7 Quick Takes

1 The dog is being fixed this morning. He is staring at me with those Labrador eyes, perhaps pondering, "What is broken?" Nothing yet, puppy. Nothing yet.

(random internet pic--not my dog, not my sectional)
((seriously, do you think I'd do off-white with 5 children?))

2 Once I had a dog who wore the "Cone of Shame" after a vet visit. Grandma Ella (the relation is too complicated to explain without another post), upon seeing her, scolded me for letting the dog get herself tangled up with my lampshades. She didn't like the explanation of the cone any better than her supposition. "It just looks silly." My dog agreed with her.

3 Although the dog does not like the cone, the children do. I will spend much of the next three or four days watching that the children do not steal the cone to wear as a fashion accessory. Think Queen Elizabeth...

4 Speaking of dogs, I woke up to barking at 5 a.m. It was the toddler.

5 On a different note, I am enjoying the company of children. I'm babysitting the younger three children of a dear friend. There are eight children, 7 and younger, running around the ugly yellow trailer. It's my contribution to the effort to get ready for the Pro-Life Banquet on Sunday. My friend makes blankets for the Pregnancy Center. Please go look. It's a good idea and there's a picture of one of my children on the site. Isn't she cute?

6 I've always found that in a certain sense, the more children there are, the more work there is, but the easier the burden. I guess I was just made to be a kid wrangler. Babysitting and having eight little ones around is stirring the pot and making me anxious to finish the house so we can foster more children.

7 Speaking of fostering. There is not really an update on the adoption of our fosterchild, Sissy, just news that the paperwork is finally starting to trickle in. If you ever do foster, keep every scrap of paper on every child--the only accessible copies in the system were in my hands due to her going out of the system at the last "permanent" family placement. Everything got boxed up and archived at that point. Once her social worker and I were able to figure that out, we could get the ball rolling again. The adoption won't be in April as hoped. Perhaps by the end of summer. It looks like the April court date will now be merely another placement review hearing, possibly the last of its kind?