Gracie's Famous Noodles

So Miss Gracie Zhai-Lynn was born in Xi'an City, China. Xi'an is famous for their noodles. And let me tell ya the girl loves her some noodles! :) During our trip to China to pick up Gracie we had a guide.....the person that showed us the ropes and did all of our translating for us. At almost every meal Gracie would be given lots of choices as to what she could eat. Gracie would speak a whirlwind of words (in Chinese) ....we would look at our guide for her translation and she would say "She want noodle" lol! And noodle she got! :)

7 years later, Gracie enjoys all kinds of foods!! She is an awesome eater. In fact, at almost every meal she insists that the meal we are currently eating is her most favorite and THIS is the meal she will choose as her birthday dinner in April! :) It's nice to hear that every evening!!!

On Sunday evenings we often do a "do your own thing" dinner after church. Left overs or whatever you want. On these kind of evenings Gracie almost always picks Ramen Noodles. She LOVES them!!! This evening Gracie's eyes lit up when I said, "I think I'll have some noodles tonight" :) Gracie jumped into action. SO SWEET! She made a little menu checklist for me. Asking me things like "chicken or beef" etc. SHE insisted on making my dinner. :) When she brought me my food, she brought me my bill as well......

........just in case you can't see....it says "price...a hug" and that is marked PAID! What a sweetheart! It says "fork" on the menu because she always eats her noodles with chopsticks, but I can NOT do that, so I chose a fork! ;)

Love my girl!!

Wendy

Christmas 2012

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!! And, that is a nice, easy, restful sigh...NOT a scream! lol.  I feel it and appreciate it more this year than I have in quite a while....maybe more than I have EVER.....the blessing and gift of TIME! Yesterday it was so nice to just BE.....be together as a family with no where to go and nothing we HAD to do. A few of us even stayed in our jammers all day. ;) We just were home enjoying the greatest gift of all (besides our salvation).... each other! It was sooooo nice!!

In Sept. I started working full time. I really enjoy my job and feel so very blessed to have it! It's the perfect job for me. I work as a K/1 parapro. I am working in the same distict as all of the kids now attend. SO nice! We are all on ONE school schedule! Last year we were on three different schedules. I work in a different building than any of my kiddos, which is also probably good....I am in the "know", but not in their faces. ;) The buidling that I work in is part of our local public school district. The students in the building are 100% Amish. Interesting huh?! It is a K-8 building (Amish kids do not go to school beyond 8th grade)....65 students total in the school. It is a multi-age level teaching building. Meaning that there is more than one grade per classroom. We have three classrooms. Each classroom has a teacher and a parapro. We have a kindergarten/1st grade room (my room), A grades 2nd thru 5th grade classroom and a 6th thru 8th grade classroom. Our classroom actually consists of two rooms...the teacher's room and my room. The kids switch back and forth between rooms all day. We have 19 students total....8 kinder and 11 1st graders. When the kindergarteners are in my room the 1st graders are in the teacher's room and vise versa. The teacher does all the lesson plans and I help implement them. I LOVE it!! And the kids are just so stinkin' sweet! And, there is not much that tops teaching a child how to read!!! It's great too because I am on the same schedule as my kiddos. I am able to get them up and out the door every morning and leave the house about 5 minutes after they do. Then I am able to get home about 20 minutes before their bus arrives home. We have all the same days off and I am home in the summer with them. YAY!

As perfect as the job is, there is one downside. I MISS my time at home.....my alone time at home. I have VERY little alone time to get things done around the house. And, unfortunately I don't have endless energy! Ha!  Love working with kinder/1st grade age group, but it is a very demanding age...physically and mentally. It is a very needy age. I get 1/2 hour lunch at work and that is ALL the downtime I have all day. It's an "on the go" job! :)  Then I come home to my most important job....my own kiddos....already mentally and physically tired....with no time to decompress from my day....and nothing (homemaking wise) done at home. And, believe me, there is a lot going on here at home every afternoon/evening! Ha! There lies the challenge. I want my kiddos to have the best of me!! It IS doable. I just have to adjust and am still trying to figure out HOW to actually do that!

I guess I said all of that to more fully explain WHY I just am enjoying this downtime with my family so very much this year! What a blessing!!!!

Here are a few pictures of Christmas at our house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope all of you are enjoying some special time with your friends and loved ones this holiday season. I am learning not to take time together for granted. Time spent with the ones we love is such a treasure!!!!

 

God Bless!

Wendy