Foster2Forever

by

ONE A DAY WORKS FOR ME

works for me wednesday at we are that family

No, I’m not writing about vitamins! (although those are needed for a working mom to keep up in a hectic life)

I’m actually talking about doing one thing a day. Whether it’s an errand, a chore or a load of laundry.

Back in my days as a single working gal in Houston, I became frustrated that my Saturdays were always busy with errands. I began making a point to do one errand a day so that I didn’t have to go pick up dry cleaning, shop for groceries, or run other errands on Saturdays. This habit became a way for me to spend Saturdays relaxing at home, and not hectically running around town trying to get things done.

When I made the commitment to run one errand a day, I found myself at home with nowhere I had to go on Saturday mornings. I could enjoy my Saturday as I wanted!

One thing I’ve started doing recently and really wish I would’ve done this years ago is to complete one small chore a day. Yesterday morning I put my sheets in the washer after I woke up and put them in the dryer before leaving for work. When I got home, I pulled fresh, clean sheets out of the dryer to make the bed. I LOVE clean sheets! Especially when it’s not much of a hassle.

An errand I despise is grocery shopping! I HATE grocery shopping after work when I’m tired and hungry and the stores are packed. Recently, I’ve begun using my lunch hour once a week to shop for my non-perishable groceries. Sometimes, that can be most of my shopping list and I can keep them in the car until I get home in the evening.

Doing one thing a day helps me cope in my hectic life. What are things that you do to make your life less hectic?

Y’all have a great week and take care of yourself!
Hugs!

by

CELEBRATING BEING A FIRST-TIME MOM

This was my very first Mother’s Day as an “official” MOM! I’ve been a stepmother for 6 years, a foster mother for 3 years; but this was my very first Mother’s Day since adopting Stinkpot.

The time I enjoy most as a mother is watching my kids laughing and playing, and I wanted this on Mother’s Day. Originally, I wanted to have a picnic in the park just enjoying the kids being kids, but the weather was threatening, SO…

I chose to have my Mother’s Day luncheon at…

CHUCK E. CHEESE!

My husband hesitantly obliged — He wanted to take me to a nice restaurant to treat me with a special meal.

But before you say I’m crazy let me tell you what I was thinking…

The kids wouldn’t enjoy sitting still in a nice restaurant, we wouldn’t enjoy making them sit still, and the meal would end with us making a mad dash out the door while Stinkpot made a huge scene. Not exactly my idea of enjoyable.

Tell me! Is that nuts? Should I have requested a nicer meal than pizza?

Here is my story…
When I was 5 years old, my dad took me to the old K-Mart on New Road to buy a gift for Mother’s Day. His idea was to buy her an LP album of her favorite music, but this strong-willed little girl saw the “Cinderella” album and just KNEW my mother wanted that album.
Dad asked me as he picked up a Percy Sledge album,
“Don’t you think she would like this one better?”
“Oh no, Daddy, she would like Cinderella!”

He purchased 2 albums & I ran excitedly to my mother to give her the gift I just knew she would love!

As she looked at the Cinderella album in her hands, I exclaimed, “Mommy, don’t you want to listen to Cinderella?”

“Oh no, Sweetheart. Why don’t you go to your room & listen to it?” And off I went, so happy on Mother’s Day!

So let me tell you – I had a GREAT Mother’s Day at Chuck E. Cheese!
(plus there was hardly anyone else there!)

Here’s a picture my husband took of me laughing with Lil Bit, our 9-month-old foster baby.
I’ve entered it in this week’s I Heart Faces photography challenge – Celebrating Mom.

Click on this link to head over to their incredible website & check out all the inspiring photos celebrating mom!


How did you celebrate Mother’s Day?

Have a great week!
Hugs to y’all!
~penny

by

BABY FOR FOSTER CARE ONLY…LATER ADOPTED!

On Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at around 3pm, I received a call from CPS for an 8-month-old baby boy that needed a foster home. “Foster only“, she repeated twice. “Sure!” was my quick response.

If you recall, that was election day. My husband & I were planning to attend our precinct convention that evening & were excited about the possibility of attending the Texas Republican convention again, this time in a presidential election year.However, this call from CPS changed our focus from that night forward.

A CPS investigator from an adjacent county arrived at our home at 6:45 that Tuesday evening carrying in her arms the cutest baby boy. His bright eyes lit up as he smiled at us for the first time. His bottom 2 teeth gleaming. He was wearing an olive corduroy jacket over his navy onesie with the cutest navy & white striped pants. He was wearing navy tennis shoes! So adorable!


I can only rely on my memory as I didn’t have the foresight to grab my camera.
(A mistake I haven’t made again!)

As the CPS investigator began telling us the story on this baby, we were thinking “how can anybody neglect a baby that way?” He came with next to nothing & had been kept in his car seat & dirty diapers. What a horrible diaper rash he had! (This is one reason we are having such a difficult time potty-training him now!) He was 8 months old & couldn’t sit up or even roll over! He was also very sick. (Look at those poor little sick eyes!)

JD’s sick little eyes when he arrived

That first night was TORTURE! He was so congested that he could only sleep 15 minutes at a time – ALL NIGHT LONG! It was the most exhausting night of my life!

The next morning I drove 1-1/2 to pick up my mother-in-law to help me. I had no idea how to care for an infant! (When pregnant, you have nearly 8-9 months to prepare.) I was an instant Mommy!
For the next 2 weeks, we had DAILY trips to Walmart to pick up some type of baby paraphernalia that we needed. I was absolutely, totally FRAZZLED for at least 6 weeks solid – overwhelmed by the incredible responsibility of instant motherhood!
As time went on, it became more apparent that this baby wouldn’t be going back to his mother. He did have a full brother 2 years older that was living with his paternal grandmother. The baby would have been sent to live with his grandmother, but she was already raising SIX of her other grandchildren!
Once the mother’s rights were terminated, the grandmother realized that we could provide more for the baby than she could & decided to allow us to adopt him.
Here he is on the day we adopted him!
What a handsome little man he is!
What a blessing he has been to our lives!

by

New Year’s Resolutions/Goals for 2010

Resolutions seem to go away the first week, but here are some goals I’d like to accomplish in 2010. Wish me luck & lots of prayer!

Spiritual
*Read the Old Testament – all of it – in chronological order. I found this really great One Year Chronological Bible at Mardel’s for $15. It is organized chronologically, which is really helping me with putting all the great Bible stories together how they happened. It’s like reading a great novel!

Family
*Provide a safe, loving Christian home to all my sons. My stepson graduates in May. Stinkpot, my very strong-willed toddler is a disciplinary challenge. We hope to adopt our foster baby boy sometime in 2010. (If you’d like information on fostering or adopting children in Texas – attend an informational meeting in your area.)

Homelife
*Get organized (somehow!) with cleaning, cooking & raising preschoolers while working full-time. I’m going to have to try this FlyLady thing again. To help with meal planning, I purchased this computer program –Dinner is Ready: 30 Meals in One Day – that I like alot. It puts together your menus & shopping lists by clicking on the recipes you like – you can even add your own recipes. Now to find the time to do the grocery shopping & cooking…(p.s. so far I have only been able to get this program to work on our PC with Microsoft xp, but not with Vista)

Personal
*Run the 5k in the Komen Central Texas Race for the Cure on April 24th. I have already begun training on the treadmill at work, but yesterday, I threw out my back…ug! Have any of you participated before?

Community
*Fight cancer in Central Texas by raising $15,000 for the Community Cancer Association at our first Quarters for Cancer event on Saturday, March 27th at Richland Mall. Anyone want to help or volunteer?

What are your goals/resolutions for 2010? Am I being too ambitious?

Hugs to you all!

by

REWARDS!!!

This week I purchased a Reward Chart for my 2-year-olds. I especially wanted to use it in potty training, but was hopeful that getting a sticker for “picking up toys” would be an fun incentive for both of them. (They are so competitive!)

It was both a success & a failure. At 2 years, my little ones just can’t see the reward in chart form; however, the good news is that they LOVE to get a sticker on their hand. A reward that they can feel & touch & show!

Stickers are GREAT! So far, Stinkpot has #2 in the potty TWICE! Both of them will now eat almost ANYTHING for a sticker! Later, I may find these stickers all over the place – but who cares? – they are currently model children. No more “terrible twos” hopefully!!!

Wouldn’t it be great if as mothers, we got stickers everytime we had a great “mommy moment”? Wow! I caught the vomit in my bare hands before it hit the sofa! “STICKER!” Boy, I did a great job in cleaning up that diarrhea all over the bed! STICKER!

But, honestly, the reward stickers we get as moms last a lot longer than a sticker. The hugs, the kiss good-night, the smiles & giggles will be in my memory forever!

As with motherhood, the rewards of following Christ can come with some sacrifices. As Christians, our labors & sacrifices will be rewarded. “God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!” (Ephesians 3:20, The Message) So God promises us rewards more than we can imagine! The best of these is eternal life through Him. We may have suffering in this life, but the blessings will outweigh our difficulties 100 to 1! (see Matthew 19:29 & Mark 10:30) Have a BLESSED week!

I’m Clever

Sway