Warning!

Turning 11 is hazardous to your health. It makes you turn quite orange. This is dd's costume for an orange birthday party she attended today. We paid less than $12 for the whole thing, including nail polish and hair dye, thanks to the Salvation Army store and the dollar store. The pants were too orange, so she used my bleach pen and made cool designs on them. She bought fabric at WM to make her belt and matching hobo bag. She's very into DIY.

Her efforts paid off, as she was the runner-up in the orange contest at the party. She won a $5 gc to Coldstone Creamery :-) Yay dd11, you go!

On the Eve of A New Decade

To My Dear DD10:

In just a few short hours, your second decade of life will begin. How time has rushed by so quickly with you in its firm grasp! 10 years ago, you were leaving infancy and on the brink of exploring life and the world around you. Today, you stand at the brink of young womanhood, as you rapidly leave childhood behind. I'm thankful that you are right where you are. One minute you are happily playing with a doll or other toy, and the next minute you are the hyper-mature, mothering young lady of the house. I am loathe to see you grow up so quickly, yet I am glad that you allow me glimpses of who you will be when next you stand at the brink of a decade.

My wish for us is that we will remain friends in this next decade. I know you won't always agree with me or see eye to eye with me, but I hope that we can work through our differences and remain in love with each other. I hope that we can respect each other, and learn from each other. I know there are a lot of things you can learn from me yet, LOL, but there is also much that I can learn from you, if I remain openminded and keep an open heart. Remember that you can come to me with anything--a question, a problem, a dream, anything you want to share or need advice about. I will always love you, even if what you have to say to me is upsetting. We can work through any problem--but hopefully there won't be too many of those along the way!

Dear daughter, please remember that God is your anchor. Stay firm to His truths. Remember that He loves you and desires that you will be a child of His Kingdom. I gave birth to you, but HE gave you re-birth. You are more precious to him than you are to me, hard as that is to imagine.

Blessing for my DD

My dd loves to sing. She's in a children's choir and has been selected to be in the children's honor choir for the ACDA-MI convention, in October. We finally got the packet with music and schedule in it, and found that it totally fits with our being able to observe our Sabbath and her still being able to participate. The music is sacred. The fun activities are before Sabbath begins (Halloween party!) Should be a fun time. I think every kid should get to participate in a music conference of some sort in their lifetime--preferably more than one, in fact!

In A Word

Gina did this on her blog and I thought it was fun...so I'm doing it here. :)

You can only use one word to answer each of these...no cheating!
1. Where is your cell phone? Table
2. Your significant other? Paul
3. Your hair? Old
4. Your mother? Organist
5. Your father? Sad
6. Your favorite thing? Family
7. Your dream last night? Wasn't
8. Your favorite drink? Water
9. Your dream/goal? Grandmotherhood
10. The room you’re in? Dispatch
11. Your ex? Who????
12. Your fear? Incapacitation
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Same
14. Where were you last night? Work
15. What you’re not? Home
16. Muffins? Driedcherry
17. One of your wish list items? Money
18. Where you grew up? Michigan
19. The last thing you did? Typed
20. What are you wearing? Birkies
21. Your TV? Off
22. Your pets? Home
23. Your computer? Laptop
24. Your life? BUSY
25. Your mood? Relaxed
26. Missing someone? Kids
27. Your car? Uplander
28. Something you’re not wearing? Socks
29. Favorite store? Christopher & Banks
30. Your summer? Cool
31. Like(love) someone? Family
32. Your favorite color? Rainbow
33. Last time you laughed? Today
34. Last time you cried? Thursday

Is it wrong?

My kids are both in a stage production this summer. The play is entitled "Auschwitz Echoes." You can guess what it's about. Anyway, the night of the first read-thru of the play, they met me at my work with their scripts. One of my co-workers was saying she'd like to bring her kids to see the play. A supervisor was standing there, and he was just horrified that a) my kids would be in something with "Auschwitz" in the title; and b) that my co-worker would consider taking her kids to see said play!

This really set me to thinking. How can it be wrong to teach children about past history, in hopes of not repeating that history in the future? How can it be wrong to teach children that bad things have happened to good people, but that there were people who cared enough to try and help as many of those people as they could, even tho that perilous to them? It's amazing how society in general can think that kids need to go to school to "learn to deal with the real world, how to deal with bullies," and other things they're exposed to in school--yet heaven forbid we learn about something horrendous that happened in the past.

As for me and my kids, we've read some very interesting age-appropriate books about the holocaust, and Auschwitz, and we've definitely had good dialogue about what happened and why, and the fact that genocide still happens in the world today. I hope and pray that I am raising children who will grow up to abhor violence, and who will be gentle and caring, and who will care enough about others to maybe be involved in humanitarian efforts somewhere, someday.

KISS

Conversation between my ds6 and another child's dad, playing giant frisbee at a friend's birthday party. The disc grazed the dad's nose, and he said:

Dad: yikes, that got me on the schnoz
DS6: where?
Dad: on my snout
DS6: your what?
Dad: on my proboscus
DS6: why don't you just say that it hit your nose? That would be so much simpler ;-)

That kid keeps us giggling, for sure ;-)

Budding actors

My kids have a great opportunity this summer! They're cast members in a play called "Auschwitz Echoes" which is being presented by Give Me Shelter Arts Education, which is an organization that provides creative outlets for people with disabilities. The cast is mixed--some of the members have physical or mental disabilities, while others are from the community. There are a number of younger members of the cast, tho my kids are the youngest. DS6 had his first rehearsal today, and the director and cast were all over him. He IS cute, you know ;-) We'll practice at home--his lines are easy but he has a number of cues he needs to pay attention to for actions. I think it'll be fun watching it all come together, even if it does mean lots of sitting thru rehearsals between now and the end of August! The closest I've ever been to theater is playing in the pit orchestra, and of course, the rehearsing for that is much different from that of the people on stage.

I'm also perusing the library for children's books on the Holocaust and Auschwitz. I found a few in my first cursory exploration, but I need to get online and find more. I think my kids are starting to get a sense of what it was all about.