First Stripe

This weekend Pearl finally received her first stripe. This little white belt has been looking forward to the recognition of her Tang Soo Do training for a while. Her diary entry (which I am always permitted to read) described the scene and proudly recorded that all four of her grandparents were able to come celebrate her accomplishment.


Here is the big moment when her daddy wound the tape around her belt to make the stripe. She tells me it was her favorite part of the event, but she doesn't want to share the special encouraging words he murmured.

The stripe! We are so fortunate to have such wonderful families involved in Jasper's karate school.  They are excited about the ministry and make for great role models for little marital artists.

In her enthusiasm, Sapphire could not simply stick to throwing little punches and a kick in the back row ("ssss ssss hut," she always says while she does it). She had to run up front alongside her sister during the big moment. I think she was expecting a piece of tape too, or maybe just some applause. 

Here is our little domestic angel ladling off the cream from our raw milk, lovingly provided by Spot (the cow's real name) and her family.  Sometimes Pearl shakes the cream into butter, which she guards for her own muffins.

I remember watching my grandma manage milk in a jar like this one back when she carried milk out of her milk house each day.

They can be pretty loving in spurts! Sapphire certainly likes the idea of being a big sister. I should celebrate that I am able to sit on our loveseat and read to all three girls at once cuddled around me, a scene I always hoped would pan out when we were in the paperwork phase. Ruby's defense of her lap territory meant we didn't find our reading peace for some time after we got back from China. but we are there.  Of course sometimes a little girl gets kicked off the island because poking a sister is more fun than listening to the story. 

Ruby calls her Waa-wawa, and those of you who know Sapphire's real name can maybe figure that out.  We are very entertained by Ruby's developing language skills. At the table she can hold entire conversations in pantomime of absolute gravity. Food is a serious subject. Then she'll surprise us with whole sentences mashed together, such as Iwantmine (over and over), Iwantabite, and Idon'tknow. 

And, because I can't resist recording Sapphire's 'smiling' face, here it is again.

Pet Shop in the Deep Freeze

This week the girls have been playing puppy pet shop like crazy. Hours of moving little puppy dogs from sofa to bench to pillow. These little guys have the life. Fortunately they don't even have to go outside into the bitter cold.

We're not sure how Sapphire developed her crooked "I'm not going to smile just because you want me to, but I'll do this" mouth. 

Here she's cuddling her kitty that sometimes is said to scratch.

We stumbled upon an amazing and unexpected motivation for Pearl's school work.  If she stays up until 10pm for additional adult attention and cuddle time, she tackles her school work with gusto the next morning.  I assumed staying up late would make her grumpier, but it does not seem to, and she's been even more pleasant when I give her tasks. 

Our studies have included Jamestown & William Penn this week. I found some interactive coin games that she asks to do, perhaps not realizing they are school-related.

I feel like our week has been slowed down by physical ailments a little. Ruby has had an unfortunate cough for a week. She can make us all freeze when it gets to the "I might gag" stage.  I, meanwhile, pulled an arch tendon in my foot and have been tromping around like a troll. 


If anyone is interested in these puppies, I'm told they will be ready for pick up in a few weeks.

Bowling Buddies

This week we spent part of our family day at the bowling alley.  All three girls loved bowling, though the little ones sometimes forgot to watch to see if they knocked down any pins.

Amid the sounds of the pins falling over we talked about cheering for each other, and what we can say when someone doesn't do as well as they had hoped. 

The place was lively because the high schoolers had walked over for their gym class.

During our studies we *finally* finished our pilgrim book.  It had moved on to cover King Phillip's War, so we watched youtube documentaries about that and talked about why the Wampanaog people would have felt betrayed by the pilgrim's descendents. 

Now we'll move into discussing Jamestown. I read some pretty horrible things about John Smith, so Pearl is already aware that the romantic story about Pocahonta is hogwash.

We're just about done the Kaya American Girl books.

We watched the Disney Hercules and talked about the differences between that version and the Greek myth.

We used this week to review many ideas: reviewing addition/subtraction facts, coins, Books of the Bible, and simple fractions.


Sapphire had a very high fever over the weekend, so she sucked up the tylenol and tv time.  It peaked at 104 degrees, but came down by Monday morning, thankfully.  

If you are enjoying Downton Abbey and haven't read the story that quotes someone dear to our hearts, you can view that here.  

Port Discovery & Lessons

School has started fairly smoothly, though Pearl expressed a preference for playing all day instead, like we did over Christmas.  On Tuesday this week we tried to combine school with some serious play by going to Port Discovery in Baltimore. 

It has a huge, three story jungle gym in the center, and the three floors have a variety of themed play rooms: diner (with child-level counters & stoves), a toddler play land, an art studio, an Egyptian dig site, and a Greek culture & myth display, which we had prepared for by rereading many myths. Pandora and Aphrodite are her favorites.

We hadn't thought about it ahead of time, but Port Discovery led to sensory overload for Ruby. Just after we got there, about three buses of school kids arrived, and the noise shot up.  Ruby enjoyed copying her sisters in the grocery store play area, but she slowly got stiller and stiller, and grabbed her washy tight. We headed out into the sunlight for a lunch break, and when we returned from touring the harbor the schoolkids left and she acclimated to the environment just fine. 

We had been keeping Ruby out of the 5-10 year old super jungle gym, but we relented, and it turns out she did just fine. The first time she came down the two story slide, she was giddy with joy. 

They tell me that slide and the bagels for lunch were their favorite.  Sapphire was able to compare it to the Hands on House in Lancaster, and said she preferred that smaller one.

We fit in a unit on Greek myths and culture before that trip. Otherwise, we are studying colonial living (Diane promises to have us over to learn how to feather or [de-feather?] a chicken). We are reading the Kaya American Girl books, which the older two both enjoy.

Our musical study has, perhaps, gone in a dangerous direction. I put in the Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat soundtrack. Now Pearl won't stop singing the four lines she knows. I had to decide if I wanted to hear at least a whole song or just those four lines over...and over....and then Sapphire picked up about three of the lines, so it was decided. We watched the movie. Now they can sing bits of many of the songs. Maybe it is better this way.

Here's Pearl and her friend. They were *so* excited about the matching outfits.

For math Pearl is reviewing + and - facts, which are now called fact triangles. She likes to practice addition into the thousands as long as we stay away from subtraction.  I guess we'll get there eventually.  I found we also have to review fractions and other basics. There are so many things we have to review each day!

Finally, before I took down the Christmas decorations, I snapped a photo of our Jesse Tree. This was the first year we tried one, and it developed out of research I had done for the Christmas book.  We made our own decorations, hanging one on our tree each lunch or dinner.  Sapphire's favorite part was singing "O Come O Come Emmanuel", which we did each time. Ruby always insisted on holding the sheet music for it. Toddlers love rituals. 


A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
    from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
    the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
    the Spirit of counsel and of might,
    the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—
 and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. --Isaiah 11:1-3

"red and yellow and green and brown and scarlet and black and ochre and peach and ruby and olive and violet and fawn..."

Christmas and New Year

Christmas 2012 has come and gone, but we have reason to think fondly on our time as a family this year.  At the Christmas Eve service all three girls held their own lit candles at the end while we sang "Silent Night," with plenty of adult supervision.  The next day Sapphire woke up totally oblivious to the delights of the day, and Pearl had to work to convince her it really was Christmas. 

We enjoyed our homemade scone breakfast (a family tradition) and liberated a few presents. Later we met family at my sister's house for a very nice afternoon and evening. We were able to see the rest of the family this last Saturday, although Jasper's dad had to miss out since he is sadly in the hospital.

I went out with my brother-in-law on Christmas day, scouring the countryside to find a yard-full of Amish buggies for the book.  We did find some!

Ruby figured out the present thing right away, and she ate so much on Christmas Day! She was pretty scared of the dogs my siblings had at the celebration, but hopefully in time she will learn to love these "cousins."

Sapphire received a swim suit, and she wore it most of the evening.

The two big girls got a treat--they stayed over in "their" room at their uncle's house. Jasper and I went into the city with Ruby for a nice Indian dinner. It sort of felt like we were back in China--fancy restaurant, just the three of us, Ruby stuffing her face with rice.

Then, this week, Pearl had a friend sleep over, which is a fun treat. The girls did very well. A yard full of snow helped.  And last night was New Year's Eve, so we had friends over, and Pearl's best buddy came too. The little girls went to bed, but Pearl kept running into the kitchen and pointing excitedly to the clock--thrilled that she was seeing 10pm and 11pm with no threats of bedtime. We had a nice time with our friends too!

We're not quite done opening presents. The girls don't seem to feel any pressure to finish, and we like to take our time. 

This morning Pearl and I resumed school after a two week break. I think we'll ease back into it. We watched several youtube videos on how to cure animal hides as part of our Pilgrim lesson.  She didn't flinch when we saw a deer brain blended up for the process. 

Worn out by the frozen fun

Christmas Eve 2012

I think images might be the best way to record the Christmas preparations that have been going on here.

Easy Gingerbread House Construction with graham crackers and homemade, non-pasturized, royal icing.  I figure the egg white won't hurt us, and we're not going to eat it anyway.

One of these little girls likes to hide her cuteness.  Despite her face here, she loved the activity that covered the table in unmonitored candy. 

Later that day I got to head out to see The Hobbit with my sister and a friend. 

We all worked together to decorate the sand tarts.

The end result. 

We caroled some friends Saturday night, then, on Sunday at church, amid all her wiggling in the seat, Sapphire heard the pastor announce another caroling outing that afternoon. Her little head popped up: "He said caroling!" she said. She was on board.

Pearl: "I like that other people are happy when we carol. They don't get to see kids very often. Seeing kids makes them happy." 

Christmas Card 2012

I usually put a note about our doings during the last year in my Christmas cards. After writing about the decline of the Christmas card in the 21st century, I thought I'd experiment with a new image-laden format. I'm using blog names, but I imagine you can break the code. Froehliche Weihnachten!

My husband and I began the year waiting to hear about a referral after starting the adoption process the previous February. Our social worker was scanning the list of special needs children from China each month, and in April, just as we were thinking this wasn't going to happen, we got the call to open the email and see her little face.

Since then we've gotten to know cheerful "Ruby" (2). She loves to give herself little chores, like putting away bowls and throwing things in the trash for us. She's a bit territorial about my lap, but more and more we see instances of her giggling with her sisters. When she first arrived she didn't smile very much, but now a silly look will draw a smile from her, and she seems perfectly at home and attached.  She's celebrated some new holidays and helped us mourn her great-grandmother, my Mom-mom, who passed away shortly after we returned from China. Last week Ruby's four month anniversary with us passed by quietly; it all feels pretty normal.

In addition to entertaining his daughters, my husband continues working on his Doctorate of Ministry, and now he is in the writing phase of a dissertation about junior sermons. He celebrated the 10th anniversary of his karate school in January, and in June our oldest daughter started training with his great group of students. "Jasper" has rebuilt our basement steps with a friend and tinkers on the upper story of our barn--formerly a tobacco factory--as he turns it into a club house for the girls.  He thoroughly enjoyed our two week trip to China, where he brushed up on his Mandarin (I was very impressed) and convinced me we could wander about huge cities on our own, without a facilitator. He tells me his favorite parts of the year were the three trips with his girls. We continue to be thankful for our loving church family as we await our re-affiliation with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church sometime in 2013, a process toward which God has gracefully guided us.

"Pearl," (6) our oldest, delights us with her sweet, nurturing personality that makes her a treasure of a big sister.  She accompanied her daddy on a trip to Boston and came home able to read.  Now she's entered the first grade, and after a rough few weeks in September, she and I have developed into a productive team. She enjoys her co-op opportunities, playing with her friends, visiting shut-ins with her daddy, and spending whole afternoons engaged in complicated imaginative play that her sisters try to join.  Probably my favorite part of homeschooling is our chance to go on field trips all together, including Washington DC Natural History Museum & Zoo, Indian Echo Cavern, a maple sugar operation, Chocolate World, Sheep & Wool Day, the Renaissance Fair, a ceramics studio, a pretzel factory, and nature walks.

"Sapphire" (3) did not escape from our yard at all this summer, which was a blessing after the previous summer's adrenalin-fueled neighborhood searches (not that she got very far). She still loves to climb and jump, and she's the type of child who flings herself right into the creek no matter what the temperature.  Over the summer, even before our big trip, she developed a habit of rejecting her daddy's help and hugs, so in September he took her on a mini vacation, and things have gradually improved 100%. She's experienced the biggest change from becoming a big sister, but she's developed some sweet compassion and self-control as a result. When asked what the best thing in her life is, she answered, "Playing with my two sisters...and playing outside berry nicely." She puts people under her spell very quickly, as you can imagine.

As a lover of quiet, I struggle with the added noise of three children in our house, but since we can't build a sound-proof annex, I'll  have to make do. Much of the adoption paperwork fell to me, and I have to say it is very freeing not to be impatiently waiting for the next form or approval to arrive. The two-church Bible School I directed allowed me to used my super-powers of organization (all God-given, of course!), though it was hard to miss the last three days because of our trip to China.  It is such a joy to see the kids learning the song motions and singing their hearts out each day.

After sixteen months of writing and revising, I've recently submitted my manuscript about the global Christmas to my UK publisher, so hopefully I haven't made any insulting mistakes about Father Christmas! With the manuscript out of the house, I teach the girls, work on my two courses, read Nordic noir, and occasionally practice piano, which I'm learning along with Pearl for the first time.

And thus ends our annual newsletter. We pray that your family will find blessings within this Christmas season and experience joy and surprises in the New Year!