A Few "Before" Pictures

We were able to spend a couple of hours at the new house measuring and making plans to remodel. I am so thankful that we actually liked the house even more when we saw it today. The main projects will be the kitchen and master bath (now tiled with lots and lots of orange tile!). We will spend several hours in the car tomorrow planning and deciding what to tackle first. The upside of a long car trip is having time to talk to Randy for hours and hours :0)

Quick Update!

We think we have the roof situation resolved on the house we want to buy - whoopee! We are going to look at it one more time this afternoon and will then finalize the contract. We are leaving in the morning to see my parents for a few days. Friday is my sweet mother's birthday! Our older boys are going to join us for the weekend, and we have lots of fun things planned. I need this little break before I have to start homeschooling, packing, cleaning, moving, .......

I will take my camera to the new house today and hopefully post a few "before" pictures this afternoon. Now I am off to do laundry, get haircuts for the little ones, and try to put our house in order. Have a wonderful morning!

I Need a Looooooong Nap!

I haven't slept well this week with all of the house "stuff" swarming in my wee little head :0) I decided last night that I would just stay up and visit with Missy until she went to bed. At 3:00 (yes, in the morning!) I gave up and went to bed. Missy stayed up even later working on her summer school class. Of course, she could sleep in this morning, but I had sweet little Madelyn at my bedside at dawn wanting her "bwekfast."

The house we are wanting to buy is still in limbo. The roof needs to be replaced, and the current owners are struggling with the $10,000 - $12,000 it will take to put to new roof on. We thought we might know something on Friday, or that we would definitely hear something today - but we didn't hear a thing. Tomorrow is a new day, and I am needing to work on patience anyway :0)

The upside of not really sleeping last night is that I got a LOT of my homeschool planning, copying, and laminating finished. Mason loves to learn using centers and manipulatives, so I have made 40-50 "Take It To Your Seat" centers for 1st grade. They are fun to use and a painless way to squeeze writing, science and geography into our homeschooling day. I love fun and painless!

I also love swimming pool pictures. Here are 3 cuties enjoying another hot Texas day.

Yummy Bran Muffin Recipe

We have had a great day! We found ripe veggies all over the garden, and our sweet Missy came home to spend one last week with us before school starts. Obviously, we planted the pumpkins a "little" early :0) I will be canning pumpkins tomorrow..and the day after that..and the day after that. The vines are still producing many new blossoms, so the new owners of our house should have some pumpkins that are ready to pick in October.

I made my favorite bran muffin recipe today. You can mix this up and leave the batter in the refrigerator for several weeks. You can have fresh muffins every morning, or you can bake them all and freeze them like I do. I am giving you a half recipe, but it tastes just as yummy if you make a huge batch. I know some people who read this blog don't live in the US, so I am showing you a picture of the All Bran cereal boxes. Maybe they are called something else where you live :0)

Mary's Bran Muffins:

1 cup boiling water

1 cup Kellogs All Bran - Bran Buds (these are little granules)

1 stick butter plus 1 Tbs

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 cups buttermilk ( I always just add a little vinegar to our regular milk)

2 1/2 cups flour (I use whole wheat but you can use white)

2 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups Kellogs All Bran - original (these are noodle-like)

Pour the boiling water over the Bran Buds. Add the eggs and buttermilk over the soaked Bran Buds and stir. Cream butter and sugar and then add the Bran Bud mixture. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt - add to the mixture. Add the Original All Bran and mix well.

Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes. This will make 30 regular-sized muffins.

New house update tomorrow!

What I Love About Adoption

We have a precious family - 3 biological children and 3 children born in China. I would love to have more, but that's a story for another day :0) When we first felt called to adoption, we had a few (many) apprehensive moments. Could we love any other child as much as our "homegrown" children? Were we too old? Would this child someday be offended because we didn't look the same? The questions were many, but the answer to all of them was that God told us to adopt and He would be faithful to prepare the way.

Randy and I are often asked to speak at various adoption seminars and conferences. I will never forget a seminar in Dallas as we sat in a room of prospective adoptive parents - we were the only couple in the room that had not dealt with infertility. A reminder to me again that adoption begins with great loss. I had focused on the loss of birth parents, birth country, culture, etc. for my own children, but the parents in that seminar had endured great loss too - the loss of the dream of having biological children.

I love the way God takes the hopeless situation and infuses it with the miraculous - I think He does this with every adoption. An orphan now has a forever family. A childless couple now has a child to hold and love. What was broken can be made whole only by a God who loves and cares deeply for each and every one of His creations. What a beautiful picture of perfect love.

A Done Deal!

We got the exciting news this morning that our house has sold - REALLY sold - no contingency or anything else that might put the brakes on. We also found a house that we both love. We know that God led us to this house because it is much smaller than we originally wanted, in fact it is not at all what we were looking for at the beginning of this journey. We will have to make some major "life-change" decisions as we proceed in the next few weeks.

We will sell much of our furniture, then go through EVERYTHING else and sell or give away most of the smaller things we own. We are amazed at how freeing that sounds to us! I have always had a picture in my heart of my yellow cottage house with white trim and black shutters. This house doesn't look like that now, but in a few short months, it will be the house I have always dreamed of.

We will also be able to pay off this little house in 4 or 5 years - what a blessing to not owe anyone anything. I love how God always brings the two of us into agreement on the bigger decisions we make. I was almost afraid to tell my sweet husband that I wanted this little house, and he was almost afraid to tell me he wanted the same thing! I am married to a precious man :0)

We will have one dining area, one living area, a large beautiful kitchen, 3 smaller bedrooms and 2 smaller bathrooms - everything we need and nothing we don't. Now, pray that the sellers think our offer is as wonderful as we do!

Once we finalize everything, I will post the "before" pictures of the new house. Here is a parting picture of the current house. I am praying that it will be such a blessing to the new owners.

A Fun Day With Friends

Mason and Molly attend a summer program at our local deaf church. This is something they look forward to all week. They make crafts, see Bible stories signed, go swimming, and more. Yesterday we all took a road trip to a nearby children's science museum. I love this kind of place even more than my children :) We saw robotic dinosaurs and watched a dino movie on the big omni screen. A perfect day for dino-loving Molly! The museum was not well lit so the pictures aren't the best, but the 3 M's are precious nonetheless :0)

Our house is still on the market - ugh, but we are praying it sells quickly and that a wonderful house in the country will be waiting for us.