Treasure Hunt

Today was the big day for our annual Treasure Hunt (well this is our second year but it was as much fun as last year). For those who do not know I homeschool my kids. This will be our third year and we are loving it. I have nothing against public or private school this what we choose to do for our kids for now. I am taking one year at a time with the option if it is too much to send the kiddos to school.

Anyway for now we are too busy learning at home. Since I grew up in Europe this is a new thing for me so I am learning as well. Like how the American school system works plus I am adding a lot when I feel they are lacking something like geography etc. This year I planned another treasure hunt for the boys to find their school stuff. I usually collect all of it throughout the year and then put it all together. We are mainly doing Sonlight since we are all book readers. Last year I drew maps this year I went with my digital camera with pictures from around our house and yard with few clues they had so solve. Here is Sam working on some of the clues.
Here are the boys trying to put everything together. One of their tasks was to make lemonade for everybody and they had to find everything they need to make it.



Here they are making lemonade.
Oh, and they all had to drink a glass. I guess that is one way to keep the kids hydrated (including dad).
The boys were in a treasure hunt spirit right from the beginning. They even carry swords and shields around (Sam had a backpack to put stuff in). Here they are attacking our tree out front to get another clue. They have such a great imagination.
And after they found the real treasure we all sat down for at least an hour to look through all the books for next year. We have a lot ahead of us.
As you can see it is not exactly "few" things. We can not wait to start school.
I am writing this post outside. I am sitting our back yard and enjoying nice cool evening. Man I love technology.

Beach Day

Yesterday we spent the whole day at the lake. Since Fil finished the work that needed to be done for his business trip he took few days off to spent some time with us before he leaves. This worked out great since Friday was a very hot and humid day. We spent the whole time at Newfound Lake. This trip the water was warm even for me and I have to say that we all were in the water the entire time. Here is Fil throwing his boys up in the air and they loved it.
And here is Emma busy playing on the beach. She didn't like when I went our for a swim. She just wanted to keep me closer the her I guess.
We all had a great time and we will miss Fil when he leaves for his business trip.

Time Line

I wanted to look back at our adoption time line. It seem we have been looking around at other blogs and chats to see how long everything takes. So I sat down and wrote down our own since probably someone will want to know sooner or later. I was a little worried about the next two weeks since Fil is leaving for a business trip to AZ and that we would get a referral while he is gone. We wrote our coordinator at AWAA about our situation a few weeks ago and learned that she will be traveling to Ethiopia at the same time while Fil is gone so we probably will not have to worry about a referral. Don't get me wrong I can't wait to see the little one but I want Fil to be around when we make the decision and not do it over the phone. I can't wait. Anyway here is our journey so far.

*We sent our application to AWAA January 29th 2007.

*We were approved February 7th and the official paperwork (Dossier) began.

*February 27 we received our birth certificates and marriage licence translated. We were both born outside USA and were married in Europe so we required translations as well. If any of you are looking for a good translation company we highly recommend LZTranslation. They are out of Texas. Texas had a very easy document authentication procedure for translations which was important to us. LZTranslation were very quick and the cost was very reasonable as well.

* March 14th we took I 600A application to INS.

* March 17th - 1st home study visit

* March 24 th - 2nd home study visit

* March 29th finger prints for both of us

* March 31st - 3rd home study visit

* April 22nd home study done, approved and in our hands

* May 14th Physical exams done. This took the longest to get done. We ran into so many problems along the way I will try to write about that some day. I laugh now but it was not funny at that time.

* May 18th I-797C approved . We received the letter the day after we submitted the completed home study (very fast). However, after reading it stated that we were approved but for 0 children. Since the INS office is only 15 minutes away from our house Fil made appointment right away and I stopped mowing the lawn put all the kids in the car and went to get this fixed. We all got a good laugh at the INS office about it and they fixed it right away. I am so thankful to God for the INS worker. He is so friendly and helpful each time we went.

*May 24th dossier done and sent out to Virginia to our AWAA office via FedEx

*May 31st dossier authenticated

*June 15th our dossier arrived in Ethiopia.

We have been waiting ever since. I have to give credit to my dear husband for such a quick paper pregnancy. He is very good at that. We have dealt with different governments around the world before and it is not an easy task. It requires passion (which I do not have) and also lot of information that keeps changing constantly. Thank you honey I couldn't have done it with out you. I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH.

Blueberry Jam

Guess what I did this morning? Yep I was busy making blueberry jam. I promised yesterday that I will share my recipe so here we go. I use CERTO Premium Liquid Fruit Pectin. I guess that would be the big secret. And I use the recipe that is inside (with few changes). Wal-Mart has the best price for it that I know of.

Cooked Jam

ingredients:

4 1/2 cups crushed berries

2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

7 cups sugar

2 pouches CERTTO (there are 2 in one box)

makes about 9 cups

1. Wash jars and screw bands in hot, soapy water; rinse with warm water. Pour boiling water over flat lids in soucepan off the heat. Let stand in hot water until ready to use. Drain well before filling.

2. Discard stems and crush blueberries (4 1/2 cups crushed blueberries).

3. Prepare fruit. Crush berries 1 cup at a time, using a potato masher for best results. Uf using food processor, pulse to chop. DO NOT PUREE. Jam should have bits of fruit.

4. Measure exact amount of prepared fruit into 6- or 8-quart saucepot. Stir in 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice.

5. Measure exact amount of sugar into separate bowl (7cups).

6. Stir sugar into fruit in saucepot. Add 1/2 teaspoon butter or margarine to reduce foaming, if desired (I do).

7. Bring mixture to full rolling boil (a boil that doesn't stop bubbling when stirred) on high heat, stirring constantly.

8. Stir in 2 pouches of pectin quickly. Return to full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam with metal spoon.

9. Ladle quickly into prepared jars, filling to within 1/8 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids. Screw bands tightly. Turn jar upside down for 5 minutes then turn it back up and let it set for 24 hours in room temperature.

ENJOY !!!

It is as in the instructions in the box except for the last part. Looks pretty easy so I hope you will try it as well. Let me know how it turns out.

Blueberry picking

Today we headed out to do some blueberry picking. I love this farm they have so many blueberry bushes and the ladies are very friendly. I got to talk to one of them today and she was very interested in our adoption. Isn't it interesting how people react when you tell them that you are going to adopt? So far I have gotten all kinds of responses from all kinds of different people. I always get very excited when people ask for more details. It's so different from when I was pregnant. Then everybody could tell that I was going to have a baby. This time around you can't tell but our little girl has probably already been born. I can't wait to see her. I am getting antsy again. Hopefully soon.

Anyway we picked over 12 pounds of berries with the help of my boys and little girl who was mainly eating from my bucket. She figured out very quickly that the blue ones are much better then the green ones. She did pick few from the bushes. We did very well and I will be making jam tomorrow and I will write the recipe I use.

Here are the blueberry pickers.
Emma looking for some good ones.

Quilt

I finally finished a quilt for Emma. I have to admit that it took a long time to do it. She is almost 2.

Ladies from our mother church in Concord held a baby shower for me after Emma was born. Since I already had everything I needed I asked for a gift certificate to a quilting store. I ordered all the fabric a long time ago but did not get around to it until this year. As you can see it is done and it looks great. THANKS TO ALL OF YOU WHO CONTRIBUTED FOR THIS GENEROUS GIFT. I even had enough left over fabric to make a quilt for Emma's doll.

I learned to quilt in Denver Colorado with my friend from church and I have made a few quilts since. It is always so rewarding at the end to see it all come together.

I made quilts for all of our kids so I better get started on another one.

Weekend

I am going to try to catch up what we have been up to. Last week the boys attended a Wilderness Camp about 9 miles from our house. It was a day camp so I was driving a lot again. They had a blast and on Friday evening all of us got to see what they had been up to. It was so encouraging to see all those young people eager to serve God. I am sure we will be back next year.Nate sitting in front of the camp counselors who were singing.
Emma on daddy's back. She loved all the kids running around. She was trying to keep an eye on her brothers but since they were in different groups it got hard to do.
On Saturday Fil took the boys mountain biking. He had to take apart his bike to fit it into the car so I guess our next purchase will be bike racks. Anyway I had Emma in the jogger and stayed on the fire roads. The boys tried some trails around and we all got attacked by mosquitoes. I forgot the bug spray in the car and it got really bad. We all got bites all over and I believe Emma got the worst.

Sunday

This was the first day off for us from church duties in a long time. We are usually at church around 9am to help with the sound, singing, or the kids Sunday school. Since we had no responsibilities this Sunday we decided to go down to Boston and visit City Life Church. We have been there before and it is always encouraging to see God's work. Afterwards we headed to to Qdoba's for lunch since we do not have a Qdoba's in NH. After that we spent the rest of the day at Boston Museum of Science. All the kids loved it including Fil. Here you can see Emma brushing teeth.

As you can see we have been busy. I am really looking forward to slowing down in the near future.