The Swing

How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
River and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside--

Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown--
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!

 

That's one of the poems, written by Robert Louis Stevenson, that I memorized 'way back when.  It's what came to mind today as John put in this marvelous swing for Luci. 

And, I recited it as the kids swang  swung  went up in the air and down.  (Oh, Mom!  Do you have to do that?!   Yes.  Yes, I do.)

It's right next to Luci's tree house, and sails out over the hill and meadow below.  The ropes are 20 feet long!  A good, wonderful swing.

And, of course, the neighbor's dopey dog, Gator, joined us.  He had just played in the creek and came over, all smelly and wet.  (oh joy)

I found this on the swing tree!  Love it.  I had no idea that John carved this a few months ago:

Heard Today

Anakin:  not the familiar character from the Star Wars trilogy (the cute kid who eventually grows     up to be Dark Vader, uh, I mean Darth Vader) --an Anakin is a person-sized doll at a clothing store.  You might know it as a Mannequin.

 The Ryan's Belt:  More familiarly known as Orion's Belt.  We had a great field trip to a planetarium (Von Braun Astronomical Society) on Friday.  Luci finally got to spot The Ryan's Belt in the sky tonight.  But she missed Betelgeuse!  (did you know that if you type in "Betelgeuse" into Google's search engine, Beetlejuice the movie pops up?  That disappoints me.)

Behemoth:  Ok, so she pronounces this correctly and knows what it is!

Is it you?

Right after Luci lost that tooth, she asked me this question:

Is there really a Tooth Fairy?  Is it you?

If it's me, then you don't get a dollar.

without skipping a beat...

Okay, there's a Tooth Fairy!

Lost another one!

Doesn't she look happy?

Luci won't let me touch her loose teeth after the great "Dental Floss Incident" of last Spring, in which I tried to pull a tooth that wasn't quite ready.

She pulled out this one all by herself!

2:25

in the AFTERNOON.

Rainy, rainy day!

and, wanting to copy this most-favorite photo for use elsewhere:

Chinese New Year--Year of the Dragon!

Luci and I made a dragon cake for Chinese New Year.

It's a scary dragon!

We got the idea from the Do They Have Salsa in China? blog.  M3 (the author) and her friend made a very intricate cake for her twin daughters' birthday party, and it is gorgeous!  For directions on how to make this cake, please see her blog post.  And when you look at her cake, don't judge mine for the poser it is.  Please.  Ours tastes fantastic, and the main person it's for (Luci) is very happy with it.

Luci and I made a simple version, and as you can see from the second photo, Luci is plenty happy with it--It's scary, Mom!   :)   We also made ours gluten free, with no artificial colors in the frosting (used turmeric for the yellow).  I got the recipe for the bundt cake from Allrecipes.com plus I made these changes:  I used Pamela's Bread Baking Mix (gluten free) for the flour, and I added some extra instant coffee, and used the chocolate syrup mentioned in the heading of the recipe instead of the coffee liqueur.

She's at it again!

Last night Luci and I were watching TV.


What she says was "an old man" (he was my age!!) said, "I used to be cute."


He shouldn't say that--it's naughty to brag.


Me:  What if it's true?  I used to be cute!


Luci looked at me from the corners of her eyes, and said,

You sure?

Oh, yeah:

I bet you didn't know...

According to Luci, there are three kinds of tea.

She figured this out as she prepared a tea party for us for lunch today:

There are three kinds of tea.

Hot Tea.

Sweet Tea.

T-T.

Happiness!

It was coming down horizontally for a while!

Luci's tree house is back there, somewhere.  Can you see the pink?

A few minutes later, there was so much more.  Any snow here is a treat!

JT and Luci made this Mickey!

Gluten Free Fried Chicken

This was so good!  Recipe here, on Gluten Free Mom's website.

This Week

Yesterday Luci and I got our hairs cut.

Luci, 7 years old, was admiring herself in the mirror at the beauty salon.

I look older now!  I look...(long, dramatic pause)...eight!
 

The kids' Christmas stockings; they each know for certain that they are my favorite!

And all ready for the New Year!

Christmas Eve

 Christmas Eve Eve

The girls' table....wait, is that Bryan in there, too??

The kids' table during lunch.  Maggie, Sophia, Luci, Haley, Sara.  Do you see why the grown-ups didn't get very many olives?  Every girl but Luci had enough to put on every finger.  (Luci does not like olives.)

Sara

 Nathan

The only photo I could get of all 5 girls.  The neighbor's stinky dog was on our porch....

 Luci being all goofy.  I like this shot because it shows some of the pretty fireplace, and that gorgeous rug John brought home from Afghanistan.

 Christmas Eve

Today's big dinner.  Luci set the table and did a fine job.

 She even made place cards for everyone.

 Ready for a feast!  But wait...where is the fruit salad?

 JT and Luci playing chess.  This set was a gift from Dawn, one of my Feingold friends.  It's a spectacular set with hand-carved pieces.

 Luci with her favorite present (so far!  Santa comes in the morning!).  This is the first Asian doll of any sort that I've seen that truly looks Asian.  I think it even looks like Luci used to, but those cheeks are certainly chubbier on the doll.  Luci named her, "Minjie," which was Luci's Chinese name.

Our Christmas Card

Okay, so I didn't get the cards sent.  Here is our Christmas Card/Family Brag Letter for 2011.

Bryan graduated from high school in the Spring!  He got his braces off in the Fall.  Bryan also got his first-ever real job (meaning the paycheck did not come from mom and dad), teaching gymnastics.  

Luci continues to bring us joy.  She's learning to read and learning to bake.  A winning combination!

JT is doing well in his high school studies.  He is enjoying the continuation of his Tang Soo Do training, in which he has a black belt. 

All three kids work with Susan at the Friendship Center at church every week.  Susan continues to homeschool JT and Luci.  John has several part time jobs .  He likes to keep busy...retiring from TVA and the Army Reserves left him with lots of time!  We went to Idaho to see Susan's family in June.  John's folks moved to Alabama in October so we get to see them more often than we used to.

I left out all the arguing that happens here between siblings and the two successful surgeries (shoulder and knee) that John had.  Maybe I didn't leave them out after all.  Mostly we are a normal family just doing normal stuff.  Nothing too exciting here. 

Please leave a link to your family's news.  I'd love to see how you are doing, too!

He shall be called John

Luke 1:63

This is the little boy Luci wanted to name Jehoshaphat.

He is with the same foster family that had Annie.  He has mal development of the brain.  And he's adorable!

Jumpin' Jehoshaphat!

Annie, the little girl we've been sponsoring through Love Without Boundaries, has been adopted!  We are so happy for that news.

Today we were asked to sponsor a little boy who is also from Luci's orphanage...and we get to give the boy an American name, which he will keep until he's adopted.

Luci and I went through popular names (Justin! said with much giggling,after Justin Bieber, in case you didn't know),  family names (Bryan, JT, John),

and then I suggested, "What about a Biblical name?"

Luci's answer?

Jehoshaphat!

We settled on John--both familial and Biblical.

Pizza, Gluten-Free Style!

Today I made my first gluten free pizza crust. It turned out great! I used the recipe (and the flour mixture) from Pamela's Products.  Click here for the recipe:  Chewy Pizza Crust

 

Why go to all that bother?   Because of this boy, here:

Isn't he cute?

Daisies

I'm posting these photos here so I can copy them to my computer--they will be smaller (my geeky teen who knows how to do this isn't cooperating, so you are blessed/bored with this post!).  Then I can move them to Facebook so my Daisy Troop friends can have them.  Sorry if this is wasting your time!

Tuesday

Yesterday at Daisies. This is Luci with Ava.

We learned a little bit about Santa Lucia today. Luci and I will make some sweet rolls this afternoon, in the spirit of the celebration.

Luci was surprised to learn that she is the "oldest daughter," and so gets to wear the crown of lights.  She always hears, "you're the baby," so hearing that she's the oldest girl was mind-bending!

Another Sunday Morning

Luci has her own fashion sense.  She is using the belt as a hair bow!

This dress is from Robin, at Red Thread Stitches boutique. 

Robin is a mother of children from China, too.  She uses her talents to help others bring their children home.  Our purchase is helping someone else--I love that.  And Luci loves, loves, loves her dress!

It's cold out here, Mama!  Hurry!

We really do have the prettiest daughter!

Message from Santa

Luci totally loved this! .

Message from Santa



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