Not Much of Anything

Well, things have been rather dull around here lately.

Not a lack of busyness, mind you.

Just same old stuff type of busyness.

Nothing much worth blogging about.

Other than, I guess with all the insanity in this house the last several months, boring is GOOD.

Jacob has some changes coming. He will be starting a paper route tomorrow. And sometime in the near future he will be getting braces.

Josiah is keeping his pants dry most of the time. And has decided that he loves Kai-Lan. Must remind him of someone dear to him, I guess. He continues to crack us up with his off the wall comments. Today, he picked up his toy dog and said "He's a very active puppy". We kind of stared at him in disbelief for a minute (I mean, the kid is TWO for goodness sake - where does he come up with these words?). Then we realized he was quoting this Arthur book he loves.

James is enjoying X-country, improving every week, and consistently beating a few of the juniors and seniors he's running with. Loving youth group, probably as much for the free dinner as for the Bible study and social part of it.

Lanie had a photo shoot for some Japanese modeling agencies that come on base to find American faces to put on their stuff. We'll see if anything comes of it. It looks like as she wraps up the soccer season she'll be picking up volleyball.

Abby's English is improving more each day. I am learning more and more each day about how she best learns, and I'm able to help her move along even more as I figure this out. This teaching thing is really a dance, a back and forth between teacher and student. I wondered for a while if she wouldn't get so much more out of a regular classroom, but I really think the one on one from someone who can really get to know her learning styles is more beneficial right now. I also think it's great for her to have the added family time. I have finally realized that even though she can read pretty fluently at this point, making all the right sounds, obviously a lot of the meaning behind what she is saying escapes her. Just because she can say the right words doesn't mean she understands them. So if I hand her something and ask her to read it, even though she can technically read it - the understanding is not always there. We're taking a lot more time to read together, to make sure she can "get" what she is reading. I am still in complete awe at the fact that this sweet girl has only been learning English for less than 9 months, and she can do as much as she can. As a matter of fact, her English has come such a long way that I sometimes forget she is still a language learner and ask WAY too much from her. She's too smart for her own good, I'm telling you. So this teaching "dance" is a work in progress, and we're both learning in the process.

Another noteworthy piece of Abby news: today, she was talking about not being able to choose her clothes when she was in the orphanage. I guess there were only a couple of dresses or skirts available, and that's what she always longed to wear. But it was a random pick by the nannies, and so she just got to wear what was handed to her. I asked if she ever told the nannies that she really wanted to wear the dresses, and she said she hadn't. She said there was this one really cute outfit in particular for the boys, and all the boys always wanted to wear that one. Anyways, this discussion led to talk about perhaps sending some clothes to the orphanage, as we thought it would be fun to send some "cute" things for the kids to wear. Abby was very excited about that possibility, so I'll have to look into it and see if it is possible.

And I guess that's a lot more than the nothing I thought I had to share : )