Wow, i need to be posting more often. So much is happening that i can't "keep up" here ~ ha ha.

Ok, we did garage sale again last weekend since the weekend before didn't do as well as we'd hoped, and because it was convenient since it was all set up anyway. I almost couldn't have cared less, but my friend was really hoping to get rid of more stuff, so we did a little on Thursday, a good chunk of Friday, and then again Saturday morning (which i thought we had decided not to do when I agreed to let her stay Friday night when i had to take Reagan for a soccer game), but whatever... it all worked out ok. I didn't have high expectations for this weekend since it wasn't town-wide sales, so what we did sell was just nice to get rid of (and money we didn't have before). But it sure made for a busy weekend, and the house really showed the results later. (Think about 8 children, water fights, sandbox, dirt, feeding all these mouths, but being available to run out for customers at any point... ya, you probably get the picture ~ lol). The tables we used were borrowed from the church, and needed to be back for Saturday night, so that was priority after lunch (and lunch was probably close to 2pm ~ lol).

Then we had been tentatively planning for care group at our house for Saturday night (our house is the only one that is really suitable for us all at this point), but fortunately that got changed to Sunday night. About Thursday or so i found out i was serving at a function at church on Sunday afternoon, so that meant (as far as i could figure out) that any work i wanted to get done before care group, HAD to be done on Saturday. But I also needed to put together my Sunday school lesson before Sunday morning. The kids were not super helpful, and Jonathan was somewhere between tired and a sore back, so i didn't get a lot of help there either. Altogether it didn't make for a very relaxed or content "mom/wife" but i tried not to stress too much either. I would only do what i could practically do, and that would be good enough.

Care group went ok (i ended up having enough time between lunch and serving to get a few things ready, and Jonathan & the kids were more helpful then too). Some of the others brought some snacks too, so that worked out well (plus we ended up with some left-overs at the church event that we could serve that evening as well). I think i finally identified why i'm not relaxed at care group with little Robbie (my nephew) here... because of his Down Syndrome, he's a very busy boy. Our kids are trying to "baby-sit" downstairs so the adults can have uninterrupted time to watch the video (we're going through a series by Gary Smalley about relationships), but Robbie keeps coming upstairs, and because he's so strong, the kids can't really force him to stay, and we don't want to do that anyway... but he is a distraction upstairs. If they try too hard, he cries and wants "mommie." I feel badly when she can't just relax and watch, but he really is too much for our children to keep too long... so i'm feeling "responsible" for my kids keeping him happy/content, and yet i know it's an unrealistic expectation, so i don't push them too hard on that. The best thing would be for someone nearby to watch him in their home. His parents would like that too, and they do have funding for baby-sitting because of his special needs, but have a hard time getting sitters.

Darwin is excited to have been called back to work for the chicken farm. We weren't sure if they'd need him since it sounded like he was just filling in for someone else last time, but they did call him back. So I think he'll be doing about two days / week (today was only an hour ~ they worked hard/fast, but usually not more than two hours) for 4 weeks or so, then two weeks off, and again for 4 weeks... something like that, but no idea how long again.

Talking about jobs... it looks like i have a part-time baby-sitting job starting at the end of June. I've pondered what I could do to help us out a bit financially, and the idea of baby-sitting started to sit ok with me in the last week or so. I was kind of praying for direction, and i think God may have placed that desire there to take in a few children. I thought maybe i'd check into it at our family resource center ~ they have a list for those needing sitters and/or wanting to provide child care, but before i got there, i saw an ad at the post office/store and called the family. I was thinking maybe a summer job, but if this one works out ok it'd be ideal for us as a home school family since it's mostly just a few hours in the afternoon, but with flexibility for extra hours, and a few short mornings and full days. It was kind of funny... she & her boys came to meet us this afternoon, and after chatting and all, we made the connection that we're related (it took me that long to recognize her too ~ which is crazy cause Jonathan said he remembers her from when she worked at the store, etc. so i know i've had to have seen her often enough, but never made the connection ~ lol ~ i'm just not a "people person" i guess). So it looks like God may have answered this prayer before it was really spoken... and how possibly ideal.

Well, i've got a few more thoughts (more about the adoption stuff) but it's getting late, so i'll save it :-)