La Theatre

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA(Happy Birthday Moon by Frank Asch)

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“the moon” played by Abi. (picking her belly because it was nearing nap time)

“Bear” played by Rachael.

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“One night Bear looked up at the sky and thought, wouldn’t it be nice to give the moon a birthday present.”

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” ‘Hello, Moon!’ he shouted. “

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“But the moon did not reply.”

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“So Bear paddled across the river…”

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“hiked through the forest and into the mountains.”

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” Now I am much closer to the moon, thought Bear… ‘Hello!! “

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“This time his own voice echoed, ‘ Hello!”

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” ‘ What would you want for your birthday?’ asked Bear.

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‘What would you want for your birthday?’ asked the Moon.

‘I would like a hat.’

‘I would like a hat,’ said the moon.”

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” He went downtown and bought the moon a beautiful hat.”

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“That night he put the hat up in a tree where the moon could find it. Then he waited and watched while the moon slowly crept up through the branches and tried on the hat.”

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” ‘Hurray!’ yelled Bear. ‘It fits just right!’ “

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“During the night the hat fell out of the tree.”

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“In the morning Bear found the hat on his doorstep.”

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” ‘So the moon got me a hat too!’ exclaimed Bear.”

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“Just then the wind blew Bear’s hat off his head…”

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“He chased after it but it got away.”

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“That night Bear paddled across the river…”

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” and hiked through the forest…”

“to talk with the moon.”

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(Awww, look how sad. Poor Bear.)

“For a long time the moon would not speak to him, so bear spoke first.”

” ‘I lost the beautiful hat you gave me, ‘ said Bear.”

” ‘I lost the beautiful hat you gave me, ‘ said the moon.”

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” ‘That’s okay, I still love you!’ said Bear. “

” ‘That’s okay, I still love you!’ said the moon. “

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” ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY!’ said Bear. “

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” ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY!’ said the moon. “

The End.

– A part of reading comprehension in homeschooling, naturally. =)

– P.S. The girls were told to find brown and yellow hats from the dress-up according to their characters. Yep, my three year old returned with a chicken hat. We all busted up laughing. Love her! We flipped in inside out for “the moon”. =)

Wordless Wednesday: Advancement

In imagination.

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I came into the room to discover her quiet, independent play’s result.

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Love her joy in accomplishment. =)

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I also loved her artistic flare: 3/4 occupied rooms included a little friend taking a gander out a window.

– Oh to be three.

More Fluffy

As many of you know, we are a cloth diapering family.

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It cuts back on the cost of diapering one child, let alone multiples. And while this go around we’re not exclusively cloth diapering due to the additional (sometimes) chaos of having two babies backing up diaper laundry, I am still enjoying diapering my littlest girlie. We made an executive decision not to cloth diaper Little Man for various reasons, but my little Hannah is a fluff baby.

For those of you getting used to the look of cloth over a slim disposable diaper, the pre-fold cloth diapering world has come up with a “better fit” option allowing for just as much absorbancy without folding over your cloth diaper to fit into a cover. Below is a picture of what I mean. The red-hemmed pre-fold is a Better Fit pre-fold and the white is a standard cloth diaper pre-fold. When you eliminate folding the diaper, it eliminates bulk in the back (for a girl) or the front (for a boy), making your infant less of a “large trunked” child.

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA(Difference in thickness)

I explain this to you not to sell the Better Fit models (though they are my preference in appearance) but to explain why we have chosen the bulkier of the two and it has everything to do with orphans.

When trying out pre-fold diapers and coming to a conclusion about what I liked best, I stumbled across a website of a fellow cloth diapering Mom. Thankful to find free shipping and a similarly cheap pre-fold price (they really are the most cost-effective of cloth diapers), I popped on over to her “About Me” part of the page to discover her heart. She donates 100% of the profit from her cloth diapers to World Vision’s care of orphans and “the least of these”. While she is currently no longer selling cloth diapers (she closed down after 3 years of business due to time commitment shifts), she was using her website  (current website link) as a ministry to provide under-privileged families with a full stash of cloth diapering supplies. I admire the heart of this woman in desiring to be Christ in a very practical way. Currently, she continues to promote Christlikeness in generosity to the poor through cloth diapers through various drives providing diapers to underprivileged families all over the world.

So when there’s a little extra fluff in Lil Red’s diaper, I think about the orphans around the world who were and are being cared for from the proceeds of that very fluff. And it makes me smile at the hand of God.

– Practical orphan care beauty.

Perspective

So I just wanted to give you a little perspective on our family. We took this picture a few months ago when celebrating a kiddo’s birthday. Every child in this picture is 6 yrs old or younger. And this is only two families worth of kids. Yes, we’re that kind of crazy. 10 kids six and under!

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Oh right, and my sis in law is preggers too.  =)

Sure it feels like madness around here at moments, but it is a bit odd how well we all click in other moments. It’s sweet that everyone has a plethera of buddies.

 

This is a picture of what a generation of compassion for the orphan produces.

Thanks for laying the great groundwork, Barb and Rodger.

 

– Thankful, grateful and blessed.

Wordless Wednesday: Our Spiderman

Today’s nursery rhyme dress up day in Big Guy’s Kindergarten class. So naturally he picked something AWESOME for me to make.

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Paper says: “… Along came a spider, who sat down beside her, and frightened Miss Muffet away.”

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He was elated and kept saying “Ahhhhhh” while I assembled it on him.

He couldn’t have cared less that they were repurposed socks. =)

 

– Love him.

For What Breaks Yours

I’ve been chewing on this for a few days. I have been wanting to respond without conveying a heart of frustration or condemnation, for that is not my stance in any way. It is a heart of brokenness. It is a heart of compassion. It is a heart that I could not have recognized three years ago. It is from that changed, eyes-opened heart that I share this.

We were doing our regular thing, sitting there and waiting for our turn. She sat there patiently, beamingly. Soon the floodgates would open and it would be her class’ turn. She talks about it throughout the week. And she’s declared it for the wide world. She’s going to be a “famous ballerina who dances in front of everyone”. And while her pride radiates from her little soul as they dance her innocence is so precious. She doesn’t know it’s just “I’m a Little Teapot” to her it’s the greatest Russian symphony ever produced. And to my heart it’s the same.

She went in and I settled into my chair in preparation for the next half hour. A dear friend’s daughter came out of the previous class and frolicked about the hallway. Other moms and grandmas corralled their similar famous ballerinas. Today there was a new business in the air as the competition team tried on track suit outfits in anticipation of ordering the best fit. Awkward clung to the air as no size really fit anyone in the group of fidgety little girls. They were far too preoccupied with the Halloween decorations to understand the urgency of a perfect fit. The experience so similar to bathing a cat… while trying to brush it’s fur backward.

One voice raised above the crowd as sleeves were rolled, “Here are our band of orphans!” A chuckle passed among friends. But it began to strike a different chord in me as it was repeated at least four other times in the next handful of minutes from the same woman. Now I don’t know this woman and I am not the judge of her heart. I am not here to pinpoint her as a “bad person” or a “meanie” or a “hater of orphans”. But my heart broke in that moment and I haven’t been able to shake it from my mind.

I’ve been praying that God would help my life to be a witness to the beauty and the hurt of the orphan, ever since. I’ve been praying that through me God would gently move others to compassion and brokenness for the orphan, American or Foreign.

I used to joke about orphans too. I have even caught myself joking about how easy my life could be in the future without them. As if I deserve to pass the baton on to someone else. It’s easy to distance yourself until they don’t feel real, even when they’re living in your home. They can feel like the movie Annie. Cute. Approachable for an hour and then they return to their 1950’s spot. Romanticized and in the past. Past need. We’re so advanced beyond that now. Even when living with them they can just feel like “normal kids” as if they’re not somehow still trapped in questioning if anyone will love them for more than just a fleeting moment.

And then I remember the lice. And the skin rashes. And the misfit clothes at first introduction, And the gratefulness on Big Guy’s face to just have a fitting pair of underwear. And his own toys! That I would think of him when he wasn’t right there asking for something beamed from his smile.

I remember the cradle cap. I’ve never seen so much. And the dependency on a bottle hanging out of his mouth to feel trust. And how nonchalant Little Man used to be when I left him with others. But now he cries and clings to me a little tightly when in an unfamiliar place. There are now normal and familiar places for more than a few weeks.

And those are just babes from this country. Babes that have not tasted the bitterness of a third world country. And rampant disease, And shortened life expectancies. Or the bitterness of human trafficking.

And my heart cries out

“Heal my heart and make it clean

Open up my eyes to the things unseen

Show me how to love like You have loved me!

Break my heart for what breaks Yours!!!

Everything I am for Your Kingdom’s cause

As I walk from earth into eternity. ”

And tears well in my eyes every time.

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this; to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. – James 1:27

Lord, please teach me. And grow me. That others may also seek Your heart for the orphan.

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