The regular format seemed too boring...
Adorable. Baby girl is so adorable. She smiles with her whole body and just lights up when she catches your eye. Love her. She brings much joy to our family.
Beautiful. The weather. The past few mornings it's been hovering right around 60. Helloooooo Fall. Not really, but it's getting closer. I have always thought I was a Spring person, but I am beginning to wonder if I'm becoming a Fall person. I particularly love November. It is magical. And still several months off, lol.
Cousins. Maura and her two cousins on my hubby's side of the family were all born within about three months of each other. She seems to be the smallest, even though she was the second of the three born. I love this picture.
Deacon. We had our seminarian friend who is now a deacon over for dinner last week. My cooking job has allowed us to meet some wonderful young men.
Eggs. We go through over a dozen at a meal now! Love that we have farm-fresh eggs available.
Fever. The baby had her first fever last week. Think it was tied to her shots, no other symptoms and was gone in less than 24 hrs.
Grapes. Our neighbor about four doors down has a vine of concord grapes that recently ripened and they invited us down to give them a try last Friday. It was a lovely evening and fun food experience.
Hobbes. As in Calvin and Hobbes. My boys (the hubby and 7 year old) have recently gotten really into these (I think Aaron is secretly enjoying reliving this part of his childhood). The comics are eerily similar to a day in the life of a mom with boys...
Inservice. So glad to have survived six days of it. Maura has been named an honorary member of the faculty and we survived, but man it sure is nice to be working my regular schedule now.
Job. I got another one, haha. So the priest I cook for moved from parish X to parish Y, which also happened to be relatively close to where we live, so I have continued to cook for him at his new parish. Well, then as it turns out the new pastor at parish X was actually in residence there a couple years ago when I started cooking there, so he asked if I would consider cooking for him as well. I've cooked for two before (actually, I was cooking for 3 grown men for awhile) and the extra driving around isn't too big a deal since my teaching hours are so minimal this year. I start after Labor Day. We'll see how it goes, but I am optimistic!
Kolbe. After eight long (looooooooooooooong) weeks (I swear it seems like eight years), Kolbe has been completely released to resume all little-boy activity after his broken arm. Praise be Jesus! Four weeks in a long cast, two in a short and two in a brace. Man, that wasn't fun. He was a really good sport about it, but goodness, it's good to see him active again. He is currently making up for lost time with the basketball goal on the driveway
Library. I need to go there. I have an overdue ILL book. Oops.
Middle School Music. I read some of this book on teaching Middle School General Music this summer as a way to get some PD points, but I ended up purchasing it because I found it to be incredibly worthwhile. Middle School General Music is tough, because typically it's the kids who aren't in band or choir, and a required music class is about the last place they prefer to spend several hours a week. And I totally get that. I am under no illusion that the next JS Bach is going to come from my seventh grade general music class. This book has some great lesson plans for making music class an engaging and hopefully worthwhile and fun (enough) experience for those who are only there because they have to be.
Nurse. Aaron is so proud that he can nurse the baby while I am at work. Otherwise known as give her a bottle of breastmilk. Apparently she is always an eager eater. Thank goodness! I am only gone for a 2.5 hour stretch, but it is nice that she can eat if she needs to.
One. The number of four hour painting sessions my hubby has done on the house so far. He thinks he can finish in around six of these four hour sessions. Progress is looking good.
Piano lessons. Gemma gets back at it this week after the summer off.
Quiet time. It has been met with mixed success at our house (it's only on the weekends now that school has started, we were doing it every day). Some days it provides a wonderful respite of relative silence. Other days it makes me want to gouge my eyes out. Or at least take up day-drinking.
Reduce. In the process of ordering new water bottles from Reduce. Our school changed its policy and now water bottles have to be transparent. I think we've narrowed it down to this and this. I am not a fan of straws, but I really like the other Reduce bottles we have so I am willing to give then a try.
Schedule. I am really thriving on our new Fall schedule, and the kids seem to be too. The rhythm that the school year brings to our days is good for all of us.
Television. MLB is our favorite thing to watch this time of year.
Underwear. One of Clem's most recent favorite books is Froggy Gets a Doggy. Most of the froggy books reference underwear at some point, and I always get a kick out of how that one word, no matter the context, can make a boy in the 5-7 year old range laugh so hard every.single.time.
Van. We paid it off this summer! Can't believe we've had it for five years. Here's to another 10 (or more). It's been a good vehicle.
Watermelon. Have you had the black diamond ones? They are superb.
X-rays. The ones from Kolbe's broken arm looked great! The angulation continues to go down and since his bones are still growing they should completely regenerate in the next few years and you won't even be able to tell he broke it.
Year. I finally found a saint book(s) for every day of the year that I like and is easy to use. There are actually two, one for the first half of the year and one for the second half. You can patronize your local Catholic bookstore to make sure you have the most current editions. Each story is about a page and a half long and always gives some sort of simple real-life application at the end. We read them at breakfast, and more days than not they spawn some sort of faith-related conversation.
Z makes me think of letters, and letters makes me think of my kindergartener Clem who has held his pencil like a caveman forever. So much so that I really considered waiting a year on kindergarten until he had a better pencil grip (I know, right?). First day of kdg and he comes home holding it wayyyy better (not correctly, but huge improvement). Really child? I have told you and showed you HOW many times? And your teacher shows you ONCE?! Bah!
Well, that's all folks. Until next time, peace out!
Well, that's all folks. Until next time, peace out!
