Overflowing!

First of all, let me tell you that I have separated the homeschooling part of my blog out from the rest of this, which has pretty much turned into being about  foster parenting and other miscellaneous parts of my life.  If you want to follow the homeschooling journey, hop on over to Windy Hill Home School!

Second, I didn't have much time to be sad over losing the baby.  I threw myself into a Pinterest project over the weekend.  I took the Ambleside Online booklists and made them into Pinterest boards by year (grade level).  Then I went a little crazy, making a board for all the school subjects and more.  If you are interested in seeing educational resources, check out my boards here.

Last of all, let me tell you about the new kids.  I got a call Wednesday for a sibling group of four!  I wasn't certain about this one - partly because I have never had so many before (and am now technically over the limit set by DCBS), and partially because of how difficult they sounded to handle, and the fact that I'm not over my cough yet.  I was told there ages (4, 5, 6, & 9), that one has ADHD and is medicated, and that together they are a handful.  Oooh, sign me up! LOL...but the only other home they could find was two counties away.  I hate to see the kids have to switch schools, and they really didn't want to break up the sibling groups, so we said yes.

I'm glad we did.  They are no worse, and some better, than others we've had.  They are excited to be here and are settling in pretty well.  The youngest, we'll call her Minnie, "has trouble sleeping," I was told.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but that first night Minnie screamed & cried for several hours, slept a while and then had something resembling a night terror.  Everyone else slept fine!  Night two was a big improvement.  She didn't fuss going to bed, and then just had a 20 minute terror at 1am.  Last night she didn't cry at all and slept the whole time!  Nap time today was better, too, and she slept over 2 hours.  I really don't think her problem is sleeping :)

All the new kids go to the same school as the boy we've had 6 weeks now - we'll call him All-Boy.  Unfortunately, it is out of our district.  We worked it out for the preschoolers to ride the bus to that school and back home again, but now that some are older, the bus can only get them to school.  I will have to take a chunk of every  afternoon (from 2:30-3 or so) to pick them all up.  I am thankful that its just one school I have to pick up from this time, though, and its actually the closest one to us.  Yeah, don't ask me why its not in our district!

All-Boy and the 5 year old, Mickey, are in the same class!  They gave each other a hug when they arrived at our home.  There was *much* excitement the first night!  They are bunk bed buddies, and older brother, Donald, is in the third bed in the boys' room.  The girls, Minnie and Daisy, are in the other room.

I haven't met the bio-mom, and not sure when that will happen.  There are 2 dads, as usual, and the man they call Daddy isn't anyone's dad.  For all of that, they are good kids.  I'm thinking this will be a stay of 4-6 months - just a gut feeling.  I reserve the right to revise my estimate after meeting the other adults in their lives. :)

So far, they are eating well, playing well, and very active.  Thank goodness for bikes and a trampoline!  There could be snow this weekend, and there's no school Monday anyway (President's Day), so I'm really hoping we don't get cabin fever.  This is the second time I've gotten a house full just before a 4-day weekend.  DH says its Murphy's Law following us around.  I just think someone is out to make sure I get to know these kids SUPER well before they go back to school!