Dad's Cereal is Leif's Cereal

It has been a busy week here, one of the last two weeks before school starts.  

I bought 5 packs of socks and dyed them so each of the youngest five can easily tell which pair to wear.  It drives me nuts that you cannot buy colored socks in large sets, they are always a mix.  When I buy all white it is hard to keep them matched because we need 4 different sizes for the 5 kids.

 Amelia helped me make tomato sauce.  We also made 12 quarts of salsa- 6 medium and 6 hot. We have spanish rice once week for dinner, and chips with cheese and salsa are a favorite lunch, so we go through a lot of salsa.  I will make at least one more batch before Dante's surgery next week.

 Tuesday Jamie and I took Sunny to court and "re-adopted" her.  She has been finalized for two years as far as Taiwan is concerned, but Massachusetts in one of the states that requires re-adoption in order to change the birth certificate.  We took just her to make it special, and went out to breakfast afterwards.  The judge gave her a stuffed panda and was super nice.

 Dad fixed himself a bowl of granola this morning, and Leif was kind enough to let Dad have a bite.

 Jamie finally decided it was a 2 spoon bowl, but then walked away for a moment to help someone else.

This is Leif's victory grin.  

I still have a lot to do before next Wednesday.  The girls need some school shopping done, and I have to sort through all their clothes first to see what we need.  I have mixed emotions about Amelia, Sunny, and Micah going to public school for the first time.  We have not even gotten a date for their IEP meetings yet, and I fight the urge to call and say never mind.  It is likely that I won't even be here their first day, if Dante is still in the hospital.  I know they will like school, but it has been a hard decision.  It is not easy to find curricula that is at their developmental level without being too childish, but ever since we officially made our decision I have come across so much stuff that would have been great for them.

Jamie has taken the lead with the teens schooling this year, in that he has laid out what they will be doing.  I cannot believe they are a sophomore, junior, and senior!  

Right now everything in my mind is divided to before and after Dante's surgery.  I have picked up a bunch of extra hours at Cracker Barrel this week, trying to get ahead for the week I will not be working while I stay with Dante.  There is so much to get done before Wednesday, since when Dante is discharged we will be jumping right into the school year in addition to his recovery time at home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We are still waiting on a final piece of paperwork for Elsa's home study.  Please continue to pray for her and for our adoption process.  Satan is fighting adoption on so many levels around the world right now, and God's children need your prayers.