Sunday Reflections

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

Romans 1:20

Guess what Jo learned today ...

Our busy girl learned to walk today. Well she can take about five steps at a time. She is very proud of herself. She keeps giggling when she stands up and squeals when she falls on her bum.
And we are all rejoicing with her.
I found Jo this morning like this.
I guess she was too tired to play.
I am busy painting. Two rooms are done and rest of the house to go. This may come as a shock to some but I find painting somehow relaxing. On the other had it has been a challenge to feed the family when our kitchen is full of stuff from the other rooms.

Sunday Reflections

The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah. Lift up your head, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah
Psalm 24

Monkey Girl

My sweet little girl is turning into a monkey. She can barely touch the bars but she can do stuff on our swing set that our boys can only dream of.
She has so many angels around her. You have no idea how many times I pray during the day.


Each time I see her upside down I stop and pray.
She sure is enjoying herself.
I also have to add that Jo is very interested in the swing set as well (we are in big trouble).
This is my new favorite picture. I cannot wait to have it printed and framed.

I have been playing with my blog templet and header. I spend way too many hours on my computer to make it work. It is a work progress so bare with me.

Many Faces of Jo

Here are the many faces of our little girl.
Who can't resists those eyes? (daddy for sure)
Jo is doing so well. She has made such an improvement since we came home 5 months ago. I can not believe how much she has changed. Something clicked a few weeks ago and she is much happier then ever.
I remember reading about attachment and that it takes about 4 months to make a big step forward. Even though we never had an attachment problem with Jordan I can tell you now that there was a big change in Jordan after 4 months. She loves her siblings and she is so happy to see Fil come home from work.
She explores the house and is happy playing by herself. She also loves to play with Emma in her little kitchen.

She wakes up happy in the morning and from her naps.
She has 4 teeth.
And she can bite.
Jo is what you would say a very loud child. It doesn't help that the other kids are not exactly very quiet either.
She fits our family perfectly!!!

Yep she is a Steiger.

Birthday Girl

We have a Birthday girl. Emma turned 3 today and she is very proud to show everybody three fingers in the air.

It seems like yesterday we learned that we would be having a girl. She is a 100 % girlie girl but she sure can keep up with her brothers. As you can see she was Snow White this Sunday but had to play a game of basketball with Sam and dad.
She did score few baskets thanks to daddy's help.
But she also got hit by the ball and here she is getting comforted in daddy's arms (she is fine by the way). We are waiting for daddy to come home to celebrate together.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRINCESS

Sunday Reflections

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our suffering, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Romans 5:3-5

Lemonade

The kids had their first ever lemonade stand this Saturday. The boys invested the $20 they got from their uncle and they doubled it. People were very nice and supportive. The boys lasted until noon then they were done. It was a very quiet Saturday in our neighborhood. It was nice to spend time together as a family. Even Jo was happy crawling around and stealing water bottles.

Tomato Sauce

I am very flattered by how many of you asked me about my tomato sauce. I do not have a recipe. I typically add whatever I find in my fridge that day. So I hope this will help a little.

Tomatoes from my garden never make it to my kitchen. My kids eat them before I even get to them (I do not blame them since there is nothing like fresh tomatoes from your own garden). So I buy tomatoes for my sauce. I always look for second grade tomatoes from farms since they are much cheaper. The only thing wrong with them is that they do not look picture perfect. They are better for sauce anyway. I usually buys boxes of them since I am already going to spend time in the kitchen I might as well do a lot of cooking. I peal them first and this is the messiest part and most work. Drop one at a time into boiling water for 30 seconds them into ice water to cool and the skin comes right off.

The main ingredients to my sauce is a lot of onions and garlic (lots of it). I saute onions and garlic and anything else I have on hand. Sometimes zucchini, mushrooms, carrots, leeks etc. I chop the tomatoes and cook everything for a while. Sometimes I puree some or I just leave it the way it is. I let it rest over night and then I freeze it. I use 1 quart FREEZER bags lay them on cookie sheets and freeze it. After that I stack them on top of each other. I know one bag is good for one pasta meal for our family. I hope this will help you a little and have fun. I need to go get some more tomatoes.

Happy Sauce making to everybody!!!

Blueberry Buckle

Cake:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar (or less)
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
3 cups fresh blueberries



Topping:
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup walnuts (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 8 x 11 baking pan (sometimes I do two 8x8pans)
In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In large bowl, beat sugar and butter until fluffy. Add eggs; beat well. Add try ingredients and milk to sugar mixture, beating well after each. Spread batter into pan; top with blueberries.
Topping
In medium bowl, combine flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. Using pastry blender or fork, cut into 1/4 cup butter until mixture is crumbly. (Stir in nuts.) Sprinkle of batter.
Bake at 350 for 55 to 65 minute or until cake is deep golden brown. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan. Serve warm with ice cream if desired.
Great for freezing!!!

ENJOY

School Starts

School has started at the Steiger household. We had our annual 'treasure hunt' on Sunday and the boys have been asking, for sometime, when will we start school. We are starting 3 weeks earlier then public schools here in NH but I like to have some flexibiliy. I know some of you ask what we will be using this year so here we go.

I am mainly using Sonlight as I have done in previous years. We all love reading and this curriculum fits us. The curriculum includes

Bible

(I love 'God our Provider' by Sing the WORD)

History/Geography

I am big on Geography and I love that Sonlight combines everything together. We often read with a map in front of us and look each time a geographic location is mentioned. The boys are very knowledgeable about our world and I am happy about it. However, this year we also got 'Geography songs'. I do like all the songs however I did find a 'few' errors when it comes to Europe. Nothing big but being from Europe I am a little touchy about this subject.

Read Alouds

Language Arts

Spelling/Phonics

(Explode the Code)

Handwriting

(a reason for handwriting)

Readers

Vocabulary Development

Creative Expression

Science

Math

(Math U See)

Typing Instructor for Kids

As you can see we have a busy year ahead of us. By the way Sam did his first standardized test in May (after we came back from Ethiopia) and past with flying colours. I will try to post our daily school routine later on.

Sonlight's Top Ten Goals... (#2)

To create a learner's heart, enthusiasm and excitement for learning, a desire to discover.
What good does it do to fill children's minds with all manner of information if they never learn how to learn, or if they never acquire a heartfelt desire for education?
We want our kids to grow up with the same attitude and conviction Solomon had: "[Wisdom] is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her" (Proverbs 3:13-15).
When students want to learn, nothing will stop them from achieving their goal. But if educating our children is solely our goal for our children, we have to wonder: will they continue to educate themselves after "school" is done?
Consider the standard "social studies" approach to culture. Instead of having students learn first about things with which they are already familiar ("our community"), Sonlight takes almost exactly the opposite tack. We begin by exposing students to what is different and unfamiliar.
That way, you and your students enjoy the surprise factor, the delight factor, the ability to see, hear and experience things they wouldn't expect. That's part of the adventure of education.
Now, after they have become familiar with the unfamiliar, having created a "contrastive edge" against which their own culture can be compared: now we reintroduce students to their own culture. Now they can see it in a bigger light.
Besides our desire to create the contrastive edge and to instill enthusiasm and interest, we focus on the unfamiliar and "foreign" because we want . . .

Sunday Reflections

Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages. Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.

Revelation 15:3-4

Wii play, do you?

Thanks to 'Babi' (Lenka's mom) we joined the Wii family. I still cannot believe I said yes to this as I had concerns about adding a game system to the kids leisure activities. However, I am glad I did. We planned on possibly getting one for Christmas anyway. There are many rules in our house and this game system just added many more but the boys room and basement have been clean ever since we introduced them to Wii. Hopefully this new motivation will last a while. Here is Sam playing baseball. It is the boys favorite game and they are getting good at it (I on the other hand suck at this game).
Nate is doing good as well (by the way he picked his hair do on his mii figurine).

Fii (Fil) and Emma ready to bat. After the kids go to sleep both Fil and I have big tennis matches. My arm hurt for a few days ( I am getting pretty good at tennis). So how many of you are part of wii family?

Canning, Baking, Cooking ...

I spent the whole day in the kitchen canning, baking and cooking. We went blueberry picking again and picked 12 pounds of berries. We also stopped to pick some raspberries so I was busy making blueberry and raspberry jam. I also made more blueberry buckles and to answer some of your questions yes I do freeze them. They come in very handy when I need dessert and I am running out of time. I will have to admit that this one did not make it to the freezer but into our bellies.

I also make our own tomato sauce. I know our kids are spoiled. The truth is they will not eat tomato sauce from a grocery store so each summer I have to make sure I have plenty for the entire year. It is very messy but we all love it. I freeze mine and as you can see my freezer is starting to fill up.
I still have few more jams to go and a lot more tomato sauce but it will be rewarding in the winter.

Weekend in Maine

We spent last few days in Maine. It was a fun trip for our family and we got to meet many new families and friends (and some old ones as well), Tonya is one of the new friends we first met last November at SCC concert. Since then I have been following their journey to their daughter in China. We have stayed in contact ever since and offered that we would visit and help her with an AWAA adoption meeting since she is an AWAA associate (we also needed an excuse to head up the Maine coast as we like so much). It was a very special reunion for both of our families.

We were also glad to see our old friend from Ethiopia. We met Selam at the TH (transitional home) and her parents contacted us. We knew she was going to live in Maine and told her we would see her again in the summer. You can only imagine how glad we were to see her again. She did remember us and our Jordan. It was a sweet reunion.
Jordan wasn't so sure about Selam but she did play with her in the girls room while both Fil and I shared about our adoption journey. We got to meet another family who are curently waiting for siblings from Ethiopia. We cannot wait to follow their jorney and one day meet their family again.

It amazes me how many friends we met through our adoption journey. Here are new friends from the opposite sides of the world (China and Ethiopia) and living in United States.
Jordan and Selam playing together.
On the way up we made a few stops on the way. Here we are at Cabela's (this was a stop for the boys) .
We also stopped at one of the little towns on the Maine coast. They all look so cozy and inviting with all their little shops and summer activities.
Nate was so worried about his little sister Emma that she would fall in to the falls. He held her hand the whole time making sure she was ok (what a big brother).

I love the view from the park.
Here are the kids being silly after I told them I was done taking pictures.
And enjoying some free time at the park.

Emma was busy trying to keep up with the boys.
And so was Jo. She enjoyed her freedom. She has become a faster crawler in last few days.

Thank you Tonya for inviting us to your beautiful home. We had a great time and we are already looking forward to seeing you again.