Journal: the long part of Summer

TODAY

Out my window:  Sunny.  Hot.  We have reached the historical "hottest part of summer" the next three weeks in these parts.  I looked out on the deck a bit ago and my poor vinca looked so sad.  Water.  Oops.  No rain in the 10 day, although we had an inch the other night.

Around the house: We got the kids' school supply lists last week and promptly hit the store for school shopping.  Sometimes I am probably too task-oriented, but it was nice to get it done.  The big kids both had a small handful of stuff from previous years they were able to use again this year, and I was pleasantly surprised at how small Clem's supply list was.  Maybe because we pay tuition for preschool they provide more supplies?  Who knows, but I was glad it consisted of about four things.

I purchased a small white-board to put menu planning on the refrigerator as I am so tired of answering the question "what's for dinner tonight/tomorrow, etc.?" fourteen times a day.  Or an hour.  Little things like this make me nerd-out wayyyyy too much.

 

The kiddos:  Clement celebrated his fourth birthday last week!  And he stayed four after his birthday this year!!! It was a fun, quiet day.  He requested strawberry shortcake again like last year, but mysteriously only ate the strawberries and cream off the top both times it was served.  We had cake for breakfast (it's tradition), hot dogs for lunch, and he had I think five? seven? helpings of meatloaf for dinner.  It is his favorite.  Kolbe had a ball game that evening.  Clem got some Hot Wheels cars and tracks including the loop the loop that they had been trying to create for months with their flat tracks (grin).  Finally, after eight and a half years of parenting, we have found a toy that our kids enjoy, don't tire of, and will play with, together, for literally hours (they have had a small amount of track since January birthdays that has gotten played with all the time, hence buying more for Clem's birthday). I feel so accomplished.  I truly never thought I'd see the day.

A funny story about Clem's birthday.  His godfather came up to him when we were over at my parents' and, speaking to him like a big man, pulled his wallet and a wad of $1s out and said, "so Clement, how many years old are you this year?" as he thumbed through the money.  Clement cocked his head, looked at him dead-serious and said, "oh, mayyyybe one hundred."  That kid!  We decided to start giving him allowance at 4, even though the older kids didn't get any until they were 5.  Those younger kids....  He defintely, as evidenced by the convo with his godfather, has a decent grasp on the concept of money.

And one more story, because I have no other place to keep record of this stuff: my parents (at my suggestion) got Clem some new jammies for his birthday.  Almost everything he has is hand-me-downs, so I thought he would enjoy some that were his very own.  They even got spidey ones!!  He was very polite and thanked them, but when we got home and he was in the shower I asked him which ones he wanted to wear to bed that night and he answered very seriously, "mom, can you just take them back please.  I really like the ones I have.  Just, take them back."  He was excited when I told him he could exchange them for a few more Hot Wheels tracks, so we had a fun shopping trip and he ended up being very happy with his present.

The kids (especially the older two...and me...) have gotten into puzzles lately.  We finished this 500 piece one in 3-4 days.  It was so much fun!!  Kolbe got some new clothes (I am hoping the athletic material will help keep at-bay his horrible neck stretching habit).  Can you tell which shirt is his favorite (these pics were taken on two different days)?

  In the kitchen: See aforementioned white-board. And don't ask me again.  ;-)

Learning:  I've been working on my online course and some lesson planning for the coming year.  I am getting so excited to get back in the classroom.  I've spent some time working at school and getting my room ready as well.  We've been diligent about our 20 minutes a day for the library reading program and I think everyone will hit their 60 days by the end of the program.

Reading: Academia.  Not much else.  Blah.  Academic reading is the worst.  Someone reminded me today that, "they get paid for writing, not content."  Truer words were never spoken.  Blah.  I'm almost 3/4s the way there though.  Once I muscle through next weekend's assignment I should be done.

Watching: Mainly baseball. Honestly not much else. Looking forward to some cozy nights watching Gold Rush with Aaron this fall.  The kids have enjoyed this summer's season of American Ninja Warrior.

Bringing me joy: My faith. Kind words. Connecting with old and new friends. Prayer.

Thinking about: Life and time, specifically our time here on earth. A seminarian from our diocese died in a tragic accident this past week and it has really made me reflect on how little control we have over our lives.  We give ourselves all these illusions of control (from keeping a clean house to meal-planning to a million other things), and especially with our littles still safely under our wings (for the most part) I know I get caught up thinking I have so much control over my life.  Not so much.  I am thankful that He who made the moon and stars cares deeply about me and those I love, and I pray that they may find consolation as they unite their sufferings with His.  God is good...all the time. Even in the midst of grief and suffering.  His will be done. In me and through me.

Pictures to share:  

Birthday hats were a much-anticipated part of this year's celebration. 
Even the stuffed animals got their own.

The sweet birthday boy.  Grandma surprised him with a cake at family dinner night.

Me and my honey.  We will celebrate 10 years of marriage this week.

Journal: possibly the most boring update ever

TODAY

Out my window: Sunny and cool. Good looking forecast though.  A bit of a dip mid-next week, but 60s and 70s otherwise.  Spring?

Around the house: Gemma has started helping with the dishes, and by helping I mean like real actual help that is helpful.  It is awesome.  I told her she has graduated from trash cans.  The boys can do those now, she is on dish duty.  I foresee both big kids helping with dishes more over the Summer.  I would love to have them unload regularly, but I vary so much with when I run the dishwasher that it doesn't always work to wait and let the dishes sit until they can get to them. 

 

The kiddos: Clem has been a bit of a grump lately.  It's like he's three or something.  Oh wait... Last night he woke up three times, once he yelled that Gemma had come in and torn his paper heart (I am still not sure to what paper heart he was referring), once he was mad because he wanted the dominoes.  Like seriously, I had to get the box of dominoes out at 2-friggin-30 AM and he was back to sleep as soon as he grabbed them from me and snuggled up with them, and another time and I don't remember the circumstances of that waking but at least it wasn't going to the backyard to cast his fishing line and reel it in. #yesthatreallyhappenedonce.  He also came in gurmpily at about 6am (dominoes in tow) and asked if it was "morming time yet" (he does this frequently, sometimes as early as 8PM, HA!).  I told him almost and he scowlingly asked why I called him then. Huh?  Aaron said, "go back to bed, Samuel." That kid.

In the kitchen: This week we had Dijon chicken with rice and steamed veggies; crispy chicken salads; chili; grilled pork chops with boiled potatoes and steamed okra (the kids still can't understand how we eat that stuff); and fish muffins tonight.  Up next week: chicken parm with pasta and steamed baby carrots; hot dog night!!!; meatloaf with mashed potatoes and steamed green beans; probably more salads and something meatless on Friday. 

Learning:  Gemma is working on three-digit addition and subtraction at school, and "Rocket Math"  (time tests) which she gleefully recreates for Kolbe, lettered-worksheets and all, at home.  One day she had me time her as part of her homework, so I set my phone for two minutes (or so I thought), and she had been working awhile and I said, "wow, this is like the longest two minutes ever, I can't believe how far you've gotten."  I had set the phone for two hours.  Yeah.  Mom for the win.  Her reader at school has some really fun stories, this week it was How the Guinea Fowl got her Spots.  I added it to our Africa list.  Clem is learning about letter Tt this week.

Reading: Back to The Moffat Museum with all the kids.  Gemma and I finished The Latsch Valley Farm series the other night and it was hard to put that one down.  Or rather, it is always hard to pick something else up after reading something so good.  Sigh.  I think one of my favorite things about this series was how it dealt with weightier-ish topics such as sibling relationships, disobedience, death and even drunkenness very matter-of-factly and age-appropriately (and just appropriately in general).  There's so much junk out there, this series was just plain good, without coming across as trite or proselytizing.  Highly recommend.  I think we're going to go with Caddie Woodlawn next. We also started The Good Shepherd and His Little Lambs as a lead-up to First Communion.  It is going to be wonderful. I picked up an eight pack of Dr. Seuss bookmarks in the dollar bin at Target to give the kids on his birthday (3/2).  We all get a huge kick out of bookmarks around here.  Speaking of Seuss, our pastoral vicar read Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are at the school's annual read-night, and would you believe in all my Suess-lovin' book-lovin' years, I had never run across that one?!  It is really cute, we had to check it out ourselves after hearing it there.  And speaking of birthdays, I think we may read the Ralph Mouse books after finishing Moffats in honor of Beverly Cleary's 100th birthday this Spring.  One of our favorite Tt books this week has been The Tub People.  

 I am still making my way steadily through Fire Within.  Rich rich rich.  I also got The Name of God is Mercy from the library and am hoping to power through it in two-weeks because it's a new release and I can't renew it. I do have a three-day grace period though since we are nerds gold members.  Looks like it should be a pretty easy read, I made it through the intro last night.

Watching: meh.

Bringing me joy: Grace. Springlike weather. The kids. Holy Mass.  New tennies.

Thinking about: Oh! Oh! Oh!  I have two things this week!  First off, why don't they make workout pants that are not skin-tight anymore?  Like, I don't need a gunny-sack or anything, but I don't want my legs and butt to look (and feel) like sausages either.  Where is the happy medium lately??  I have a pair from Target.com ordered.  Review forthcoming...

And politics.  Wow.  I try to keep this blog pretty happy and light and nerdy and not get all bogged down in the heavy stuff, and I really am not planning on doing that, but just wow.  The Republican debate last night was a freaking five-ring circus. Really??  This is what we have to choose from?  There are some candidates I like a little (very little) bit better, and some not so much, and I'm not going to go into that here now (or ever), but wow.  Sigh.

Oh, and I suppose a third, this article on Seder/Passover celebrations was really informative I thought.

And his would be why I always leave the "thinking about" section blank....  

Pictures to share:  
Since I hardly talked about Kolbe above, I have a sweet picture of him.  He is wearing the good-deed beads they got at school as part of their Lenten practices.  He told me this week how sad he is that he can't marry me when he grows up because I'm the best mommy ever.  Goodness I love that kid.

Journal: almost Christmas

TODAY

Out my window: Cool, cloudy, but still above average temps.  Maybe some colder weather/precip this weekend?

Around the house: Fresh balsam scented candle, Christmas music, wrapping gifts, kid crafts, doing some cooking, brining a chicken for Christmas eve.  Good stuff.  Monday was a really good day with the kids.  Yesterday was abysmal.  Today is off to a rocky but better-ish start.  I am trying (operative word here being trying, as there is plenty of failing going on) to offer it up for so many who are going through hard times.

 

The kiddos: Gemma has really taken off on reading chapter books on her own.  Here I was all angsty that she'd never read chapter books by herself and now that she is I'm all, "I wish she still wanted to be read to more."  BAH!  Never happy. Her latest fave are these Bailey School Kids ones (it's a series), which (to me) fall under the twaddle category, but I read one (yawn) and there's nothing objectionable (besides some minor school misbehavior, which I'm not worried about rubbing off on my rule-follower), so alas.  I know I read plenty of Babysitter's Club in my day, and I'm sure those aren't much better, haha.  I checked her out the first Ramona book from the library and she has been reading it too (I remember reading anything Cleary dozens of times as girl, but haven't felt compelled to read any aloud as yet).  And Charlotte's Web I think.  She reads like I million things at once (I'm one to talk).  But enough, I really didn't intend this to be a post about books.

Kolbe seems to be enjoying the break most of everyone.  He is my sleeper, first one to fall asleep every night (we've been putting the kids to bed about 1/2 hour or so later than usual) and always the last one to wake up.  And generally, he has been pretty happy and content.  (I think Gemma misses the structure of school days, and I believe Clem may miss the quiet mornings where he is my only child.)  All the kids have been enjoying playing on the Santa Tracker which is this interactive app thing on our AT&T Uverse.  We don't do/have video games/tablets around here so this is a special thing that they enjoy during Advent/Christmas.  And it's pretty interactive so it's not like they are just sitting there zoned in front of a screen.  But I'm probably just rationalizing.  

Clement has been my angry elf of late.  He is just very #three which can be very #challenging.  But that's OK.  This ain't my first rodeo and this too shall pass.  This morning he woke up about 5 screaming that I took his bowl.  Um, OK?  So I asked if I needed to get him a bowl to which he growled, "yes."  I brought him one and he grabbed it, curled up and immediately fell back asleep.  This middle-of-the-night-angry-request-for-random-items gig is nothing new with him either.  #whatever 

In the kitchen: I made these soft ginger cookies yesterday and they are delish.  I used butter instead of margarine (do people still use margarine?), used half WW flour and half brown sugar.  They were fantastic, did I mention that?  Otherwise this week it's been grilled meat with baked potatoes, green beans and broccoli/rice casserole, homemade pizza (YUM!), lime chicken tacos (modified an old recipe for something else, and they were a HUGE hit with the kids), chili, running the smoker tomorrow and typical Christmas over-indulging feasting over the weekend.  Up next week I have honey chicken and goulash on the menu so far and that's about it. (I'm not taking any time off work over the break so I have to have some semblance of a plan that I'm willing to execute.)  Oh, and I am going to make a batch of cinnamon rolls for breakfast tomorrow.  Planning to make the dough today, refrig it overnight, set the alarm for way early and pull it out to rise, and then roll and bake them when I get up. 

Learning:  Aside from reading and our Jesse Tree, nothing structured.

Reading: The kids and I are reading The Family Under the Bridge and we have so enjoyed our Picture Book a Day selections. Some faves this year have been Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree, various versions of The Gingerbread Man, Charlie Brown, Apple Tree Christmas, Petunia's Christmas and The Night of Las Posadas.  I am too lazy to link.  I am making my way slowly but deliberately through Fire Within.

Watching:  We watched an interesting show about earthquakes on The Weather Channel last night.  I can't believe I just typed that...  The very sad part of this story is that we actually turned down free tickets to Transiberian Orchestra last night because it was going to be too late of a night. #lame

Bringing me joy:

Thinking about: Growing in virtue.

Pictures to share:  

Picmonkey is fun.