KC's new plan

KC just told me he would like to have a carnival in our back yard this summer.  I think this is because our UU church did a penny purim carnival today and he and Lissa had a blast.  It really wouldn't (or shouldn't) be that hard and I think the kids will have fun helping to make the games and inviting their friends.  Never a dull moment here!  He wants to make a ring toss game, a bean bag game, have some kind of water balloon game, and a fishing game.   LOL

Egg crafts

Yesterday we began to make some Ostara decorations.  We also did some shamrock/St. Patty's day stuff too but this craft was exceptionally fun for all ages. We had large colored foam eggs. We covered them with faux jewels and foam glittery decorations.    The blue egg was Robbie's.  He had a very intricate pattern.

KC too was fairly intricate and first conceived spelling his name in jewels.  Big brother Rob would wind up doing this too.

Lissa's design was more spare but still lovely.  It kept them all busy while i worked on supper and they look so cool on the top of the cabinet in our dining room.  I have them set on these upside down bowls and it looks sort of like they are i giant egg cups or something! LOL

How many kids does she have?

My office assistant was telling me about an interesting conversation between my co-workers the other day.  Someone who had worked for us long ago had stopped by and the staff were bringing him up to speed on the changes among those of us still working there.  Someone apparently told Joe that I now had 4 children.  That was enough to leave him speechless (laughing) but then one of my other co-workers piped up and said, "no she has 5."  Where I guess they all started counting kids and pointing out that I had 4 in my home.  But the person who counted 5 said--"but there's Fiona."

I can't tell you how cool I thought that was.  The guy who recognized the daughter of my heart is a fellow that I probably have the rockiest work relationship with of anyone in our company.  Yet in that moment he showed caring and insight that I would never have believed possible.

Lissa's hair

It has been a while since we have done Lissa's hair with beads. But when it is done this way you can really see how long it is getting!  Takes about 3 hours start to finish but it looks great and the diva princess is very pleased! LOL Elisabeth looks equally cute with her hair in twists, french braids, twisted pony tails etc, bu I really love the look of beads and small braids.  The little boy she plays with while KC had his dance class kept touching her hair today.  He said he liked listening to her "hair music." 

At the grocery store we met a black friend of mine and she commented on how nice Lissa's hair looked.  I always feel very validated, which is sort of silly I suppose. But if you saw how little I can do with my own hair, that might make it all clearer to you!  LOL

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My "big" family

I guess by todays standards I have a big family.  I don't really think 4 kids is a big family but I guess by today's standards it is.  I had a funny conversation with  someone from church this week.  Sundays are often busy for us. I am an assistant in KC's class and there is a meeting at 10 a.m. this week that I have to attend.  I also will have all 4 kids with me as this is Kirsty's "runaway mom" day.  Once a month she has a day to go do whatever she wants to do.  This Sunday is that day. 

After committing to the meeting I got an email from a parent in KC's class.  His class is responsible for the fellowship hour after the service this week.  This is typically not a coffee hour that my family goes to.  As we have a dual service option I go to the coffee hour after the first service, stay for the second service and try to boogie right out the door after service. This gets us home around 12:40 p.m. or so and I find that works pretty well for the troops.  But, I also want to have KC be part of what his class is doing.  So I told the woman that I would make a big batch of sugar cookies, and bring cheese and crackers.  We would be able to stay for about 40 minutes of the fellowship time to help set up and begin the serving.  Here's the part that cracked me up.  The woman said that it was fine for me to just bring the food donations because she had no idea how "I did it all" with so many children--she couldn't do it with one!"  OK so now I have to try and keep a straight face as i truly don't think 4 children is this onerous huge task.  It is just our family and we are used to things and have a system.  But heck, if the dear sweet lady wants to view me as overburdened, I'll get to go home at my usual time and that's okay with me too!

Chatting with Fiona

Tuesdays are usually Fiona's night to call and tonight was one such night.  She was a bit late in calling--turned out she had been part of a photo shoot at the Great School in the City and was all excited about that.  She loves to pose and have her picture taken, I'll bet she did a great job.  Jane and I had just exchanged an email yesterday where Jane asked about when we could visit.  I was excited as we had begun talking about a visit  last month but then fiona had become hospitalized.  In all my other experiences in her RTC',s privileges are lost and then have to be slowly and laboriously re-earned. Unfortunately often visits were considered perks to earn.  Happily this appears not to be the case at her School in the Big City.  We haven't chosen a date yet but I expect that in March we should be able to train in and then the school's van will pick us up at the station and bring us to see Fiona. 

The funny part about this is that when it was KC's turn to talk with her he told her about a painting he was making and then said "So, Fiona when are we going to get to see you again?"  The kid is just scary intuitive.  I had not told the kids anything about a visit.  I figured if it was going to be quashed I didn't want to try and explain the why of that.  Rob would get angry, the littles would get confused.  So I was stunned.  And the reality is, that KC has not seen her since he was in a Graco carrier, but chats with her like they are kindred spirits.  It is amazing to listen to.  Jane made sure to comment to me about KC's question too. I could tell it cracked her up as well.

Rob seems to be loosening up a lot over the phone and I am so pleased.  Not so many one word responses--lots of conversation that almost borders on animated.  It is a huge step forward.  Tonight was the best he has ever done and I almost wonder if the fact that they were painting when she called helped. 

I have to write about Fiona here because I know that many of my family, including my own mother, do not understand my love and committment to her.  My mother actually wrote me an email not  long ago saying I spent too much time worrying about her.  Um, I don't really know how to deal with that. What is the alloted amount of time and energy that I should devote to each child? I realize that legally, Fiona is not my child.   I also realize that had Fiona remained in our home that I would never have felt safe adopting any other children. She is too volatile and yes, I realize that means that the great gifts of KC and Elisabeth would not be in my life.  But as much as I love them and i do--with every fiber of my being--I can't say that their little lives are more precious or more special to me than Fiona.  My mom doesn't get that she is still so very much woven into my heart, that I know she can't live with me but that I can love her despite that.  And when you come right down to it, not too many people have spent too much time worrying about Fiona unless they were paid to be doing that. Not to minimize people in those professions, just that it isn't the same as having family that just want you to be and do well.

Because my computer is finally allowing me to print again, I have the picture for the last page of her scrapbook and I will mail that out to her soon.  I actually mailed the scrapbook itself some time ago and then Jane thought of another page she thought we should include so it is really only that page that i am sending. I am rambling so I better stop typing and get to work!

Computer woes and Little

So Friday the computer crashed again.  It had started being wonky late Thursday and we suspected something evil had infected it.  We have anti viral software but clearly the virus was stronger than any anti-viral stuff on our computer.   Tech guru rode in Saturday a.m. to the rescue.  It is working now after he spent 4 hours on it.  But I have to call him back (sigh) as he only charged me for 3 hours with the understanding I would down load a registered copy of Malwarebytes.  I tried but the computer ran into a problem down loading it and wasn't able to do it. So tech guy will have to see what is up with that.  I am glad this guy does not mind children.  Or dogs.  Or cats.  Or just about anything.  LOL  He is amazingly mellow for a tech guy.  Usually in my experience they are very much a breed apart and don't always do well in the interpersonal part of things.  Mike isn't like that bless his soul, and his techie brain and everything else that got us back to cyber land.

How I wish I had a mac still.  Sigh.  You just don't get viruses with Macs.  Even the tech guy agrees.  He adores macs.  Can work on pcs but totally recommends them.  If  I win the lottery (which is somewhat unlikely since I rarely buy tickets)  I am getting a new mac.  I don't like laptops.  I have really long fingers and it is hard for me to type accurately on shortened keyboards as I keep overshooting so I need the bucks for  a desk top model.  Actually Mike said if I see something interesting on craigslist I could even call him and he would let us know if it sounded like it would meet our needs.

The kids and I decorated for St. Patricks day while Mike was performing CPR on the computer yesterday.  We're looking very Celtic around here at the moment.  Shamrocks positively abound!  Something about the green of st patricks day is a great thing this time of year though.  It seems so long since we have seen green growing things and the kelly green reminds me of that.

And this morning, KC came down for church clutching the hand of someone at his side.  Someone we could not see.  His imaginary friend.  His name is Little.  KC introduced us.  He said Little wanted to come to church but I noticed that around his friends there was no mention of Little.  Too funny.