Today

Mim is reacting to missing out on everything yesterday, and she has reverted back to "mom's fault" I have been trying to show her, though unsuccessfully that "her style" that she claims she has a right to (which she does) is not working for her...her style is slow moving, kumbyha mentally and yesterday for example it evens hurts her and what she wants, as well as the family and her studies...but the problem is she does not process or analyze mistakes, so she never figures out "what went wrong" she just complains and says "why does this always happen to me"....well I know it is because she never seems to finish anything to the end, partially end, almost done but not all the way and it costs her time and time again...but she doesn't take the time to figure it out and she hates when I point it out to her....so here we are again dealing with "her style"

Rough week for me

but not with the girls, just work in general, but it helped in reminding me what is truly important...and not exactly what I focus on at times..that is work related..Thank you Lord for always reminding me that work is fleeting and you will promote when the time is right......in your timing for your glory!!

Tough lesson for Mim.
She had a CC meet this am and was to leave at 5:30am. I informed her to set the alarm (her responsibility), wake me up and I will drop her off. I had a 3 hour class today so I had friends keep Ve and Tuki over night on Friday. So this morning was totally cleared for Mim to go her way and me mine...EXCEPT Mim didn't wake up, and I woke without the alarm at 6:00am...30 minutes past the departure of her CC bus. She was very disappointed, and initially she blamed me, which she loves to do whenever anything goes wrong, but then she realized it was her fault since she did not set her alarm....she has been a little sad all day, but well behaved..this just might be a maturity breakthrough for her..... and better for this to happen for a CC meet rather than a job...

Midway

through cross country season with Mim, and she is really setting some good goals for her races and is meeting them...Good for her!!

Ve and Tuki just went to their second skating class last night and we registered them for Hoops basketball Sunday night. This will be Tuki's first year and Ve's second.

I am applying for a 10,000 fellowship from our local university in hopes of applying the money to my STEM Branching class that I am offering this year for 2 sections that I am teaching for the first time.

I also plan to submit a grant for 1,000, also for that class and I have also submitted entry questions to Samsung again in hopes of making it to round 2 of their competition.

My admin class is a hybrid, but mostly it is on-line which saves me from having to run to class weekly. I have decided to conduct research on how effective our school implements RtI. I can use this research in place of taking the graduation test so I am really excited about this...my class work is real and not just for homework..

We are in the final stages of harvesting the garden but we will leave the carrots for a few more weeks and the pumpkins, squash and gourds until about the second week of October.

Calming down

Once again Mim and I had a knock down disagreement and then finally we talked it out and for a while I think we will be fine. She feels that I am very strict and I should allow her to do whatever she feels she want to...sounds like attachment issues or teenage..probably a co-mingling of both, but I finally told her "live with it or get out". She kept insinuating that I change and not her. At first, I felt like she might have some merit in what she was saying (for a year or so, maybe I was too protective), but now I finally am just saying no, this is the way it is. She is not mature enough to handle all that she insists she is old enough to be able to do. We have been doing so well for 4 weeks, but this last blow up came from her exhaustion from school all day and cross country practice and meets at night or weekends...and I am seriously considering not allowing her to do track in the spring because of the stress she feels from juggling it all. Boy do I know how that feels too...

I think about how for the last nearly 4 years I have been carrying" Mim...in school, in sports, around the house etc.,...you know what I mean all that goes along with parenting, but then you add the layer of learning a new language and a new culture on top of that....we as parents help them by supporting and maneuvering them through this new life, and it is hard, and it is a lot, and it is stressful some days. It is all worth it when they achieve success like Mim being able to take French because she has a high enough reading lexile and access score in only 3 1/2 years of being home versus the statistical 7 years and when they say they love you and appreciate all you do for them.

Yet she tells me her life has been terrible and I have done nothing for her....she is good at the insults....it is then that I feel it has not been worth the stress of the last 4 years.....it has not been worth it at all.

But to see the bright side, I think, I hope we are going into a good spell, at least for awhile now.

Why

is it than time can go by and all seems to go real well, and then all of a sudden you are dealing with a ton of adoption related issues...... that is how it has been the last week or so....exhausted!!

8 hours

of canning, freezing, washing (laundry and dishes) and baking today. Today canned 6 pints of pear jam, 1 pint of pickled summer squash, 5 pints of sliced spiced pickles, froze 10 cups of peppers, froze 10 cups of tomatoes, and baked 20 loaves of pear bread. We also have the pears cut up for the wine, but I need to purchase a mesh bag to hang the pulp in while it is fermenting. In addition to this we have 3 crispers full of fresh peaches, plums and pears, and we are expecting to pick up the 1/2 beef this week. actually feel like we have a ton of food...like where are we going to store it all yet, especially since we still need to harvest the carrots, 3 types of pumpkins, butternut and spaghetti (volunteer plant that was quite prolific) squash, sunflowers and the egg gourds (not edible).....our cup runs over with yummy food. Our potatoes were killed off by the monster pumpkins and our cabbage may not fully mature by freezing since they were delayed from the rabbits and out tomatoes harvest has been low and late his year so I may purchase a bushel from our local farmers market so we can freeze more for chili over the winter.

Mim

gets to take French I in school. She has been wanting to do this for several years now, we even tried last year but then she wasn't in ESL support classes and within 3 weeks she was failing 3 classes. We took her out and put her in supported classes. This year she started at the high school, the ESL teacher stated at Back to School the other night that Mim didn't need ESL support for reading anymore since she is doing so well...she is now in French...and way excited about it and I am very happy for her since her hard work has really paid off for her...Way to Go MIM!!

Today

was Mim's cross country meet, her time improved by 40 seconds...a real improvement. Since it was a home meet, me and the wee ones helped manage the course for all the races. Ve and Tuki ran the mile fun run for elementary students. All three ran hard and did a good job. Once we came home, I canned 2 quarts of yellow beans, 4 pints of plum jam, set up the start of the plum wine, and tasted while moving the apricot wine. In addition I am baking about 20 some loaves of plum bread for the freezer. So far we have about 40 some loaves of blueberry and peach bread and now another 20 plus and tomorrow I plan to bake another 20 some more loaves of pear bread.....did I say that we love this bread...it is our weekend treat. Besides the pear bread tomorrow, we will can more pickles, pickled summer squash and start the pear wine, and freeze peppers. Next week our 1/2 beef should be ready for pick up, so our freezers are filling up once again for the winter. It feels good to know that things will quiet down for a while, just like I get excited when things heat up in the spring.

Tired

...all last week and now this week. We had back to school night last night so we were at school very late. I am amazed as to how tired I get even though I never really take a break all summer. I think it is different kind of tired, emotional and mental exhaustion and then the hard floors don't make my feet feel great, so it tires out my whole body. We are still walking the dogs 2 miles every night but I have not been running.....I know I am not proud but at least we have been dedicated to walk the dogs..better than what we did a year ago.  Hopefully I will work up to a more active life style again..like years ago.

Made it

through the day, and on fancy shoes, and my feet handled it just fine and we took the dogs for their nightly walk as well. Tuki made it through her first day of 2nd grade, Ve through her first day of 4th grade and Mim through her first day of her sophomore year. Typical of Mim, she did get lost but eventually worked it out...she is sort of direction deficient and I have learned to let her work it out according her to way..which BTW is very different than mine. But we are all ready for day 2 and I will be heading to my admin class tomorrow night...so no dog walking!!! :(

First Day

of school with students tomorrow...whew, not completely sure how I feel, on the one hand glad to be around all the action again, but on the other hand not quite ready for the crazy schedule that we will all be having. We all feel really tired today already and the week has yet to begin....