Journal: I think it is going to be Winter forever

TODAY

Out my window:  Um, Spring?  Where are you?? In case you haven't looked at the calendar, it is now mid-April.  Come on already.  That said, we have enjoyed some time outdoors on the (seemingly few) nicer days we've had.  And oh, regarding the snaggle-toothed furry mis-predictor of Spring of whom I spoke quite deprecatingly last week...there was a bit of confusion on my part regarding the opinions of a certain reader in Denver who shall remain unnamed.  While he is understandably experiencing much angst about their current weather, no "hate" is actually being felt toward the mangy perpetrator.  He did however mention something about a bounty...  OK, inside joke over.  In all seriousness though, this kind of weather in mid-April is ultra-depressing.

Clothing myself in:  Jeans and a t-shirt.  So original. So classy.  

Around the house:  Packed away a bunch of the kids' clothes.  I toss stuff they've outgrown on closet shelves, and then when there's enough I haul it downstairs and toss it in a laundry basket.  And then when it piles up into a big, scary, unruly pile of randomly-sized sort-of folded clothes, I whine and complain and then sort through them all and put them away in the correct tubs.  I do the same thing with my paper filing.  And as soon as I'm done I vow I will always file things the minute they leave my hands.  And I never. do.  Now you know.

The laptop hunt is on.  A friend's hubby (thank you!) took a look at the Toshiba, and even if he replaced the motherboard there is a good chance the same thing could happen again with the USB's.  Ugh.  I'm  managing OK without the USB's, but I'd really like to get a new laptop with Windows7 (read: not Windows8) and I don't now how much longer that is going to be an option.  Stupid technology. 

 

The baby:  Oh goodness he's not crawling yet but boy can he get around!!  Wowza, life is about to get even more interesting (is that possible?) in this house once he takes off.  He can go from belly to sitting now, and is pulling up on his knees.  He had his 9 month well-child last week, he weighed 17 lbs 6 oz and was 28 inches long.   He really likes to feed himself little chunks of food, so much so that I actually gave away the baby food I had made for him.  I do not miss baby food.  He has tried many various veggies, fruits, meats, beans, fish and whole-oat cereal.  He still nurses a lot too.

 

The kiddos:  Gemma is sounding out words and writing left and right.  Her spellings crack me up.  I got confirmation that we will have half-day kindergarten available at our Catholic school next year, so for that I am grateful.  I think it will make our family's (and Gemma's) transition into school much smoother.  I am beginning to really look forward to next year, it'll be a huge change for our family no doubt, but I think school is going to be a very good thing for our Gemma-girl. 

Kolbe had his speech screening last week.  He was very quiet and nervous but the gal doing the screening was really sweet and got him talking even so.  His language (ability to communicate and understand) tested fine, but she gave him a referral for speech, so the next step is to have him tested in our district and see if he qualifies for services.  And then go from there...  We'll see what that brings.  Everyone seems to think that it is quite odd that I'm not planning to send him to preschool, so that's a little frustrating.  I just want him to have the help he needs (IE speech pathology) while still meeting the needs I am able to meet in our home.  Does that make sense?

In the kitchen: Pork cutlets, mashed potatoes/cauliflower, steamed broccoli; Beef/Italian Sausage and Veggie Lasagna with green beans; crock-pot chicken, still debating on sides; Fish Crisp and maybe a fruit salad.  Hubby made sushi over the weekend.  Yum!

Crafting: ahhhh, nope.

Learning: Nothing terribly exciting or out of the ordinary.  Thinking about this Letter of the Week program for Kolbe next year.  And this.

Reading: Finished Bible Basics for Catholics.  Nothing earth-shattering, but a nice overview of Salvation History never-the-less.  Still working through the Catechism.  Started Navigating the Interior Life and A Father Who Keeps His Promises this week.  Those fictions from the library are still on the end-table, but the thought of reading four books at once seems silly.  Yet I haven't taken them back...  So many good books, so. little. time.

Watching:  We're about 3/4's the way through (TV) Episode 4 of The Bible.  I'll just come right out and say I liked the way they portrayed the Old Testament better.  The New just seems really disjointed, like they took a bunch of the stories of Jesus' ministry and just kind of mashed them together so they could cover all His "most quoted" moments.  I don't know, it's just weird to me.  We have about three hours (really probably closer to two once we zip thru commercials) to go, so we'll see what the final verdict is, but honestly I've liked it less the more I've watched.  The thing I DO like though, is it's got me thinking and kind of lit a fire under my butt to read the Bible more, and that's a really good thing.    

Bringing me joy: A date with Aaron.  We went on a walk around the neighborhood and actually visited instead of having a dog and three kids strung out a block-and-a-half between us.  Then we sat at the dinner table.  At home.  For FIFTY minutes.  Yes, five-zero.  And we had our wine and food ON THE TABLE!!  The whole time.  And nobody spilled anything or threw any food.  It is funny for me to think that this was the norm for us five years ago.  We had no idea how good we had it!!  And don't get me wrong, I love my life, love my kids, wouldn't trade it for the world, all that cliche stuff.  But oh, it was nice to have a couple hours together away from the kids. 

Thinking about: Prayer.  How to live a life of prayer amidst my vocation, rather than in spite of it.  My relationship with Gemma, how to help her through the anger and tantrums that she so struggles with.  And just my relationship with her in general.  We are a lot alike and I feel like we are constantly at each other's throats.  And while I don't want (or need) to be her BFF, I'd still like us to have a happy, healthy, loving relationship, and right now it just rarely feels that way. 

Pictures to share: 

Silly monkeys.  Errrr, monkey and dragon.  (Halloween costumes are fun year-round!!)

Kolbe is my child who will fall asleep (and stay asleep) anywhere.

 Look-alike brothers.

Small Successes VI

1. Processed more baby food (sweet potatoes, apples and more brown rice) and got it put up in the freezer. This boy can eat! Methinks he's going to give me a run for my money.

2. Scored a free sling with a promo-code I received on my email. I'll let you know what I think of it once it arrives, but it looks very similar to my hotsling which I use with Kolbe when I'm out and about all. the. time. (oh, and it was a tough decision, but I ended up going with the "Northern Lights' pattern)

3. Got my hair trimmed (not cut), and my last cut was over three months ago! I could bore you with paragraphs about why this was a success, but I'll keep it short. I'm an every-six-weeks type of gal when it comes to haircuts, but after going way too short in May (by my own choosing...sometimes you've just gotta learn the hard way), I vowed to let it grow this summer. And I did!! Bangs and all. My sis (who has her cosmetology license and takes quite good care of both my and my daughter's hair) trimmed it for me last night and I am quite pleased. I'm keeping the layers but looking forward to growing it a bit longer. We'll see where it is next year at this time.

And there you have it. Head on over to Faith and Family Live! to read about others' successes.

Homemade brown-rice cereal

Here are the instructions for making homemade rice-cereal (mentioned in my last post).

• Take 1/4 cup of dry, uncooked brown rice (I used long grain, but short grain would work fine as well) and put it in a coffee grinder (you can use a food processor, but from what I've read a coffee grinder or spice grinder will give you a finer end product)
  
• Pulverize it on the highest speed until it is a fine powder (you can't get it too fine)
• Bring 1 cup of water to a boil on the stove
  
• Add rice powder, turn burner down to low
  
• Immediately after adding powder to water stir vigorously with a whisk
• Put lid on and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring quite frequently
• Remove from heat and cool a bit, then run it through a food processor to really make it smooth (it was still a little lumpy before running through the processor, that's why I added this step)
  

It can be stored in the fridge for a few days, and freezes nicely in ice-cube trays for longer storage. We mixed Kolbe's with some mashed bananas. Since he's used to mama's milk - and that's pretty sweet - we thought this would help make a nice transition to the world of "big-people" food. I think this will be great to mix with other fruits and veggies as we broaden his repertoire in the coming months as well; a healthy way to add some good carbs and fiber, and a bit of protein too, to any dish. I'm looking forward to Kolbe's "food journey". I am approaching it much differently than I did Gemma's (my dear practice child). Ahhhhh you live, you learn.