Success!!!

I made soap!! okay, well, i didn't really make soap. i made the melt-and-pour kind, where you buy the base already made, then you melt in down, add your own fragrances and colorant, and put it into the mold of your choice. but, still! a few hours ago, there was no orange soap in my house, and now there is! i made soap! :o)

if you think you're seeing things in the soap, it's because you are. i thought it would be weird to put things in the soap as it was hardening, just to see it what it would look like. not sure why. i rummaged around in the kids' toys and found a few very small things that they would never miss (until they see them in the soap!) to put in there. i used way too much fragrance and colorant, though, so i'll need to scale that back next time.

i've got some lye, shortening, and everything else i need to make the REAL kind of soap, though, that needs to cure and set and that will burn your skin off while you're making it if you're not careful. i have a recipe that supposed to produce this really rich, creamy, soap that you can use for the shower. i'm interested to see how that goes!

second thing i made today -- quilt and pillow for shiloh. in the st louis area, it takes fifty years to get to wherever you're going, it seems. you can't just "run out to the store" and grab a thing or two, you'll be gone for half an hour, at least! the kids are always wanting to take pillows and blankets in the van, then they leave them in the van, then they don't have pillows and blankets inside to use, then they find some more, then the next time we leave, they want to take more pillows and blankets in the van... it's a vicious cycle. so, i'm making them both pillows and quilts that STAY.IN. THE.VAN.

i let them choose their fabric. i LOVE this cool flower print that shiloh chose.


(sorry about the lighting -- it looked much better through my camera!)

closer look at the fabric:

and shiloh refused to pass up an opportunity to have her picture taken, of course:


tyler's is a fighter-jet print with a black backing. i'm still learning as far as quilting goes. with shiloh's, and her friend katelyn's that i did awhile back, i did a super-easy wavy line to quilt the front, batting, and back together. i'm going to try a diamond patterned quilt with tyler's. we'll see. i haven't yet ventured into the quilt piecing and designing or anything, yet, though. i just learned how to make mitred corners (although, they're not even really mitred, just made to look that way!).

anyhoo, i'll get better. it was a fun day of making things, though! :o)

LIke Dandelion Dust

i was sort of speechless when i saw this trailer. it's an important movie, i think, and i hope that it captures the real experience. while we haven't been through an adoption yet, we're intimately familiar with the social care system and how warped it can be.




i'm dying to see it, but a little freaked out to see it, too, b/c i know i'll feel nervous and be all emotional. what do you think?

Spirited Shiloh?

So, today, I was reading Always and Forever Family, and I came across this excerpt from the book Raising Your Spirited Child. I read over the broad characteristics of a "spirited child," and went to amazon.com and bought the book immediately. (note that in the above picture, i caught her jumping around on the furniture, so she's in mid-air, signing 'i love you' at me).

1. 
   

1. Intensity:
   The loud, dramatic spirited children are the easiest to spot. The don't cry, they shriek. They're noisy when they play.
   But quiet, intently observant children may also be spirited. They assess each situation before entering it as though developing a strategy for every move; their intensity is focused inward rather than outward.
2. Persistence:
   If an idea or an activity is important to them, spirited children can "lock" right in. Getting them to change their minds is a major undertaking. They love to debate and are not afraid to assert themselves.
3. Sensitivity:
   Quickly respond to the slightest noises, smells, lights, textures, or changes in mood. They are easily overwhelmed in crowds by the barrage of sensations.
   Every sensation and emotion is absorbed by them, including your feelings. They'll tell you that you are having a rotten day before you realize it yourself and even scream and sulk for you.
4. Perceptiveness:
   Send them to their room to get dressed and they'll never make it. Something along the way will catch their attention as they walk by and they'll forget about getting dressed. They notice everything - the latest oil spill, the white feather in the bird's nest, and the dew in the spiderweb. They're often accused of not listening.
5. Adaptability:
   Spirited children are uncomfortable with change. They hate surprises and do not shift easily from one activity or idea to another.

These are the common characteristics of spirited children but there are another 4 characteristics that are "bonus" characteristics.

1. Regularity:
   Figuring out when they will sleep or eat is a daily puzzle for parents of spirited kids who are irregular. It seems impossible to get them on to any kind of schedule. An eight-hour night of undisturbed sleep is a mere memory lingering in your mind from the days before their birth.
2. Energy:
   Not all spirited kids are climbers and leapers. But they do tend to be busy - taking things apart, exploring, and creating projects - from the time they wake up until they finally fall asleep.
3. First Reaction:
   A quick withdrawal from anything new is typical of many spirited kids. Any unfamiliar idea, thing, place, or person may be met with a vehement no. They need time to warm up before they're ready to participate.
4. Mood:
   The world is a serious place for some spirited kids. They're analytical, picking apart experiences, finding the flaws, and making suggestions for change. Their smiles are few and far between and they may be prone to whining.

The "Bonus" characteristics are not common to all spirited kids, but if your child possesses any of them you will need to be even more enterprising. You're not only living with a child who is more, but you're also faced with the exhaustion of life with a kid who is energetic, needs little sleep, expresses a strong resistance to new situations and things, and shares fewer rewarding smiles.

Really, Shiloh is an incredibly happy child and smiles a lot. I get a LOT of rewarding smiles, so I don't think that really applies. But every other characteristic, though, describes my little girl. I know that I, myself, was a spirited child and that Shiloh has my exact personality with her dad's spazoid-ness thrown in. And while it certainly doesn't make me love her any differently or less, for goodness sake, I truly believe that spirited children are more difficult to parent that their counterparts.

I'm excited to read this book.

In other news, Rick is en route to Nashville, TN right now for another week of training. He'll be gone til Saturday afternoon, be home that night and leave Sunday afternoon for CA for yet another week of training. I'm so glad that he's learning more about what he loves, but i'm also looking forward to when he's done and we can finally settle in for the school year.

Anyhoo, here's another look at my spirited child:


love.her. and those smiles really are the best. :o)

not been up to much...

...just doin' summer-y things. :o) this summer, we've gone swimming A LOT. everyone is super tan, especially shiloh, who never seems to burn! we've been camping, to a water park, to kentucky, on hikes, done tons of coloring and painting, and let's not forget the old' faithful, McDonald's playland, for those rainy days. :o)

we've enjoyed the summer off from accepting new placements, but are now back to taking in more. we've added our name back to "the list" and listed our vacancies, and we'll see what happens! i wouldn't expect any calls until the beginning of the month, though. still praying for that special child(ren) to come up for adoption, though. we've let all the social workers that we know aware that we're looking to adopt, and we're just waiting for God's timing. while we have no problems at all with international adoption, we just feel wrong every time we look into it. nevermind the financial issue -- if God's will was for us to adopt internationally, he would make a way -- it's just that every time we try to forge ahead with a "plan" to seek out adoption, we feel God gently pushing us back, telling us to wait. but waiting is so hard!! ah, well. He knows best. in the meantime, we'll just keep doing what He's called us to, and take in children as they come, helping them get back to their families. we're getting pretty good at it by now, i think! and i think shiloh is starting to understand it better, although she definitely longs for a permanent sibling. *sigh*...

anyhoo, that's that. here's some pictures taken over the last couple of weeks. our other kids, tyler and rachel, aren't in these b/c we can't post pictures of them publicly while they're still in state custody. rachel is gearing up to go home within the next few weeks, and we're still not sure how long tyler will be with us. his case keeps dragging on...

first of all, here's shiloh at an impromptu photo shoot i did with the kids at a local park. they all looked so cute one day, that i couldn't pass it up! shiloh wouldn't stop laughing, though!



shiloh and i on the back deck. i was taking some pictures of tyler's new haircut, and of course, shiloh couldn't be left out. she wanted to take a picture of us both:





okay, not sure if you'll be able to see them or not, but there are two teeny tiny frogs in there. at the beginning of the summer, we left for the weekend and came home to about three hundred tadpoles that had hatched in our pool. we kept some and watched them turn into frogs. they've got an actual mini terrarium-type thing now, but this was our makeshift one until we got to the store. they literally sprouted legs overnight! the picture is sort of sideways and it's blurry -- sorry! there's one stuck on the right side, near the top and a little green one sitting on that big rock in the middle. they're still only about a half inch long! the kids had a good time going out back and finding rocks for them. :o)





rachel and lump. just thought this was funny. i can post it b/c rachel's face isn't showing. the reason i took a picture is b/c , as spastic as lump is, he actually let her cover him up with a blanket! i took three or four pictures before he moved. he must have been really tired or something... (notice the baby is walking in shiloh's dress-up high-heels. diva in the making...)


...wonder where she gets it? :o) here's shiloh dressed up in snow white the other day. she had to dress up her dog. that dog is actually my dog that my mom got me from Build-A-Bear. when rick and i got married, we had a beagle named Penny Lane, so mom got me this, and I loved it. I soon discovered Mom's odd sense of humor, though, when I pressed its paw, expected a beagle bay, and heard a cow moo instead! she thought it was hilarious! weird.... ;o)

this is our current beagle, Ruby, in "her" spot in front of the window. she likes it b/c the afternoon sun comes in and makes that spot all nice and warm. :o)

all righty, that's it for now. the kids are chasing each other around downstairs with a giant orange bouncy ball, our licensing worker just left after a home visit, the baby just woke up, the dogs need to go out, and i need to leave to pick rick up from work! gotta get! :o)