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Nadia-isms

  • Exgusting for disgusting
  • Extracted for distracted
  • Exstinctly for distinctly
  • “That scared my wits out!”
  • “It left my head”
  • Nadia: “Daddy can’t wear a dress.”

Louanne: “You’re right, he can’t.”

Nadia: “He’d look really cute though.”

  • Nadia was listing off her toys, “Spiderman, Green Goblin, Batman, Joker, Blue Beetle. They’re my crew. I love them.”
  • Nadia was talking to Batman on her cell phone in the car. “I’m not asleep, my mom and dad are not asleep. If my dad was asleep he would drive off the road and into the grass! No I don’t think we are going to make it all the way to Gotham City.”
  • When we finished our devotion and prayer one morning last week I said, “Amen.” Nadia said, “I know what Amen means, I can open my eyes now.”
  • Nadia singing in her room last night, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound. I love my mom of course. I once got lost but now I’m found. I love my mommy and daddy.”
  • Nadia: “What are we doing today?”

Louanne: “It’s Mother’s Day and we are going to church.”

Nadia: “I wish it was Batman Day today.”

Louanne: “There is no Batman Day.”

Nadia: “If he was REAL, there would be a Batman Day. That would be cool.”

(She proceeded to tell the Children’s Church teacher that it wasn’t Mother’s Day, it was Batman Day)

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31 days to clean: Day 8 – 12

This week I rolled right along on the cleaning challenges and really enjoyed the daily devotions. The kitchen drawers were all cleaned out and the floors were scrubbed multiple times due to milk spilling! One of the days was to clean the living room window treatments. Well we have wood blinds and drapes so this was a big job, just like in the kitchen.

These photos aren’t too bright, but here is the living room during the work. (I went even further and pulled the couches out and vacuumed under them and did the baseboards too)

31 Days to Clean: 8 - 12

And after:

31 Days to Clean: 8 - 12

Day 11 called for washing the living room walls and dusting the ceiling. The girls were upstairs during this and when Nadia came down she said, “What were you doing mom?” “Vacuuming the ceiling.” Then Nadia started cracking up and said, “Whatever mom!” After I got done laughing we explained that I used the hand vacuum and step ladder.

Here is one of the tables after dusting the living room.

31 Days to Clean: 8 - 12

The devotions were all very good this week, but my 2 favorites were day 8 and 12. Sarah talked a lot about keeping our eyes on the eternal value of the work we do around our house and in caring for our family. Are we thankful for all that God has blessed us with? I often comment that I like to clean my bathrooms to be reminded how good I have it. In a vast majority of the world people still don’t have indoor plumbing – so I need to be grateful for all these toilets!

Day 12 talked about how we are all imperfect. How even the people you think have it together – are still imperfect. The Mary Challenge got me thinking about last year when I was working for the church doing the KIDS HOPE USA program and then I took the additional part time job as area manager for World Vision. I thought for SURE I could handle both part time jobs and be a great wife and mother. Why? Because both jobs were ministries that meant a lot to my heart and both could be done from home (mostly). Turns out I wasn’t actually super woman – I was trying to be and do too much and not doing any of it well. Mike quickly noticed that I was getting stressed out trying to do everything and wanted me to step back from something. Then we decided to adopt again and so I moved back into a volunteer position with World Vision. What a relief! And I have still continued to get children sponsored. Once again, what a relief!

My favorite quote of the week that she included was:

“How soon ‘not now’ becomes ‘never’.” – Martin Luther

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Thankful Thursday – Hope for the Orphan

In the car yesterday Nadia requested that we listen to Casting Crowns album “Until the Whole World Hears.” So we are running errands and the song “Always Enough” came on. Part of the lyrics say: peace to the broken/faith for the widow/hope for the orphan/strength for the weak.

Nadia – What’s a widow?  – So I explained.

Nadia – so they are sad?  Louanne – yes.

Nadia – what’s an orphan? Louanne – a child without a mommy or a daddy.

Nadia – so they need hope from God?  Louanne – yes.

Nadia – where do orphans live? Louanne – in an orphange.

Nadia – Like Amelie? Louanne – yes

Nadia – wait, like me? Louanne – yes,  you were an orphan before God made you part of our family when we adopted you.

Nadia – I love my daddy and mommy.

I had tears streaming down my face. Nadia knows that we adopted her and that “the nice ladies at the orphanage took care of me”, but this was the first time she asked/realized what orphan meant.

Later that night she asked again about widows and orphans when she heard the song again. She asked Mike if all babies were born orphans. So we talked some more about it. I am so thankful that Nadia and Amelie are our girls and that God saw fit to add them to our family. But my heart does break for the day when she asks, “Who had me in her belly?” or another variation.

Thank goodness God is “Always Enough” and will be on that day.

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Batman School

So I totally had to prepare for this in secret. Planned, printed and laminated while Nadia was asleep and then put everything into hiding until I was sure we had time to complete it. The scream of delight was worth it all 🙂

Batman School
Click on the photo to see album

This is what we started with and most of the printables came from the 1+1+1=1 site. I picked up an activity book at SuperTarget and some easy readers from the library. Nadia also wanted to wear her Batman PJ’s as much as possible while we worked on this throughout the week.

Batman School Batman School
We did sizing and patterns. Here Nadia had Batman say, “Look how BIG I got!”

Batman School
We put together a Heroes and Villains book. At the end I had a photo of Nadia on the “I am a good guy” page and she was thrilled! I should have video taped her going through the book and then seeing that at the end. Then we used the letter tiles to spell all the words in the book.

Batman School
We practiced writing upper and lower case B’s.

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Grammie was over one day so she played a game in the activity book.

Batman School IMG_4242
Nadia glued the heroes on one side and villains on the other. We did a find the letter game where I said letters and she had to find them as fast as possible.

Batman School Batman School
We did more pages out of the activity book and she did a lot of coloring. We also did numbers and a little addition.

Batman School
Are these guys cute or WHAT? I found them on the Toy a Day site.

On the last day I gave Nadia all the stickers from the activity book and she used them to decorate the lapbook. Here is what her lapbook looked like by the end.

Batman School

Batman School

Batman School

Mike read Nadia some of the “Brave and Bold” comics. Plus “My Frozen Valentine” and “Double Trouble” easy readers. We recorded the always campy original Batman from the 60s and let her watch an episode each night. She LOVED it; especially if BatGirl or the Joker were a part of the episode.