Simplify, Organize & Economize

Back by popular demand....(do two requests constitute popular demand...um???)

You may remember, last year before Isabelle came home, I launched a blog named Simplify, Organize, Economize. The idea behind the blog was to share any ideas I found to simplify my life as a full-time wife, mother to five, homeschool mom, part-time bookkeeper from home, small farm entrepreneur, etc. Needless to say the blog was short-lived; however, I thought it would be fun to share some of those ideas on this blog.

Here's my first "Economize" Tip. I just discovered this website last night!!

You may be familiar with Groupon, a website that offers daily discounted deals based on your geographic area. This brand-new site is similar but offers local savings on kid-friendly attractions in your area.

Yesterday I purchased a $25 annual family membership to the Latta Raptor Center, just 15 minutes from our home. I'm thrilled since we are planning a raptor unit study in homeschool this year.



Here's a summary from Savvy Savings on how it works:

How Savvy Savings and Scholarships Works
The Savings: Each week, we offer parents a significant savings on a fun, family-friendly activity selected by our Savvy Source editors. Once enough people have signed up to purchase, the Savings and Scholarships offer becomes active. We store your receipt of purchase in your online Savvy Savings account, where you can easily find it to print now or save for later. Check out today's offers now!

The website only offers deals to limited cities so far, but it's worth checking out the site to see if they offer deals near you!
Savvy Savings

Chenzhou Sisters' Reunion

Lanie, Sarah Mei and Lilly - Sisters for Life!!

At least once or twice a year we get together with Sarah Mei's Chenzhou "sisters". These are the sweet little girls that shared the first months of life with Sarah Mei in the Chenzhou orphanage before we even met her. God blessed our families with the miracle of living only a few hours from each other.

Saturday the Barbee and Bryant families made the trek to our farm for a day of food and laughter with our 17 children...yes, 17 children!! Only 15 made it to the farm that day. Torie is in Austria and Trey, the Barbee's oldest, was recovering from an all-night church lock-in, but it was still a squealing, energetic crowd.

Last fall when we had our reunion, we had 14 children. And by God's grace each of our families have had the privilege of adding to our families, once again, through the miracle of adoption. So not only was it a reunion, but an introduction of three new children to the craziness of the Barbee/Bryant/Horton picnics!!

Hudson and Isabelle - both two - came home this year.

And Mia, with the kindest, most compassionate heart, also came home this year!


After eating and relaxing for a little while, the cry rang out for pony rides...

Lanie got her helmet adjusted.


Ellie was beaming the whole time she was riding.


You can tell we have a household of girls. Poor Hudson was subjected to wearing a pink helmet, but judging by his smile, he didn't seem to mind.



The older siblings are always so patient with all the younger children. Here Jillian is showing Sarah Mei how to use a glove. A first for Sarah Mei.

At the end of the day we corralled all the children together for a picture on the front porch. Lesson learned...take the group picture before 7 hours of hard play on the farm. Despite a few tears and a lot of dirty smudges, these sweet faces make my heart sing! Thank you Lord for allowing us to be a part of your plan.

A Lesson in Trust

Phil and I had a lesson in faith for the last 72 hours.

A lesson in putting into practice what we say we believe.

A lesson in trusting the Lord when we had NO control.

Torie left on an airplane headed for Chicago on Thursday morning at 6 a.m. Her final destination, Bible College in Schladming, AUSTRIA.

And that's where the odyssey and the trusting began...

We are blessed to have a friend who allowed Torie to fly on a buddy pass to Austria. The perk of that is it is much less expensive and usually you fly business class...ahhhh....the extra space,

the down-side....you fly stand-by.

We got a call from Torie, from Chicago, on Thursday afternoon. All the flights to Munich and Frankfurt were oversold. Our original plans were to have her fly to one of those cities and take either a 4 or 8 hour train ride, respectively, to Salzburg Austria. It looked like the flights were going to be sold out through the weekend, so we decided to just have her fly back to Charlotte and begin a Plan B.

The next thing we knew, a United agent called and said they were able to get Torie on a flight to Amsterdam and she's in the air.

That' good news and bad news....

Good news...at least she'll be in Europe

Bad news....it will be a 15 hour+ train ride to Salzburg, Austria...ugh

The next phone call we got was at 4:00 a.m., oh yeah, there's a 6 hour time difference between us and Europe. Torie found the train station easily located in the airport and was planning on buying a ticket to Salzburg. She'd call us when she arrived in Salzburg. ETA - 15 1/2 hours.

Bad news...her luggage is lost...evidently it's on the way to Frankfurt.



After a day with no word, I was at our church women's breakfast and I mentioned our "little" concern. The women stopped right in the middle of everything and prayed for Torie. I LOVE the body of Christ!!

After returning home we patiently waited for the phone to ring and we waited, and we prayed, and we waited, and we prayed. Still no word.

Two days later, still no word, and I'm spending time with the Lord and I pray these verses over Torie:

"But let (Torie) who takes refuge in You be glad: let (her) ever sing for joy. Spread Your protection over (her)...." Ps. 5:11 a

I make a call to the U.S. Embassy in Amsterdam and explain the situation. I ask if we can confirm if she ever got on the train in Amsterdam, but since she paid cash there is no record.

So we wait some more...

Finally 72 hours later...we get a call...I am SO sorry but you won't believe what happened....

The story from her end unfolded....

Once Torie boarded her train for Salzburg, she shared a car with an elderly couple who spoke no English. She said at first she was guarded and just took cat naps, but finally exhaustion overtook her.

She finally put her passport "tucked upon her person" as I shall delicately put it(You Go Girl!! You got to love that girl's resourcefulness)and fell into a deep sleep. She slept SO soundly that she slept through her train change-over. Yes, that means she slept for more than 15 hours. ONLY a college-age student can do that on a strange train in another country!

When she finally woke up it was to a woman barking in her car that it was the end of the line and she had to get off. She had slept through her stop and evidently many more.

Praise God she disembarked the train just to discover their was a train leaving in 15minutes that would take her back to Salzburg. So 21+ hours later she ended up in Salzburg.

From Salzburg she bought another train ticket to Schaldming (her final destination), and 1 1/2 hours later arrived in Schladming.

Exhausted, still in her lovely black skirt and heels, she got off the train ready to hike into town (at least a 15-20 min.hike). Lo and behold, at that exact moment, Erin from Nevada (whom she had never met before) came by the train station also bound for the Bible College and they were able to ride into town together.

Erin showed her where to stay in town (the College dorms weren't open until Sunday evening) and then they scouted out a restaurant.

Praise God that Torie made it safely to Schladming, Austria and that she met another student from the Bible College from the moment she stepped off the train...

not only was it another student but a big, strapping, 6'4" take charge guy, who took Torie under his wing when she was exhausted and needed someone to come alongside her.

....I prayed..."spread Your protection over her..." and the Lord sent someone in the flesh!! I love that we serve a God who is into the details of our life!

During the wait when we didn't know where she was, the Lord kept whispering to me...do you really believe what you say you believe? She is not alone..."I am with her to the ends of the earth."

It sounds a bit melodramatic now that she is safely at the Bible College, but let me tell you...when your 20 year old daughter is "lost" in Europe for 72 hours with NO contact with you...it's not a good feeling!

Being "out of control" is not an emotion that I am comfortable with, but it was a great lesson, once again, that my trust can only be in the One who is REALLY in control! Thinking I'm ever in control is only an illusion.



And now Torie gets to "suffer" in the beauty of Schladming, Austria for the next three months stuyding God's Word...that's the life!! (Oh and by the way...she still doesn't have her luggage. She may get REALLY tired of that lovely black skirt and heels!)

14 Years of Homeschooling and Butterflies!!

In July we kicked off my 14th year of homeschooling. It's hard to believe I've been homeschooling that long!

Michaela aspires to graduate early from high school, so she can pursue her nursing degree and get on the mission field. I think she'd go to Africa today, in full-time missions, if we'd let her. Due to her intensity, she completed a health class this summer and is accumulating hours to earn a Congressional Medal in hopes of being awarded a college scholarships. After a busy summer, she has a few weeks to enjoy some R&R before her tough academics begin with classes taken in an on-line classroom called Potter School which includes students literally from around the world. Those classes will begin September 13th.

Michaela and Zoe, our Australian Shepard



AnnaGrace has been in full swing with Math and Language Arts for weeks and is excited to begin her My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures curriculum She has a sweet friend, Hannah, who lives in Florida (and shares the international adoption story, having been adopted from Romania) who "meets" with AnnaGrace, via Skype, weekly to discuss what they've learned about the country they've studied each week. I'm thrilled for this extra interaction for her homeschool.

My most exciting homeschool moment was buying NEW kindergarten curriculum. My K-5 curriculum that I used with Torie, Michaela and AnnaGrace was perfectly good; however, I was SO tired of teaching it. I splurged and bought brand new, My Father's World kindergarten curriculum. I'm not sure who is more excited...Sarah Mei or me??

So far she has learned the letters "S" and "M" corresponding with her name "Sarah"..."Mei".

1st day of school in July.



To start the year, in July, we did a unit study on butterflies. In this photo you can see the girls posing with their paper butterfly creation and their butterfly pins on their shirts.



Needless to say we were thrilled, when last week, SarahMei's hematology clinic asked Sarah Mei to represent them at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden's kick-off of the Something's A-Flutter exhibit. Of course we readily agreed so Tuesday - Torie, AnnaGrace, SarahMei, Isabelle and I were allowed to release butterflies into the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden's butterfly enclosure. Only five children were present so our three youngest girls had lots of opportunities to participate. (Michaela missed out on the fun since she had a volleyball game.)

An extra bonus was waking up to the following photo of Sarah Mei on the cover of the Local section of the Charlotte Observer newspaper:

Sarah Mei was trying to coax the Monarch Butterfly onto her finger..



The following photos were on the Charlotte Observer website:

This is an amazing photo of a monarch butterfly emerging from a chrysalis. All of the photos are courtesy of John D. Simmons of the Charlotte Observer.



Here we are looking at Monarch caterpillars. It was fun for the girls to see the egg stage, caterpillar stage, chrysalis and butterflies.



Isn't this photo beautiful!



A butterfly landed on Isabelle's dress just moments before this photo. When the butterfly flew away, Isabelle was trying to catch it!



This was one of our BEST homeschool field trips ever. Special thanks to Blume Hematology clinic and Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens!

Another Long Medical Week Followed by Some FUN!

The week started as most of our weeks do....with more Dr.'s appointments. Wednesday, AnnaGrace had an MRI, under general anesthesia, to rule out any brain lesions/tumors. This was an unexpected blip on our radar. Annie has been our healthy one all year; however, several weeks ago, following an EEG for some miscellaneous symptoms, a follow-up MRI was ordered.

Praise God AnnaGrace's MRI results were all-clear!

The bright side of the MRI...we saw the inside of yet a new hospital. (Did you catch the sarcasm there?) That's at least the fifth hospital we've been admitted to or had a procedure performed in this year.

After Wednesdays MRI, Sarah Mei had her platelets checked on Friday. We discovered that they dropped to a low of 16 (normal is 150-450). Needless to say we didn't pass go, we didn't collect $200, but we went straight to the "party room" as the hematology office so aptly dubs the treatment room, for a Rhophylac treatment. The great thing about the hematologist office is how painless they try to make everything. SarahMei had her pick of snacks, beverages, DVDS and even got her own blanket to bring home.

We will go back tomorrow to check the platelet count again to confirm the effectiveness of the treatment.

Sarah Mei in the "party room" watching a video and getting her treatment.



We also had 2 dentist appointments and Isabelle's normal weekly physical therapy appointment, but we don't even count those sorts of appointments anymore. If we only see two Dr.'s a week, I count it as a "good" week.

I must confess I'm looking forward to 2011. I'm sure it will be a less busy medical year!

After another crazy medical weekend, we had a wonderful family weekend in Aiken, SC watching Torie compete her Thoroughbred horse, Brego aka The Original Mr. Simon. Both she and Michaela compete in eventing which consists of three phases of competition.

First the horse and rider are tested in dressage which is the equivalent of the ballet of the horse world. Judges critique the horse/rider team on the precision and gracefulness of a preset series of moves performed in a 20 x 40 meter arena.

Torie and Brego - DRESSAGE PHASE



Later in the day the horse and rider are tested in the cross-country phase. This test the pairs' fearlessness, agility and speed as they gallop and jump immovable obstacles. Torie's jumps were up to 2'11" in height and as wide as 4" at the base and 3' wide at the top. On this particular course they had 20 jumps and 5 minutes 22 seconds was the optimum time to finish the course. Torie and Brego jumped the course clear (no stops, falls, etc.) and finished in 5 minutes 15 seconds.

Torie and Brego - CROSS COUNTRY PHASE



The final phase is on the 2nd day and is show jumping. Show jumping shows the horse's ability to recover from the physical demands of the 1st day of riding and jump obstacles with rails that will easily fall if rubbed by the horses' legs. Torie and Brego also went clean (no rails down and no stops at jumps) in the show jumping phase.

Torie and Brego - SHOW JUMPING PHASE



Michaela watched intently all weekend while Torie competed. She is Torie's chief right hand "man" and groom at these events. Torie will get payback soon because Michaela's Thoroughbred should be ready for shows as early as this fall.



Isabelle did't take the entire eventing thing quite so seriously....



Sarah Mei, on the other hand, appointed herself junior groom. She sponged off Brego's legs after his hard work was done for the weekend.



"Sons (Daughters) are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from Him"...."Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them." Psalm 127:3, 4b

It was a great outing! One of the best parts of the weekend besides watching Torie compete was catching up with friends, Bill and Alison Ibsen. Phil and Alison have known each other since high school, and Phil and Bill were college room mates at the Citadel.

In addition to sharing meals and great conversation, we also discovered that Bill is a gifted photographer. All the photos on today's blog (except the one of Sarah Mei at the hematologist) are thanks to Bill! I can't wait to see all the photos he took and post more on the blog this week.

AnnaGrace is 10!

Wednesday we celebrated AnnaGrace's 10th Birthday.

She chose Everest Grill, one of our favorite local Greek/hamburger restaurants, for her lunch date locale.







I am always surprised by how excited the girls get to have Phil and I ALL to themselves on a date. This lunch date was no exception!

In the evening we continued the birthday festivities by eating my mom's famous tacos (always on our birthday menu) and opening presents.

My mom gave AnnaGrace PlayMobile horses and riders. We started a PlayMobile collection more than fifteen years ago for Torie and have added to it every since. It is a favorite timeless toy for all our girls.



After opening presents, we enjoyed a homemade ice cream cake. AnnaGrace chose a pound cake/ice cream cake recipe...delicious! It's actually a recipe that my little sister made for our family last year, and I think it will be our new birthday cake recipe. Unfortunately Lora wasn't here to enjoy it with us since she's deployed, with the Air Force, in South Korea...sigh. We'll have to make her a cake when she returns!





Despite the fact that it was AnnaGrace's birthday, every day is a party for Sarah Mei. She dressed up like Snow White (a great garage sale costume find) and made her own fun while AnnaGrace opened presents.



She likes to "honk" Phil's nose to see what noises he'll make. (Wouldn't his high school students where he is high school principal be surprised at this!)



Our prayer for AnnaGrace this year comes from Psalm 1 which she has memorized...

(AnnaGrace's) "delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law (she) meditates day and night. 3 (She) is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever (she) does prospers." Psalm 1: 2,3

Another Child - Home Forever

Yesterday we had the privilege of seeing another Ethiopian child come home. Eyayu joined his family, the Hoffmans, after 13 LONG months of paperwork and waiting.

Eyayu was one of the Summer of Hope children who stayed in Charlotte last summer. He is the third Summer of Hope child to finally make it home. I can't explain the tears of joy I cry each time one of them makes it home.

I wish I could share all the "God stories" in Eyayu's homecoming. Just three or four weeks ago his paperwork was still lost in the system. Through a series of God events including an unexpected visit to Ethiopia by a physician, prayer intervention by an African national stateside, many phone calls, and God "interventions", Eyayu is now in the states where he can get his much needed heart surgery.



My favorite moment yesterday morning was when the Hoffman family stood together, for the first time - all seven of them including little Joseph - born to the Hoffmans just six days before Eyayu passed court in Ethiopia as their son. How sweet that the Lord blessed this family with two more sons within six days.

The Hoffman Family (baby Hoffman is in the sling)



Seven more of the Summer of Hope children are waiting to be joined with their adoptive families but four are still on the list to be matched with a family. If you've ever considered adopting, please consider a son! The four boys that wait are ages 10 and 11.

Michaela - One Week Post-Op

This is Michaela last week in the hospital. I'm not sure if she's hiding from the camera or from the surgeon??

Last Saturday a.m. we were at Presbyterian Downtown waiting for her urinary tract surgery. It ended up being much more involved than we had hoped.

Her surgeon, brilliantly, opted for the anesthesiologist to give Michaela an epidural (while she was under general anesthesia) which made her 1st 36 hours of recovery bearable since she didn't have any pain. Unfortunately she was VERY sick from the general anesthesia...yuk!!

She came home Sunday evening and has spent the remainder of the week on the couch. Yesterday she begged to go to the final youth group Bible study at church. Amazingly she made it through the entire 1 1/2 hour study but than collapsed when she got home.

The Dr. told her two weeks of complete rest and four weeks before she can return to a full slate of activities.

In a few months, when we're in Swaziland on our mission's trip, this will be a faint memory!!

You got to love that smile...even in the hospital!