Journal: Fourth of July, middle of Summer

TODAY

Out my window: Hot and windy.  The weather for the Fourth was nearly perfect.  Very light wind, not too hot.  It was a great day!  Warmer today, but the ten day is definitely bearable.

Around the house: I went through my closet/drawers and packed away the clothes I don't wear, or that I wear but don't particularly like.  If I haven't missed them in six months to a year I will donate them.  I also went through all our baby/little girl clothes tubs that I have packed away and was able to get rid of three tubs' worth, still saving enough that were we to have another girl some day she would be adequately clothed.  We came into so many clothes (gifts, hand-me-downs, consignments, etc.) with Gemma, and I kept everything.  We do not need everything.  To that note, if anyone knows of someone with a little girl who will be wearing size 18 month clothes this winter, I would love to pass a big bag along to them.

 

The kiddos:

CLEMENT will be THREE this week.  Three!!!  He is obsessed with the word "poop".  He sings it, he says it., he yells it, he whispers it.  At home.  At Church.  And Church.  It is apparently the awesomest word ever.  (See picture below of the firework aptly named "The Poopy Puppy".  So fitting.)  He has gotten very emphatic with his final consonants, especially when he is trying to make a point.  He can't say words with "R" blends at the beginning.  Or rather, he changes the "R" to an "L".  Gleen instead of green, clunchy instead of crunchy.  I may or may not encourage these words by pronouncing them wrong myself, and will be admittedly devastated when he grows out of this speech habit.  He thought fireworks were pretty neat.  We let all three kids stay up last night and they had SO much fun.  Clement thought the big loud ones were pretty cool as long as he was sitting on my lap.  I'm glad he still likes to snuggle with me sometimes, because he reminds me more than once a day, "I are NOT a baby," said in the sternest, most grumpiest tone you can imagine.  He is a funny kid.

KOLBE was our little pyro on the Fourth of July.  I am glad firecracker day only happens once a year.  He was pretty careful though and had so much fun.  He thought lighting things after dark was pretty much the best thing ever.  He seems to have grown out of his food sensitivities.  Back in May we were at an anniversary celebration and he was positively heartbroken he couldn't have a cupcake, so we fudged and let him have one and figured we'd just take the hit, but then he didn't react to it by breaking out.  Since then we have kept up our typical eating habits at home but have loosened up at grandparents', parties, Church functions, etc. and save for one flare-up after a DQ M&M blizzard, he has weathered it fine.  I am so immensely relieved.  This makes school, and all the food that goes along with it, seem much more doable come this Fall.  Sigh.  Thank you God.

GEMMA is having a good Summer, but I can tell some days she's a little under-stimulated.  I have some guilt about not doing enough educational things with them in the summers (oh, I had plans for math and handwriting and phonics lessons...), but then if I offer to go over math facts or something equally "exciting" it is typically not met with open arms.  (Understatement.)  We really have done some cool "out of the box" educational stuff (and read a ton of great books) this summer, so I rationalize that they can do their bookwork from September to May, and focus on some more of the non-traditional learning activities during the summer months.  That's fair, right?  I hope the first semester of school treats her well.  In Kdg and 1st Grade she seemed to really hit her groove...about February.  Sigh.  I am hoping maybe with Kolbe being in school too (albeit half day) it will make things a little easier.  It's not that she dislikes school, she really seems very content with it overall.  Blah, I don't know.  She will also be preparing for the Sacraments of First Reconciliation and Eucharist.  It will be a big year.  We got her uniforms the other day.  They are pretty big, so I am hoping we can squeeze three years out of them (at which point she'll switch to skirts).

All three kids recently had doctor appointments, here are their height and weight stats (this is mainly for my record-keeping purposes, you can skip this part).
Gemma: 7 1/2 years, 53 inches (96%ile), 52.1 lbs (47%ile)
Her hair is finally growing and she was so excited it was long enough to do a "star" on the Fourth of July!!
Kolbe: 5 1/2 years, 47 inches (94%ile), 42.6 lbs (49%ile)
Clement: 3 years, 37 inches (46%ile), 27.6 lbs (12%ile)

In the kitchen: Planning to try and get our digestive systems back after the Fourth and all its, um, festive eating.  Ugh.  Grilling today, homemade pizza tomorrow (I found a great new crust recipe), salads, beef stroganoff and ribs the rest of the week.

Learning:  Blah.  See above.

Reading: Check out my latest Read aloud Thursday post for what I'm reading with the kids.  I am almost finished with Happy Are You Poor.  It has been an incredibly impactful read, and I've been discussing it with Aaron quite a bit.  It is a perspective-changer, that's for sure.  I need to get back into Introduction to the Devout Life, and now that I'm finished with Theology, I picked up a copy of Theology for Beginners as a bit of a review, and for some future Theology work I may be doing.

Watching:  MLB mainly.

Bringing me joy: Family.  Friends.  Summer.  The kids and I are visiting area Churches for daily Mass twice weekly this summer, and that has been a really neat opportunity that I am enjoying immensely.  The kids have been doing pretty decent with Mass, and usually there is a fun new playground at which to play...an added bonus!

Thinking about: Always something.

Pictures to share:  

Three (two pictured) of our very favorite readers visited from out of state, so we had to take some pictures for the blog!!!

Journal: Mother's Day

TODAY

Out my window:  Spring.  Finally.  Oh thank you Jesus.  And from the looks of the forecast, it should be summer by the end of the week.

Clothing myself in:  Skinny jeans (Maurices), pink tank and yellow top (Target), grey shrug (Old Navy...juniors dept., haha) and brown flats (Maurices). Actually presentable enough to post a pic for once.

Around the house: I'd like to do something with the toy corner in the living room but I don't know what.  Currently we have a milk-crate size basket of random toys and Clem's play cube.  Then our religion-type books and some library books are usually over on the fireplace.  And there is a basket of baby toys under one end table and books under another.  I'd really like to consolidate all this stuff in the "toy corner", but there's also a lamp and a vent there, so my options are really limited.  It's not a ton of stuff, I just feel it could be better organized (it's the OCD part in me that constantly has to be organizing something...I think it's a coping mechanism).  I'd like to do a nine-cube but there's just not enough space.  Maybe a modified version?  I saw some cool benches at Target too but the space is pretty small, so between that and the pesky vent (I could move the lamp) I just don't know...   Ideas??

 

The baby:  Ten months.  He is proficient at crawling now.  And pulling up.  And apparently climbing stairs.  And getting into things.  The other day he got into something Gemma had painted and before I knew it his face was blue (from the paint).  I'm not ready for this.  He's sooooooo cute though.  He really likes to say "dadada".  Every once in a while he will throw a "mama" in there, but mainly just "dada" and lots of other babbles.  Did I mention he is cute?  And that he eats dirt?  And paper?  Heaven help me.

 

The kiddos:  Gemma has been very trying lately.  Please say a prayer for her (and me).  She is always planning something, last Tuesday or Wednesday I believe Aaron was putting her to bed and she was totally stressing out on him saying, "it's almost Mother's Day and I have SO MUCH I still need to get done!!"  Silly girl.

Kolbe is just cute.  I love the way he talks and his silly little personality.  He is my funny little man.  Did you know he can touch his nose with his tongue?  We are still trying to get to the bottom of his food issues.  Last summer it dawned on us he had a sensitivity to artificial dye (gives him pretty bad eczema around his mouth) and we've cut that out (all except the occasional junk when we're out and about, ugh) but he still has some issues.  Recently we figured out that caramel color has been causing it (even though it is supposedly "natural") and he even flared up after a (very small!) bite of 100% Maple Syrup the other week.  How does that make sense?  I'm glad his only issues are the skin ones, but I'd still like to get to the bottom of this.  Not really wanting to attempt an elimination diet though.  

In the kitchen: Sushi for mother's day (thanks hubby) and pound cake.  Funny story on this (tangent alert).  I will preface by saying that my hubby is a great cook and very proficient in the kitchen.  So Aaron had picked up a bunch of strawberries and mentioned that it would be nice if I made a pound cake to go with them.  I really had intended to do this, but just hadn't gotten around to it so he decided to make me one for mothers day and found a recipe online.  The following conversation ensued:

Aaron: So we only have frozen butter.  Can I use frozen butter for this?

Me:  No.  It has to be softened.

Aaron: Melted?

Me: No, softened.  It's a balance.

Aaron: (puts butter in microwave and measures sugar in bowl).  So how many tablespoons are in a cup?
Me: [quick google search] sixteen.

Aaron: What order am I supposed to put all this stuff in (he had just jotted the ingredients and amounts down), maybe you should print the recipe.

Me: It's a cake hon.  Cream butter and sugar, add eggs, then flour and milk.  By the way, do you need me to get the mixer out for you and show you how to use it?

Aaron: Mixer? Why would I need a mixer? I have muscles!

Me: SERIOUSLY, Aaron?!!!

Aaron: Maybe you should just make the cake.

He was pretty proud of his mad manipulation skilz.  I was amused.  And I made the cake.  True story.

Sesame Chicken; Stuffed Green Peppers; family bday dinner; and Tuna Melts are on the menu this week.  Fresh brussel sprouts, asparagus and lots of fruit in the fridge to use as well.

Crafting: Mended a pair of Aaron's pants and a (brand new) bag from Target that had a rip in the seam.  Does that count?  Also helped the kids make these cute little handprint flowers for their godmamas and grandmamas for Mothers Day.  We wrote prayers on the fingers and turned them into spiritual bouquets.  They were really cute.

Learning: Nothing out of the usual.  I've been giving Gemma more worksheets (mainly math, science and just general kdg readiness stuff) and she really enjoys working on those.  She's getting better at writing with a pencil (vs. crayons) and is even using a correct grip more regularly!  Almost ready to start Letters and Numbers for Me (our next handwriting book).  I need to check if we have this video about Our Lady of Fatima on our DVR.  Thinking about and looking forward to things to do with Kolbe next year.  We are signed up for Bible school (Gemma) and swim lessons (Gemma and Kolbe) this summer, so that should give us some fun things to do. 

Reading: Finished Navigating the Interior Life (see my review HERE).  Still working through the Catechism daily (mostly) for the Year of Faith, and really enjoying it.  Trying to read from the Bible every day.  I am part-way through Beyond Baby Talk, which a friend loaned me.  It's good, but seems (at least so far) to deal with language more than speech, whereas Kolbe's issues are speech not language.  It's still interesting enough though.  Also reading a bit about Ignatian spirituality.  Any recommendations along that vein would be appreciated.

Watching:  Caught a couple episodes of Survivorman that we hadn't seen.  Debi, your boys would like this show.  Still enjoying new episodes of River Monsters each week during its season which I'm sure will end soon (it was really short last year).  Seriously?  How many more river monsters are really out there?  This show just can't go on forever.  Sadly.  Oh, and we also watched a show the other night on cults, it was on History (or H2, I can't remember) and it was really fascinating.    

Bringing me joy: My vocation. 

Thinking about: Mother's Day.  It has really evolved for me.  I'll just come right out and say my first few mother's days were plain miserable.  I cried and had some pretty amazing pity parties for myself, let me tell you.  I thought Mother's Day was supposed to be perfect?!! All about ME!!  But then I readjusted my expectations.  And probably grew up a little bit (it does happen).  Mother's Day is really just another day, contrary to what Hallmark would have you believe.  I mean, don't get me wrong, it is a beautiful day to recognize and celebrate the gift of woman and motherhood (I really like what our priest had to say about this in our bulletin this week); but when it's all said and done, maybe I should spend the day embracing my vocation rather than escaping it.  My kids will tell me happy mother's day a million times but they'll still act, how shall we say, like their usual selves as well. Gemma will melt down over a million random things and Kolbe will decide that he wants to buy a fishing pole instead of going to Mass and obsess and whine and cry about it for 45 minutes.  Clement will pull on my necklace and nurse through all the parts of Mass when I should be standing.  Aaron will make me a nice dinner, but I'll probably still have to clean up the kitchen.  We'll mix a batch of strawberry daiquiris but then we'll have to interrupt our drinking them to clean dog poop off Gemma's bare feet.  But you know what?  That's OK.  Motherhood - in all its "glory" - is my life. Sometimes it's important to just celebrate that.  By being grateful for and embracing the gift of my vocation, with all its blessings and difficulties too.  This year we had a lovely family walk, and a day with very few out-of-the-house obligations.  The kids threw fits and I cleaned up the kitchen (more than once) and the floor could use to be sweeped.  Swept.  Again.  BLAH!  Oh yeah, and I made my own cake.  But this is my life.  And I am content.  Happy.  God is good...all the time.

Pictures to share: 

Wearing their "running hats"

 

Look what I can do!

Family.

Journal: New Years

TODAY

Out my window: Snowy!  It snowed yesterday morning, and then melted before the kids even got to play out in it.  Then it snowed a bit more yesterday afternoon and now it's snowing again this morning.  The grass still isn't completely covered, so there isn't much, but it's nice never-the-less.  The kids are hoping for a snow-walk with Daddy this afternoon.

Clothing myself in: The usual.  I am so over winter. 

Around the house: Just cleaned the bathrooms.  I updated my calendar for the fridge for the next six months and reworked my daily chores a bit to better fit the current state of our family.  Example: the floors do indeed need scrubbed more often than once a week (daily?).  However, when I scrub them more often than once a week, my expectation for how clean they should be is raised, and then I freak out disproportionally when someone spills something.  If I just scrub them once a week, I am more cool with them not being perfect.  For me, this is progress.

 

The baby: Cute as ever.  He has gone with the flow quite well with all the holiday celebrations and such.  Yesterday he took a 4 hour 45 minute nap.  Now if only he could sleep that long of a stretch during the night...

He got some new (size 9 month) clothes for Christmas, for which I was very grateful.  He was growing out of everything, and Kolbe only had a few winter items in that size.  He looks so cute in his new duds. 

 

The kiddos:  Had a good Christmas, and they too have gone with the flow quite well.  It is so hard though, when they don't eat or sleep as well as usual because we are going going going, then they don't behave as well either.  And it is hard to get mad at them when they misbehave and it is for reasons of poor sleep and poor diet.  Actually, it is quite easy to get mad, but when I am rational I know it is not their fault so that makes it difficult.  Looking forward to a return to normalcy...once we get through birthdays.  ;-)

Gemma got a little Casio Keyboard for Christmas from my parents and we've all been having a lot of fun with it.  I had a similar one as a child and remember using it a lot.  I think she will enjoy this one for years.  This one is lightweight and runs on batteries (several AA...we've been going a week and they still haven't run out so I suppose I'm impressed) so it is very portable  It has lots of demo songs, different rhythms and instruments so it really does a lot.  In fact, I have been listening to the same drum beat for the past 10-15 minutes now.  It is Gemma's new "favorite song".  Yay.  

Kolbe got some new Thomas items that he has been very excited about.  He likes Thomas so much.  It's funny, because we've just watched a very few DVDs from the library and checked out a couple books about Thomas, but gosh is that boy over-the-moon for anything Thomas related.  It is very cute. 

In the kitchen:  I made a pizza last night (this crust in the breadmaker with about half white half WW).  I used to make homemade pizza once a week, and I couldn't tell you how long it had been since our last pizza.  Months.  Tonight we are baking one of those pre-smoked turkies and I'm making a potato casserole to go along with it.  We will probably steam some Normandy Blend as well.  Hubby picked up some gorgeous looking looking grape tomatoes at the store and that inspired me to make chicken linguine, tomorrow I think.  Probably Chile Rellenos on Friday, and some good turkey leftovers in between. 

Crafting:  Kolbe got some wooden blocks and trucks for Christmas so I made a drawstring bag to store them in with some leftover flannel from this project (top picture).  I'm always thrilled about projects I can do with stuff already around the house.  I really liked that print too, so it will be nice to see it on a regular basis. 

Learning:  Ah, I am looking forward to getting back to some regular learning activities during our afternoon quiet time.  We are working on thank-you notes now, and when we finish those I plan on jumping back in with handwriting lessons and some numbers work. 

Reading: I received Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives in a white elephant gift exchange (apparently it pays to have an uncle who is a Dominican priest), and I'm looking forward to starting it.  I am about 4 days behind on my daily Catechism readings for the Year of Faith, so I need to catch up with that as well.  

Bringing me joy: How much Gemma loves her great-grandma.  Going to Mass (alone).  Snow.  My sweet family, even on the crazy days, and especially my husband. 

Thinking about: Cutting my hair again.  Not super-short like when I regretted it, but shorter.  Long enough for a pony, but short enough that it is simpler (faster) to style in the morning, and doesn't get so tangly during the day if/when I wear it down.  I don't know, it just feels so "blah" lately.  I blame it on winter.  This whole January/February time of year is not my favorite.  I am ready for spring.  Sigh. 

Pictures to share: 

The family on Christmas, before Mass.

Kolbe, sharing some protein shake with his new Thomas (still in the package) on Christmas morning.  He got it on Christmas eve and was so patient, we didn't open it until after Mass on Christmas day.

 Handsome Clem in his new clothes...can't believe he's almost 6 months!!!

Gemma with one of her many drawings.

Gemma with her great Uncle Father Andrew, O.P.

Seashells

My father-in-law, for those of you don't know him, is quite the ornery guy.  I used to really let this get under my skin, but in recent years I have come to peace with his incessant teasing and even learned to dish it back when I'm able.  A couple weeks ago my in-laws were going through a bunch of stuff and found some seashells they had gotten at the ocean at some point.  They scattered them around the lake behind their house and my kids were soooooo excited to find them.  Grandpa Ron made up some story about them washing up with the last rainstorm, and insisted on sending them home, knowing how much I like random crap at my house.  I tried to politely decline but oh no.  Those shells came home with us.  Aaron mentioned that I should find a way to creatively use the shells and return them to him, and I decided what better way than seashell crafts.  Give them back to him as priceless works of art from his grandchildren.  Who wants to get rid of priceless art?!  So with a little help from my good pal Google, we came up with a plethora of cute and clever ideas.  The kids and I had a fun morning doing seashell art, which we gave to my brother-in-law for his birthday under the premise that he must share with his dad.  :-)  Here is a glimpse at our creations.

Fun at Lowe's

What better way to spend the better part of a hot Saturday afternoon with the family than to go wander around Lowe's for an hour-and-a-half.  Besides having to yell across the aisle, "no Kolbe, you do NOT need a box-cutter," and Gemma almost running a complete stranger over while trying to push the cart without us realizing (for which she apologized), things did go fairly well.  I even have pictorial proof.  I was going to call it cheap entertainment, but then I looked at our receipt.  Oh well, it was a fun afternoon anyways.

CONEHEADS!

Sitting in a fun chair on the "quiet" aisle.  Yes, we were there long enough that we determined which were the busy aisles and which were the "quiet" ones.  We actually made a mental note of this for future reference.

Found a safer spot for Kolbe after Aaron nearly ran him over with the cart.

Clement was quite rambunctious as usual.

Gemma had fun with some keychain tape-measures she found while waiting on daddy to pick out a saw blade.  Kolbe resigned himself to sitting on a stack of tiles.  Safe choice, buddy-bear.

 And that's how we roll.  Happy end of summer, everyone!!

Baby is here!

Our sweet baby boy arrived this past Wednesday!  Clement Paul was born on July 11 at 1:58 AM, weighing 8lbs 6.5oz and 19 inches long.  I had an inkling I might be in labor that evening, but honestly still wasn't sure.  I even painted my toenails around 9pm!  We called my mom to come over with our sleeping children around 11pm, and I still wasn't even sure if they'd keep me if we went in.  I need to learn that when I'm in denial, that's a sure sign it's the real thing.  We got to the BirthCare Center at midnight, and he was born just two hours later.  It was intense but good, I am so blest.  We were able to go home that evening and are slowly but surely settling into life as a family of five.  Here are some pics of our sweet little guy...we love him sooooo much!!

Our family of FIVE!

Meeting brother and sis for the first time!

She is captivated by him!

Brand new baby boy

Dressed and ready to head home

First day at home

Sis and bro

BROTHERS!!!!

Cute cloth diapers . . . and a sleepy little smile!!

Two days old, awake and alert

Christmas 2011

Gosh, I have been very slack at updating the blog lately.  Take pregnancy and the holidays though, and that's what you get.  I thought I'd post some pics from our Christmas though, we had a very nice, relaxing holiday season.  Our celebrating started on Christmas eve at my in-laws'.  We had a nice evening with most of the family together, lots of good food and fun watching the kids open presents.

Cousins in their matching jammies from grandma.

Christmas day started off at our house with Mass.  We have established the tradition with the kids that we wake up and get all dressed up and go to Mass, and then Santa "comes" and leaves his presents while we are at Mass.  This works out really well, and I like how it places the first emphasis of the day on the true meaning of the season.

So after Mass the kids had fun opening their gifts.  They each get three gifts (just like Jesus did from the Magi), one toy, one religious gift and one educational gift.  This year we kept things very simple.  We are so blessed by the generosity of family and friends that it just (for the most part) seems silly to get the kids big, extravagant gifts.  Gemma got a wooden play-food cookie set, the book Blessings Every Day and an ink pad and some stamps.  Kolbe got a wooden tool set, a crucifix for his room and the book Bear and Ball.  They were very happy with their presents.

We spent Christmas afternoon and evening with my parents and family and had so much fun!  Seven children five and under!!

For Christmas this year Gemma and Kolbe made photo-frame magnets for their grandparents and godparents.

Our holiday celebrations ended with a day trip (about 6 hours in the car total, the kids did GREAT!) to visit my husband's extended family on New Years Day.  We had a lot of fun and saw a lot of people, but I forgot the camera, so no pics from that adventure.

We'll wrap up the official Christmas season by celebrating the Epiphany today, but I'll save that for another blog-post.

A blessed and wonderful 2012 to everyone!