Recovering Noah

I thought this was a great article on CNN.com this morning: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/20/roland.martin/index.html But reading through the comments left me with my mouth hanging open. What a bunch of angry, hateful, spiteful people! Wow. Isn't Jesus the Reason for the Season?? As for me... I hope you all have a very Merry CHRISTmas. P.S. Speaking of Merry "X-Mas"... this is a hilarious video that I stole from my friend Christine's blog. Leslie

I stole this from my friend Amy's blog -who stole it from someone else's blog. That tells ya it's pretty good, doesn't it! lol. AFFORDING THE GOOD STUFF The other day while painting my daughter’s room, with the little kids safely cordoned off elsewhere, I actually had time to daydream. Mind wandering, I found myself wondering how it would feel to have enough money for a week in Hawaii. A kitchen remodel. A couple weeks in Europe. Or even the freedom to zip off to California for the weekend just for the fun of it. All the stuff that’s hard to fit in the budget while raising eight kids on a single income. For just a moment I wondered about the life we don’t have, the path we didn’t choose. What would be it be like if we had stopped having children after our first two daughters. If we’d chosen that other path, what might we have instead? We’d have a matched bedroom set, but no little kids bouncing on our bed in the mornings. We’d have the latest in video equipment, but no...

Don't you love the creativity of my blog titles? But at least you know exactly what I'm going to be blogging about. :-) Here are a few pictures that we took over the weekend.

So, Sim came home tonight raving about some online geography game he heard about on NPR today. And I have to tell you... I am addicted! It is amazing how fast an addiction can grow. I think it took about 3.5 seconds for me to fall in love with this game. It's so simple. Nothing flashy. Just has a world map and flashes up a city or a famous place and you have to see how fast you can pinpoint it on the map. And then it tallies up your score in the end. It's my new obsession . http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq/game1?284a=79d8 Leslie

Thought I'd take a quick minute to update the blog. The kids have just finished their late lunch, and now Nandini and Eli are running through the house playing, "Naked T-Rex Goes to the Beach". It's a bit like "Barney's Beach Party" - but without clothes. And, it's just as annoying. Honestly, I don't know why it bothers me so much. I think it's my conservative Southern upbringing. But man, it gets on my nerves. A closet full of color-coordinated outfits with matching hairbows and tights.... all going to waste. Sim says I just need to get over it and kids will be kids. But he's European, and they just do things differently over there. :-) But short of duct-taping their clothes to them, there's not much I can do. Plus, I give it about 2 more months (when it's gets really cold) and I bet they'll change their minds. Eli's already at the stage where he wants to use the bathroom in private (wish he'd give me that same privil...

I just wanted to take a minute and give a big blogging group hug to all you fabulous Mama's out there who responded to my "How Do You All Do It?" post. I know there are a few of you Dad's out there who read this (Hi, Mike!), but none of ya'll replied... so, sorry.. can't include you in this big Thank You post. Honestly, I cannot tell you how blessed I am to know such a fantastic group of crazy, wacked -out women. Seriously...some of you can sure bring on the crazy, can't you? And I LOVE it. I was cracking up reading some of those comments. I had no idea any of you led insane lives that mirrored mine. Isn't it funny how you imagine that everyone else has it all together... and then you get the utter pleasure of realizing that they're all just hanging by a thread - ready to go loco at any minute. Isn't that awesome? Are you detecting a bit too much glee in my voice? Anyway, today, when I thought I was seriously going to lose my mind... I just im...

Yesterday, we drove to Houston to take Nandini to her required doctor's check-up with the International Adoption Clinic at Texas Children's Hospital. Well... we weren't required to go there... it was just highly recommended. Plus, our local medical clinic is really small and they don't do blood draws or stool samples for little kids..... and there was no way I was going to drive Nandini all over East Texas and parts of North Texas to get all of the necessary testing done. I wanted a one-stop shop experience....so off to Houston we drove. Now... before you ask... yes, there is a doctor who "runs" an International Adoption Clinic in Flower Mound. Don't even get me started. He was our pediatrician for years. I would not advise him. He refused to believe that Noah had autism - even though he stopped talking, started stimming, stopped making eye contact, blah blah blah. His answer... oh, it's just the CP. Or... oh, it's just from being in an orphanage (...

I need some some major advice from all you wise Mama's out there (and Dad's, too!). How do you do it???? How do you keep from going insane? And, more importantly, how do you keep your house clean???? Somehow, a few months ago, little fairies snuck into my room in the middle of the night and stole the part of my brain that loved messiness and replaced it with something far worse... The obsessive need to keep a clean house. Or maybe it was CIA agents or FBI agents or whoever it is that Tom Cruise usually plays in a movie.... maybe they're the ones who did it. Maybe they were on a top-secret mission to implant microchips into housewives across America and see what happens when messy women turn OCD overnight. Because there's no other way to explain it. I have become a neat freak. I absolutely cannot stand a messy house. Well... okay, let me explain. I actually don't mind keeping a messy bedroom... and the bathrooms are in such a state that I'm sure the CDC is going ...

Sim and I are just sitting here - not quite believing what we just did. It all started with my trip to the Dollar Tree. You see, I took Eli to the church Christmas musical rehearsal (you know, the musical that he refuses to perform in, so we end sitting there watching all the other kids sing and be obedient and nice and all) - and since Noah and Nandini stayed home with Sim - and since I rarely go out anywhere with one kid, I decided that we should stop off at Dollar Tree. You know, because everything's just a dollar and I really do think that it was created with me in mind. So, we get to the Dollar Tree - not really expecting to buy anything - and I spot Santa hats, and I couldn't pass them up because, of course, they were just a dollar. Plus, my friend Amy posted a picture on her blog that featured her two youngest kids making peanut butter balls and wearing Santa hats. And because I strive to be like Amy, I decided that I would buy my kids Santa hats, too. Well, I actuall...

Okay, so I'm sitting here and the kids are taking a nap (except for Noah who is watching a video - and who actually spelled out v-i-d-e-o for me on the stencils, which made me feel really good because I'm been severely lacking on the homeschool front). Anyway, Trouble 1 and Trouble 2 are down for a nap and I've been debating on whether to update my blog or clean the house. It's actually a difficult decision because when you don't blog for a week, you have soooooooo much to tell and it could take a while. On the other hand, if I don't do dishes, then I'm going to have to tell Sim to run by Walmart on his way home and buy a thing of paper plates and a pack of plastic utensils. So, because we recycle and use earth-friendly cleaning products, I decided that the paper plates won't be that bad, and really, if I don't catch up on my blogging, I'll get even more behind and then just throw my hands up in the air and not do it. So I decided to blog. Wher...