Kind of like what we try to capture in these 365 blogs.

Commonplaces never become tiresome. It is we who become tired when we cease to be curious and appreciative. NORMAN ROCKWELL

This magazine arrived in my house 30 years ago this month to remember a treasured artist who had passed away in November 1978. But Mr. Rockwell is living still in his paintings and in the ideals he presented to America of the way things should be and the way they still, blessedly, sometimes are, if we can just remember what is important in this life.

Valentines arrive!

2009-02-12T22:56:00.003-05:00

The girls checking out Valentine cards in the mailbox. These are from Grandmother and contained $2 spending money!

History comes alive

2009-02-12T02:15:00.004-05:00

Today we walked down to get the mail and were surprised to find two fellas with metal detectors and worn canvas and leather pouches dangling from their persons emerging from next to this tree stump. The tree was over 200 years old - as told by one of these guys and also my landlord when it suddenly snapped like a twig and fell across our drive just before we moved in.

One of the gentleman was the historian for a nearby county, the other his buddy who is a research assistant for Georgia Civil War Research. The latter had left many business cards and notes asking permission to ramble around and further trace the raid of one General Kilpatrick, Union soldier, on August 20, 1864. General K's cavalry had gone through nearby Jonesboro, destroying the train tracks, cotton warehouses and stores, and after a battle on a farm ended up thundering down the road we live on, coming quite far in one day.

It is written in diaries they had to abandon the big Confederate howitzer they had captured from the middle of a battlefield, at great personal risk, in nearby Big Cotton Indian Creek as there was no bridge and it was too heavy to pull it across by ropes over the water as they did their other wagons. They lost over 60 pack animals there. (Our landlord took a metal detector to try and find it but they had just moved the bridge over and he thinks they covered over the cannon - he tried to find it with his metal detector but there was too much rebar.)

They came down a ways to our land and rather bashed their way through a contingent of informal Confederate soldiers - local boys and older men left behind, killing some, and burned the store and mill on our South River and crossed the bridge, burning it behind them. The entrance to the bridge runs right off our drive and we walk up on it nearly every day and stand in awe, imagining.

The historians had visited the plantation house foundation I pictured earlier on my blog and found a reed from an old harmonica, a handcarved silver buckle from a shoe, a stirrup, and some wonderful handmade nails with flat sides. On our second walk they were gone but Jing photographed the stump of the fallen tree that shaded the old plantation house, already a centruy old then.

Our own Lantern festival

2009-02-10T01:20:00.003-05:00

When you're stranded at home and no one invites you anywhere, just have your own lantern walk at home! And since it's us, it's at 2:00 a.m.! It was probably 70 degrees today but night brought a delicious chill, and we set out on a walk under the full moon. It was beautiful out, and both girls and both dogs were full of zest, cavorting happily under the silvery light of the moon. Jing and Georgie sprinted back and forth while Lily, Matilda and I walked briskly along, relishing the quiet of the night with no traffic down on the road. The river makes an incredible shushing sound that is peaceful and lively all at once. Our own little Moon Kingdom. Everyone else tucked away in bed. Earlier the moon had glowed with a beautiful orange color, as though it wanted to appear as a lantern in honor of the Lunar New Year.

Happy Year of the Ox, my two sweet ox girls. I'm sorry I couldn't get you to any celebrations, but I'm so happy we have each other to share the year ahead.

Making Valentines

2009-02-07T23:06:00.003-05:00

This is not exactly a great photo, and of course Lily has her blanket on her head, but I love going in and finding my girls sitting in a pile of bits and pieces, hard at work on new creations! The little clear container on the table is where Lily stashes bits of gift wrap, Hershey Kiss and gum wrappers, ribbons, buttons, string, stamps, pictures cut from magazines. She also has a storage bin with tons of scrapbook papers and bigger pieces. Jing mostly just draws or paints, but she does some constructing too.

Lily has never known anything else because I had to keep her busy when I was working from a 1-year-old up to 6-year-old until we got Jing, and from about age 2-1/2 on up I kept her supplied with all sorts of bits and pieces and art projects, and she would sit beside me, creating wonderful play-doh sculptures, pipe-cleaner animals and drawings and such.

Time in China was difficult with Jing, but one bright moment was when I gave them paper and markers, and Jing effortlessly filled a paper with the most adorable characters! In the beginning, she would make many small drawings on one page and then fill the back. Judging by the letters we got from her friends, paper was at a premium! They came on scraps of flimsy transparent paper. I sent them a big box of paper, crayons and markers. I love that my girls are wonderfully creative artists!

Our mud babies

2009-02-06T23:49:00.005-05:00

I bought all but one of these clay dolls at a flea market years ago, falling immediately in love with them. Little pieces of the red thread to China. The one on the far right I got in Xi'an when I adopted Jing. I got to buy almost nothing that trip as there was a miscommunication with the agency. They told me all the China fees had been covered. I assumed that meant ALL the fees in China. But turns out they were not counting the physical exam or consulate fees as China fees, though they are IN CHINA, huh?! So the day we got to Guangzhou, our guide unhanded me of all but $27 - with four days to go before heading home!

My credit card was useless as I had lost my job after Dossier to China, a horrifyingly unexpected surprise, and was out of work and broke and basically charged it over the top to get there and get Jing home. Oh how frustrating! And scary! Me, a rather timid person, alone with a wild, unhappy child I could not communicate with and a dismayed new little sister who was being slapped, shoved and spat upon by her new sibling and no money! So just a few small souvenirs, mostly from Xi'an when I thought I had those extra hundreds! But I did get the kid, which was a miracle considering my circumstances, so who can complain!

It was a scary time, though. I had no idea what we would do as I had cancelled the White Swan breakfast buffet to save money. But a budget oasis presented itself right in the midst of the panic! Down the road we found a little grocery store where I got three orders of fried rice and three slices of watermelon for 7 yuan! We ate it every day and ate the fruit basket the hotel gave us and even squeezed in a meal at Lucy's, I think right before our money was pilfered, and we made it home with a bit of change in our pockets! What an adventure!

Well, I did not intend to ramble there but what memories! And so we came home with a few sets of terracotta warriors, many of which broke, the little clay doll, chops for both girls, a cheap toy car and plane for Jing and Lily and a couple of t-shirts plus shoes and two boys outfits for Jing - she gagged at the girls clothes I brought her and refused to wear them, and then refused to wear the boys' outfits she picked out, choosing to roll with sweat under the two layers of clothes she came in, including a heavy denim outfit with jacket. While I got cussed out all over China by little old ladies pointing their fingers at me and lecturing me angrily! We all hope to go back so we can relax and enjoy the trip and explore China together as a unified family! Hopefully with more than $27 in our pockets!

Puppy's SO Naughty! And YAHOO!

2009-02-06T01:08:00.006-05:00

The girls took this sad photo for the day. Remember Lily's lovely doll displayed on her dresser for CNY!? Well, Lily comes and tells me, "Mom, Jing walked into the room and saw a pitiful tiny hand on the floor. Then we found a leg." And she holds up poor Chinese Barbie, who apparently teetered off her perch and was viciously mauled by our rapscallion Beagle pup, who apparently couldn't find any tissues to shred and took it out on an innocent bystander. Luckily she was laughing about it. Lily, not the pup!

In happier news, Lions/Lighthouse of Georgia re-approved coverage of my surgery and exam for cataracts today (I had to reapply with the new year)! WAHOO! I had already hopefully made an appointment, so Monday I will be redoing my presurgery exam and setting up surgery! Thank you Victoria Jordan, you are wonderful! She couldn't even find my paperwork I had faxed and approved me just after talking to me! I think she was affected by the desperation of a caged animal in my voice!

Fun Mail!

2009-02-04T23:38:00.005-05:00

New books have been a rarity for us because we used to be at the library at least once a week and at the thrift store frequently, where we could, on half-price day, fill a bag full of books for the price of one new one. But for the last few months, since we are stuck at home, I have treated us to a box from Amazon every three to four weeks. We desperately need something to look forward to.

The mail has taken on new importance, particularly when our book box is due to arrive. We used to get up and eat and I would get a bit of work done, and then we would walk down for the mail. Now we can't wait, and as soon as we get up we pull on our shoes while the dogs dance around and Tildy barks her exuberance, and we head out on our walk first thing. Sometimes I think we hope for some kind of miracle enclosed in the box with the red flag. No miracle today but what a thrill to find our box of books. The third book of the Austin series by Madeleine L'Engle arrived -- The Young Unicorns -- for us to read together, as we read the first two. And I decided to try a recent Dean Koontz.

The Austin series was one I read multiple times as a young person and even a young adult. Her characters were so real to me and I loved that people you got attached to in one series might pop up in another. I felt true anguish when one of her characters, Joshua in Arm of the Starfish, was killed. Reading "Meet the Austins" to Jing and Lily was very special to me. When I was their age and read it I was immersed into the warmth and love of this family. I dreamed of and yearned for the close family I would someday have and vowed to read to my children every night just as Mama Austin did. And now the dream is fulfilled, and the vivid warmth of these books is touching their hearts. I hope the circle continues and that my girls are someday piled on a couch with their pets and my grandchildren reading the Austin family series and all the other good books they can find.

As far as Dean Koontz, he is not an author I would have chosen on my own. I was badgered into reading him by a coworker who finally did me in by saying - "this book (Watchers) has the best dog character you will ever read." And I relented and soon was hooked! I have not read all his books, some with just too much violence. But there is a goodness in his books, always two or more people drawn together in a unique way who work together to fight against something dark, and the light and the good always win. The writing is gripping, the words painting a vivid picture, portraying a real emotion. Just as Madeleine L'Engle captured me so many years before.

I actually wrote Mr. Koontz a letter once and told him that only he could get a square Baptist girl to read books that included the liberal use of things like Glocks and eyeballs in jars! I told him he inspired me as a writer wannabe with his ability to make his characters real and worth caring about, and he replied with a full-page handwritten letter and sent me his latest hardback book, signed by him and his dog Trixie, her pawprint, that is! He encouraged me and said my letter was exceedingly well written and he could feel a true writer shining from that letter! I was elated to say the least that he would take the time to hand write such a lovely note! Unfortunately, when our house was vandalized it was lost in the mess, both letter and book, but I will never forget skipping down our long driveway with Lily looking up at me in awe, wondering why Mama was acting so giddy!

The other fun mail was a picture of my nephew Nate's and his wife Samantha's adorable twins who will be celebrating turning 1 year old this week. Happy birthday Kaden and Kaylee!

Front porch view - GREEN!

2009-02-04T00:07:00.002-05:00

This is my view from my porch when I let my little Matilda out before I go to bed for the best part of the day - ah, the night shift! I was so surprised to see a new sheen of green - in early February! - that I ran and grabbed the camera. That's Georgia for you!

Star Wars on a Rainy Day

2009-02-02T21:26:00.002-05:00

I introduced the girls to Star Wars a few months ago, and as I anticipated, Jing was enthralled! She bought a Star Wars Lego computer game with some of her Christmas money and has played it countless hours since with all the enthusiasm Lily gives to Nancy Drew games. I told Lily she looked like one of the Jawa in her blanket hood!

My other girls

2009-02-01T22:54:00.003-05:00

I tried to snap a candid shot of the girls doing their math on the computer - they have a teacher on tape for that this year, which has been an incredible plus to our homeschool of three NON-math-brained girls - but they would not cooperate, so I turned around in my chair from my work and snapped my other two girls. Ain't they cute!? I love working from home and being with my kids, but I also love having my pets around. They're a lot easier to get along with than many of the people I've worked with! I had a good laugh when the doctor told me I needed to go out and get a pet to help lower my blood pressure.

I love my calendar girls!

2009-01-31T23:14:00.003-05:00

I told the girls to take today's photo and they wanted to show off their calendars LOL! Every year after the calendars get marked down I let them choose one - Jing got the Beagles, Lily Planet Earth. Jing's turn out to be a sort of diary - she writes quite a lot on them, and it has come in handy when we forget a particular day something happened - we just check Jing's calendar!

2009-01-31T01:10:00.002-05:00

I had to snap these cute cards the girls made our friends. Jing drew the fabulous dragon and Lily made the other one. I thought it was very clever that Lily used half of one of the little paper parasols as a fan!

2009-01-30T00:29:00.002-05:00

Okay, Marleen tagged me and the idea is to post the sixth photo in my sixth folder. This is the girls at the Pumpkin Patch in October 2004. My goodness, look at little Jing! She was past 7-1/2 but wearing a 4/5 at the time. Fun to look back but it tugs at my heart too for many reasons.
Forgive me for not continuing the tag but I am working and I think much of the CDS gang has already been tagged by now!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-29T00:23:00.003-05:00

Lily always decorates her dresser top for the current season/holiday. She wanted me to see her assemblage for CNY today. The green box holds their Starlite Mints. She is not a doll person but she spent her own money to buy the Chinese Barbie. I am so happy the girls are both so proud of their Chinese heritage. I have promised them I will do my best to get them to the High Museum of Art to see the Terra Cotta Warriors before they leave this April. Hoping for one good eye by then and that I can see to drive with it! After these last few months stuck at home, they deserve a very special treat!

Hong bao

2009-01-28T05:12:00.004-05:00

Well, always a day late and several dollars short, I made the girls Spring Festival cards today and gave them hong bao with some dollars. They were tickled and Lily informed me she put her last year's hong bao in a time capsule she is making. But they dragged out Jing's, rumpled from wear, and declared they used it as a mat for their plastic animals sometimes, when they were eating. This year's hong bao? Lily stated matter-of-factly they would make great sleeping bags for the plastic animals! Couldn't have thought of a better repurpose than that!

A good education

2009-01-27T01:45:00.000-05:00

Just a picture of some of our schoolbooks laid out for the day. I try to provide quality textbooks and it is quite a decision each year as there are SO many different curriculums to choose from. Some things I have bought only to return or re-sell on ebay as I was not satisfied, and in the early years we sometimes went through many different things before we found what worked, particularly with an ESL student struggling to comprehend this strange new written and spoken language.

Sometimes I feel inadequate and worry they are not getting enough. Most days I feel so thankful at what they DO get, because the most valuable things they learn are not in the textbooks. Our main curriculum is life itself and the exploring we do on our own outside the workbooks and texts. Most of what they learn and retain is what they seek out out on their own, the knowledge that comes from the desires of their hearts. For me, it is imperative that they have time to dream and the freedom to explore and act out and cultivate their ideas,

One week we read a vintage mystery set in San Francisco. The children in the book went to Coit Tower, rode streetcars, crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, went to Chinatown. We googled all those things, read about them, printed out photos of them. On our next library visit the girls sought out books about San Francisco and asked to check them out. We read the history of Chinatown SF and Chinese coming to America to work on the railroads and some of the injustices and prejudice they suffered. They were fascinated with the most crookedy road in the country. The children in the book were a blended family, so we talked extensively about this and the many different ways families come to be.

Lily was beyond thrilled when the book she played a part in and had her photo in was set in San Francisco, and we revisited many of the same places when we read it. To this day, San Francisco is special to them, and they will never forget the basic flavors of that place. And none of it came from a textbook and there was no quiz. Information freely learned is the sweetest and richest knowledge.

This is just one of countless instances where one small thing leads to another and yet another, and we can hardly wait to get done with the "proper" schoolwork so we can be free to chase all our current rabbits down all their widely broadening and sometimes intercrossing trails. These days the trails go deeper and deeper into the woods of complex thought and knowledge and sometimes into darker places than we really want to go, but there is always light to move towards and triumph to carry us out of the sorrowful.

And so we learn about life; we live it, we dream it, we learn from others who went before us and those who live out loud today. We explore it through song and dance and food and art. We discuss and marvel and grouse and grieve and laugh and savor all God's creation has to offer, be it hands on or vicariously through everchanging stacks of books and tapes and magazines and web sites.

At the end of it all, it will be just the beginning. Because my aim in giving my children a good education is that they learn to love to learn, so that their education will never end until the day their souls leave this earth.

So many comment they could never homeschool, yet every good parent I know is a homeschool parent because they nurture their children in their interests and dreams. They support them with a lighter and lighter hold as they grow and work their way free into the world to flourish as an individual of character and grace.

You don't need a teaching certificate to teach y9ur children. You just need the love of learning and the willingness to be an eager student along with them.

Highs and Lows of Country Life

2009-01-23T20:35:00.000-05:00

We stayed outside from getting up in the afternoon until after dark - electricity was shut off anyway. After we took our walk, Lily enjoyed some twilight swinging, Jing rode her bike and the dogs and I rambled around and picked up branches to put on our future bonfire pile. Much of this time, our landlord was trying to figure out why the pump in our well went out and we have had no water for the past few days except for a few hours when he thought he had it fixed. By tomorrow we are going to be a bit rank if we can't get a bath or wash some clothes, and we're running out of dishes!

The last time our well was out, it was for six days. I was able to barely see enough to drive next door to our landlord's and fill every container we could find so we could take sink baths and wash a few dishes, but I'm too blind to do it now. Our landlord brought us about five gallons so at least we can flush the toilet a few times, and tomorrow we will hike up through the woods and bring back a jug of water each, maybe two for me. Ah, roughing it! But we love our country life, or as country as you can get this close to Atlanta!

Georgia Sunset

2009-01-22T23:22:00.000-05:00

This was our view on the way back from our walk tonight. Jing said, "Mom can I take a picture of it to put on the blog?" I said that would be perfect, so here you have it!

Little daily traditions

2009-01-22T00:39:00.000-05:00

This wasn't the photo I intended to post but as I was sitting at the computer, picking up the camera to remove the memory card to pop into the scanner, this little thing popped up between my knees, as it does every night. Usually the girls eat supper in their room, watching a tape, and I eat while I work. Sounds terrible but since we homeschool we spend quite a lot of time together and we always eat lunch together.

After supper, the girls go put their dishes in the dishwasher and wash the sink dishes. This is Georgie's time to come visit (interrupt) mom. At first she wants nothing to do with me, only to lick the plate or bowl clean of whatever I ate. Yes, it's probably gross and unsanitary, but I let her. After that, she is ready for a cuddle. I try to ignore her and tap away at my work, but she will come and poke her head out in a way that can't be ignored - like this - and she gets her cuddle. She knew she would all along - it's part of the ritual.

After that, she's ready to run off and play again, like any youngun! And like any youngun, if I try to put her down too soon, she grips at me with her paws and resists quite decidedly. This is our little nightly tradition - lick mom's plate, cuddle, go play! (Was this supposed to be Jing's dog?!)

Thanks Ladies!

2009-01-20T20:12:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Chantal, Marleen and Sarah for all giving me the Fabulous Blog award. You all made my day, er, days! I have really enjoyed doing this blog and getting a chance to do a little writing, which is my passion since I was 8 years old. I also love, as someone else said, that I am taking photos I never would have thought of and never took - everyday candid shots of our life.

I'm supposed to say 5 things I'm addicted to. Lily would love this as she asks questions like this all day - What is your favorite culture? Which country would you most like to visist? What is your favorite book? She keeps me on my toes!

1. A good mystery or suspense novel.

2. Dark chocolate Hershey kisses.

3. Walking in the woods.

4. Horses.

5. And most of all, of course, my kids!

Feeding the flames

2009-01-20T00:14:00.001-05:00

Tonight was trash-burning night. We have a garbage service but someone stole our can and it takes a while to get a new one plus we occasionally burn the paperstuffs anyway - keeps it out of the landfill and makes some nice ash for our compost pile. The girls enjoy it, even though I always forget to buy marshmallows! Lily suggested we strip, paint ourselves blue and dance around the fire like the Celts, but we decided it was a bit too cold for that and we are all far too modest anyway. There's something wonderfully primitive about standing in the glow of the moon surrounded by woods with the cats prowling around and the fire leaping to and fro like a living thing.

The Pet Parade

2009-01-18T21:04:00.000-05:00

At night before the girls go to bed is our special time. We pile on the couch, sometimes go over school work and read Time For Kids to keep the girls up on current events. Sometimes I read things I have printed off the internet that relate to what we are studying or interested in. We talk a while and then I read to them from our latest novel of choice. We've recently been reading the Austin family series by Madeleine L'Engle, one of my favorite authors and the books I loved as a kid myself, which is very meaningful to me. Such a quiet peaceful time together - or is it? Let me take you to a typical daily scene from early this morning right before the girls went to bed (on our night-shift schedule).

Usually as we enter the room, Zoey is snoozing on the sofa and sometimes the puppy alongside her, and we insinuate ourselves among them, so cozy. The birds are hunched on their perches across from us, dainty little feathers fluffed up, tiny little finch heads tucked into wings. Sweet serenity. We settle in and I begin to read. Without fail, Matilda decides she MUST go outside to relieve herself right at this very minute despite having been lying by my side for hours without needing to go.

We let her out and settle in again. No sooner have I gotten into a chapter than she is woofing to come in. We let her in and resume reading only to hear a scratching on the window next to me, reminiscent of fingernails on blackboard. Daisy, our other cat, wants to join the party - or actually to stuff her mouth for the umpteenth time of the day. This excites puppy, and she dives off the couch and begins to chase said cat. We herd her back to the couch, cajole skittish Daisy back to her food and settle in again. I try to find my place once more and resume reading accompanied by the loud crunching sounds of Daisy eating a few feet away. How rude!

By now the finches are warmed up and are cheeping with their full hearts and souls, and Junior and Pete are ringing their little bell toys ceaselessly - who knew finches enjoyed playing? Daisy is still crunching and we are restraining the puppy so she doesn't go eat said food. I am desperately trying to maintain an even voice and the attention of the two children in the room. Now Zoey decides it would be really cool to hop down, knock over the large gift bag next to the sofa leftover from Christmas, dive in and wildly attack the Chic-fil-A calendar and smaller gift bag inside. She thrashes around crazily, her front legs wrapped in a death grip around the small bag, back legs kicking and shredding the paper, which appears to be the enemy in her game of Zoey, cat warrior. Between the cheeping, bell ringing, thrashing paper sounds and crunching, I find myself practically shouting out the words to the book. Ah, Daisy is now meowling loudly to go back out. This excites puppy again and Jing practically tackles her to keep her from following the cat outside.

We settle once more and I bravely continue to read and just about the time I am done, trembling a little, the birds settle back into their sleep mode, the puppy snuggles sleepily into the crook of my arm and Zoey lies peacefully inside her conquered gift bag kingdom. Once again, all is right with the world and it's time to kiss the girls goodnight and tuck them in, lulled to a peaceful drowsy state by our quiet evening on the couch.

Pop!

2009-01-17T23:53:00.000-05:00

Today was our first time to use our new hot-air popper. I am always trying to simplify and healthify our diets as close to nature as possible and decided to invest $20 in a hot-air popper, knowing it will pay for itself in no time. Well maybe it won't as even the cheap store-brand corn was so good we were like three savages grabbing it out of the bowl LOL! I never eat any of their microwave popcorn as it has an aftertaste to me, plus is not on my low-carb diet, but this was just corn, butter and popcorn salt, purely and naturally good! The girls declared they want it every night now, which won't happen but I am glad they like it! It cooks so fast too and is fun to watch. Next time we'll try Hidden Valley Ranch dressing powder on it as we buy that by the big bottle!

My 10-Minute (fairly) Healthy Soup!

2009-01-16T23:09:00.000-05:00

It will be going down to 18 or so tonight and I decided it was a good night for soup but I also need to make something ahead for this weekend since I work all weekend and don't have time to cook, or if I take the time, it eats into my pay. This is a solution I came up with a while back for those nights I am cooking for two or more days in one evening. This recipe will feed about four people - or if your kids eat like horses as mine do - three! But easy to add to or take away for more or less servings.

10-Minute Spinach Soup

1 9-ounce bag of fresh spinach - or frozen is fine

3 cans Campbell's Chicken Noodle or Chicken Rice soup

2 ounces or so of cream cheese (1/4 to 1/3 of 8-oz block)

1/2 cup or so of cream or a bit more of half and half

few splashes of garlic powder or clove or two of fresh garlic

minced fine

thyme

minced onions or onion powder

dash or two of pepper

big pat of butter

Parmesan cheese - optional

Melt the butter in a big pot, add a couple splashes of water and heat to boiling. Stir in the spinach - if fresh and large, I tear it a bit as I put it in. Stir until wilted or if frozen until thawed. If you want soup thicker, stir a couple teaspoons or so of cornstarch into a bit of cold water and pour into the bubbling mixture. Also add in minced onions and garlic if using so they can soften.

Simmer this about two minutes, then add in cream cheese and pour in the three cans of soup plus two cans of water and add the seasonings. I personally love thyme, garlic and pepper together - you can use whatever you like and however much you like to your taste. I sometimes add a bit of dill as well. Heat till just starting to boil, smushing the cream cheese with your spoon until well melted and blended. Then pour in cream or half and half, stir, and you're done! It's good with Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top or mixed in as well. The girls love it and it is really good for something so cheap and fast! Of course, it's high sodium and for me not so low carb either but it's good in a pinch and gets some healthy spinach into them and so fast to make! I also sometimes add a can of Navy or Northern beans drained and rinsed.

Now I have to start chopping celery, carrots, onions, cabbage, garlic and sweet potatoes to add to some tomato sauce, chicken stock and diced tomatoes for a big pot of veggie soup with cornbread for this weekend! This one takes a lot more than 10 minutes, unfortunately!

Let me know if you make it and like it!

Long ago right here

2009-01-15T23:07:00.000-05:00

One day while exploring in the woods, the girls found six neat columns of handhewn flat rocks (the one in the narrow photo is toppled over). We asked our landlord, a history buff, and he said there were a few plantation houses on the property during Civil War times. Near here, there is the entrance to a now-vanished bridge we can walk up on that used to cross the South River next to our drive, and he knows the story of the Confederate soldiers who were guarding it and were killed by Union soldiers. He also showed us where there used to be a mill on the river and a general store next to it. All that hustle and bustle on our now quiet piece of land - amazing to imagine and to walk in the same paths every day. Jing took these today during our walk.

Once upon a flea market

2009-01-15T01:15:00.000-05:00

This is one of my favorite pieces of art. It is a delicately hand-drawn original, minimally tinted, surrounded by a slender frame that includes a matching green stripe, and I think it is just beautiful. I found it probably 25 years ago in a flea market and grabbed it up. It has something written in a language not my own nor one I recognize and so has a lingering air of mystery about it.

The once-monthly flea market took place in an old abandoned super-store - HUGE! I lived for that second weekend of every month and wandering through the relics of the past, the stalls of old books, feathered hats and hat pins, faded steins from Germany, weathered hand-carved sideboards, stacks of Life and National Geographic magazines, bins of old postcards and sepia photographs, stacks of lovely blue transferware plates with only the slightest chips to add a little character. I rarely missed going until a little lively baby came into my life, and being sans babysitter, flea market days were over. I think it is about time the girls and I started back!

The flea market where I got this treasured art is long-since gone, but there is another where many of the same vendors moved. If you can find a place to park in the lot with cars practically stacked on top of each other and have a good pair of walking shoes, you can take a look!

Normally I do not like crowds but for some reason I do not mind it at the flea market. I love the air of anticipation of finding a treasure that emanates from those around me and how everyone's eye of desire is different one from another. I bask in the history surrounding me in all the items used by long-ago people. I look at a worn hand-stitched handkerchief and wonder whose hands lovingly stitched the colorful patterns. Who read by the soft glow of that graceful kerosene lamp?

I have taken the girls to a local antique mall many times, but it is so different from the bustle of the flea market; we are usually the only ones there, I guess because it is open seven days a week and is not as grand as the flea market. I love exploring with the girls and talking about all the treasures we come upon. By 6 or 7, Lily was pretty accurately able to distinguish between Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Thai designs. Being totally fascinated with cultures, places, peoples and history, she loves a good jaunt through the antique mall, while Jing has her eye out for old dog books and figurines of lions or cats.

I feel at home there among the hand-tatted lace and rich wood and quilts and old books. Sometimes I feel I was born into the wrong time, loving more simple ways and pleasures and the values more prominent in the past, but I guess there is a lot to appreciate of modern times as well. I'm glad there is something left of the days gone by for my girls to enjoy and experience, and I hope someday they are guiding their own children through the relics of yesteryear so that no one ever forgets those who went before us, and so that they can live on in the love in someone's else's eyes.

Hallelujah! Approved for surgery!

2009-01-13T21:58:00.000-05:00

Well after many months that seemed like years the doctor filled out the surgery approval today! And other good news is that my cholesterol was 164 and my triglycerides were low, which he said was unusual in diabetics. The only thing was my good cholesterol was too low so I have to exercise more vigorously - he said to stop talking while we are walking and walk very fast. Lily won't like that one!

He was reluctant to fill out the form, which the girls are proudly displaying, since I have to requalify for the surgery coverage through Lions/Lighthouse and he said it may expire - only good for 30 days - but I told him I was not leaving without my form filled out! And I mean it! They are going to do thyroid labs but I don't have to go back for three months - after going every two weeks and in some cases every week for a long time this is like a holiday! WAHOO! I felt like a 2000-pound load had fallen off my shoulders! As you can see the girls also are quite giddy with excitement - vision is in sight again - pun intended! Or at least half vision. I am thinking and hoping I can drive at leaast in the daytime when they do one cataract - I sure hope so as he won't take out the second one for two months after the first, and he is doing the better eye first as he thinks the eye that is completely blind is a poor candidate and he may have to do a second surgery on it. But bridges to cross later. For now, I am ecstatic!

Cabin Fever

2009-01-12T19:43:00.000-05:00

I am embarrassed to post more pet photos lest I seem obsessive, but that is what the girls took! We really don't get to do anything anymore as I work my way through getting in better health to be approved for cataract surgery and until then cannot drive, so we are thankful for our dogs and cats and birds to share our homebound days and make them more interesting. I'm so glad I rather irresponsibly took on a new pet this summer in this difficult financial time - you can look at the beaming face above and see why it was worth it - A girl and her dog, nothing better than that!

I found a good dog quote the other day that will show up on a scrapbook page soon -

"Not the least hard thing to bear when they go from us, these quiet friends, is that they carry away with them so many years of our own lives. Yet, if they find warmth therein, who would grudge them those years that they have so guarded? Nothing else of us can they take to lie upon with outstretched paws, and chin pressed to the ground; and, whatever they take, be sure they have deserved."

John Galsworthy

Special Maneki Nekos

2009-01-11T00:06:00.000-05:00

The girls are taking the photos more than I am! I just tell them to take something that is a part of our everyday life that means something, and this is today's choice. We all love this special souvenir as it represents our little family, an incredible gift we were given, and our love of things Asian, although I would sure like to glue on a couple of more little nekos to that figure, maybe Ethiopian nekos or Haitian nekos! I still marvel at how I grew up loving Asian culture, determined when I was 12 I would adopt Asian children, and here I am at 48 the mother of two fantastic girls from China.

Lily really wants a sister from Ethiopia and I so want to give her one. She loves Africa, and she agrees with me that another culture would make our family all the more rich and interesting. Lately particularly, as I near 50, I grieve for that next child (or two) I will probably never hold in my arms, but it is easy to remind myself I am SOOOOOOOO blessed to have these two for my own daughters. While they are enough, they are such treasures that I am greedy and I want more. I love being a mother, I love children, I long to do it all again. I haven't totally given up, still believing in miracles, and if it never happens, I'll be the best grandma in the world!

The patter of little feet

2009-01-10T02:41:00.000-05:00

I had a really bad day yesterday with the addition of a new problem to add to the stable and was feeling down and irritable with the girls, shame on me (but really a rare occurrence). I came out of my room after a long brood alone and Georgie was so ecstatic she clattered crazily across the linoleum floor, slid into my ankles, recovered, whirled around, clattered all the way down the length of the trailer, turned on a dime and scampered back to my feet, repeatnig about three times until I grabbed her up. It wasn't anything new, but it took me from raw gloom to laughing hysterically. What a joyful little spirit. I am so glad she became part of our lives when I debated that I really didn't need another mouth to feed or another flea battleground to conquer. She looks when she runs exactly like a little dog I remember in a Norman Rockwell painting with a big grin on it's face!

We are keeping a close eye on her now that she is 7 months and due for her first heat. I don't want any half coyote pups - is that possible? - or any puppies at all at this time. She is bad to run off after our walk so I have taken to giving her a dog biscuit when we get home to encourage her to come in with us (we are on 44 acres and let her run loose unless near the road as she has to burn some energy or will explode in the house!) Today I forgot the treat - I've only been doing this a few days - and as clearly as speaking English she let me know! She kept going into the kitchen and then coming out looking at me expectantly until I remembered - Oh! The treat! When I said this, she wiggled all over, tail flying and scampered into the kitchen. Oh, my goodness, she is a mess but she is so cute!

I love watching her intereact with the other pets. Zoey and Daisy, the cats, grew up with a Rottweiler but still Daisy took a while to adjust and is yet a bit leery. Zoey takes it in stride as Georgie clambers over her or snuggles up to her on the sofa. It's really sweet. My loyal Matilda is still thoroughly disgusted with her as she hates the attention I lavish on the little bratty whippersnapper! I so hope someday to be able to take animals to visit at nursing homes as I know how bereft I would be without a gaggle of pets around me and I know that is the hardest part for some people going into a nursing home - giving up their pets and being without any around. My mother took her dog when she visited my aunt and the whole place lit up at the sight of that little dog. Smiles came on faces that rarely ever showed one. They are God's sweet little bonus in life, our furry babies!

Georgie, Blankethead and Jing study

2009-01-09T00:06:00.000-05:00

The girls took the photos today. They wanted to be shown studying their AWANA verses. They are prize AWANA students but have not gotten to go this year. However, thanks to their kind leader, they are doing a home version until I can get my cataracts out and one of their teachers is listening to their memory recitations and checking their work while I am at my doctor visits, so they are catching up. I loved the photo Jing took of Georgie reading!

Year of the Rat arrives!

2009-01-07T21:05:00.001-05:00

We have waited in great anticipation for "Year of the Rat" to come out in paperback! It arrived today and the girls quickly pasted in their personalized book plate by the author - Grace Lin. This is a perfect ending to The Year of the Rat! We read "Year of the Dog" already and it was an absolutely wonderful book - sweet and hilariously funny and something my girls can relate to as Chinese Americans, which doesn't come along every day. I am a Rat and I love to tease the girls - both Oxen - how I outsmarted them to be the first animal of the zodiac!

Now, on to the question of the day - Why does my daughter wear a blanket on her head?! That is her beloved baby blankie that she has always slept with but now she has taken to wearing it wrapped around her head all the time at home. I do like a girl who marches to the beat of her own drummer! I had to include the series of photos to illustrate for all posterity how some children almost always are photogenic (child on left) and how others are, well, not so much (child on right)! Equally beautiful girls but one manages to make every face in the book other than a nice natural smile! But it just makes her all the more loveable and unique! I'm just really thankful for digital cameras!

2009-01-06T19:12:00.000-05:00

My favorite part of every day is taking a walk with the dogs and the girls. I never tire of the same views of the river and the woods. There is always something to see - today we all stopped to admire yet again the fresh vivid green of a moss-covered tree nesting in the deep browns of the winter woods, a reminder that there is always life, even in the grimmest of circumstances. The dogs are so happy rambling around us, noses to the ground, sniffing the trails of deer and beaver and coyotes.

I guess the best part of our walk is talking together; some of our deepest conversations occur to the tune of leaves crunching under our feet. There is the air of anticipation of what we will find in the mailbox at the end of our drive -- maybe a letter from NancyDee, the latest Dogs for Kids magazine or American Girl, a post-crossing postcard from some far-flung place in the world or, oh dread, more bills. Well, nothing is perfect!

January 5, 2008

2009-01-06T03:24:00.000-05:00

I have always wanted a blog but been too intimidated to try. Among my New Year's Resolutions are to learn about blogging, learn how to customize a blog, to write more, which I used to do daily and sorely miss, record our daily lives for the girls, who savor the little details of life then and now. Also among my goals for the year -- to get healthier, reduce all the new meds added to my life in the last few weeks, get my cataracts out and get DSL!

I was only on one prescription med for asthma and now three BP and two diabetes meds have been added. This is not good at 48 years of age and I want to see less bottles in this photo - and this isn't even all of them - by the end of this year. Now we will see if this will load on dial-up!