First Kill

So I'm wondering if my son became a man on Saturday? He has slain a wild beast. My dad started taking K out to the lease as soon as he cleared diapers. And I potty train 'em early. At age five, he actually wounded a buck that they never recovered.

This was youth weekend, and Papa and the master had been totally pumping K up that this was THE year. I worried that he would be too nervous to shoot. K cannot bear to let anyone down. Sure enough, the master says that K was trembling. He watched the little doe for a good ten to fifteen minutes, while the master whispered encouragement. K kept saying, "I can't do it, Dad, I can't do it. I'm shaking too bad." The doe disappeared behind an oak. In desperation, the master appealed to K's sense of duty and said sternly, "Now Son, it is getting dark and this is your last chance to shoot. When she comes out from behind that tree, you put a bead on her and pull the trigger.....YOUR FAMILY NEEDS THIS DEER."

When she emerged a few moments later, K dropped her. When he called to announce the big news, I was at first puzzled and tickled by his closing remark, "And now, the family will have meat!" (As if we do not have a freezer full?!!)Later, as the master explained the scene in the stand, I realized how sweet it was. 'Providing for the family' gave him the extra bit of calm and courage he needed.

Of course, our horde will finish off the ground round from that little deer in two sittings, but he doesn't have to know that now, does he? And it sure will be some tender meat.

Fall Scene

I don't usually post alot of pictures all at once, but I just can't help myself tonight.

I got some really cute pictures of the kids this weekend. As you see, we are doing a StarWars theme. Isn't baby Yoda, too much??!! And no, I didn't make their costumes. We drove to PartyCity this year so that Mom could remain in Saneville.
Cooler temperatures finally arrived this week, and the Sunnyside gang and I stuffed a scarecrow. They named him Mr. Acorn. Afterwards, I gave rides around the backyard in the wheelbarrow. Marina is too funny! She was well bundled, but every time the wind would blow she would suck in her breath and then let out a low moan. And the girl that LOVES to be outside, kept saying, "Mommy, the wind not blow in the house." The good Lord knew what He was doing when He put that baby on a plane to Texas, 'cause no way would she have survived St. Petersburgh winters! She has on her 'cool girl' jeans and jack-o-lantern shirt in the other picture. I had just brushed her hair out from tight french braids, so she was sporting her mock-spiral-perm-do. I thinks she looks entirely too grown up, don't you?

Hard to Miss

We took the kids to the first fall festival of the season tonight (pictures forthcoming), and afterwards we went out for Mexican food. Not wanting to take the time for a complete wardrobe change, my kids went in their costumes.
My parents were with us and there was no available seating for a party of our size in the regular dining area, so the hostess asked if we didn't mind a table in the lounge. Don't you know the other patrons were overjoyed to see her seating five small children in the bar? I wasn't exactly thrilled with the arrangement myself, but it was getting late, and I didn't want us to have to wait.
We waited, anyway. Our food was taking forever to come out! My dad made a comment about how two other tables who came in after us had already been served, and then my mom said that she was starving, and I finished up with, "We must have been forgotten back here"
K looked around and said, "We're kids....in capes....in a bar. How could they have forgotten us?"
He has a point.

Scary

This is a great web resource I visit almost daily in my line of business. Take a look at the model in the add at the top of the web page. That is exactly what Marina will look like in 15 years or so. I'm petrified. Anyone know where I can buy a chastity belt?

The Die is Cast

I have a quirk that drives the master crazy. Whenever we are finishing a room, before we put away the supplies, I grab a brush and in some way, completely screw up the next room on our list to tackle. I look at it as a way of guaranteeing that we won't procrastinate. I grew up in a household where every home-improvement project was placed on the Thirteen Year Plan. Except now that my parents have lived in their home for well over twenty years, we may have to rethink that title. I guess the pendulum swung in the opposite direction for me, because I want it done yesterday. For some things, the pocket book demands that we wait, but we can almost always can afford paint, so brush in hand I grab the KILZ and go at it. The master calls it, "painting the doorways."
And he says I don't just do it with home remodel.
Yesterday we announced to the church that we were hoping to start our second adoption. We asked for them to pray. We don't have a homestudy. We haven't filed with INS. We still owe money on Marina's adoption. But I feel that October 14th marks the beginning of the journey to S_____ #6.

Social Worker's Visit (Past Tense)

Maggie was asking about times in our home life that we would not want our children's teachers/doctors/social workers to hear. It made me think of our homestudy visit for Marina. I started to post it as a comment, but decided it was in poor blogger form to leave so much in the comment panel.

Oooh, do I have a story for you! One that actually did go straight into the social worker's ears.
Preface: We spank. Always have. Always will (till the youngest one doesn't need it anymore). I know you are probably totally against that, but it works for us, and we do it in love. Our oldest (8) has not been spanked in almost a year.
Anywho--all of our kids have gone through a "spank the baby" stage. Around about three they start playing house and they feed their babies, and rock them and burp them, and take them to the zoo....etc. They do everything with them that they see us do. Well, just before we had our homestudy, Abby hit the "spank the baby" stage. For about a week, her baby dolls were constantly being caught doing something she had told them NOT to do. And she could be heard all through the house giving them spankings. Only my drama queen attended her disciplinary task with much more gusto than she had ever had performed on her own little hiney, AND instead of using the words WE used when spanking her, she preferred the verbiage reserved for the dogs when piddling on my carpet, "BAD, BAD, BABY!!!! You are a VERY BAD BABY"
The master and I did not know what to do! The social worker was coming at the end of the week! Of course, we had been completely open with the agency and social worker about our family practice of spankings, but Abby's whippings were horrific. Should we coach her? Should we not? Would she say to the SW, "Mommy and Daddy told me what to say." Would she "spank" a baby while the SW was there? We tried gently coaxing her during play, "Oh, no, the baby is not bad. Give sugars to the baby." "She is just a baby! She doesn't know any better." "Mommy did not give you spankings when you were a baby." To no avail! She was still beating the stuffing out of the dolls on Friday. Finally, we sat both the kids down and had a heart to heart with them. We told them that a lady was coming to visit with them the next day. She wanted to make sure that our home was a safe and happy place to be. We told Abby that if she kept spanking the dollies, the lady might think that Mommy and Daddy gave them spankings all of the time. And that wouldn't be right, would it? They both agreed. She might think we were not a good Mommy and Daddy and that it would not be a good idea if any more children became part of our family (we didn't mention that she might decide to take the three we already had!) "So, tomorrow, Abby, please do not give your dollies any spankings while the lady is here" Our speech seemed to work. They went back to playing and no dolls needed "discipline" for the rest of the day.
On Saturday, the SW arrived right on time. She visited with us for about and hour and commented often on how well the children behaved and amused themselves while we chatted. Then she asked if she could talk with the children privately. We knew this would be part of the visit (hence our panic at the dolly beatings). She went to where the children were playing quietly in the bedroom. Peeking around the corner, I saw that the children were reading. Good. Not a doll in sight. I listened with bated breath as the SW introduced herself.
Not a bit shy, my oldest piped up. "Hello! I'm K____ and this is my sister Abby, and we don't get beat very much!"

Blog Hi-jacking

My blog was temporarily hi-jacked today. They hacked into my template and pasted it all over with a frog advertising some website. You couldn't even read a word! I deleted big portions of my template and this was as close as I could get to normal. I lost my light blue background and could not get it back, but at least the obnoxious amphibian is gone. Scary that people can do that. Got no help from blogger either about how to fix the problem. Ugh!