Friday Quick Takes

Are those even still a thing?  For awhile, there was a blog link-up out there on Fridays, where you posted 7 quick mini-posts……do people still do that?   I’m out of the loop, haha.

Well, I don’t know if it’s still a thing, but it’s going to be one today at the Circus.   Lots of little updates, so pour yourself a cup of something hot and settle in for an exciting read.

Kind of.

Maybe.

Oh, just drink your hot coffee and I’ll get to rambling.  

K thx.  

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Learning about an archaeology dig

1).   We did it.  We managed to finish our first week of homeschooling 5 kiddos here at the Circus, and no one is worse off for it.  I’m not sure *why* I did this to myself, but I also scheduled 4 days of gymnastics, 3 days of music lessons, 1 day with therapy for Mr T, 1 day with a dog vet appointment, 1 day with a hair appointment for Miss R, and one day with flu shots for the whole Circus.   Basically, the only day that was “normal” for us was Monday.   Whoops.   Did I mention that it rained all week and I couldn’t send the kiddos outside for most of the week to burn off energy?   Yikes.   But we survived.  I’m just very much looking forward to the Parent/Teacher Conference (cough cough date night) we have scheduled for later tonight.

G packing lunches with an attentive audience

2). One of the keys to our success this week, I’m sure, is a nifty little spin off of our “MomBucks” system at our house.   In a nutshell, I never have cash on me, so years ago, I started offering MomBucks (virtual money) to the children when they completed various, more difficult chores than what is already expected of them.   They keep track of them in a checkbook register, and can cash them in (with our approval) to make purchases.   When they cash them in, usually it just involves us paying for something for them when we’re in the store.   Sometimes they ask for real cash, in which case they have to give us 2 days notice to give me time to get to the bank.   Well, Mr J has had a phone since he started doing competitive cross country skiing - mostly so I could reach him while he was out practicing.   He pays for the access charges by babysitting for me, free of charge.   Great set up, right?  This year, we told Mr G that he could get one as well, but he was also expected to pay for those same charges.   He doesn’t get as many opportunities to babysit, partly because he’s not the oldest child, but also because he’s the one out of the house the most with sports practices.   I told him that he could propose a plan for earning enough MomBucks to pay for the phone, and we’d consider it.   He worked hard on his plan, and ended up submitting a proposal that included *him packing all of our lunches every school night* (he’s a smart kiddo - he knows I hate doing this!).  I agreed, and let me tell you…..friends, it’s awesome.   It has been *key* to our schooling success for me not to have to think about, cook, serve, or even really clean up from lunches every day.    Best parenting decision ever, there, y’all.

Left: Aug 8 Right: Sept 26 - I increased my food 250 calories
per day between these two pictures!

3).  I’m still working on my reverse diet over here on the macro side of things.  I’m still losing weight, so we’ve added more food into my diet this week.    It’s insane how much food I’m eating!   (I’ve gone up about 350 calories, daily, in the last 2 months).  I’m feeling great, and still so flabbergasted that I could be losing weight still.    I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that I’m likely going to have to go up even MORE with intake before we hit my maintenance point.   It definitely brings into perspective just how much I was starving myself before starting this journey!

Snapping a picture because this jacket didn't fit last fall

4). Speaking of macros, I signed up to start the training and certification program to become a coach myself someday.  I’m not sure exactly what I’ll do with the training - my goal isn’t to start a business or something like that.   I’m mostly wanting to go deeper into understanding the *why* behind my experiences over the last year, and gather more information to hopefully help our own family in the coming years.  Some day down the line, I’d love to be able to put that knowledge and my love for helping others into some sort of adoption-support program.   Maybe fundraising of some sort?  Maybe teaming up with other adoptive moms to provide physical and mental and educational support for adoptive families after they come home?   There’s so little of that out there, and it’s so greatly needed.   We’ll see….for now, I’m just super excited to see what I can learn!

5). Along the adoption lines, we’re kind of in a holding pattern again.  We ended up getting a soft approval for our family to move forward with an adoption with a specific country, however the child we were inquiring about was matched to another family during that approval process.   They referred us to the file of a second child, but he has some medical issues and uncertainties that we didn’t really feel like we would realistically be able to manage.   As much as it was difficult to say no, we felt that we needed to.   Our resources are so bare-bones up here in the tundra, and we’d likely be looking at care that was 5-7 hours away from our house.    It’s hard to go into an adoption knowing that, and realizing that it means that our children at home would be affected by it.  If we had family nearby who could help out with the day-to-day aspects of running a household and kids’ activities, or we had kids old enough to stay home alone and drive themselves to sports practices, our answer may have been different.   But we don’t.   So we didn’t.  Our hearts are still very open to a second adoption, though, so we will see where it takes us.

6).  I had to wake the kiddos up early this morning for our flu shot appointment, and Mr T was not having any of it.   I woke him up, and this was his response - to burrow his head under his pillow, and throw his blanket over all of it.   Haha.   He’s growing up so fast!

7).  Hmm….I’m not sure I have anything else to add, so I’ll leave you with this cute video of a couple of Circus clowns working on their poetry assignment for the week.   They’re learning Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem "Rain", and we’re adapting it to fit some of the clowns’ needs.   It’s not grammatically correct in ASL, but it’s a start - I’m more worried about ability to learn and recite than the actual translation.   Here are the first two lines, and a start at the ASL translation (“field” is a two part sign, and we’re still working on learning that one - it was new to both of them this week and it’s a bit tricky!).   Enjoy!