Adoption

Yesterday was a monumental day for some dear friends of mine. For the last three years they have been foster parents to twin girls. These girls came to their home when they were just babies. Malnourished and emotionally disconnected little baby girls in need of love and a healthy environment. Yesterday my friends legally adopted them. They were transformed under their care. They became healthy and happy and flourished under the love they received from their foster parents who are now officially their Mommy and Daddy. I'm just so happy for them.

When we were having trouble starting a family we sat down with our friends to learn more about becoming foster parents. They'd had the girls in their home for a little less than six months at the time but were already very familiar with the inner workings of the foster care system. We had decided that there was only so far medically we were willing to go to become pregnant and that maybe God had another plan for us to become parents. I'd reached a point in my life where I was completely trusting that I would get a chance to be a mother and I was willing to become one to someone else's child if needed. We had a lovely meeting with our friends and learned quite a bit, enough that we contacted the county and received the application packet so we could start the process. Little did we know that, even as we'd had the meeting with our friends, I was already expecting Ace. Isn't it funny how things like that happen? We put the foster parent plan on the back burner not knowing if we'd ever revisit it or not.

Now we're six weeks away from the arrival of our second little one. We have been so blessed to start and have this little family of ours. But all those children in need of a loving home still weigh on my heart. I know the whole process my friends went through was an incredibly difficult and drawn-out one full of uncertainty and some heartbreaking moments. I know if we pursue this avenue in the future it will not be easy. But I also know these children are on my heart for a reason. I've always wanted more than two children. Maybe the next addition/s to our family won't be born into it.

*Just my musings, no plans in place at the moment.*

Soon

Less than 8 weeks.....






This little puddin' is scheduled to be here on July 8th unless he/she decides to come sooner.

I can't wait to meet my littlest one. Boy? Girl? What say ye?

Mother's Day

Every day I am amazed at how much Asa is growing. Just recently I looked at him and thought "He's not a baby anymore!" I don't know exactly when the transition happened. It was gradual and I didn't even notice it happening. He became a little boy.

On Mother's Day we spent the afternoon with my grandparents, parents, and aunt & uncle. We had four generations gathered. Oma (my mom) and Auntie C (her sis) took Asa for a little walk. Here are some highlights:














My little boy is so beautiful.

Done & Done

I just realized that I haven't posted to this blog since rejoining facebook. No good! I plan on being much more active here in the future.

One thing that will encourage that is the fact that I've deleted my facebook account. I haven't temporarily deactivated it or taken a hiatus. I've gotten rid of it for good.

I just finished reading a book entitled The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I plan on reading it again right away and really making note of the things that resonated with me. One thing that did stick with me was her approach at deciding what to include in her regular life. She asked very simple and pointed questions. What in your life makes you feel good? What in your life makes you feel bad? Obviously we can't avoid every bad feeling. Sometimes certain responsibilities just suck and don't make us happy. But facebook? What an optional part of life! Did I enjoy keeping in touch with people and hearing about their lives? Yes. But I can also do that through email, snail mail, and phone calls. Almost every time I checked facebook it made me feel bad in some way. Between the gossip, the politics and the arguments I was always feeling frustrated. I won't pretend that I didn't participate in some of that myself. But why subject myself daily to something that makes me feel bad? It seems kind of crazy to me.

I know there are quite a few friends and family members who liked my Asa updates so I'll be uploading pics to flickr or a similar site now and then and linking to them here so everyone stays updated.

I also plan on keeping up with my own version of The Happiness Project on here, as well as just random musings and updates.

Thanks for reading and hanging out in the panyk room!

Squeaky Clean

Over time I've been trying to switch to all-natural cleaners in our home. I liked the idea of using something with less chemicals, especially now that we have little ones. I certainly didn't want to shell out the big bucks for 'natural' and 'organic' cleaners, though I know they are better for the environment and safer to use in the home. We don't have that kind of money. So I started making most of my cleaners from scratch using recipes I found online. For awhile now I've been using my own homemade surface cleaner, glass cleaner, and a cleaner for use on moldy or mildewy surfaces. They all work great and I know exactly what goes into each one and feel good about using them. Plus it saves a lot of money! Using ingredients like baking soda and white vinegar is very friendly to the pocketbook.

I've long thought about switching to a homemade laundry detergent. I have really sensitive skin and have only ever found one or two liquid detergents that don't cause my skin to break out in eczema-like rashes. And purchasing detergent and fabric softener really adds up over time. So I finally did it. I did some research and found a recipe that was easy to put together and very low-cost. All the comments I'd read, on multiple sites, said it was a very effective recipe and great for people with sensitive skin. Here is the recipe I used:

6 cups Borax
4 cups Baking Soda
4 cups Washing Soda
4 cups grated Bar Soap

I actually halved this recipe and it made approximately half a gallon of powder detergent. Some people with larger families have doubled the recipe and stored it in a huge canister. The washing soda is made by Arm & Hammer. I couldn't find it at Wal-Mart or Target but my local grocery store carried it. And you can buy really big boxes of the baking soda in the same aisle as all the laundry stuff. For the bar soap you can use any soap you like. Some people use a special bar soap made for laundry, some people use soaps for sensitive skin, others pick one based on scent. I bought some Lever 2000 in a citrus scent. For my half recipe I needed two cups of the grated soap. I found one bar was enough though some people use one and a half. When grating be sure to use the big holes on the grater, not the smaller ones for zesting. It would take way too long. I put all the ingredients in a plastic canister and shook them together. You only need to use 1/8 of a cup of this detergent for every medium-sized load of laundry. That's two tablespoons. I bought one of those little 'shot glasses' in the kitchen gadget section that are for measuring small amounts of liquid. One shot glass is equal to 1/8 of a cup so one scoop does it! A formula scooper is also the same size.

I used this detergent for the first time yesterday and I am very pleased with the results. My clothes are very clean and have a very very light suggestion of a citrus scent on them. If I'd used more soap in the recipe it would probably be more obvious. You can also use essential oils in the recipe to obtain the scent of your choice.

I also followed the advice of many people online and am using something new for fabric softener. I took a Downy ball and filled it to the 'extra large load' line, which is approximately half a cup, with white vinegar. Just toss that in the wash. It softens the clothes without leaving any of that regular fabric softener residue on them and the clothes absolutely do not pick up a vinegar scent. Oh, and I need to mention, my washing machine frequently has a damp or mildewy odor. Even after I clean the machine out it doesn't smell the greatest. After doing just one load of wash with this detergent and the vinegar in the Downy ball? My machine was CLEAN and there was no odor anywhere.

Okay, I know this post is long, but if you're interested in switching I highly suggest it. The savings will be huge. None of the ingredients are expensive to begin with and each one of them will contribute to many batches of the detergent. And only using one little scoop each time? It will last me forever.

Spring is in the Air

The last couple days have been fantastic. Even though autumn is my favorite season I think one of my favorite times of year is when you can tell spring is really around the corner. That winter is going away and the sun is shining and the birds are chirping.

Yesterday I put a hoodie on Asa and he ran around the backyard of our condo complex. He threw a ball over and over and had such a blast. I can't wait to spend a lot of time outside with him this year.

Today is my favorite day so far though. Today was the first day I felt it was warm enough to open the patio door and let that fresh air blow through the living room and into the kitchen. It made doing dishes a lot more enjoyable.

So now I'm going to go sit on the couch, enjoy some rice pudding, and let the breeze blow over me while Asa takes a nap.

Baby Pancake 2.0

Today was my ultrasound. I scheduled it for a day that Shawn was home from work so we could all go as a family. It was so fun to see our second Baby Pancake! The little one was moving and squirming the whole time. All the measurements came out great, including the heart rate, and the baby was pronounced very healthy looking.

So what are we having???????

A baby. Duh. We didn't find out the gender.

Here is a pic of the baby looking at us:





Here is another 'facing-the-camera' pic. I think the baby looks like a little samurai in this picture. That is the hand in kind of a ninja pose.





And finally..... little itty bitty baby feet!



I can't wait to meet this little cutie.