Chronically Sleep Deprived

I know, I missed last Friday, and today is Wednesday, but whatever. Things that have made me laugh lately: Adia referring to McDonald's as "Old McDonald's" - as in, the guy with the farm. Oh honey, if there were a closer connection between ANY farm and MickeyD's you might get to go there more often. . . Trea giving Adia advice on the way home from school: Trea: Adia, why won't you let me be your preschool teacher? Adia: I don't need a teacher. Mommy's teaching me. Trea: You won't learn anything from her, she's too busy. You should let me handle it. I know Chinese. And Dylan, when we sing "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam," jumps so hard that he usually loses his balance and falls over. But he pops right back up! Mailaya mostly makes me laugh by giving me the biggest, cheesiest grins ever. And finally, happy anniversary to my sweet husband! Nine years, four kids, and seven moves later, I'm still glad I married you!

I've decided Friday is my day to blog, even if I have nothing to say. Today was rough (Mailaya has decided afternoon naps are not required, I disagree) and I'm exhausted. So, just a quick update for tonight. Trea has started her Chinese immersion program. It's through the local school district, part of a regular elementary school. She has Mandarin Chinese in the morning and English in the afternoon. On the way home from school on the second day she told us that every kid has a behavior chart, and her entire class stayed on "green" the whole day. And Adia exclaimed "Even YOU, Trea?" She is very frustrated with me, though, because I still can't count to ten in Mandarin. She thinks I'm kinda slow, since she can count to 100. She sings "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" to the babies in Mandarin, and tries to teach Adia too. Her school is twenty minutes away, which is NOT convenient, but we feel like it's worth it. She's so much happ

My mom died on July 15th. She'd had cancer for about a year, and been through chemo and surgery. It spread anyway, and she decided to discontinue treatment - well, I don't know exactly when she decided, I found out on July 5th. After she died, a friend of mine was expressing his condolences and I mentioned that we had time, we knew it was coming. And he said,"How do you prepare for something like that?" I've been thinking about that ever since. How do you prepare to lose your mom? So this is my experience. You tell her thank you for the things she taught you. You reassure her that she did an amazing job as a mom, that her efforts to teach you about faith, honesty, kindness, and forgiveness worked. You tell her you'll be ok, that she doesn't need to worry because you are as strong as she raised you to be. You thank her for as many things as you can remember, knowing you'll forget some but hoping it will kind of count. And then you start praying. First,