The adoption went through.  We finally are family who shares the same last name.

Maha mana

It is a bittersweet day as today is my last day running my home daycare.   I will really miss the 2 little charges that I've had for 2 years, but I really look forward to some time just being a mom. 

Shivering in the shade after a run through the sprinkler.  It is officially summer.

My mother-in-law was hospitalized in Phoenix, hubby brought her home to Edmonton & she is now in the psych ward at one of the local hospitals.  Don't know what is next for her.  Will they send her home to us?  Will they put her in residential care?  Don't know.

We are in the middle of a basement remodel.  The HVAC is done, but a lot is left to do:

• Electrical- rerouting some messes, uncovering hidden junction boxes, installing new lighting everywhere, adding cable, phone and internet everywhere.
• Windows- The basement windows were replaced by a mentally deficient monkey who didn't insulate, caulk or install exterior flashing.  I don't know if we are going to just redo the current ones or try to get new ones.
• Framing and insulating- 1 bedroom has 2 foundation walls & 2 regular walls.  We are building closets for both downstairs bedrooms and framing in 4 doorways.
• Wallboarding 1 bedroom and wallboarding all the basement ceilings and then painting of course.

My foster folks are coming to visit the last week July. Will I have a place for them to stay or will they be camping in a tent in the yard?

Next week I have 2 more days running my home daycare and then I'm closing up shop.  My kids really need the mommy attention, especially the 5 year old who will be going into kindergarten this fall.
Their adoption isn't final yet and so I can't get passports to travel to my 20 year high school reunion in July (and I can't leave them as even sharing Mommy with Grandma has been a disruption/attachment issue lately.)  I feel overwhelmed by everything at the moment.  My husband is hiding behind work and personal projects like the Leliana Item set for Dragon Age.     I feel like a puddle of goo.

I asked the I Ching Oracle:
What should I do?

(present) 52. Ken - Stillness
It is a time of planning and looking inward. Don't move into new things, but focus on clearing out the clutter that may be blocking your sense of serenity.

(future) 15. Chien - Humility, Modesty
Keep your goals realistic; attempting too much at once will cause failure. The Universe helps the modest prosper, but brings down the arrogant.

What does the Oracle hold for you?
http://luckyhonu.com/

   A week ago, we found out the biomom of my kids is pregnant, due in July.  Their little baby sister who is still with bioparents will turn 1 year old in July.  If biomom comes up drug positive at birth, those 2 will come into care and we've asked to have them.  I'm closing up my home daycare at the end of June, so the timing is okay that way.

We have 4 bedrooms: 2 on main, 2 in basement.  Our plan was to do some renovating in the basement and then put a boys room and a girls room in the basement.  There is a rec room down there.  Then the mainfloor bedrooms would be daddy's office since he works at home and the other our bedroom.

So we began with great gusto- tearing out everything in one of the bedrooms in the basement as it was freezing in there this past winter.  We also tore up a bunch of ceiling in the rec room for new HVAC. 

So much for plans.

Over the weekend, my mother-in-law went into the hospital in Phoenix.  She needs round the clock care for a while.
Hubby is currently driving a uHaul back from Phoenix, bringing my mother-in-law to live with us.

I tried to set up sister in the current boy's room on the main floor, but that exploded.  We hadn't actually torn up her room in the basement yet, but it was full of construction stuff.  So we'll just have to delay stuff in the girls room down there and just set her up as is.  Our bed is out in the rec room with Daddy's office.  I managed to plastic off the boys future room down there that is all torn up.

The real icing on the cake is that when we torn out the walls in the boys future room down there, the insulation was wet and moldy.  So what we thought was going to be a simple reinsulate problem has turned into a moisture and foundation issue.  Oh the joy!

And I'm still trying to wrap my brain around being a family of 5... and soon we could be a family of 8! 

Some pictures:

Boys room on mainfloor.  My clothes are already taking up half the closet.  This is my playroom for my 3 kids + 2 daycare kids until the end of the month.   (In the future it will be our bedroom- we'll have to figure out how to get my hubby's workdesk in there once the boys can move downstairs.)

This was Sister's room.  It was supposed to become Daddy's office.  But Now I've got it set up to be Grandma's room.. Sister was still sleeping in there as I'm still prepping her room in the basement.

What needs to be the basement kids play room/living room is currently daddy's office, a living room and our bedroom.  (Our upstairs living room/dining area is really tiny.)

Some how, I'll make it all work.

My 3 year old daughter is undeniably 100% princess.  Not only does she like to do all the girly things like play dolls and get her fingernails painted, but she is very particular about getting dressed each day.  And one of her required pieces of clothing is her necklace.  Seriously, without a necklace she is a sad droopy little thing all day long, as if I had destroyed her very precious heart.

As you can see, the cutesy little jewelry stand I had for her is too short and quickly getting filled up. I'm not much of a jewelry person.  When it comes to princesses, this is all a bit out of my league.  I need suggestions! How do you store all these things with out them getting all tangled up? Thanks!

 
When I first started blogging, most of my posts consisted of "Take Action" links or things on the internet related to politics, the environment and human rights.  Over the years, I've shifted the focus more to my personal life on my blog, but some of my early readers are still around.  So for those of you that liked the links, I still bookmark interesting articles or things on the internet are over at http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/mezamashii/.  Happy Stumbling!