Journal: end of February

TODAY

Out my window:  Cold, windy, sunny.  We've had some warmer nice days lately though, and the kids have been getting some good outdoor play.  This makes me insanely happy.  It is so fun looking out the window to see Kolbe digging in the dirt and Gemma doing who-knows-what and the baby, er, toddler traipsing around after them.  Love.

Clothing myself in:  It's a jeans and hoodie kind of day.

Around the house: Nothing earth-shattering.  Thinking about getting a new shower curtain and rings for the master bath, and I need to try to mend a rip on the reverse side of our bedspread.  Oh and spring/summer wardrobes.  Shudder.

 

The baby/toddler:  Has had some frightful nights.  I blame teeth.  He has three molars through and is working on the fourth, and his top eye teeth are trying to poke through as well.

He has started making the Sign of the Cross (furiously batting his fist back and forth between shoulders) and he will do the actions to our Morning Offering each day.  It's cute seeing him pick up on things the big kids do (for the most part, haha). 

If I give him two cups and some little items (counters for instance) he will spend an absurd amount of time dumping them back and forth.

 

The kiddos:  We found out this past week that Kolbe is color blind.  His is red-green and we're not sure how severe, but I suppose we will see as he gets older and it does or does not become more of a problem for him in school and such.  It is a genetic condition passed on from me (I am not color blind, my dad is though).  It is most frequently passed to boys from their mothers.  Here is a little more info on color-blindness that I found interesting.  And here (this one is kind of cool as you can see a picture of what people with different levels of color-blindess see).

Gemma has been making progress lately in the anger/temper department lately.  Nothing huge, but I have noticed when she is mad sometimes instead of lashing out she will say, "I am so angry now," or lash out in some other (less appropriate) way with her words...calling names, verbal attacks, etc. which isn't ideal but is leaps and bounds better than lashing out physically.  This is a continual challenge for me as well, so I pray that we can help each other through these struggles with temper and both end up better on the flip-side.  As his personality develops I am seeing a lot of the same traits in Clement...God give me grace and patience! 

In the kitchen: I made some really yummy no-bake cookies this past week.  I am not a huge no-bake fan, and am a terrible cookie-maker, but I wanted something quick and fun for the kids for snacktime one day so I found a recipe without peanut butter (none of us really like PB in cookies) and it was tasty and relatively healthy as well!!  I shared the recipe on my FB but holler if you'd like it.  Since we should probably eat more than chocolate and oats though, I have fajitas and a lasagna on the menu this week.  May bake some fish and will probably do some sort of soup as well.  Still deciding...

Crafting: (cue heavenly chorus) I did something!!!  Gemma's bulletin board in her room was too small to hold all her pictures, so I found a bigger one at Hobby Lobby, and the frame was just unfinished wood.  The day we brought it home I mixed up a pretty pink paint AND painted it.  Both coats!  It looks really good (no photographic evidence, lame, I know).  It will move downstairs with her though when she moves into her own room, so if I'd really been on the ball I would have bought another one and painted it blue for the boys when that is their room.  Maybe next week...

Learning:  The kids have been playing school lately.  Gemma loooooves being the teacher (imagine).  The other day when they were done she brought me a blank phonics paper she had made with a note at the top that said, "Clement dusent no haw to do fonix."  Those darn 19-month-olds, such slackers. 

Rr week for Kolbe, with some great R picture books, A Rainbow of My Own and Come on, Rain.  I think we'll do bead rosaries for preschool co-op this week and be sure to watch this Brother Franics DVD.

Reading: Still slowly chugging through The Joy of the Gospel.  It really is wonderful. 

Watching:  May or may not have the season premier of InkMaster set up on the DVR.  I know...

Bringing me joy: Nice weather and time outdoors with the family.  The kids playing well together.  Cheerful Monday mornings (I started this post yesterday and am just finishing it now, the week is off to a good start).  Gratitude for my hubby and kids.  A DATE with my hubby coming up.  It's been almost 4 months!!!  Watching Bob the Builder and Clifford with the kids.  A lot of kids' shows are so annoying to me, I find these two to be very endearing however, for whatever reason.  :-)

Thinking about: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."  Not gonna mince any words, I suck at this.  And Lent, can't believe it starts next week!!

Pictures to share:  

Crazy baby.  I am still not sure why he made this face, either it was the french fries and ice-cream or he is just getting very goofy around the camera.  May have been a little bit of both, whatever the case I find this picture to be insanely entertaining.

Journal: good times

TODAY

Out my window:  The snow is MELTING!  It has been really nice out, and the forecast for the next 7 days doesn't even go below freezing.  So awesome!!  I still remember Spring two years ago, I have pictures of the kids playing on the deck in short sleeves and barefoot the first week in March, and the trees were all bloomed out.  Could it be?  I will not get my hopes up...  I will not get my hopes up...  I will not get my hopes up...

Clothing myself in:  Dark-wash bootcut jeans from Maurices.  A brown patterned top with a cami under it and a coral colored shrug on top.  Bare feet.  (!!!!!)  And speaking of feet, guess who got three new pair of shoes for $17 at Kohl's yesterday?!!  A pair of black leather (!!) dress flats (to replace the non-leather ones that I destroyed traipsing through the woods last Fall when we took family pictures), some ruby-red flats (fun!) and my summer bum-around flip-flops.  Woot!  Good times.  

Around the house: I did a bunch of reorganizing in the storage room(s).  We have two separate rooms that are linked together (it's hard to explain) and I got stuff moved around where all our kids' stuff is in the back room (bedrail, car-seats, bouncy-saucer, packed-away toys, tubs and tubs and tubs -- oh my -- of clothes, etc.) and the front room is our pantry, Christmas decos, and other stuff that is packed away.  We had a bunch of old big boxes (like from toilets and our glider rocker) that were just sitting around and I collapsed and recycled them all too. 

 

The baby/toddler:  Spent several nights this week screaming in my face during the night for no apparent reason (teeth).  Good times.  His bottom two molars have broken through though, and the past few nights have been much more...bearable.  He is repeating more and more sounds each week.  He loves Gemma's toy kitty.  He likes to push around the shopping cart and stack our bottles and tubs from the kitchen cabinets.

 

The kiddos:  Were on the news!!!  Daddy gave me the afternoon off yesterday (cf new shoes) and took them to the zoo and the news was there doing a story on the nice weather.  They miked, mic-ed, (how do you spell that word?) Aaron up and followed him around for like 15 minutes I guess.  It was really cute, we DVRd it and the kids loved seeing themselves on TV.

In the kitchen: We're baking a smoked-turkey tonight and making broccoli salad and brussel sprouts and our neighbors are bringing over a potato dish to have dinner together.  We miss our neighbors so much in the winter when we don't see them outdoors as much, so it will be good to get together.  French Dips on whole-grain sourdough tomorrow, b-fast casserole, maybe a pot of chili and definitely a left-overs night this coming week. 

Crafting: Cringe. Shudder.  Nothin'. 

Learning:  Qq week this week.  Some good picture books and I still need to figure out an activity for preschool co-op.  Thinking something to do with ducks (quack).  Gemma has a whole laundry-list of tasks to do during homework time (sight-word flashcards, review spelling words, read a book, handwriting practice, etc.) so I made her a little checklist to go through each day and hung it on the fridge.  It has cut down on (a little of) the craziness during homework time...when Kolbe is clamoring for my attention as well and Clem is usually busy eating a crayon or dumping water on the floor.  I ordered some counters to go with our math manipulatives and am looking forward to using them, especially as Gemma is beginning to learn about subtraction.

Reading:  same.  Hoping to do more read-alouds with the kids this summer.  We've kind of fallen off the boat with that and I miss it.  I need to get more books on CD for the kids I think.

Watching:  Oh Goldrush is so painful, it is hard to watch.  I can't believe the season is almost over.  Pawn Stars is becoming less enjoyable, it used to be so interesting learning about all the stuff that came into the shop and now they have all these little made-up side-plots and such and it just isn't nearly as fun to watch.  For us.  Because we're lame.  Some Olympics.  Aaron has gotten into this show about Oak Island that's kind of interesting.

Bringing me joy: Good times...spending time with a dear friend of ours who is now a priest and attending his Mass of Thanksgiving where I also got to reconnect with his sister (who is a Dominican sister, and was my best friend in high school).  An afternoon off, spent going to confession/spiritual direction, shopping and aforementioned Mass.  By myself.  Seeing the kids on the news, and seeing how excited they were to see themselves.  Nicer weather and hope for Spring.  Looking forward to a date with my hubby.  Sweet new picture (see sidebar) of my big 19-month-old!! 

Thinking about:  Lent preparations.

Pictures to share:  

Hundredth day of school

My boys

 

My hubby and me.  We never ever take pictures together.  And when we finally get one, we are wearing colanders on our heads.  Good times, folks, good times!

Journal: snow days

TODAY

Out my window:  Cloudy and oohhhhhhhh it's cold.  About 6 inches of snow on the ground from this past Tuesday.  Gemma got two snow-days out of the deal so it was a fun week, and we were able to play in the snow Tuesday before the mega-cold set in.  Would you believe I shoveled the entire driveway (the neighbor helped a little, God bless her!!) by myself!  Twice!!  I wasn't nearly as sore as I thought I'd be, guess these kids keep me in better shape than I give them credit for.  I digress.  I think it's hardly hit double digits the past few days.  More crud on the way maybe?  I'm ready for March, and SPRING!  But then, I have been since November, sooooooo...

Clothing myself in:  Black long sleeve shirt, pink tank, jeans and black socks.  A step (or several) up from sweats and a hoodie...we had preschool co-op here this morning.

Around the house: I put the poinsettias and the Nativity away.  Still a few Winter things lingering around, I usually don't get all our winter stuff put up until March-ish.  When it's really Spring.  I also packed away a bunch of kids' clothes that were over-flowing in the laundry basket downstairs.  OH clothes.  And now I am starting to think about clothing the kids for the next season.  Sigh.  Sorry, for the dramatics.  ;-) 

 

The baby/toddler:  Oh teeth.  He is working on his bottom two molars and has a little infected spot where one of his top eye-teeth will be.  If you look at him wrong, or don't look at him, or touch him when he doesn't want to be touched, or...you get the picture, he will scream in your face.  And  maybe throw himself on the floor and cry too.  He has been realllllly grumpy.  But he's still so cute.  He can say "hi" and "mama" and "dada" and knows how to say what the puppy-dog, kitty-cat and monster says.  He is starting to repeat more sounds....ohhhhh it is so fun when they start talking.

 

The kiddos:  Gemma enjoyed her snow days and it was nice having her around (read: it was also really nice not to have to leave the house).  Her reading has really been improving.  I try to have her read a book (to me with help) a day and yesterday she chose Popcorn.  I was dubious, as normally I have her do a Level 1 or maybe 2 Green Light reader, but she plowed right through it with very little help.

Kolbe is very excited, we ordered (and got) a booster for him and Aaron put it in the van yesterday.  He feels like such a big boy (even though he hasn't gotten to ride anywhere in it yet).  He is way over the height, and almost to the weight requirement, and he was getting very difficult to get in and buckled into the carseat so we decided to go ahead and make the switch.  He has also started wearing big boy underpants to bed instead of a pull-up, as it had been months since he'd had a wet, so he is feeling quite accomplished about that as well.  Last night he snuggled on my lap and told me he loves me "the best".  I think he thinks you can only love one person at once, as he's done this before.  I find it very endearing, and Aaron doesn't seem to mind too much.  :-)

In the kitchen: This week we had a homemade pizza.  I put white sauce and a combo of beef/Italian sausage and topped it with a bunch of kale and mozzarella  ohhhhhhh it was tasty.  Honey Chicken on Tuesday and a big 'ole pot of chili when the cold-cold weather hit.  Chile rellenos with some leftover ham in it tonight.  Looking forward to a big crock pot of beef and veggie stew early next week. 

Crafting: My "editors" (ahem, yes you) have been on me for my lame answers on this one, so deleting the whole category would probably be in my best interest, as I'm sure I will get another email about this, but I'm thinking about some sort of decorative piece for our side server involving a candle and split peas and a big glass vase.  We'll see.  Would it help if I blew the glass and grew the peas??  ;-)

Learning:  Gemma requested I get a bunch of books about penguins from the library as they had been learning about penguins at school, so she was excited when they arrived on the "special shelf".  She was reading as soon as she got buckled into the van, did my heart good hearing her so enthused about reading!  Kolbe and I did letter P this week (timely with all the penguins) and also had some snow activities and pulled out our pile of "snow" books on Gemma's days off school.   

Reading:  Still working through The Joy of the Gospel.  Good stuffs, I tell you.

Watching:  Looking forward to the Olympics.

Bringing me joy:  Snow days.  Kolbe-snuggles.  Big fluffy snowflakes.  Aaron picking Gemma up from school so Clem can nap, uninterrupted.  Morning Prayer.  Time with friends.

Thinking about: Chores.  Gemma has been doing some small chores around the house (folding diapers, towels and socks, emptying the trash, little things like that) to earn money for Walk in Sister's Shoes at school.  We had never paid for chores before, but this has been working out pretty well since the money really isn't for her, per se.  Walk in Sister's Shoes ends right around Lent, so I think I will have her continue with small chores like this during Lent to "earn" her alms for the Alms jar, and do the item-counting (see post linked below) with Kolbe each morning after she has gone to school.  After Lent, she should be pretty used to doing these things so I think I will then introduce the idea of a chore chart and regular (unimbursed) chores around the house.  We'll see how it goes.  I have also started thinking about Lent, and plan to do pretty much the same thing we did last year, with the addition of a little more "fasting" type activities as the kids get older. 

Pictures to share:  

Some (very belated) birthday pics:

Gemma with "Whiskers" the kitten from her kdg teacher, and Kolbe with his remote control "tractor" (as he calls it) on their bdays

After our bday shopping trip at Academy Sports.  Gemma got a "girlie" bike and Kolbe a spiderman fishing pole.  This boy loves him some fishing --- like father like son.

And the baby, because he's cute.  And because I feel sorry for apparently only taking 2 pictures of him the entire month of January.  Oops.