Mother Lode of pictures...with a few scattered updates

Mother lode
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mother lode is a term associated with the mining of gold and silver, and refers to a principal vein or zone of veins of gold or silver ore. The term probably came from the Spanish veta madre, a term common in old Mexican mining. Veta madre, for instance, is the name given to a seven-mile long silver vein discovered in 1548 in Guanajuato, New Spain (modern-day Mexico).[1]

In the United States, Mother Lode is most famously the name given to the long alignment of hard rock gold deposits stretching northwest to southeast in the Sierra Nevada of California. The California Mother Lode is a zone from one to four miles wide and 120 miles long, which stretches from Georgetown in El Dorado County on the north, through Amador, Calaveras, and Tuolumne counties, south to Mormon Bar in Mariposa County. It was discovered in the early 1850s, during the California gold rush. The zone contains hundreds of mines and prospects, including some of the best-known historic mines of the gold-rush era. Individual gold deposits within the Mother Lode are gold-bearing quartz veins up to 50 feet thick and a few thousand feet long. The California Mother Lode was one of the most productive gold-producing districts in the United States, but is now given over to tourism.[2]

The California gold rush, as with most gold rushes, started with the discovery of placer gold in sands and gravels of streambeds, where the gold had eroded out of the hard rock vein deposits. Placer miners followed the gold-bearing sands upstream to discover the source in the bedrock. This source was the "mother" of the gold in the river and so was dubbed the "mother lode".

The term is also used metaphorically to refer to the origin of something valuable or in great abundance.

Obviously this post is about the last definition...something valuable...our children :)

Ellie thinks my blog is horribly boring! So if you see a new, refreshing design you can thank her. She's got the time and talent!

Updates:
It's been over 3 months since our new kids (vs our old kids :) have been home. I must say it's BEGINNING to feel more "normal". The fog must be lifting a little. I don't stress as much about preparing meals. God must be giving me ideas because I'm still not a good meal planner/shopper!!! Of course there is still the noise...the sibling conflicts that happen...but I can tell you things definitely feel different (in a good way) than they did even a month ago.

Two heart warming things...
On Mother's Day the kids had all gathered bouquets of flowers (from our ditch :) to give me. Marie hadn't known what was going on but on Sunday morning she realized she didn't have flowers to give me. It was a horribly windy, rainy Mother's Day in Iowa but despite that she ran outside...clear to the edge of our property to gather her bouquet to give me. She came in wet and cold but with a huge smile and handed it to me. Those were the most beautiful flowers EVER.

The other day Isaac, Caleb and I were out by our large raspberry patch weeding. When I mean weeding it's basically trying to find where the plants actually are and ripping out handfuls of grass around the poor plants! It's a pretty time consuming job...and definitly not fun when the bugs are biting. Caleb hung out helping a few minutes but Isaac stayed and helped me with the whole row. Several times I told him he could quit and go inside but he chose to stay until we were done. He was very proud of how it looked and I was very proud how he chose to stay and help his mama! :)

Other happenings:
The boys spend HOURS...and I mean hours everyday hunting for frogs. We have a little marsh area (where they all try to hide) All three boys scout out the pond for these poor creatures...even the dog helps! One day they had 11 caught. I found out the container they used was Caleb's lunch box! Ick. Now they get deposited in the baby swimming pool. (don't worry...they aren't tortured) The cat did get one though. Did you know cats will eat frogs??? Me either.

The boys have their last soccer tournament this weekend if the weather holds. I must say Caleb and Isaac are quite a team!

Olivia had her spring dance recital a few weeks ago. She's been doing Irish Step Dance for the past 4 yrs or so. I LOVE the music and seeing her enjoy dancing! Their troupe is awesome and performs for nursing homes 1-2 times a month. What a ministry they have.

Ellie is still into photography. She gets alot of great ideas from some other adoptive moms' blogs...thanks Amber and Jamie for posting such great pictures! We love them.

Chloe loves the farm kitties we have. All the girls spend hours dressing up and playing house together. It's funny to see the Liberian touches...like the fire to cook over!

Marie just got her hair in a "bee hive" yesterday at a salon. Hopefully this style will last the summer. (even swimming) Yesterday Ellie and Olivia worked together latch hooking all the extensions into her hair. I am SO thankful my girl do Marie and Josie's hair. I don't have that talent (or desire!) yet. Unfortunately we ran out of extensions. I ordered a case of 12 packages and it still wasn't enough. Hopefully they'll have some at a store in town that will work. I've had fun watching utube videos showing how to braid hair. (that's how I spend my quiet nighttime hours...when I'm not blog surfing!) It's a whole other world having African girls..the skin..the hair. I never knew that alot of AA hair...isn't (gasp!) their real hair!