Happy Monday faithful readers. :)

Sorry I haven’t written anything yet today… I have been having a hard time today deciding what to write about… I am trying really hard not to be one-track minded, but am having a hard time focusing for very long on anything that isn’t Belane related or related to our trip. I feel a lot like I did in those last few weeks of pregnancy…like everything is sort of on hold…however instead of waiting for my water to break, we are waiting on a signature.

So, since a bunch of you said you like hearing what goes on in our house, here are a few “funnies” from our place this weekend. I’ll try to put together some more thoughtful posts for tomorrow.

-Said... more

Monday night is family night at our house. Along with our typical family prayers, we add a family meeting, some sort of a “lesson”, we sing some songs and we play some games or do an activity. It’s a lot of fun.

Last week we played the old school game “telephone”, where one person whispers a sentence into someone’s ear, who then whispers it into the next person’s ear, and on and on down the line, until the last person blurts out the sentence, which has undoubtedly changed considerably from what the first person said.

Playing this... more

Here is just a quick fun post for a Sunday evening. I hope you all have had a great weekend. Tomorrow look for some posts on toddler adoption and attachment.

Ten Random Things I have Learned From Being a Parent.

When you hear a riot of laughter coming from your children and then several of them directing one of their siblings to “go show mom”, it definitely will NOT be good.

Plastic army men, marbles, legos, Barbie shoes, rocks and coins will go through the washer and dryer and come out just fine. Gum, chapstick, Pull-ups and crayons do not.

If you have kids, there is no use cleaning out your car. Two days later, you will not even be able to tell you did it... more

And there you have it…a day in the life. (I left out quite a bit of Belane obsessing, but I assume you know that). I also missed a friend dropping by, the UPS man bringing the package and checking my email a few more times than I admitted...but you got the big stuff.

Not every day is the same...some days we go and visit friends, some days friends come and visit us...some days the little kids and I take Josh out to lunch...some days I talk on the phone more than I should. :)

This was, however, a fairly typical day…although most days the kids just come home from school and have a lot more free time in the afternoon, and things aren't so rushed. On the “free” afternoons we have... more

12noon- Dropped Maggie and Amanda off at school. Marcus cried. (For explanation, read this.)

12:15pm- Changed Marcus’s diaper, gave him a bottle through his g-tube since he didn’t eat lunch or breakfast well, and put him down for his nap.

12:30pm-Ate some lunch (grilled cheese, small salad and Diet Sunkist)

12:45pm- Folded, moved and started more laundry (all alone)

1pm-Practiced my sign language and did some reading, answered a few emails

2pm-Boys came home on the school bus (Thursday is “Early Release Day”, normally they all get home at 3pm), the girls went to... more

Quite a few people asked for more “day to day” type posts, and posts on how things “work” around here, so I thought it would be fun to give you a “Day in the Life” in our house…here is how my day played out today. (It was a pretty typical day, although Thursday is our busiest “activity day” for the kids).

6:05 am- alarm went off

6:07am- got out of bed, freshened up, popped in contacts

6:15am- checked email (no news on waiver)

6:20am- headed downstairs and folded a load of laundry, moved wet clothes into dryer and started another load (it’s a constant).

6:35am- Woke up Mercy, Des, Shane and Ben (Nathan and Ryan wake up automatically…they are like roosters!)

6:45am-... more

Here is some advice for you... :)

When you are having one of "those days", and it feels like every little thing is going wrong, and fate is laughing at you...and you are completely out of patience and feeling outrageously frustrated...and you are trying hard not to take it out on the people around you...and then you remember that stupid thing that "THEY" always say about punching a pillow or some such thing to vent your frustrations...

I HIGHLY recommend that you really do punch a pillow, and DO NOT instead kick a wooden shoe rack.... more

Time for a family update. Things around here are really great!! The kids started school last week and everyone loves their teacher, classmates, etc. Ben is catching on to reading very quickly and impressing everyone. It is SO quiet here during the day with just Amanda, Maggie and Marcus home and I miss my “big kids”, but it is nice to have so much time with just the little ones too.

Maggie and Amanda start preschool for two and a half hours, two days a week in September. They went last year and really enjoy their preschool.

I really enjoy being back on the “early to bed, early to rise” schedule and the kids are sleeping like rocks!

We are half way through our soccer... more

As of today I get two new official titles. I am now a “soccer mom” and a “soccer coach”. (It was suggested to me that this post could qualify for the Wednesday funny, but I digress…).

Yes, we signed up our eight oldest kids for our town soccer program. I enjoy soccer and have coached before, so I volunteered to coach one of the teams, and I was assigned a team of 18 kids between the ages of 8-10, three of which are mine. I have Nate, Ryan and Des all on my team, and they think it is fantastic that “Mom” is their “Coach”.

Ryan thinks he... more

Today my Nathan turns 10 years old. It is pretty hard to believe! Nathan is our first child and our oldest biological son. He is the second-oldest now in our family, so has one older sister and eight younger siblings. He is a wonderful kid that I love with all my heart, and am blessed to be his mom. Here are some fun things to know about Nathan.

Nathan… -has never-ending energy -ALWAYS looks on the bright side and is hardly ever in a bad mood -is very tender-hearted -is outrageously smart -can find trouble just about anywhere -was the world’s... more