Seven Quick Takes: I can see the light!!

I figure if I jumped back on the blogging bandwagon I might as well not fall off again.  Seven quick things going on around here this week:

1. We have new kitchen chairs!! I was joking with the gals in the office at the parish where I cook(ed) that we've been married 11 years and now all our stuff is breaking or falling apart, so I was considering registering for things again now that I know what I like and will use. And all the other stuff is broken or worn out.  LOL.  Not really, but it's funny, when you register before your wedding, you (well, at least us), really have no idea what you want, what you like, what you need, what you'll never use, how much you really don't need.  I would argue that the same thing goes for baby registries as well.  But I'm getting sidetracked.  The kitchen chairs were falling apart so we replaced them.  There were two that were still in good condition so we held on to those for the ends, and kept another that was a little rougher to put the booster seat on here in a year or two since that is pretty rough on the padding and the finish.  I like how the new ones look and we got a super good deal on them!

2.  After just finishing A Witness to Joy (the story of Chiara Corbella Petrillo) I am reading Archibishop Chaput's Strangers in a Strange Land. Complete change of gears from Petrillo's story but I am enjoying it as well.  Man, he is a smart guy.  His ability to tie in history and quotes and ideas from so many different people and time periods is commendable.  But it's also not so intellectual that it's difficult to understand.  He has some very valid thoughts and insights into Catholicism in the U S of A today.  Aaron has already read it, so it gives us something interesting to discuss as well, which is always nice.

3. I am so ready for the change of gears when school starts.  This summer has been really. rough. around the house.  Older kids (who fight a lot), a baby who has lots of needs.  Taking care of a baby's needs while the older kids fight.  A lot.  Trying to keep my cool (hello failure) with the older kids who fight.  A lot.  I am not sure what we've done wrong this year but I sure hope we can get our...stuff....together come next summer because this summer has not been fun and I feel like we are just in this repeating cycle of awful. Terrible, horrible, awful.  Enough of that.

4. Kolbe has a short cast and can move his elbow again!!  And in just a little over a week he'll be in a splint!! And then all should be well with his arm.  I can see the light!  But I am soooooo paranoid about broken bones now though.  Ergh.

5. The siding crew finished siding the house on Friday, so Aaron just has a few little chores to finish up... yard-work yesterday, since he couldn't mow or run the sprinklers while all their stuff was in the yard, and putting the deck back together today (he wanted to paint around the parts where he has to reattach the deck before he reattached them, the previous owners had just painted around the deck). Then he'll take a breather (and a class for work) and get the kids back in school and start painting.  Whew, we've got some of this behind us but I'll be so glad when the painting and guttering are done!

6. Speaking of having things behind us...after an incredibly ridiculous amount of drama (I'll spare you the details) I have an addressed envelope to the state that is allllllmost ready to mail in for my teacher-license renewal.  Hallelujah! 

7. After this week the seminarian will go back to school and I'll be back to just cooking for one at the rectory, just in time to work essentially full-time during inservice week at school. But there will be a beautiful light at the end of that tunnel when school starts (I'll only be working 6-8 hours a week) and we all fall into our Fall schedules. It's gonna be good. Or at least that's what I keep telling myself.

Check out others' quick takes here. Until next time!!  Thanks for reading. :)

Journal: well hello there

So I took a little hiatus.  See sidebar for the big little addition to our family.  :-)
TODAY

Out my window: Hot.  Summer.  There is a piece of masking tape across the sliding door to remind people to "mind the gap" when they walk out, as we're having the siding redone and there is a plank out of the deck so they can get to the siding below.  No one in my family knows what "mind the gap" means so they look at me like I'm psychotic when I say it.  I think it's funny.  My potted flowers are staying alive as long as I water them, and I really like how they look on the deck this year.  The purslane has gone crazy.  As has the "tiny" tomato plant that our neighbor gave us.  It is almost as tall as the Japanese Maple (which is admittedly a smaller tree) and has started using the deck as a trellis.

Around the house: New siding is the big thing now.  And then Aaron will be painting. Gulp.  We ordered new chairs for the dining table as ours look like kids have been using them for the last 10 years.  Sigh.  We can't have nice things.  Weighing options for bedrooms once the baby gets older.  Right now she's in a bassinet in our room at night and a pack and play in the basement for naps.  She will grow out of the bassinet soon though so we'll probably bring the pack and play upstairs to our room since we have ample space and set the crib up in the basement for naps.  After that who knows.  The plan is to have a girls' room, a boys' room and a homework room.  Still debating who will use what rooms and which beds.  We have a year or so.  I got a new laptop about a month ago, so that's been pretty great (the other one was going on 7 years and, how shall we say, showing its age) and found a new purse that can fit a small diaper clutch and lightweight blanket (which is all we ever need, amazing how much lighter I travel with four than I did with one) along with my things I need.  I have found TJ Maxx to be a great place for quality purses (even nice label ones if you care about that sort of thing) at a fraction of the price. I also got some shoes for work and updated my Sperrys. 

The kiddos:  Not gonna lie, this summer has been kind of awful.  The fighting.  The loudness. (I think it is amplified and I become hyper-sensitive when there's a sleeping baby in the house.) Kolbe broke his arm so that put an abrupt end to baseball and swimming.  And a lot of other outdoor things that require throwing, catching, running, riding or climbing.  Which is pretty much everything.  The fighting.  Did I mention the fighting?  Holy moly, people.  We need the school year.  The structure brings us order and balance.  Or at least it cuts down somewhat on the insanity. Clem recently celebrated his fifth birthday, he had a great day.  He had been gearing up for his birthday for months and it didn't disappoint.

The baby: She's pretty great.  After 3+ months, guilt or sentimentality or something won out and I decided to order a baby calendar like the one I did for Clem.  Not a baby book, but a nice keepsake for milestones and such.  Hopefully I can fill in the holes in the first three months between my Facebook feed (lol) and a few notes I've kept on my phone.  Maura is an easy baby.  She's had some more restless nights the past week or so, but often only wakes up once or twice, which is unlike any other child I've had.  She naps pretty well, nurses well, burps and spits up a ton, smiles all the time, likes her hands, is growing out of the bouncy chair (she wants to sit up. ACK, slow down girl!!) enjoys the stroller and likes being worn.  She is easy-going with all the coming and going and even does decent with the noise (even so I still tend to get pretty psycho when the kids are loud while she is sleeping).  We love her.

In the kitchen: Sushi night (homemade) tonight and steaks out for our 11th anniversary last night.  Up this week: lasagna, hamburgers, some other sort of grilled food, probably a salad night.  I have some potatoes I need to use for a starchy side with something, for vegetables I am so boring and just steam a bag of something frozen nine times out of ten.  I realized how lazy I was when I was towards the end of my pregnancy and absolutely bemoaning the fact that I had to tip and tail green beans.  Hashtag lame.

Learning:  I downloaded summer packets for all three kids from Teachers Pay Teachers.  And that's as far as I got.  Didn't even get around to printing them.  Sigh.  They really loved them last summer and even worked on them some during the school year so maybe I will get around to it?  They have done lots of reading.  It's really cool having TWO very independent readers, and Clem really likes CD books.

Reading: I've been in a rut.  Currently making my way through Chiara Corbella Petrillo and Middle School General Music: The Best Part of your Day as I will be teaching a section of sixth and a section of seventh this year.

Watching: mainly MLB.

Bringing me joy: I am pretty excited about my work schedule this year.  I am still cooking for Father (even though he moved parishes, it was still neighboring enough to where we live to work out!) and I will still be teaching, albeit a scaled back schedule, as referenced above.  I will teach between 2-3 hours on a rotating schedule of two mornings one week, three mornings the following. I think it will be just right, and it brings me joy to be able to keep a foot in the working world (which I LOVED last year) while still being primarily at home with the baby and a half-day kindergartener, and my other kids after school each day.

Thinking about: Paths to holiness.  Keeping my patience in check.  Priorities.  

Pictures to share: 

The family on  July 4, after the annual parade.

birthday boy with his loot

happy girl

monthly couch pic!