My 1st Quick Takes

I promised by daughter, Megan, that I would start blogging on a more regular basis. So I'm trying to start by doing Quick Takes for the first time today.

1. Last Saturday our two foster children returned home. They had been with us for almost 6 months. Even though it was a hectic time with them here they will be missed.

2. I've been cleaning like crazy this week, like reverse nesting. Some of it is related to the children leaving like changing sheets and putting spare carseats in the attic but some is over the top cleaning at least for me. For example I vacuumed the exhaust fans in both upstairs bathrooms.

3. David and I are trying to decide what to do next with fostering and adopting. Thursday we did an agency's webinar about international adoption. Next Monday a county caseworker will be doing a home visit to complete our annual foster license renewal.

4. David and I also started working on our taxes this week. We always use TurboTax. Currently TurboTax has an error with the adoption credit carryover from prior tax year for special needs adoptions. Yes that's one of the credits we're trying to do. We're also still waiting for other paperwork so hopefully when the rest of the return is ready TurboTax will have a fix for the issue.

5. Megan went to Washington DC for the March for Life this past Monday. She posted more on the topic but I just wanted to say thank you to Teresa's birth mom for choosing life.

6. Teresa has been sleeping much better this week with her room to herself again. She still wants to sleep with the big overhead light on. I'm going to try to find a small lamp between a nightlight and the overhead light and see if that might work. With her improved sleep, I've actually had 8 hrs in a row in my own bed several nights and I really like it.

7. Teresa is also leaping in fine motor skills this week. She was watching Leap Frog Letter Factory and started writing most of her letters on her little slate. Previously she could only write a T well. Wednesday, she also for the first time did a good job scraping two carrots. This is a picture of an M she drew for Megan the other day while we were talking on Skype.

Go to Conversion Diary for more quick takes.

Career Aspirations of a 3 year old.

Last night the little princess was up late after all the excitement of her baptism day and a very late nap from 8-10pm. We had been hoping for her to sleep all night but when she woke up and saw everyone else still up she was suddenly perky. She was trying to postpone sleeping again as much as possible. She was suddenly hungry, hungry only for a particular fastfood cheeseburger. It was around 11pm at this point. I lied and told it was closed. Not that we would have gotten it for her anyways. She suddenly starts talking about opening one of those restaurants. She asks Daddy to help her when she's grown up. She finally went to sleep talking about Daddy helping and being able get cheeseburgers whenever. She's been bringing it up off and on all day.

Today's Recipe

Something more lighthearted than the last post. Today was a crazy busy day. dd2 and I managed to finish the bedroom swap. I wrapped presents during dd3's naptime. Dinner was a desperate thing since the hamburger didn't thaw enough for meatloaf. The carrot cake for baby Jesus's birthday is made but not frosted yet. I made this granola this morning before things got crazy. It's an old favorite recipe.

Granola
½ cup margarine
½ cup honey
½ cup brown sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
5 cups oatmeal
½ cup raisins
Melt the margarine, honey, and brown sugar together over medium heat. Cook and stir until it bubbles up. Remove from heat. Add the salt and cinnamon and stir in the oatmeal. Stir it thoroughly so all the oatmeal is evenly coated. Spread onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool. Add raisins now if you want and put in an airtight container/bag.

You can use corn syrup in place of honey or all brown sugar.

Joy and Sorrow

I was holding the little princess (dd3) yesterday and watching PBS with her. It was one of those little moments of grace when just holding her and feeling her warm cuddliness that made me almost overwhelmed by my blessings. It's been a long year of waiting and praying that everything would work out with her adoption. Even in our joy though there is sadness and sorrow for all she went through and even for her birth parents that will never experience a cuddle like this. I'm so looking forward to her baptism this Sunday and the opportunity to celebrate with all those who supported us through the process. At the same time I miss my mom who passed away almost 5 years ago never knowing the little princess and my dad who just passed away in September while we were still not sure when/if we would be able to adopt.

First Post

This is my first post. I sweetly asked my dear daughter home from Franciscan if she would help me. She said "yes", but well yes right now so that's how the title of the blog happened. "Mom, what URL do you want? Mom, what blog title do you want?" My reply was, " I can't think of anything right now." I also can't think of much else to write right now. Have a blessed Christmas if I don't get another chance to post for awhile.