Have you seen this???

The kind gals over at 5 Minutes for Mom are giving away one of these. Ooooh, I sure hope I win!!

Can you help??

Just a little disclaimer: it is not my intention to ever use this blog to solicit 'charity'. Many of y'all have become dear friends and we simply wanted to extend the invitation to participate in our journey in whatever way you feel comfortable. I have had two bloggy friends mention that they would love to attend our Benefit Dinner Dance, but of course are too far away, so instead, they have asked to donate items for our auction. That is what gave us the idea to post this.
We will be back to regularly scheduled blogging tomorrow!!

Hello!

As most, if not all of you know, we are adopting a baby boy in just a few short months. Zachary Jacob is due at the end of May and we hope to bring him home shortly thereafter.
Tim & I are planning a Dinner, Dance & Silent Auction Fundraiser to help offset the enormous costs of our adoption. We will be mailing out invitations to this event in just about a week.

For now, we are hoping you might have an item, or a service that you would be willing to donate to our silent auction. Ofcourse, we can give you a receipt for the item donated, and your generosity will go directly towards helping us bring baby Zachary home.

Some items/services to consider donating:

Trips and Getaways

* Use of vacation home
* Bed & Breakfast
* Hotels and resorts
* Limousine service
* Airline tickets
* Hot air balloon ride
* Sailing or boat cruise



Sports and Sporting Events

* Pro Game tickets
* Rounds of golf or tennis
* Pro instruction
* Riding lessons
* Skiing lessons
* Sports memorabilia
* Equipment and clothing



Gift Certificates

* Restaurants
* Books and CD’s
* Clothing and accessories
* Beauty salon
* Car wash



Cultural Events

* Concert tickets
* Theater tickets
* Movie tickets
* Personal museum tour



Special Events

* Hosted dinner
* Hosted kid’s party
* Catering
* Music for a party
* Facility rental



Electronics

* I-Pod
* Digital camera
* Laptop computer



Food and Drink

* Bottles of wine or spirits
* Gourmet foods
* Cooking lessons



Arts and Crafts

* Paintings
* Drawings
* Prints
* Ceramics
* Fine jewelry
* Quilts and hangings
* Handmade clothing
* Art classes



House and Garden

* Antiques
* Oriental carpets
* Garden equipment
* Appliances
* Kitchen equipment



Professional Services

* Accountant
* Personal trainer
* Photographer
* Interior designer
* Landscape designer
* Computer consultant
* Lawyer (simple will or other service)
* Massage therapist
* Florist


Or ANYTHING ELSE YOU CAN THINK OF!!!

We would appreciate a reply in the next week or so. And we will arrange mailing/pick-up/drop-off of your donated item the week of April 9-13th. If you choose to donate an item, please email me at stacey_chik@yahoo.com and we will get you our mailing address!!

Thank you for your generous consideration.

Blessings,

Tim & Stacey

Please visit our Adoption Website:

Team L.I.F.E.
...bringing home baby Zachary one mile at a time...

Fostering the love of Learning Part 2

It is cheering that however miserable the environment, however many limitations there are to overcome or accept, the riches of good books may bring healing education. The light of new ideas and interest can be used anywhere and at any age for all persons. Books of merit are open doors to a lifetime of exploration.
-Susan Schaeffer Macaulay, For the Children's Sake

Since my last post on the topic of learning, I have been thinking a lot about the books we have in our home available to our children. We have plenty of good books, some "drivel", and only a few truly excellent books for our children. I need to beef up our home library!!

We spent the morning at the library on Friday, Emma & I. It was delightful. We found many books we so enjoyed together, but I found myself gunshy. Was this the truly excellent sort of book Charlotte Mason would encourage? Was this going to be an open door to a lifetime of exploration? How, without many hours to sit here and read each one, am I to distinguish between the good & the excellent?? (We needn't worry about identifying the drivel for it stands out like a paper plate in a china store!!) Yes, if I had my way, they'd have the books organized not by author or title, but by quality of literature. Can't you just see the stacks labelled: Drivel (a-z) Good (a-z) and Excellent (Books of merit that will open doors to a lifetime of exploration).

But I believe that although I was gunshy at the library, I am not meant to stay frozen in my tracks of indecision. I need to do some research, and make provisions for myself by ordering some truly excellent books ahead of time so they are all waiting for me in a nice little stack at the clerk's desk. That is my personality. That is how I can make this work, this business of enriching my children's education with the world of excellent literature.

Some valuable resources for reading to little ones:
Elise at A Path Made Straight - Children's Book Monday (always excellent, NEVER any drivel)

Soli Libri - a list of read-aloud books sorted by age

Snapshot - a Read Aloud Challenge with links to more lists

Callapidder Days - A Spring Reading Challenge with links to other's "to-be-read" lists (maybe not all children books, but adults that enjoy reading invariably support reading to children, so these may be some good leads)


What are you reading to your kids??

For the Love of Learning Part 1

I am working on a series about LIFELONG LEARNING. My husband and I are both extremely committed to this idea and we do everything in our power to make our home a place where learning is a delight to be celebrated and cherished, and not a drudgery. Please join me FOR THE LOVE OF LEARNING....

***********************************

"I think that no matter where your child goes to school, you can give them a fabulous gift for life by showing them that you LOVE learning and LOVE learning with them. " (a friend at MOG)

Pretty much this sums up what our philosophy is.

While we are pro-homeschooling and seriously considered it for a while, we felt God calling us to something else. SO, our kids are going to a little public preschool for the 3 year old program (2 mornings a week) and then for the 4 year old program (4 afternoons a week). And then off to fulltime kindergarten in the Catholic school where my amazing mother-in-law is the principal.

We have a homeschooling atmosphere and approach to our play with the kids. Books galore, field trips to educational/inspiring places/instilling in them a LIFELONG LOVE OF LEARNING. Afterall, that would be our goal if we homeschooled full-time. We simply hope to reap the best of both worlds by having them learn, pray, and play within our community and compliment that with our nurturing, educational environment here at home.

Down the road, I would like to create complimentary activities for things they are learning in school. (For example, if they are learning about the civil war, do things like: civil war costumes, age-appropriate movies & fiction books, family vacation to civil war monuments, etc.) Does that make sense? It is work, no doubt, but I feel called to this mission and I am excited to see it all unfold.

Here is an example of how it works now with the preschool set. Em is in preschool. And yesterday they had a field trip to the zoo. Now, the class as a whole is less educational and more play than we would prefer, but I think it is okay, because that is so neccessary at this age too! SO, the twins I babysit, our son Timmy and I all accompanied Em's class. And it was fun. We took lots of pictures and I think it helped Timmy to be with the older kids in his exploration of the goats in the petting area, etc. As a complimentary activity, today we are drawing/coloring animals we saw at the zoo, watching the Baby Einsteins animal video, and doing an animal parade. We are also going to go to the library to find a few books on some of our favorites from the zoo trip, like the iguana, the guinea pig, and the brown bear.

One of the markers of our success at instilling a LIFELONG LOVE OF LEARNING is SYNTHESIS. When we see cross-curriculum synthesis using multiple intelligences. All that is "teacher-ese" to explain the joy I felt when yesterday at the zoo, the kids saw the Brown Bears and began reciting from memory Eric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear what Do You See? book!!! THAT, my friend, is synthesis! THAT is a marker of an educational environment that has instilled a love of learning!

I am thrilled with the gift of participating with God in raising these little angels and watching them grow, learn, and discover the splendor of the KING!!!

I have a new job....

Well, not literally, but this whole adoption thing sure feels like a full-time job these days! (That's a good thing, though...I am NOT complaining!!)

The thing taking up the most of my time is coordinating our fundraising efforts. Whew! This is a MAJOR thing!!!

Go ahead and check out our fundraising website. We are calling ourselves Team L.I.F.E. , which stands for:

Love
Inspired
Fundraising
Effort

You can join Team L.I.F.E., too, just head on over here!! We'd love to have you on our team!!


Thanks for all your well-wishes and support! When things calm down a little this weekend, I will come back with another "regular" post!!!

Adoption Update....

We are pleased to announce that we are "expecting" baby #3!!!!

We are over-the-moon tonight after finding out that we HAVE INFACT BEEN CHOSEN as the forever family of a sweet little baby boy!!!

He is due to be born in late May and has already made his way into our hearts!!!

Please join us in praising God for the gift of life and for our new son, Zachary Jacob.

(Baby in Birthmother's Womb at 24 weeks)

Spring Cleaning Update

Well, here are the pics from my big accomplishment this week:

Bathroom "fresh decorations" (ideas courtesy of my friend, Leanne, over at: The Heernies )

Before:




After:




All we have left to do in here decoration-wise is paint 2 acccent walls the spa-green color to match these decorations. (You cannot see either of the walls that will be painted.... bet that just kills you, huh?? lol)

Oh, and yeah, even though I have freshened up the decorations in here, I still haven't "spring-cleaned" it yet. Yuk. That is coming. I hate going through the bathroom drawers and under the cabinet, but it needs to be done. Ick. (Can you tell I am not looking forward to this task??)




Okay, on to a room I have finished "spring cleaning".....The Kitchen!!!

Here are some before pics. Be prepared, they actually include dishes that needed to be done and oh, random mess all over that poor room. Funny how life seems to happen in the kitchen more than anywhere else!

Before:




After:











If you want to see more awesome Spring Cleaning submissions, check out Monica's place

Spring Cleaning Day 3

Well, I have been working very hard. You wouldn't know it to look at some of the more obvious places in my house, but, man oh man, does it feel good to have the grit from under the burners gone, the dust off the ceiling fan in the kitchen wiped off, and all the flat surfaces wiped down & decluttered! Only a few more things to go and then I will be done cleaning this kitchen within an inch of it's life! (Neveryoumind that I am distracted by cooking for a family of 9 - my friend broke her arm, we are bringing her and her 7 children a meal, while, we will eat at McDonalds this fine evening!!)Lol!!!

Pictures to come later!

Show me the belly!!

This is a fun meme that Stephanie over at Adventures in Babywearing is doing. Although it has been almost 3 years since my belly has housed a baby, I wanted to join in because it is one of my all-time favorite pics of me!!!

This is a picture of me about 8 months pregnant with our first child, Emily Rose:

And this is me 8 months pregnant with our son, Timmy Joseph:

We want to see your belly!!! Go on over to Stephanie's place and share your belly, too!!

Spring Cleaning inside & out...

Hey y'all. Well, I have certainly been away from the regular frivolity of blogging for quite some time due to some of the circumstances in my life that are quite simply: beyond my control. While I haven't been able to muster up anything at all to say, I have kept up on reading your blogs. It has been fun to focus on reading for a while and not worry about posting on my own blog since, I literally had NOTHING to say. (quite a rarity)

Thanks for all your prayers during this time for my friend, Angie. She is home recuperating and although still experiencing migraines, she is glad to be home with her family.

Thank you also for continuing to keep our family in your prayers for our possible adoption...still no word yet. SO in effort to keep my mind and body occupied while I wait anxiously for A.N.Y.T.H.I.N.G in the form of news....I CLEAN!!!!

I have just recently discovered a darling little blog that I intend to visit with much frequency: The Homespun Heart. The hostess of this southern blog's name is Monica and she has inspired me (probably by her initiation of an actual contest, y'all, for cleaning!! Say no more.) So. I will join in the fun and dutifully clean my home from top to bottom which I have already been working on, only now, I get to enter a contest for every room I clean! Woo-hoo!! And she has us finishing up by March 31st which is the weekend of BOTH of our lovelies birthdays! So, double Woo-Hoo!!

I also intend to loosely follow FlyLady's Detailed Cleaning lists for each room. But, I have definitely adapted it to fit my needs.

So, here is what I have planned:
March 5: Kitchen
March 6: Master Bedroom
March 7: Master Bedroom
March 9: Piano Room
March 10: Bathroom
March 12: Family Room
March 13: Hallway/Hall Closet
March 14: Emma's Room & Closet
March 16: Timmy's Room & Closet
March 17: Dining Room
March 19: Basement Bathroom
March 20: Basement Rec Room
March 21: Basement PlayRoom
March 23: Laundry Room
March 24: Scrapbooking Room

Wish me luck - I will be back often with updates, I am sure!