an Easter season datebook

Outside my window...beautiful spring...a bit cloudy at the moment, but it's set to be a beautiful week, highs in the 70's.

I am hearing...not a thing except the occasional car drive by or bird chirp. Everyone is still asleep. Ahhhhh....

I am thinking...that I smell gasoline. And now I see dh's work gloves sitting on the computer desk. Hmmm...

I am thankful for...a good night's sleep. They are harder to come by the lately.

I am wearing...khaki pajama shorts, a pink tshirt

We are currently reading...Kain and I are *almost* finished with the Long Winter. Oh, this book makes me cry. The images of Pa, slowly starving over that winter, coming in from doing chores with chapped, cut hands and being so hungry that "his eyes glittered" at the umpteenth meal of potatoes and brown bread...poor thin, pale
Carrie still weak from the scarlet fever that blinded Mary...

I am praying...for this Russian boy and the mother that adopted him. I'm afraid I don't have the same outlook, exactly, as most people on this story. Don't get me wrong, the way she handled this boy's return is pretty ridiculous and sad, but just trust me on this one, unless you have personally tried to raise a damaged child, please just pray for her. You can't possibly get what it's like unless you've been there. No, having a family member who did it or working with special needs kids is not the same. I'm talking about day in/day out ugliness of dealing with these children on a 24/7 basis. It's not the same. And all the people who are saying she should have "gotten some help" are naive. There is no help. Trust me. Kain is on his fourth therapist, and his sixth month in therapeutic day treatment, and nothing has helped much. The "professionals" have no better idea of what to do with these kids than anyone else. It's ugly trail and error, and lots of tearful prayers. I'm weary of weepy social workers moaning and sighing on TV for these children. It's useless. If you want to help these children, get more support for the families that are trying to raise them. Because it's a lonely business, let me tell you. These kids tear your life apart while you are trying to fix theirs. Yes, the mom should have handled it much differently. But I can't say I've never fantisized about doing something similar. Anyone who doesn't understand that and thinks they have all the answers to fix these kids needs to go and adopt an older, damaged child and fix them up, quick, while they still know everything. And that's the end of that rant.

Pondering these words...
A girl is Innocence playing in the mud, Beauty standing on its head, and Motherhood dragging a doll by the foot.
Alan Marshall Beck


Latest on the babies...Hmmmm, I'm sorry? What baby would that be? Oh, yes, the baby that is DUE RIGHT NOW? Well, we're not obsessing about that at all, I can promise you, because if it's one thing I've learned by my 4th pregnancy, it's that you are a damned fool if you put your life on hold and enter that baby limbo stage where you spend every minute of every day expecting to go into labor, getting an adrenaline rush every time you have a couple of contractions because you are foolish enough to think this might really be "it" this time. No sir, we aren't doing that nonsense around here.

From the kitchen...clean dishes, mostly, and freezer meals.

Around the house...clean laundry, as close to daily as I can manage it.

In the learning room...plans, actually. I'm in the mood to plan, and looking forward to some fun things for Jack and Tess this summer. Still haven't made that PECS schedule for Jack, shame on me. But I will, and I'll share pictures of it when I'm done.

In the garden- It's all about John keeping up with yard work now, grass growing like mad from spring rain. I'm doing nothing. :)

Plans for the rest of the week... um...well...dare I hope for the obvious? Otherwise,,,life as usual, with as many unneeded activities cut out as I can manage. Kain tested out of OT, so he's done with that (yay!). Kain still has behavioral therapy, Jack's therapies go on too of course, co-op day on Thursday (only two left this year!), and, if still needed, another midwife appointment on Friday (sigh).

Pictures...oh my, I finally emptied my camera! Yay!