kiddo kraft - FEBRUARY

February 20, 2012, 11:42 am

and - duh-da-da-DAAAA! this is my 100th post!

whoohoo! i don't know how many Courtney's Quests went out before i switched to blogger, but i think it was at least that many. maybe eventually i'll start writing something more serious...or not. ;) thank you to those of you who take a few minutes and read these feeble words and ideas and react with compassion or humor or inspiration! ;)

--

so, i need to update my kiddo kraft post from january. i had another inspiration regarding the stone magnets. i made some uber cute valentine's cards for my family with the girls' help:

and then i got an idea to use the fingerprint hearts to make stone magnets for teacher gifts...WITH one creative addition: beads!

isn't this the cutest thing? and, you could give these for valentine's day or mother's day or whatever day! i think the beads make them POP! and are extra interesting. i used aleene's thick glue - it holds things on tight that would otherwise slip off the glue. i like it!

but, that's not the kiddo craft for this month. ;) for this month, i'm channeling another of my old creative projects (maybe because i'm having lazy brain, or maybe because i still think it's cool).

tell me, how many kiddo art pictures or painting projects do you have stacked up in your house? i'd be too embarrassed to show you my two stacks for my kids...but, they're pretty thick. well, when my girls were babies, we did some finger/toe-paintings. and, as cute as they were all by themselves:

i thought i could make them frame-worthy for their baby rooms with a little twist, or square, should i say, of the imagination.

this month's kiddo kraft is: tiled finger/toe-paint art!

(that is leila's fingerpainting when she was 6 months old)

and...

(that is macy's toe-painting art when she was 3.5 months old)

those pieces of art are extra special to me because they were the first time i introduced them to painting (as you can see from the pictures). those particular pieces (above) are hanging in each girl's room.

so, first you need to let your kiddo(s) paint! i used finger-painting paper and blobbed a couple different colors on the page for them to explore with. if you've got a color scheme you're working with, then use those colors! and watch out, it can be messy - but that's the fun part of the craft for the kids!

it's okay if they wrinkle the paper or get paint EVERYWHERE!

after the painting is dry (and the kid is clean), you can begin to cut out the squares. for the 8.5x11 size, i cut the paper into 2 3/4" squares. you'll need 12 squares for one page. 3 of the squares will be cut down to 1" size for the edges.

after i cut them all out, i rearranged them and rotated the squares until i found an arrangement that was visually creative and stimulating. i loved finding different patterns or smudges or little finger or toe prints in the paint! then i chose a coordinating solid-color paper, cut to size (8.5x11), and glue-sticked the pieces on, leaving about a 3/16-1/4" space between the squares.

i bought some frames from garden ridge, and i even made some extras for gifts to family members. i loved how they turned out! it was a super neat way to keep their art in a FUN and decorative way. have fun with that and enjoy life outside the box, or the cave...

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kiddo kraft - MARCH

March 10, 2012, 11:25 am

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≪ Previous: kiddo kraft - FEBRUARY

(ready for spring with my strawberry pickers!)

before i take off for spring break (insert escape/joyful-noise appropriate song here), i've got to post the kiddo kraft. i've got several projects in the works, but none complete...so i was waiting for inspiration this month. and it came yesterday at MOPS when we pulled out an oldie, but goodie (thanks, kerry!).

SHRINKY DINKS!

y'all have got to go get some shrinky dink paper and get to work. the girls and i have been having so much fun with the 3 sheets that i brought home from MOPS yesterday.

you're asking, what were the moms doing with the shrinky dinks for their craft? well, we used them to make silloettes of our children. we traced their profile onto a shrinky dink page and then colored them in. we could then make pins or keychains out of them after they baked. i chose to put the girls' back-to-back on a keychain and it'll be proudly worn on my purse.

(macy's hair was being blown by the wind in the picture i had of her, so that's why she's got the "girl on fire" look - but it matches her crazy hairness that we're used to. lol)

but, today, we've been drawing and tracing and outlining and coloring all over the girls' they've been making.

here are kerry's instructions that have been working for me:
-decorate on scratchy side with waterproof marker, colored pencil, or acrylic paint (i used permanent marker & colored pencils)
-punch holes (if you want them) before baking
-Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet with the colored side (scratchy side) up and bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for approximately 2 minutes. You are waiting for them to shrink, curl up, uncurl, and flatten out. Times will vary, but make sure you wait about another 30 seconds past when the flatten to allow them to finish baking and harden.
-Remove from the oven and flatten further with a spatula or potato masher. (if it doesn't lay flat, try to cook it a little longer to make it pliable again and see if you can carefully "help" it flatten)

it's been super fun to draw on them - really, trace some pictures out of coloring books. their favorite characters are now mini and can hang on the window (or be magnets or keychains for their backpacks, etc.).

before baking (4.5'')

after baking (1.75'')

even watching them curl up and change in the oven is entertainment!!!!

we've made some into window hangs (the standard hole-punch size fits on the window cling hook). oh, and wouldn't this be a super fun ornament?! (pause, maybe i got my kid ornament idea for christmas?!).

so, print out your Hobby Lobby coupon and go buy some sheets and get to shrinking!!

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countdown to Guatemala

April 4, 2012, 11:48 am

≫ Next: kiddo kraft - APRIL

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it's been quiet on my blog...because i've been uber busy preparing for my mission trip to Guatemala next week. you heard right - Guatemala!

ever since last summer (when i realized how long our adoption might take), i've been itching to get back into the mission field as a short-termer, and it was difficult for me to make a decision as to where to go. my heart is for missionaries and orphans - and i found a great orphanage in Guatemala run by american missionaries (thanks to my buddy Kandy for sharing a fellow Ethiopia adoption mama's blog with me).

i had been following http://buildingtheblocks.blogspot.com/ for a little while when Amy posted about short-term mission trips being available at their location. i contacted them right away and began to make plans early last fall.

i wanted to share this experience with some friends, so i invited some moms from my MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) group, and 3 of them responded to the call. we all have young children (preschool to young elementary), so we're leaving our children in the care of others while we go to the orphanage.

some of us have been met with verbal resistance by others.
some of us have hit financial snags/job losses/etc.
some of us have delayed serious family pursuits/plans for this trip.
but all of us have overcome the stumbling blocks are excited to go and serve and be the hands and feet of Christ!

being the team leader has been a little stressful, but a lot of fun. and the group i'm going with is absolutely fabulous. they are all so supportive and willing to go along with whatever i come up with. we've been doing some spiritual preparation that i have enjoyed, and everyone has chipped in with getting project donations. i am so pumped...and so blessed to be with these ladies.

what, you may be asking, are we going to do there? well, we're going to be playing with the orphans at the children's home, giving Bible devotionals at the manna feeding house (for the community children), teaching some English to the children at school through preschool songs, participating in their sports ministry and playing soccer (oh yeah!), doing crafts with all three groups, learning how to make homemade tortillas, doing some outreach foodsharing, sewing and painting, and pretty much doing anything and everything we can to serve alongside the missionaries and their families to show Christ's love.

so, i would ask for prayers for our safety, our children's care and their caregivers, our health, that our communication capabilities not be overly hampered by our lack of Spanish language knowledge, and that 'whenever we open our mouths that Jesus would fall out' (<- Beth Voss said that and i thought it was the bees' knees).

taataa & God bless you! i just love that we'll be arriving after Easter Sunday and we can excitedly tell them - He is Risen!!

“In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” - Acts 20:35

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kiddo kraft - APRIL

April 4, 2012, 6:36 pm

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i have gotten SO MANY hits on my blog from my april kiddo kraft last year (resurrection eggs) thanks to pintrest, so if you're new here, howdy! ;)

i know i just posted a couple hours ago why i've been so absent (i didn't mention spring break, a death in the family with a funeral out of town, or other "jobs" keeping me busy). but, in light that i am leaving in less than a week, and the fact that i'm sure i will not get a non-mission-trip post in after my travels, i figured i'd just go ahead and kiddo post now!

so, this month's kiddo kraft was inspired by two of my MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) friends Eva and Dallas. on a facebook MOPS group post about curbing bad behavior, both of them mentioned remembering to focus on positive reinforcement of good behaviors through the use of a jar to collect stones/marbles/something and then the child gets rewarded when it's full.

another inspiration came to me from the teacher of my Apples of Gold bible study yesterday who was discussing parenting specifically by teaching our children to receive and respond to God. what really rang with me was using kingdom-verbaige in discipline: i.e., "did XXXX (lying, hitting, whining, disobeying, etc.) reflect God's nature." - but she said in the affirmative: "when you did XXXX (shared, waited your turn patiently, let your brother go first without whining, gave your old toys to children without them, held your sister's hand when she was scared, were kind to that animal, etc.), you showed God's nature."

so...dadadada! this month's kiddo kraft is: (INSERT YOUR CHILD'S NAME HERE) JAR

i'll tell you how to make it (cause it's less than 30 seconds) first and then tell you what it's for after. and, at first i was going to let them completely cover and decorate them with stickers and then modpodge it, but then i realized, wait - this jar is supposed to reflect that it's THEM, so it should just have a picture of THEM on it.

so here's how you make a picture into a sticker: get your handy dandy Xyron sticker maker (i used the permanent cartridge), run your cut-out picture of your kiddo through it, stick it on your jar. your child could stick their picture on it if you want them to...or you can be anal like me and let them watch you align it "perfectly" for them. if you don't have a sticker maker, i HIGHLY recommend it. i use it for all sorts of projects! love it love it love it love it. use your 40% off coupon and buy one or put it on your bday/christmas/mother's day gift list.

i bought my jars at Michael's for 3.99 each. before i let the girls pick which color they wanted, i made sure that the stones/marbles i picked out would fit through the opening of the jar first! lol. and they got to pick out the stones' color too (i bought a big bag at the same store for $6.99 before my 40% coupon). with the picture sticker on, i think the jars look so cute - they look like they're laughing together at something. ;) maybe at me?!

anyhow, the crafty part is done! i was also thinking of writing a Bible verse on it (see the verses mentioned below), but i have stalled that idea for now. maybe i'll come back to it after they fill up their jar...as a way of seeing that they have been "filled" X number of times? i'm still brainstorming on that part. :)

now on to what these jars are for!

in the Bible, there is a story that demonstrates the idea of God being the potter and man being the jar. God crafted the jar of clay, molded it, poured his love into His creation. well, you and i (and your child) were made by God. we are jars of clay, and we get to choose what we fill ourselves with - good God stuff or not good stuff. the thing is that God blesses us when we choose the good God stuff. so it is with these ideas that i made the LEILA JAR and the MACY JAR.

after i made them, i put a bowl (conveniently shaped in the shape of a heart - get it? God is Love!) full of colored marbles (which they picked out at the store) and i told them that these were all the characteristics of God and that He wants us to show these characteristics, too. and then we talked about some of these characteristics based on some bible verses that they've learned at wednesday night church. (Colossians 3:12 - compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness; Matthew 22: 37-39 - love the Lord and love your neighbor; Galatians 5:22 - fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peaceful, patient, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, gentleness; etc.)

so after i told them some of the characteristics of God, i then explained that when i or their daddy or their sister or their grandparents saw them do something that "looked like Jesus" they would get to choose a marble and place it in their jar. and, as they filled themselves up with God's characteristics, He would bless them and we would celebrate with something fun/big when their jar was full. (maybe chuck e cheese, day at the beach, sleep in a tent in the backyard/living room [<- the latter was Dallas' gem], etc.)

macy is 2.5 years old and leila is 3.75 years old, and they IMMEDIATELY got this and wanted to do something that looked like Jesus. i told them that i would watch their actions and that i'm sure they would soon be doing something that looked like Jesus. sure enough, leila immediately picked up a marker and gave it to macy and said, "mommy, i shared with macy. can i put a stone in my jar?!" and of course i let her. ;) but i started catching them looking like Jesus without them asking for a stone and i quickly pointed it out to them so they'd understand the concept better. (i.e., i asked leila to do something, and she did it immediately without whining or straying from the task (which doesn't always happen!), and i told her that she looked like Jesus because she had a good attitude and she did what the Bible instructs when it says, "children obey your parents." and for macy, she stopped whining when i told her that it wasn't her turn to chose the story to listen to in the car, and i told her that she looked like Jesus because she had self-control over her anger and was being patient.)

and YOU'LL be amazed at how you can relate their good behavior BACK TO GOD! i found myself even bringing going to the potty (macy is not potty-trained yet) back to God (i.e., God wants you to take care of your body because He made you, and you show self-control when you choose to go in the potty instead of in your diaper...). it may be a stretch, but moms are good at making things up on the fly! ;)

AND i'm amazed at how much they DO look like Jesus. they teach me and remind me about Jesus while i'm trying to teach them. I LOVE IT!

i love this craft/activity because it was super duper easy smeasy, and it is parenting-focused, but more importantly, it is God-focused. i don't want my children to obey me JUST because i'm their parent and i love them. i also want my children to obey me in response to God because they've received Him in their lives! and, it's never too early to plant the seeds of God's love in their hearts!!!!

(yes, i just totally threw another craft at the bottom of a craft - but it fit in with what i had just said. ;) that's a flat canvas with the girls' hands traced with permanent marker and their inked fingerprints as leaves. they are supposed to be handprint trees. i gave this to our children's minister with a thank you note on the back.)

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re-entry failure

April 17, 2012, 9:22 pm

≫ Next: courtney's quest: Guatemala mission trip

≪ Previous: kiddo kraft - APRIL

it's funny how many things look ridiculous that you once enjoyed/found important a week before you had to live without them and experience the REALLY important things.

needless to say, today was a rough day.

don't get me wrong, i loved seeing my kids for the first time in a week and holding them and kissing them and smelling them and looking at their faces and re-memorizing every inch of them. i loved taking a hot shower and not worrying about accidentally getting the water in my eyes or mouth. i loved stopping at whataburger from the airport and not having to ask for 'no ice' in my drink or having to remove the lettuce and tomatoes from my burger. i loved that my husband bought me roses and my favorite dessert and he patiently looked at my 3,458 pictures (give or take a few, j/k) as i told him every single orphan's name and their story or laughed at inside jokes from the pictures. i loved being home and being able to speak English and not having to think how to say things in Spanish.

but, some things today were just STUPID! i couldn't help but transfer my mind back to Guatemala and think how ridiculous some of my activities, actions, amenities were today in light of where i was and what i was doing and who i was hugging yesterday. it's so surreal!!!!

don't get me wrong - again - i had the absolute BEST mission trip in the world. maybe that's why it's so hard to just come back home and resume my life as it was before.

right before we got on the van which drove us to the Guatemala City airport, the last orphan to arrive at the home was crying and saying over and over again that he wanted to go, he didn't want to be there. tears were streaming down his cheeks. i told him that all the mama workers loved him and that he'd be going to school with all the other kids soon and that it was okay to be sad and miss his recently deceased father. but the most important thing i mustered for him was that God loved him and it would be okay - but what kid is comforted by those worlds when he has just lost his family and has been made to come live in a new place with strangers?!

again - don't get me wrong! - i believe what i said and it was the truth, but in light of his temporary suffering and the reality of his future...it was a somber way to leave the orphanage. the orphanage we went to was really awesome. it's way better than government run orphanages (as is my understanding and from heresay), and there are missionaries working for his best interest and, even better, they've got God working through them for His glory. but, that little boy is stuck there now - without a family, with 39 other kids with similar or worse backgrounds, under the care of mama workers who may be there because they love the kids or they just want to keep food on their tables.

how can i enjoy a cooking class where mentors are teaching me how to make a delicious herb-crusted, garlic&herb stuffed pork loin with horseradish red potatoes with spinach and artichoke casserole after seeing that boy's life turned upside down and be orphaned as he calls out to me over and over again, I WANT TO GO HOME!?

i'm having re-entry failure.

at dinner at a MOPS testimony event tonight, my travel-mate was recounting one of the best experiences of the trip and i just had to shut my eyes as the tears came in droves down my face. i wanted to transport myself back to that moment and freeze time so i could be in Guatemala. it feels weird calling this place (my home) home when my heart is still waiting for it's ride to the airport and sitting right outside the orphanage.

i know God is working in me right now. i feel the painful sawing of my rough edges and preconceived notions and biases being chiseled off. i know this trip is making me a better person, but it hurts. reverse culture shock.

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courtney's quest: Guatemala mission trip

April 20, 2012, 1:30 pm

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my mission trip to guatemala was amazing. i had a blast doing everything from playing soccer with the kids, speaking Spanish and translating the gringas, washing (by hand) dirty clothes, helping to pin & iron curtains, teaching english at the elementary school, giving my testimony to ~20 natives, organizing clothes, doing craft projects with the orphans, giving a devo to the feeding outreach children, climbing a hill in the pouring rain and trying to push our van out of a ditch, making an ugly tortilla, fellowshipping with some fabulous missionaries and their kids, buying food and supplies for one of the campus workers and praying with his family, falling on my butt while trying to play soccer in a cloud on wet cement, etc. etc. etc.

i was so blessed to have 3 of my friends from my MOPS (mother's of preschoolers) group brave the trip with me - and we were all so glad that we did. each of our talents/personalities worked well together while we served there.

one of our favorite things we did was hand-out the jammies that our MOPS moms had purchased for each of the 40 orphans. i bribed the kids to hurry and brush their teeth after dinner by promising them all gifts. they sat on the floor in a big group with large eyes, eager smiles, and some were so excited they were bouncing up and down on the floor. they had no idea what was in my big suitcase, they were just excited that they were going to get something/anything!

i called out their names one by one, from youngest to oldest, and gave them their baggie with jammies inside. it was like the price is right...with the winner jumping up and smiling and running to the front of the room and the others would cheer and chant the child's name with glee. it was electric!!!!

hillary was sitting with one of the older boys whose name would be called close to last. he was visibly nervous about whether he would get some or not. hillary just kept whispering to him, "tu tambien, tu tambien" (you too, you too) after each of the other children's names were called...and when i called his name, this boy, usually frowny-faced and difficult to get to his heart, stood up with the biggest smile you've ever seen and was ecstatic to get his bag. and his smile didn't stop. :) that evening, the clouds in his mind floated away, and a beautiful rainbow filled their place! he may have been wearing Angry-Birds on his jammies, but his smile was as big as the sunrise!

out of 40 children, only 1 pair was too small (so i quietly escaped down to the storage room and exchanged them for a pair that fit him better). isn't that miraculous?! one of the boys had just arrived the day before and he was so excited that he laid out his jammies on the floor like a person and then he laid on top of them smiling crazy big. the missionary said he probably has never received anything before. the children may have been the ones receiving the gift, but it was really the 4 of us who were blessed that evening.

wow.

and that was just one evening of my trip! i've got nearly 600 photos from my time there and many more stories... my prayer is that i won't let them simply be stories but beautiful moments of my life that impact me and change me from here on. perspective!!!

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when in need of a laugh, jibjab it

April 21, 2012, 5:08 pm

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Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

http://www.jibjab.com/view/vsFYaLZy5I1L0ptF?utm_campaign=URL+Copy&utm_medium=Share&utm_source=JibJab&cmpid=jj_url

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two week/weak reminder

April 30, 2012, 5:32 am

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i cannot believe it's been two weeks since i was in guatemala. i really feel changed - and i'm not done yet and i don't want to be done. people are still asking me about my trip and i feebily cannot muster the appropriate positive and excited emotional response about it.

that's not to say it wasn't a positive and exciting time for me - on the contrary - it really really was, and trying to share everything that has rooted in my heart is difficult. i don't want to appear like a tourist - because that's not what it was at all! we had an amazing week - fabulous. some work, some play, and great relationships built within our team and with the missionaries.

but i will be forever grateful for our last moments at Eagle's Nest. we were flying high, readying ourselves to leave guatemala and return home to our families, so many positive, wonderful experiences overwhelming our hearts. as we waited outside the children's home for our driver who'd be taking us to guatemala city, we left our light luggage on the sidewalk and decided to take one last opportunity to love on some of the babies in the orphanage.

we walked in and saw the sweet trio of lizzy, dulce, and marisol, and of course sweet maria was there too to give us lots of elbow and hand kisses and hugs and wanting us to flip her. but there was another boy there too...polo. and he wasn't responding to our presence with smiles and hugs, no, he was sitting on a stool crying. at first we left him alone, not sure why he was crying...but he was sitting near the door, so as we prepared to leave, we stopped to find out what was wrong.

polo had arrived at Eagle's Nest while we were there. his father had died just 2 weeks before and his stepmother had been hurting him. he arrived dirty, frowning, and calling for his father. he tried to run away the next day, but he was quickly found and brought back to the home and given lots of hugs and cookies. and then the following evening was our pajama gifting and we gave him a pair, too. he lit up like christmas and was as happy as could be. how silly of us to think that a roof over his head, clean clothes, food, and some new pajamas would be enough.

i knelt down and looked in polo's eyes and spoke in my basic Spanish:

-what's wrong?

-i don't want to be here. i want to go. (tears)

-what's wrong, polo?

-i want to go! (looking in my eyes - more tears)

with my limited Spanish and hurting heart, i tried to encourage him:

-soon you'll get to go to school with the other children, and the mama workers love you.

-i want to go. (tears)

then, a flood of compassion filled me and the Spirit spoke to my heart and reminded me of why i came to guatemala.

-polo, Jesus loves you. it's going to be okay.

i believe the children knew we were there because of the Lord - like all their short-term mission trip visitors, but i hadn't said as such to them. and here i was, my last opportunity to share Jesus' love, and i was reminded that was the most important thing i could do with my time in guatemala - show and tell of Jesus' love for them!

polo was still crying when we left. i don't think he was comforted by my bad Spanish or the mentioning of Jesus. but, boy was it a wonderful way to leave the orphanage - with the reminder that, even though these children have a good orphanage, clean clothes, food, education, etc., it is not enough. they deserve more. they deserve a loving family.

of course, in the meantime, it is a blessing to be where they are as God has looked after them. but, i am so grateful for the reminder and that it wasn't just a smiling-everything's-just-fabulous face that was our last one to see. God desires more for us - to look after the orphans in a way that He would be pleased.

it's been two weeks. the first week was a real tough transition. seeing everything we have and take for granted...listening to the whoas of friends, going to a grocery store stocked so full it could vomit, hearing my children whine about their toys... BUT - i was more patient with my children, i prayed for my friends and their needs - regardless of their seemingly small matters because they mattered to them and therefore mattered to God, and i bought the necessary food i needed but not the unnecessary.

but on week two, i became weak. i endulged in things i said i didn't want to. i got angry and yelled at my children again. i flared in moral righteousness and looked down my nose on things that i am guilty of too! what had happened to me so quickly after my heart had felt change?! it's so easy to resist change. it's so easy to return to the cultural/spiritual norm.

part of the trouble with me not sharing my trip's experiences with others is that i haven't allowed them the opportunity to experience a little part of it for themselves through me...and therefore haven't re-experienced the emotions and change in myself. God's not finished with me yet, and i still feel his calling in me to something greater/bigger, even through my weakness. it's in my weakness that He is strong. it's in the tears of an orphan that He is working.

i'm ready God! gently continue to change me, mold me, move me closer to You through my experiences. and please don't let the weeks make me weak!

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kiddo kraft - MAY

May 21, 2012, 6:46 pm

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≪ Previous: two week/weak reminder

MAY i help you? whew - where has this month gone?

i still haven't "recovered" from my mission trip, and i hope i never will, and my craftiness has been dowsed in sweat cause it's already stinking HOT HOT HOT and mosquito-ville down here in H-town.

we took some weekend trips to the beach (where leila turned into a lobster - ouch) and to sea world (SHAMOOOOOOOO), and now i'm planning for leila's birthday party! where did the time go - four precious, lightning-speed years?!

so, anyhoo, my creative juices haven't been flowing - more like a drip-drying, so i got an idea about our kiddo-kraft for this month.

i don't know how many of you do mission trips or work briefly with children for special events/activities, but, i thought maybe showing you a couple of easy-smeasy art projects we did with the orphans in guatemala as gifts for the missionaries (and ourselves), that maybe it's something you'd like to do as a teacher gift or thank you gift for a children's event coordinator?

so, this month's kiddo craft of the month is: hand print thank-you art

(very creative description, right?)

of course you could do this a variety of ways - we did 2 in guatemala.

i bought a value pack of flat canvases from michael's (they were on sale for 50% off) - some 8x10 and some 5x7.

with the 5x7s, i traced each of our hands on the canvas with a black sharpie marker. (and i wrote our names on the back so we knew which hand was whose!)

then, we had 2 different colored inks (the type doesn't matter) and had each of the orphans place their inked thumbprint inside the traced hand. there were 40 orphans, so the hand got filled up without any problem. and, there was a one-month old baby there, so one of my teammates had the idea of printing her foot instead of her thumb - since she was so tiny ( ~6 pounds!).

on the finished project i wrote: my hands on them, their prints on me. and i wrote the orphanage and country and year. i have plans to frame it, somehow. until then, it sits propped up "smiling" at me. this would be a cool teacher gift if you could swindle Mr. or Mrs. Teacher's hand print/outline.

even though i hugged them, i hand-washed their dirty clothes, i prayed with them, I I I I I I I I I....i could say everything I did, but THEY touched my life more dramatically than any of my small tasks! i think this is a pretty good visual representation of that idea.

for the second hand print project, we used the 8x10 flat canvases. i don't know what i was thinking about the size. if there's a bigger one, i'd use it - because 40 hand prints (and some foot prints) in an 8x10 space is pretty much chaos - but pretty chaos! ;)

we used crayola finger paint because it was easy to clean off the kids, but if i could do it again, and if i had bigger canvases, i would use acrylic. BUT - it worked where we were at. and even though it looks like one big giant mess - you could distinguish their fingers (and toes) in certain places on the canvases. so even though you couldn't see all the hands, i wrote every one of the kids' names on the back of the canvas with a thank you note (from the kids) to the mama workers and the missionaries. the mamas seemed to think they were nice - and the KIDS were so excited to GIVE something to the women who help take care of them at the orphanage.

so, these are two simple thank you ideas (or keepsakes) you could use when there are plenty of paint-ready fingers around and some thanks or some love needs to be shared (or remembered).

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525,600 minutes

June 7, 2012, 4:58 am

≫ Next: kiddo kraft of the month - june

≪ Previous: kiddo kraft - MAY

today is a "special" day for our family in two ways. today was the day i went into labor with my firstborn (who will be 4 tomorrow!). today is also the day we went into "labor" with our thirdborn daughter as we joined our adoption agency's waitlist.

waiting for leila to be born was painful. the nine months leading up to her birth were wonderful and full of the unknown and anticipation. and the labor was, well, it was painful but still full of anticipation and an urgency to finally embrace this child that i had waited "so long" for.

waiting for our next daughter to be born into our family is painful, too. i may not be the one giving birth to her, but my heart is still as attached to her life as if i were. we are full of the unknown and anticipation, and our hearts ache to embrace her...especially when we are waiting a long time for her.
-

One year. 52 weeks. 365 days. 8,760 hours. 525,600 minutes. 31,536,000 seconds.

The beginning.

One year ago, we were notified that we’d been placed on the waitlist to adopt our future daughter. One year filled with waiting, tears, prayers, fasting, hope, frustration, acceptance, thankfulness, yearning, and missing someone who might not even been born yet!

It’ll probably be some years more until our family is joined with its next member, and we wait…hopeful, anticipating, and joyful for our future together! God’s timing is perfect, and He is continuing to grow ME through this process of waiting!

-

But, now, for a public service announcement. No, really, I have a little soap box to get on because of my short 18 months of experience in this realm. I want to share something important about being a prospective adoptive parent.

Based on what I’ve read from agency review boards, others’ experiences, investigative reporting, and books, the more glad I am for the first choice we made - selecting our agency. Adoption is sticky and prone to corruption based on high demand. And, it’s us, the prospective adoptive parents, who feed the unethical practices in adoption. I was very surprised to arrive at this…because, adoption is a beautiful thing – a way to grow and make families – something GOOD and God-led! But we have a responsibility to make decisions that do not encourage unethical practices, which includes choosing an adoption agency that doesn’t promote short wait-times or healthy children or putting my interests/desires/convenience above the well-being/what’s best for an adopted child. My heart has been broken to read about agencies who have made forever families by deceiving, manipulating, and/or cutting children out of women’s wombs or that put the convenience to the parents above the welfare of their future adoptive child. It makes my heart break for places where it’s been made it into a money-making business.

I know my agency’s not perfect, but I think they truly work to be ethical. They’ve never hid the truth and have never made promises and have been the first to deliver “bad” news. Of course, that doesn’t make the waiting easier, but it makes me more at peace in the waiting knowing that they are doing their best to do what’s right for the children and work with integrity in a system full of corruption.

I am prayerful that prospective adoptive families will SERIOUSLY consider their role in feeding the adoption “business” and make it no small task in selecting whom they will be working with through the adoption process. I mean it. Research, ask questions – lots of tough questions, and really evaluate your heart on ethical adoption (e.g., would you be able to stop in the middle of the process, after you’ve invested tens of thousands of dollars, if you found out that the child they were trying to match you with was unethically “obtained”)…
-

off soap box.

i'm not fully knowledgeable about these things, as one who is going through it for the first time, but my heart is focused and my aim is do to what i can to promote ethical adoptions for future prospective adoptive families.

thank you for your prayers. God be glorified!

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kiddo kraft of the month - june

June 9, 2012, 6:43 pm

≫ Next: redesign

≪ Previous: 525,600 minutes

i'm gonna cheat and post my kiddo kraft(s) from my daughter's birthday. leila has been loving rainbow colors and painting, and we've been needing an art smock, so i thought her birthday party would be a perfect excuse to ask honey to make her one. so, we planned an art-themed playdate with two of her friends and her sister. it was marvelous and super fun for all. and they all looked dashing and CLEAN in their new art smocks!

but, i'm going to go ahead and highlight the birthday cakes for the kiddo kraft of the month: rainbow cakes!

we had 2 celebrations back to back, so leila and i made 2 different rainbow "cakes."

they are both easy (from a box) and turned out beautifully!

the first one was a rainbow brownie cake. and this was a courtney original idea.

i baked a 9x13 pan of box brownies and let it cool completely (cooked it in the morning, covered it with foil, and cut it before dinner). then i used my spatula/brownie knife to indent (not cut down to the bottom) the arc of the rainbow. i made 5 arcs because i had 5 of the colors of the rainbow in M&Ms. then i cut the top left and right triangles of the pan of brownies out and the bottom half-oval, leaving the rainbow alone in the brownie pan.(save those brownie pieces and eat up up later when the guests are gone!).

then i filled the 3 "holes" in the pan with little white marshmellows for the clouds. and then i placed the M&Ms on there to gauge the proper spacing (RED - ORANGE - YELLOW - GREEN - BLUE). when i got the spacing right, i dipped the "M" side of the M&M into some peanut butter i scooped on a spoon (just a little dot) to get them to stick to the brownie.

wha-la! brownie M&M rainbow "cake."

the second cake is not a courtney original. my friend jennifer found it on pintrest and i just had to do it for leila's party playdate.

i followed this recipe (http://blogs.babble.com/family-kitchen/2011/04/08/rainbow-cake-in-a-jar/) and i also liked what she said on this site: http://liferearranged.com/2011/06/cake-in-a-mason-jar/

i used one box of white cake mix and that was barely enough for 4 12oz WIDE-mouthed mason jars. i highly recommend the wide-mouth jars - for ease of pouring the different color batter and for ease of EATING!

i topped them with whipped cream (which i found out my girls didn't "like," or rather, didn't want to eat) and rainbow sprinkles. cute cute!

and, what the kids didn't finish, we put the lids on their cake jar and sent them home with them! party in a jar!

leila helped me with both projects - definitely the making of the batter. she loved mixing up the food coloring in the cake batter and seeing what colors she created! and, if she hadn't been sleeping and i hadn't wanted the M&Ms on my brownie cake to be "perfect," she would've done that too. maybe next time. :)

happy 4th birthday, ladybug! you are a gift from God and we pray for His richest blessings on your life!

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redesign

July 7, 2012, 9:35 pm

≫ Next: kiddo kraft of the month - JULY

≪ Previous: kiddo kraft of the month - june

my blog hasn't changed since i began on this site 4 years ago. that's pretty representative of me, actually.

however, lately, i've been purging and rearranging and changing stuff - from my wedding comforter to the pictures on the walls to furniture pieces to the junk that i have everywhere. thankfully my husband doesn't mind me giving away all these things, although, my mother doesn't always want to be the recipent either. but it's been great - a real sense of something good...

i want a redesign. something inside me is stirring and itching my comfortableness and making me want to DO something.

maybe it's nesting. i've been "laboring" with our adoption for 19 months now.
maybe it's culture cursing. i have had a hard time wanting much that is socially normal lately.
maybe it's old age. i was laid out with a pulled back last week - how bad am i going to feel in 10 years?!
maybe it's the Spirit. am i receiving you, Lord, on the right frequency?

ever since Guatemala, i've been wrestling with myself, with my life, with my past, with my future, with who God has called me to be. and even with the discomfort of the discord, there has been peace!

i look at what i think, say, do, and wonder - is this really all i can do with myself? of course, the answer always comes back no. and it's not a scary thing, it's an exciting one...but unknown nonetheless.

so, as i attempt to lasso my thoughts and put them under the pen, i shall make a conscious effort to seek, be aware, and be intentional about redesign. starting simply with my "quest" - cause that's easy, just a click of a mouse.

the rest of the changes won't be so easy, but they'll be beautiful none-the-less.

i am the clay. You are the potter.

Here i am Lord.

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kiddo kraft of the month - JULY

July 26, 2012, 7:09 am

≫ Next: summer lovin' - had me a blast!

≪ Previous: redesign

tonya wants to know, so i'm going to oblige!

tonya wants to know how i made the pseudo-applique art for my macy's room.

so, this month's kiddo kraft is no-sew fabric art!

first i decided what art designs i wanted to make. macy has a pond-themed bedroom, so i googled images like frogs, ducks, fish, etc. specifically, i googled "duck coloring pages." till i found something i liked, such as this:

recognize that?! i pasted the picture in word/paint and manipulated some of the pieces/pictures till they suited me (added stuff, took out stuff, made it bigger) and fit it to the 8x10 size that i had determined. i print out the page (several copies).

then i picked out the coordinating fabrics (from my mom's super stash AND that went with macy's bedroom set) and decided which component would be which fabric. each picture highlights one of the major fabric choices of macy's bedding. (my mom made it and we picked out the fabrics together :) ).

then i cut out approximate size pieces of fabric for the picture's components and ironed on double-sided fusable web (we used steam-a-seam double-stick fusable web). with still one side of the sticky unused, i put the picture on a window with the fabric on top (this was before i had a light-box) and traced with a pencil the design on the fabric. using sharp scissors, i cut out the design. because of the adhesive, the fabric doesn't fray.

after i finished cutting out all my fabric pieces, working from the bottom layer of my artwork up, i ironed on the components. some of the drawings had some detail they needed, like eyes or mouths, so i used a pencil to draw them on (from the original lightbox sketching) and then just went over them one last time.

i chose to frame mine behind glass, so i taped my fabric onto a piece of 8x10 cardboard with masking tape. although, my mom didn't put hers behind glass - she just framed hers in an open frame:

and another thing my mom did differently, she just cut out pre-printed designs already on the fabric. the monkey one is about 16x20. i had originally planned on actually appliquing the pieces on my art pieces, but i lost the desire and energy - having a 14 month old at my heels and being 9 months pregnant! i just wanted them to be done so i'd have some art for macy's room BEFORE she arrived!?

on mom's giraffe one, she blew up her design with a projector on a wall and then did a simple straight stitch around the edges. easy smeasy. and the frame 24x36 was at a garage sale and she just spray-painted it black and hot-glued a ribbon inside!

i finished my trio before macy was born and they were up and ready! i liked them, and apparently tonya wants to do something similar for hope's new bedroom, too. have fun tonya!

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summer lovin' - had me a blast!

August 22, 2012, 11:47 am

≫ Next: kiddo kraft of the month - AUGUST

≪ Previous: kiddo kraft of the month - JULY

dear summer,

i'd like to make a formal complaint. it seems as though you've been zipping by outside of acceptable time constraints. don't think you fooled me! i know i saw the sun rise too quickly and set too early every day. all my wonderful summer plans aren't finished yet, so i know that you've been slipping days under the rug to hide them from me. did you think you could sneak one by me? and now i see all these first day of school pictures on facebook - is this some elaborate joke?! how'd you get 340 of my closest friends in on the hoax?

i will not believe it. i choose to ignore it. i am not ready!

sincerely unhappy,

courtney

where did my summer go?! in my dreams, summer is long, luxurious, slow, relaxing, and hot. the latter was fulfilled, the others, not so much.

let's do a summer do-list check.

1. make lots of treats and lick up for clean-up. check.

2. rock the pool with swim classes & learn to float. check (latter - leila).

3. go to beach and play in the sand. check.

4. feed dolphins and meet shamu! check.

5. graduate to 4 candles. check.

6. dive in to vbs. check

7. create school room and do mommy school. check (AEIOU & B).

8. graduate out of crib. check.

9. cruise in 4th of July parade. check.

10. do crazy projects like make a birds' nest in a cheerios box. check.

11. exhaust selves at Honey's house. check

12. chop the locks and donate. check.

13. be braver by touching a really big snake. check.

14. play outside in really confined water spaces without fighting. check.

15. get really sick. check. and recover - working on it.

16. get ready for preschool. WHAAAAAH! working on it. (that's really what my face looks like when i think about leila going to preschool soon!)

okay, so, i guess we've gotten a lot of stuff done that we planned to do and some that wasn't planned. after looking through our photos, it seems as though we actually did have a nice summer. james and my pictures aren't represented, but we were awfully busy doing things solo this summer, too - (mission trip, conferences, bible study, meeting after meeting after meeting, etc.). and we are VERY much looking forward to some one-on-one time (hallelujah!) this winter.

okay, summer, i relent. thank you for these past few months of fun. but, i still say you went by too quickly...

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kiddo kraft of the month - AUGUST

August 27, 2012, 4:21 pm

≫ Next: kiddo kraft of the month - SEPTEMBER

≪ Previous: summer lovin' - had me a blast!

summer's almost over and the chilly air will soon be drifting in...just kidding...not in texas! but, eventually it'll get cooler and some of our nature friends will be looking for a comfy place to escape to, so we were a little early in preparing for our winged friends.

last week we studied letter B in our mommy school, and the activity i had the girls help me with was making a Buh-Buh-Buh-Bird house. so, if you're game and you've got recyclable containers hanging around like i do, then you can make one too!

this month's kiddo kraft is a bird house made out of recycled materials.

the first thing i did was wash some lemonade containers (one for each girl, cause who wants to share?). and i also cut some sides off a milk jug to serve as a little porch roof - cause who wants rain dumping into their house?!

then i spray painted them with some spray paint i had leftover from who-knows-when. thankfully, i had green paint!

i used some sticks to hang them up to dry...haha!

then i cut a hole for the birdie entrance and hot-glued around the edges so it wouldn't scrape/hurt the poor little thing when it goes in and out of its house.

then i hot-glued the porch roofs on. ouch! hot-glue is HOT! (duh!)

then i had the girls help me decorate the bird houses with permanent, nature-colored markers.

then the girls went out back with their daddy and their birdhouses and some nylon rope and tied the pretty casas onto our back fence (hidden within the potato vines and jasmine vines - how pretty). don't forget to screw the top of the jug back on! ;)

and the bonus lesson was - camouflage!

tada! we recycled some of our waste into winter palaces for some feathered friends. here's hoping that a bird actually lives in one! :)

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kiddo kraft of the month - SEPTEMBER

September 8, 2012, 7:32 pm

≫ Next: three

≪ Previous: kiddo kraft of the month - AUGUST

i've got a confession...i'm a backslider time-waster.

i have been avoiding pinterest, because i know how much time i could spend on it as i dive deeper into the rabbit hole. i was invited a long while ago, but didn't understand how to work in it, so i deactivated my account without creating one pin.

and recently...i re-activated my account, and have been lost and am spending (or wasting) lots of time researching everything and seeing all the cool ideas that everybody in the planet has on their 20 billion blogs. not to mention, my nearly 80-year-old grandy has a pinterest account...and when she talks about all the things she's found on pinterest, it makes me feel totally last century. she also now has an ipad - which makes me even more behind the times. go Grandy. my kids are envious.

whew - now that that's out there...

being on pinterest makes you want to be creative! so i've been doing stuff like crazy for the kids.

so, i can't help but post 2 of the things that i've made as a result of my inspiration.

the first kiddo craft project was inspired by my 4-year-old and a Crocs box. last week she told me she needed a rectangular box. i brought her one...not a rectangle. (way to go on the shape knowledge, ladybug). she made me try again. smart-aleck. so i found her another one. i recently bought some crocs on sale for her (thanks to all those new blogs i'm following on facebook because of all the pinterest rabbit hole excursions), so i gave her one of those shoe boxes (yes, this time it was a rectangle). she proceeded to fill her jewelry box with goodies (thanks, aunt anne).

and, being my child, one of her first questions is: can we decorate it?!

and, being me, i respond: absolutely!

so, the kiddo kraft of the month is: shoe box jewelry boxes (catchy, right?)

i know this is a lame craft, but it has brought so much delight to her. i could have just given her some markers and sequins or something awful to glue all over it, but NO, i decided to play with mama's big toys! i pulled out some of my craft paper (cause i only have a 1.5 feet-tall stack of it...), my paper cutter, and my big sticker maker (thanks Grandy, yes, i'm using it) - cause i don't like glue as much as sticker paper!

she picked out her paper (i had to cut her off at 5 designs). i measured it very NOT precisely by making creases on it after laying it on the box sides. she helped me cut it with my paper cutter (they think it's fun...heehee). and i (gasp) hand-cut the letters of her name. then we ran all the pieces through my big 'ol sticker maker - oh yeah! i know it's a bit wasteful for such big pieces of paper...but I LIKE IT! :)

i was a little anal and put the pieces on the box so they'd actually fit on there, but leila helped me peel them off the paper, i did let her put her name on top...which all fit - whew!

wha-la! a BOX! lol. scratch that - a PRETTY box. it quickly changed from a jewelry box to a medicine box and she went to doctor her dolphin. even a vet can have a cute med-kit. ;)

of course, macy saw what we were doing and just had to have one of her own. so, we repeated and she got to make one too.

THEN - i got the following idea off pinterest, but i modified it. i can't find the link, because it was easy to remember. we're working on lower and upper letter recognition in our mommy school time. leila's got the uppers down, but not all the lowers. so, i created a game for her to remember.

the second kiddo kraft of the month is - magnetic alphabet matching game

i made a word document with all the lower letters typed on it and spaced them apart. then i found all my upper letters from my scrabble game (i don't think we'll miss them...) and hot-glued a magnet on the back. then i picked up my dollar-store cookie sheet and used some extra magnets to stick the page of lower letters onto the sheet. that's it. ta-da.

i gave leila the basket of upper scrabble letters (which she loved), and asked her to see if she could place them on top of their corresponding lower letter. and she did. we're going to practice these a lot! and as she progresses, i think i'll up the game with a timer to see how fast she can do it!

i see many other fun games with these letters, too! we could play bingo with them and she has to match the letter i call out onto her board. or, when she begins writing words, she can put them together on her board - without worry about making mistakes while writing! etc. etc. i'm sure i can come up with more (and will), because now i've got alphabet scrabble letter magnets! i think i'm also going to make a math game out of it because there are numbers on each of the letter tiles - bonus! and, it's a fun lesson on magnets and why they repel (by the way - i made sure that i put them on the tiles the same way so that they would stack up together)!

so, that's that! oh man, my mind is racing with possibilities!

have fun!

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three

September 26, 2012, 7:31 pm

≫ Next: Thank you God, it's Friday!

≪ Previous: kiddo kraft of the month - SEPTEMBER

three is beautiful on you, my Sugar Bee. :)

you are...

Magnificent and monkey-jumpy.
Adorable and have an active imagination.
Cuddly and curious and creative.
Yummy - love those raspberry kisses and sweet shrills of laughter - i could eat you up!

happy birthday and thank you for blessing my life!

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Thank you God, it's Friday!

September 28, 2012, 12:29 pm

≫ Next: kiddo kraft of the month - october

≪ Previous: three

i had a WONDERFUL day at home with the girls this morning. it's days like today that get me through the four days that preceded this one. :)

i thought life would normalize once the school year started, but it hasn't - which has left me feeling like we're caught in a whirlwind - which makes me not the nicest mommy on the block.

but today, we wiped off the stinky days we had this week, and started new and energized!

we made Pillsbury cinnamon rolls this morning and the girls iced their own. we planted our bean-in-a-bag seedlings outside and the girls wanted to bag and grow some more.

we did a relaxed and fun and artful mommy school today. we painted the leaves of the seasons on their handprints trees.

we painted the homemade clay creations we molded last week. we made birthday cards for nana's upcoming 60th birthday. we read some hungry-related books. we played macy's new busytown "eye see it" game (at least 6 times). we sorted and named picture cards. we made horse masks. we laughed about all the silly things they've said that i've written down in their "-isms" books. and other stuff...

it was a GREAT morning! i love not having to rush to get ready to go somewhere by a certain time! i love just being with my girls and learning and playing and creating without a set schedule.

ah, deep breath. big smile. i live for mornings like today (and long naptimes like right this moment - where the girls had me cover them with stuffed animals before they went to bed). it makes up for the ones where i completely understand why animals eat their young...

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kiddo kraft of the month - october

October 10, 2012, 8:49 pm

≫ Next: kiddo kraft of the month - october - #2

≪ Previous: Thank you God, it's Friday!

what to do, what to do this month - there are so many fun ideas to try! i bought 2 black tshirts on sale from walmart when it was no-tax day and have been saving them for this month...but i couldn't figure out what we were going to do with them! until, i came across a fun handprint monster idea on pinterest: monster handprint canvases! btw, did i mention i'm on pinterest - i'm joining the cyber world one social media experience at a time....slowly....!

so, wha-bam! this month's kiddo craft is: monster handprint t-shirts! maybe your kids will jump for joy over them too?!

we could have made ghosts, like last year (ghost footprints), for their shirts, and i've also seen handprint bats...but i wanted something with COLOR against that blackness!

so, i prewashed the shirts and placed a piece of cardboard inside (to prevent the paint or glue from seeping through). then, i squirted the fabric paint on my kiddo's hand and only painted the areas where i wanted my monster (whether 3 arms or two legs...). give it as much paint as you can so it'll be dark!

we pressed them on to the shirts and let them dry.

after they were dry, i went around the painted hands with dimensional fabric paint for the extra pop (see above - before (left), after (right)). then the girls helped me pick out the number and size of googly eyes for each of their monsters. and i used aleene's craft glue (which states on the bottle that it's not meant for washing - but i bet there's something out there for it...but i just used what i had and plan to delicate cycle wash them inside-out.)

i thought about trying invisible thread and sewing around/over the eyes, but my mother has those sorts of things in her supply basket, not me.

then i added some extra cuteness with the dimensional fabric paint and added mouths, teeth, eyelashes, feet, and horns. cute, huh? i mean, how many times are they going to wear this shirt (in october) anyways?! at least once a week...and then, maybe i can make them into pillows?

don't you just love those sweet, smiling monster faces?! scary, huh? those are their mad monster faces - they are very good at them - whether wearing monster shirts or not. ;)

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kiddo kraft of the month - october - #2

October 15, 2012, 11:50 am

≫ Next: kiddo kraft of the month - november

≪ Previous: kiddo kraft of the month - october

i already did a kid craft for the month, but i've had an idea brewing in my mind since Sugar Bee's birthday and i just had the opportunity to try it yesterday!

for Sugar Bee's birthday, we got her some insect specimens from amazon.com since she just adores bugs - she'll pick them up dead, alive, or barely kicking. they were cool - but the specimens weren't super identifiable for her since they were made (and collected) in asian countries.

so, yesterday we found a fresh, dead cockroach and it hit me as the perfect opportunity to build our own bug collection! (it was dead at least! my bug guy's coming tomorrow to spray again...) ew gross, right?

so our kid craft #2 for october is - INSECT BLOCKS.
this activity was so eewwwwy, creepy, and disgusting, it was perfect for october!

i had the hubby help me with our specimen. until i was ready for it, he put it in a plastic baggie. i prepared my resin-making supplies that i had purchased 2 years ago from Little Windows (i bought it at the Houston Quilt Festival, if you can believe it). and i followed their instructions for embedding in resin. i have the resin-making ingredients and different shaped/sized molds.

here's what i learned: bugs float. so, i had covered the roach with resin, but it kept floating slowly to the top of my mold and it's hairy legs would break the surface of the wet resin. i kept having to push it back down with the plastic scoop to keep it down. i gave up for about 30 minutes when the resin was more gooey. then it stayed down more. after a couple hours, i noticed a couple roach hairs had still managed to poke out, so i put another thin layer of resin on top - cause there's no way i want to touch those things through my resin block!

when i do another specimen i will fill the resin mold 1/2 full and wait for it to harden for a couple hours (to keep the bug at the bottom of the mold, and then i'll pour more resin on the remaining top 1/2 to cover and seal it in. live, learn, do more bugs later.

how cool and creepy is that! the girls thought it was pretty neat - and i don't mind bugs this way. i plan on making more as we find native insects in good (dead) shape!

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