Bad blogger

Craziness, I tell you. There's so much chaos that circles 'round me every day lately that it's no wonder that I haven't posted at all.
First, I've gone back to teaching full time. I'm teaching 3rd/4th grades at a small Christian school in town, and I'm so tired! How do kids do it? :) I'm only 32 but I'm falling asleep every night by 9. Our day begins around 6 and we're at school by 7. School begins at 7:30 and ends at 2, but I haven't been home earlier than 3:45 yet. Our average is 4 pm. I think the exhaustion comes from pouring yourself into your kids and your students.....you have so little to take home with you, really.
I love my students. I've known most of them for a year or so, but these past few weeks have been such a 'getting-to-know-you' experience for all of us. Because it's a combined class, I'm teaching two curriculums (no wonder I'm tired) which overlap only slightly. I have 11 kids; 5 4th graders and 6 3rd graders. Two are girls. No, not two third graders and two fourth graders; TWO of ELEVEN. It's a bit of a sweaty, dusty mess at times, but those boys are my Sweet Baboos.
Weekends have been crazy, as we don't seem to have time to just chill as a family, which I'm craving so badly lately. We'll be going to a big fair this weekend, and I hope that will be fun. The kids rode the elephant last year and I got my maple candy, so everyone was happy. I also picked up a gorgeous skein of natural alpaca yarn (sport-weight, for those of you who knit) that I haven't touched since I wound it into a skein last October. I'm that much of an overachiever, folks.
Speaking of October, Michael won another of those wonderful trips we've been taking every fall. We're off to Naples, FL this year. I'm looking forward to a few days off. Because Lexus sets everything up (and pays, thank goodness!) I'm scheduled for a massage that first day. Between teaching and the flight, I'm sure I'll need it just to function! Thank you, Lexus! (and thank you, honey, for working so hard!)
In good news....a little girl I've been praying for to find a family (for over a year!) has finally been matched. We had inquired about her but were told that we would most likely be denied as the agency doesn't place out of birth order and she was in between our #1 and #2. That and the country that she's from may have denied us due to family size. We had resigned ourselves (read: myself-Michael's gone back to feeling that 4 is perfect) to the thought that she very well could be waiting for a long time to come, but I was so excited to see her on the "recently matched" list. Yay, God!
That's about it. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with this.

Overheard at my house

Those of you who have Veggie Tales fans, you'll know this.

I heard this from another room in my house today....
3yo-"Bellybutton!"
6yo-"uh-huh!"
This was repeated three or four times. I went in the playroom and 3yo has his shirt up, smacking his tummy...."Bellybutton!"

An excellent quote

And I hope it's correctly attributed, because I'm too tired to look it up tonight.

Compassion is seeing a person's needs in advance and doing everything within your power to minimize their liabilities and maximize their potential. - Dr. Tim Kimmel

Book Review:God Grew Tired of Us

I'm in the middle of this book right now, so I'm not really qualified to review it, yet, but I just wanted to say that it is amazing. John Bul Dau has every reason to be a traumatized, callous, horrible person, and yet he is a beautiful example of what every Christian should strive to be. This book is both a picture of the grace of God at work and a call to Christians everywhere-to do more, to try more, to both spread the Gospel of Christ and help the hurting.
Thank you, John Bul Dau, for this book. I'm very much looking forward to the release of the film on DVD this August.

I'm challenged, so please bear with me!!!

It's going to be a few days (ahem, weeks) before I get this template straightened out. Please bear with my lack of tech savvy (I can't say that word without conjuring a picture of Johnny Depp in my mind) and hang in there.
We are a family of six at present- Mom, Dad, Princess, Monkeyboy, Bobo and Lumpy. Poor Lumpy may have to have a name change now that she's not a baby anymore. I would hate for her to find this in cyberspace twelve years from now and realize that we actually referred to her as that....