Saturday, November 5, 2011

A month of gratitude - part 1

I've noticed several friends on Facebook posting something they are grateful for each day. I thought it was a nice idea for the month that has Thanksgiving in it and decided it would be a good idea for me to take a moment each day to realize how good I've got it. Since I'd like to be able to remember this long-term, I thought my blog was a better place to document it.

Day 1 - I am grateful that surely but slowly Des and Bri are using more words to express themselves.

Day 2 - I really want to say how grateful I am that Logan found the snail that he lost in my car earlier today. But, of course, he didn't find it...yet. So instead, I'm noting how thankful I am for the Southern California weather. Today was 80 degrees and sunny while other parts of the country are blanketed by snow.

Day 3 - I am so thankful for books. I love, love, love to read.

Day 4 - I am grateful for my husband who is a tremendous help with the kids and household duties and is also my soulmate.

Day 5 - I'm thankful we live near a large community of Ethiopians and my whole family gets to benefit from their friendships and experience their culture.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

September and October - a recap

My blogging hasn't just fallen by the wayside. It's fallen off the curb, been run over like roadkill and dragged back to the gutter before being swept down the storm drain. I'm going to try and get it back on track though. I haven't really done photo albums or journals since the kids have come along because I was recording family memories by blogging. So I owe it to my kids to keep at it.

Here is a recap of the past two months:

The boys started school. Logan is in kindergarten and Jack is in 1st grade.




The girls went back to preschool.


We had a court appointment to readopt the girls in California. And then celebrated by heading to the beach where I took tons of pictures.



Des and Bri have been taking weekly classes at the Ethiopian Cultural Center. Sometimes the boys also come and we try to coax them into doing a little habasha dancing. The girls were asked to "perform" at a charity event with some other dancers. I have to say that I was a bit emotional watching them strut around on stage shaking their little shoulders with other beautiful Ethiopians.


And how else would October end but with Halloween photos. Logan wanted to be "the really fast guy" AKA Flash. Bri and Des' preschool has a mouse costume that they take turns wearing over and over again every day. So what else is a mama to do but make them their own mice costumes? Jack wanted to be Wolverine but when he saw how great the girls' costumes were turning out he changed his mind (the day before Halloween) and decided to be a raccoon.