Our time in Indiana...

Well, we've been home for quite a while already and I am way behind on updating!! I was pondering the wonderful memories we made during our time in Indiana and what a treasure this is for our children not only now but in the years ahead. I came across this post on Girltalk, one of my favorite blogs and it made me think of my mom. Truly, I think my mom could make a shack feel like home with all of her warm touches and hospitality. She and Pop-Pop make a great team...while Mimi is busy preparing food or painting little girls finger and toenails, he is busy keeping the other kiddos occupied with card games, Bocci ball, the 'washer' game, crossword puzzles, bike rides, trips to the park, kayak rides...I could go on and on. Thanks Mimi and Pop-Pop for filling our memory banks to overflowing once again. I apologize now for the abundance of pictures...there were so many to choose from :)
Thanks for checking in!
Mama B.

Mercy as breakfast helper- the 4 youngest took turns... L designated himself the official 'test taster' for every meal since he needs to 'fatten up'!!

A typical mealtime in the screen room ...it's a tight fit, but it works!

The kiddos with a robin's egg shell we found during a morning bike ride. One of my favorite things about our visits to Mimi and Pop-Pop's trailer are all of the opportunities to enjoy God's creation.

These hummingbirds fascinate me!! ...one of my favorite things to do is to sit and watch the wonderful assortment of birds which frequent Mimi's many feeders...the bird identification book gets lots of use during our visits!! We saw a variety of birds that we really don't get to view here in our backyard such as Red Winged Blackbirds, Rose Breasted Grosbeaks, Baltimore Orioles, and Red headed Woodpeckers....and my favorite: the hummingbird!

~P and Pop-Pop spent loads of time doing crosswords~

Savoring a sweet sibling moment

While the overall weather for the week was not the greatest (chilly!!) , the Lord blessed us with a couple of perfect beach days so that the kids could enjoy the lake and beach ...here's G ready to take a ride down the slide ...

Pop-Pop, Odesco and L on one of their kayak rides~

SPLASH!! P and Odesco enjoy some buddy time together :)

Flowers for Mommy...water lilies plucked during their kayak ride!

P, C, and Pop-Pop ....Male Bonding?!?

Cuddle Time :)

We attended "Streetfest" a huge community outreach put on by the church of Pop-Pop's nieces. It was a fun time with loads of free food, games, and music. Mercy made herself right at home and began plaiting the hair of one of her 'cousins' friends. These teenage girls were very gracious in letting a perfect stranger mess with their hair!!

After a rather long wait in line the 4 youngest had some cool balloon creations crafted by Happy the Clown! Of course the boys chose swords!

I think the boys would agree the long wait in line was well worth it!!

G chose something much more ladylike :)

Fathers Day!! Daddy opened a variety of homemade gifts from Mercy and the others as well. I had the privilege of honoring M the previous Sunday in front of our church family for the excellent way he is leading our family in the area of finances and giving. I am so grateful the Lord has blessed me with my man :) I am so thankful for his godly influence in the lives of our children...

I am also grateful that the Lord graciously brought Pop-Pop into my mom's life over 16 years ago. What a gift he has been to our family. Truly the Lord has restored the years that the locust has eaten!!!!

On Father's Day we went on a visit to historic Sauder Village... When Mercy saw this water pump she exclaimed,"Oh Mommy we had this in Libee-ra!!" It's amazing the things that she sees which remind her of her life in Africa!

Mercy says this basket reminds her of the one she used to carry clothes on wash day~

Believe it or not, at one time this was at one time Pop-Pop's log house...it has since been covered over with clapboard. One of the reasons we went to Sauder Village was to see the old log house that Pop-Pop and his family once lived in (it was moved from his farm to this location). Mimi and Pop-Pop had seen it before during a prior visit and it in fact had housed the Ice Cream Shoppe...so, we ventured over to the Ice Cream Shoppe and both of them realized that this was NOT Pop-Pop's old house-evidently the location had been moved...we were disappointed but enjoyed the yummy treats! Before leaving for the day, we stopped in the rest room and began talking with one of the employees who was changing out of her colonial garb...Mimi asked her if she remembered the old log cabin and sure enough she knew exactly which building it was. She asked us to a wait until she got changed and then she took us on a private tour of the house after the Village had officially closed. How kind of the Lord to bless our family in this way. He is the God of details :)!!

Our kind tour guide was even gracious enough to take the time to snap some family photos!!

Pop-Pop and our personal tour guide inside 'his' house :)

After Sauder Village we headed to the D's ('cousins') for a wonderful Father's Day picnic. The kids have such a blast together :)

A new day.... L finally agrees to give this a try without training wheels!

A dream come true...literally. L woke up and said he had a good dream ...he learned to ride his bike without any help from Daddy. Sure enough, this was the day for him to take off... a major milestone for our little man who was unable to keep up with the other 5 !! Daddy helped to steady him initially and then he was on his own :)

L also entertained us with his skateboarding skills!

And his love of wild creatures :)

Game time!

Snuggle time...it was COLD!!

Pop-Pop and look in action playing cops and robbers or something like that!

What a fun day we had at this science center and the best part is with our membership to the Boonshoft museum, we all got in free :) Also Mimi and Pop-Pop had a membership in Delaware to another museum and it reciprocated as well.

There was something for everyone here...a smaller hands-on section for those under 8 and some really cool exhibits for the older crowd...

This huge slide was a hit with some of our kiddos...others were disappointed as they were not quite tall enough to participate :(

In order to safely ride the slide, every body part has to be covered...so here's Daddy with goofy sleeves on to cover his bare arms!

The science center was not very crowded and when we attended the demonstrations, our kiddos were able to participate almost every time. Here's L, Mercy and Odesco being protons and electrons...Luke was instructed to say," I want an electron!" and Odesco would run over to L andrun circles around him. The funny thing was L couldn't quite get the wording right and said," I want an electronic!!" every time instead :) During this demonstration on static electricity Odesco volunteered to be a part of the 'shock' experiment after being warned that he would get zapped. A bunch of kids lined up...the first one touched the contraption you see on the table which builds up static electricity...he then took the hand of the child next to him and you could hear the shock (and the laughter of the affected child)....on it goes down the line...the man up front thought it was funny that Odesco's shoes even lit up when he got zapped...(we think he moved his feet, but who knows?!) C. leaned over to me amazed at Odesco's boldness and admitted that he would not have volunteered to be shocked...neither would I!!

A Fun Day for All!!

Early morning entertainment! As Pop-Pop was enjoying his morning coffee, he commented that we should charge admission to watch these guys play a game of UNO... with them it typically becomes a contact sport and often ends with me taking the cards away before someone gets hurt!

Day trip to Shipshewana...Mercy commented that this huge outdoor market reminded her of the open market in Liberia...here she found a bongo set and was not shy about testing them out.

~Taking a rest in the wagon~

The girlies with their bargain $1 sunglasses

L and Odesco sporting their new hats from Shipshewana~

My handsome hubby ~

Fishing...quite an experience as the little ones learned to cast...everyone LOOK OUT!! They are still learning the etiquette of casting in the midst of others....

C actually caught this fish but his cousin Tressa was the one showing it off for him!!

Uncle Dwayne, Pop-Pop, and Daddy helping to keep order (and protect eyeballs from stray fishing hooks) at the dock!

Keeping warm around the fire!!

Our annual tradition of making yummy cinnamon rolls for breakfast over the fire~

Scrumptious!!

Mercy and Tressa out for a spin~

Our handsome dude on Uncle Dwayne's boat~

Cute "cousins"!

Enjoying an afternoon cruise on the lake!

L --our resident artist at work sketching the bug he just found!

Bocci Ball with their little friend at the next campsite~

Our final night around the campfire...leaving is always so hard...the kiddos are already talking about next year. How grateful I am for all of these memories!

A Day at the Beach....

Yesterday we trekked to the ocean for several hours. The kids had a blast and the moms enjoyed reconnecting after a full year of homeschool :) We took the 'scenic' route home... okay, we got quite lost! The combination of sketchy directions, a foggy sun saturated brain, and the clamor of 9 children behind me made for an interesting ride home. Still it was a wonderful day and we eventually made it back to familiar territory. After racing to unload and 'de-sand' the van and 6 children, we piled back in to head to our Unit Celebration for the wrap up of our Tapestry of Grace coop. It was a fun evening :) I'm so grateful to be able to homeschool our kiddos alongside of such great friends who spur me on and keep me laughing. The bonus is, I love their children too and am so glad my kids are friends with them!!
Today we are busy doing laundry, straightening up the house, and packing in preparation for our early morning departure tomorrow to Indiana. I'm sure we'll have tales to tell of our adventures with Mimi and Pop-Pop!!

Looking forward to more memory making!
MamaB

I thought this lifeguard's stance was a bit amusing...he doesn't quite look ready to rescue... to add to his leisurely posture , he had a Starbuck's coffee in his right hand.To their credit I will say the lifeguards certainly grew more attentive as the crowd grew and there was lots of whistle blowing as the day wore on. When the little ones were in the waves, I was not comfortable being more than an arm's length away--just in case!

Fun in the sand and sun~

Before the tide came in, there was this little gully just perfect for the younger crowd to play in!

L had such fun reconnecting with the Mac family who recently had moved quite close to this beach and blessed us all with a surprise visit !

Mercy would have gone way out with the big kids if I'd let her...she had a ball being chased by the waves.

Surfer Dudes!

~C catching a wave~

Our 2 big guys :)

Odesco: Hold onto that sandwich...the seagulls would love to join you for lunch!!

My friends amaze me...even toting wee babes to the beach along with their strollers and 4 other children in tow!!

The 2 babes 'met' each other for the first time :)

Our Tapestry of Grace coop kids :)

Because we were studying the Oregon Trail and Westward expansion, we had a meal of beans, cornbread and beef jerky served on a tin plate before enjoying the 'real' goods...a yummy barbecue :)

Mrs. S reading aloud to some of the little ones...

The evening concluded with dessert and the kids giving informal presentations on topics we studied this spring. What a full, fun day!!

Catching up...

As you can tell by my lack of posts lately, life has been a blur in recent weeks. But it has been full of wonderful memory making and now I need to catch up and download my pictures before I have too many to post! Tomorrow we plan to hit the beach for a day with friends from church, we'll go to our Tapestry of Grace unit celebration tomorrow night, and Friday morning 5am we hope to roll out of the driveway on our trek to Mimi and Pop-Pop's in Indiana!!

Now to play 'catch up' since my last post...Memorial Day weekend we were blessed to spend time with our dear friends the C's. After an 8am baseball game on Saturday, we headed out to their home in Frederick Maryland . We slept over, went to church with them Sunday morning , and then left for Williamsburg, Virginia where we stayed in a beautiful timeshare courtesy of Mr.C. Between both families we have 13 children...1 of their sons is recently married (remember the wedding we were sadly too sick to attend?) and their 17 year old son was at the New Attitude conference. There were still 13 children in all because they invited 2 of their friend's children to join the fun. We had a wonderful time... the timeshare was a beautifully furnished , spacious 3 bedroom 'walk out'. We stayed 1 floor below the C family...next time we need to request the bottom 2 floors as our noisy crew actually elicited a phone call from the people staying below us. Evidently Odesco was jumping around and it must have sounded like the ceiling was about to cave in ...oops! Needless to say, we had to work really hard at keeping the noise level down~ This is a challenge in our own home with 'only' our 6!! On site' was an indoor and outdoor pool, miniature golf and unlimited use of an arcade. The kids had a blast and our few days together ended too quickly!

As soon as we returned home from Williamsburg on Wednesday we headed out to C's baseball game. Then we had to pack up the 4 youngest to get them ready on Thursday night when they would be picked up by Mimi and Pop-Pop for a 2 day stay at their house. The big boys, M and I went to our state homeschool convention where we served in various jobs all weekend. It was a whirlwind, we were exhausted, but the Lord sustained us and my parents who had a few challenges to deal with!!

This past weekend we attended a pool party for C's baseball team and believe it or not, I forgot my camera!! 2 of the coaches were swinging kids by the arms and legs and throwing them into the deep end. The kids were all lined up awaiting their turn. Mercy and Odesco, our little 'belongers', were right there in the middle of it all. Their exuberance and love of life were definitely enjoyed by many that day. To see their beautiful bright smiles as they sailed through the air before hitting the water did my mommy heart good. At times their energy level can be well, a little exhausting...and sometimes even exasperating as their their boundless energy can often be quite provoking. The Lord gave me a new appreciation for their zest and zeal that day ...these traits which can often challenge are also strengths in the proper context :) The coach's wife took pictures so I hope to receive those soon and I'll get my cyber boy to help me post them :)

Thanks for actually checking in considering what a bad blogger I've been lately!!
Mama B

PS: Some humorous household happenings:
** Odesco can still be quite challenging to understand at times requiring him to repeat things often. Some of it this is due to his thick Liberian accent but he also struggles at time to correctly pronounce certain sounds which we are working on with his phonics instruction. Anyway, as you can imagine, this can frustrate the little guy!! A few weeks ago L was asking me about something and although I could comprehend him perfectly, I had no idea what he was referring to. Odesco found this quite comical and commented,"Mom, you so silly...you from America and L from America and you still no understand him!!!" I think he was relieved to know he is not the only one in the house needing to repeat himself!!

** On the way to Williamsburg we stopped at a Burger King to feed all the hungry bellies. As I was taking orders for various hamburgers, Odesco emphatically declared, "I want a Williamsburger!!!" He was totally serious~

** For weeks before our trip, Mercy told anyone who would listen that soon we were heading to "William-S-burg". ...in spite of all our correction regarding correct pronunciation, she still insisted that this is where we were going. Before long, the rest of us were saying we were going to William -S - burg as well!

** The other morning Odesco exclaimed that he had seen a 'see-mall' bat in his room. (translation: 'small bat') he then went on to explain that it had pooped on him. Yikes, what in the world was he talking about?! He was quite concerned about this...I finally figured out that Mercy had killed a moth (they sort of look like small bats, don't you think??) She smooshed the critter and the guts got on Odesco's hand-hence the 'poop' comment!!

** I asked Odesco if he had greased up the other morning ...he told me, "Mommy, I always forget! You need to "remember" me..."

** The other day I took just Mercy and Odesco out on errands with me. It was fun just enjoying them without all the other sibling issues which crop up on a regular basis. I realized I need to take them out more often for a primer in 'social skills' . Mercy who is very observant, just says whatever comes to her mind in her typical LOUD voice.We had a few embarrassing moments--I guess the Lord needed to work on my 'fear of man' issues as well!! She now knows she can ask me whatever she wants once we reach the privacy of our car :) She also has no problems sharing with those in line with us that she is adopted from Liberia and that there are 8 people in our family!

** A few days ago, we went to deliver something to our neighbor. Mercy and Odesco were with me and they had never met our neighbor's mom before. Mercy spoke very comfortably this gracious lady explaining that her middle name 'Evangeline' means 'bringer of good news'...she then went on to share Odesco's full name and why we chose it. As this woman nodded sweetly, Gracie whispered to me, "Mom she's sharing too much personal information!!" Undaunted, Mercy said," I wanted her to get to know the B family!". Well, she certainly did- whether she wanted to or not :)
Hope you enjoy the pictures!!

These are old pictures from several weeks ago...Odesco asked for a Mohawk...so he got one for about 5 minutes :)!! All he needs is a gold chain and he could be Mr. T's son!!

Scary looking!!

Ahh...Mommy likes this much better :)!

Williamsburg, Virginia...After checking out the place, L struck this pose and declared,"Now, this is the life!!"

A 'quiet' meal in our timeshare unit.

The rest of the crew...

All 13 kiddos :)

On Memorial day we went to historic Jamestown. It was fun to relive a period in history that we have already studied. Mercy was thrilled to see this in the Indian village...it reminded her of 'beating food' in Liberia.

'Paddling' along in a dug out canoe. L says he's the Indian chief!

L and F...I think the armor weighs almost as much as these 2!!

Daddy and the gang taking a break

On board a replica of one of the ships the colonists traveled over in. A boy sure can do a lot of 'imaginating' with props like this!!

While viewing the Indian village, P saw a tree snake..Miss K bravely pulled it off the tree...eeek!!! We also saw several 'skinks'...cool looking lizard type creatures with bright blue tails. We were told that they can somehow detach their wiggling tails if a predator goes after them ...so they are able to scramble away while the hungry predator is left with a wiggling tail...pretty cool, huh??

At this area there were a few reenactors dressed and ready to welcome 'recruits' to the company. Tickets were required for this event so we just sat and watched from a distance.

Notice L and Mercy with fingers in their ears...they were like this for most of our time here. They were convinced the men were going to shoot their guns...as we were leaving and almost to our cars, the shots rang...good thing we were a distance away! As much as L loves artillery, the anticipation of the bang sends those fingers to his ears!

L Really wanted his head in a picture with the horse and carriage...couldn't get them both ..at least we got the back end of the horse...speaking of which.....

The kids didn't really appreciate the 'present' dumped by that beautiful horse left unattended in the middle of the road...

A walk in historic Williamsburg....look what happens to disobedient kiddos!!

We ended the evening in the historic area with a Dairy Queen visit...the folks behind us had their patience challenged as we attempted to have everyone make quick decisions regarding flavor choices...between wavering decisions and cash register blunders, it was a bit of a fiasco but well worth it :)!!


Uncle Fred taught the younger kids a little bible lesson on kindness with the help of his puppet friend "Hush Puppy"

Ready to head for the pool...what a crew!!

Fun in the sun !!

Ahh, the joys of homeschooling. I came outside to look for L and this is what I found. He was intently studying this picture from a book given to us about the War of 1812 :)

You can't tell but L had me take this picture because he decided to get 'shiny, shiny' with the coconut oil ... while his skin didn't appear shiny, he sure smelled good!

P is being creatively lifted up to take down the sign at the close of our annual state homeschool convention...who needs a ladder when you have an able bodied teen around???

These 2 crack me up...L is sitting in his 'wagon' (think Oregon Trail) and Odesco is pretending to be the horse...notice L's attire and gun (of course) to scare off any Indians who might attack!!

Happy 18th birthday, Miss Brittany!! That sign is Mercy's masterpiece...it actually says "Happy Birthday" in the midst of all the dots :) Brittany has been such an instrument of grace into our lives. She has offered to babysit various times so I can attend a church meeting with M or just to give us a date out. She has also recently begun doing Mercy's hair and she is quite good at it and much quicker than I am. I marvel at the Lord's attention to detail ...due to my recent responsibilities on a project for the homeschool convention, my time was definitely limited. Britt's offer to take over Mercy's hair literally freed up HOURS so that I could get this project done. Thanks, Brittany!!! You are well loved in the B house!