Easter Pics

 I got some pictures of the kids after mass on Divine Mercy Sunday, last weekend.  They were more than willing to oblige after I promised donuts to all!  I think this may be the best photo I have of them from at least the past several months, I love it!  Don't they all look so grown up?  I wish Ryan and I could have jumped in the photo with them but Ryan was at a ministry fair so we will have to try it again some other time!

Easter Egg Hunt

 Easter is a season lasting 50 days so we have plenty of time to do the activities we avoided didn't get around to doing before Easter Sunday!  A few days ago we had an Easter egg hunt with some plastic eggs.  No goodies were inside but they didn't care, they had so much fun finding them and then taking turns hiding them for each other!  Jack figured it out after a few minutes and had a fun time cracking his eggs open.

Happy Easter!

 Alleluia!  Happy Easter!  Our family had a busy one as usual, hosting a few guests and attending our annual crawfish boil on Saturday.  Beth and I attended alone this year as Luke and Jack are still pretty spotted.  I don't think they're contagious anymore (with the chicken pox) but they are still a little on the grumpy side, though not really itchy (thank goodness!).  We didn't want to take any chances and bring them, so Ryan was a mighty fine man and offered to stay home with them while Beth and I went to the party.  Today, for Easter Sunday, Ryan went to the 7 am mass and I went with Beth and our family at the 9 am mass, once again because we didn't think it'd be a good idea to bring the boys out!  They didn't get to wear their Easter shirts and we didn't get a good family Easter picture!  I think I'll plan out another Sunday for us to all wear our Easter clothes again and try to get a good family picture.

Easter baskets full of books, coloring books, crayons or markers, sidewalk chalk, and gummy bears!  No chocolate this year because I didn't get my act together in time to find some!  I think this marks the first Easter in my life to not have a chocolate bunny!

Three exicted babies to dig into their baskets!

Checking out their loot!

Luke

Luke is almost 3.5.  Wha wha whaaat?  He has gone through and recently come out of a growth spurt... I say "come out of a growth spurt" because it's like he was a tea kettle, slowly simmering.  For months he was simmering... he discovered how to test my every boundary and push every limit I've ever placed on him.  It wasn't a great time for him and me, I've realized that he and I are a LOT alike in some ways and it's made it very difficult for me to discipline him when he can get into my head!  It's like he knows what I'm going to say and he knows exactly how to ignore me while annoying the heck out of me!  It's kind of crazy that over the past month, the steam from his tea kettle has been released and he's now functioning very well at a new level.  He and I are both functioning well together.

How do I know that he's over this growth spurt?  For one, his physical body has grown.  His foot grew about a size and a half and his body has thinned out and looks more like a big kid and less like a toddler.  In fact, I was wondering if Jack had gained some weight or something because their body builds are very different right now!

Chicken Pox!

Bethie G. got the chicken pox!  She started with a fever on Monday, March 19 and broke out with her spots on the next day.  She was seriously itchy for only a couple of days and then after that it's been pretty easy for her.  I found the best "medicine" was distraction, luckily we had some beautiful weather so we spent a lot of time outside riding bikes and we kept on going with her schoolwork because she wanted to.  She really felt fine the entire time which sort of surprised me!  I also used pure lavender oil to stop the itching and gave her some watered-down lavender oil in a spray bottle for her to use whenever she wanted.  She took lots of showers and had a few oatmeal baths (gluten-free oatmeal steeped in a pillow case!).  I also gave her some children's Claritin for her first two nights because she wasn't able to sleep, but other than that we just let it run its course.  I am happy she will have a natural immunity to it because contracting chicken pox as an older teen/woman can potentially cause fertility issues and I don't want her to have to deal with that.  Right now she has a few scabs left (today marks three weeks since her fever) but I'm certain this is the end of it.  The boys haven't gotten sick yet but I don't see how they won't get it! Hopefully their cases will be as easy as Beth's was!

Bluebonnet Photos

Last Sunday we traveled out of town!  My parents left the country to Italy and on a Mediterranean cruise to celebrate their anniversary, so to help out we stayed with my two youngest brothers for a few days until they got back.  We had a fun time while we were there, Ryan came with us so we made a vacation out of it!  On our way there we passed a huge field full of bluebonnets so we pulled over to get our annual photos.  The sun was way too bright and the kids were sleepy, but it was the best we could do this year!  Here are some of the best ones, unfortunately I'm not thrilled with any of them...I plan to play with these in photoshop and clean them up a bit and maybe that will help.

St. Patrick's Day Picnic

Last Saturday was St. Patrick's Day, and we brought the kids and a picnic lunch to a nearby state park.  I can't believe how close this beautiful park is but we've never gone!  Ryan and I decided we needed to go at least once a month to see how it changes over the year, but while it's beautiful right now, my allergies are killing me.  In fact, for awhile there I was certain this would be the year that my allergies actually do kill me!  It's a price to pay for the kids to experience outings like this... They loved it!

The Next Step

March is more than halfway over and I am already seriously thinking about next year's school.  I've talked to lots of experienced homeschool moms about the ins and outs of home education, why they've chosen to do things certain ways, and gotten some tips about how to be a successful mom, teacher, wife, and housekeeper.  (Simply put, several of them have said just hire a housekeeper. ;-)  This year we started off using the Mother of Divine Grace kindergarten curriculum but (and I think I've mentioned this), we both got a little bored with it.  Beth likes to do a lot of hands-on activities, and I want to take advantage of the way she learns and encourage her to love learning. 

I'm soooo close to designing our own curriculum.  I feel like I just need a little urge from a friend or The Spirit letting me know I'm making the right decision!  I want to be able to include Luke in our lessons, so that I can teach both him and Beth on their own levels.  For this reason unit studies seem really appealing to me, but what I have in mind doesn't exist in a formal curriculum. 

I'm glad it's March and I have some time.  It's been my goal to finish my doula training packet and then I'll start work on our curriculum, whether I find one or design one.  This past week marks the one-year anniversary of my training course last year!  I am nearly done with my packet I have to send off to become certified, I only have to print off my essays, proof-read everything, make copies, and mail it off!  My goal is to go to the post office on Friday!

Lying Around

a new dress up costume... dr. luke.  he wore this for three days straight.

 We spend a lot of time in our playroom, on the floor.  We play blocks, trains, little people, do puzzles, build towers, and usually combine them all into one giant fun mess.  It's my goal to have the playroom cleaned up at the end of each day because I find that they actually won't go in there and play unless it's clean, and they know where to find each toy.  It's a lot more work for them to go in there and start playing when it's already a mess!  But, it doesn't get cleaned every day and that's okay too. 

This day we were gone in the morning so the playroom was still cleaned after rest time.  Usually that means they have plenty of room to dance, but we were having a lazy afternoon and enjoyed rolling around on the floor instead.  And, if we're laying on the floor, 99% of the time Finley comes to join us too!

Out With The Old, In With The New

This past week we sold our little green Mazda Protege!  I bought it in college from my first roommate and it's served us well since 2003, but it was time to go.  Ryan has had a few major components fixed so we felt justified in actually selling it and not just giving it away, ha!

He's been scouring the internet looking for a new-to-us truck.  Yes, a truck!  My poor man has been longing for a truck since the sad day he had to sell his Ranger in 2008.  Well, tomorrow is his lucky day because he'll be driving down south to pick up his 2004 black Toyota Tacoma!

 

He's so giddy, it's cute. :-)  I'm happy that we'll able to fit a couple of carseats in the back and finally be able to haul our own stuff again!  I should probably take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped us haul something over the past four years... It's been greatly appreciated!  I guess we can start paying favors back now!

Growing Up

 My little Beth is growing up so much lately!  At the start of Lent, we implemented a (very basic) chore system, and Beth has taken it to the next level.  Every day she begs for a chore and, well, there's only so many days a week to clean the windows!  I've been coming up with odd tasks for her to do but she loves helping Mommy with chores.  I should add that we're paying her a dime per task (Luke too, when he helps out) and teaching her to separate her money into three jars- spend, save, tithe.  We'll use the tithe money during Lent somehow and she's still thinking about what she's saving her money for!

All of this, plus probably a bit of her age and other factors about her temperment, means she's going through a "phase" right now.  It's not a bad phase, but I just can't think of  better word to describe how she's sort of changed in the past few weeks.  She's become more-than-ever eager to do things on her own, things like prepare a snack or breakfast, get out her school supplies, or fold a pile of clothes all by herself.  Especially kitchen items though, so much so that I've rearranged the pantry a bit so that she can reach some breakfast and snack items, and I've very much reassured her that she'll be more than welcome to cook on the stove and wash ALL the dishes in a couple of years!  That day can't come soon enough for her though! 

getting snack ready for me

Happy Leap Day!

Jack's First Hair Cut

Last week I gave Mr. Jack his first hair cut!  He is 20 months old, which means he was the youngest of our kids to have his first hair cut.  His hair has grown in sort of funny on the top, plentiful on the top and in the back but sort of sparce on either side.  We left the top alone, I trimmed only a bit that fell into his eyes, but I cut the back that would hang over his shirt collar and I trimmed over his ears.  It's hard to tell in the photos but it did make a big change (to me)!

before

My Babies

Playing with matching cards.  Found out that if we do it on the stair case, he can be super wiggly and do "donkey kicks" while working!

One of his favorite places to play- Mommy and Daddy's bed!  I don't know why I bother to make our bed every day!

Love this pic of Luke.  They both love playing in our bed so much, they always wind up wrestling- good thing it's a king size!

This little girlie loves her new helmet.  She's doing "tricks" on her scooter now, I'll need to take a video soon!

Another busy week gone by...  I had two evening meetings with clients, we're dealing with getting Ryan's car fixed, Jack got a little cold on Wednesday (and therefore hasn't been napping) and today Beth developed a fever.  We've been so fortunate to hardly be sick this winter!  Our last fever episode was in November when we were taking our family photos... I have noticed that they hadn't been sick but I didn't actually want to say it out loud! 

Tomorrow I'm attending a half-day retreat with a Catholic author/blogger, Rachel Balducci.  I'm traveling with some girlfriends and I'm really looking forward to the outing!  Ryan has spent a couple of his nights this week assembling his new basketball goal... He said, "It's not as easy as Ikea furniture!"  Ha ha! 

He also gave in and mowed our backyard today... The weeds were tall but the ground was wet.  Now, I haven't complained much about our yard (on my blog, I complain in real life too much!) but it's seriously a marsh.  The off-and-on rain, in conjunction with our aerobic septic tank that sprays our yard every morning, means we have sitting water at some point at all times.  The yard is 85% weeks, 5% grass, 10% crawfish holes.  We can't play out in the back at all.  For me, it's very frustrating because part of the reason we moved into this house nearly two years ago was because we wanted a big yard- and now we can't even use it!  The kids desperately need outdoor time, and I'm thankful we have a long driveway that they can ride their bikes on since we have no sidewalks in our neighborhood.  But not being able to use our backyard is very frustrating for me.  We've decided that before we add our fence (which our landowner's association has so graciously approved), we're going to add MORE dirt to the backyard and add new sod to a good portion of it.  We don't know what else to do!  I'm hoping we can get this project done soon so that we can get our fence in once the weather starts getting warmer and drying up the ground a bit.

Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday

To celebrate Mardi Gras yesterday we had some friends come over to make masks and play!  They had a "parade" around the living room and danced to some cajun music!  I made a King Cake to share with everyone, but I think the moms liked it more than the kids did. :-)

Puzzle!

This morning Luke completed his firetruck puzzle all by himself! Quite an accomplishment given it took several adults quite some time the first time we solved it! Great job Luke!

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday:



Although I'm still nursing Jack, I feel like tomorrow is the first day of fasting that I should observe in nearly 6 years! I don't feel very ready for this Lent, and as I contemplate how to draw nearer to the Lord over the next month I don't know what He's asking of me.  But, I have a few ideas, and one of my goals will be to simplify.  How I will put this into action, I'm not yet sure!

Many prayers for blessed and repentful Lenten season for all of my friends and family!

Valentine's Day

Last night I passed out at 9:30 pm, and here's why...

We started off our Valentine's day by dropping Ryan off at work at 7:45 am.  Yes, his car is in the shop again!  We dropped off some library books and then went home to make some breakfast and do a little bit of school before...

Luke's first day of gymnastics!  We have a new gym by our house and Luke's class was actually the very first class ever!  Luke LOVED it.  He was smiling from ear to ear during the entire 50-minute class!  They started on the trampolines (good move) and then moved to a couple of circuits before doing some running around.  He talked about it for the rest of the day and can't wait to go back!

Beth's Saint Book

I was gone on Saturday morning and Ryan started a project with Beth!  Here's her "saint book" she drew, I asked her to explain to the camera what she drew on each page and why, she added everything else!

Getting Messy

I'm on Pinterest.  I know it can be a time-sucker for some people, but I have to admit that it's really great for me!  I'm not addicted (yet) and I have gotten some really wonderful inspiration for home ideas, kid's activities, and recipes.  I've completed quite a few "pins," but my favorite part is when things are slow around here and the kids are begging for an activity I use Pinterest as my resource.

Last week, I mixed glue and shaving cream with food coloring.  They had SO much fun, though their hands were stained for a day! 

Another day, I put a lot of glue on big piece of paper and suggested they write letters/spell words with some beans.  They wound up smearing the glue everywhere, and getting the beans nice and sticky.  Then, Luke learned that when glue dries on your hands it gets sort of peely, and he didn't like that!

 

This day we brought out our aroma dough (GF play-doh). I found some pages that I could laminate and then use the mats to fill in the pieces that are missing (like a face without eyes, nose, or mouth- like in Beth's photo) and Beth really loved these mats.  Luke is still trying to perfect rolling his dough out into a snake!  And surprisingly, it only took one bite of aroma dough for Jack to realize he'd rather play with it than eat it!

I know people joke about their Pinterest addiction, but I just love it!  I know it will be of great help to me in the future too, especially as we embark on our home education journey this fall!

On a similar subject of messy activities, I was talking to a friend the other day about learning how to be a mom of boys.  We both had girls first and boys to follow, and we talked to each other about how it's just been so different!  Our boys are both drawn to the outdoors, mud and dirt (Luke actually calls it "the muck and mire"), swings and monkey bars, sticks, trash and gross things.  Beth likes those things too, don't get me wrong, but as a three-year-old she was perfectly content to sit inside and play dolls or color a page from her book.  "Sit" is not in Luke's vocabulary!  So my friend and I were talking about these differences, and how we're trying to change our ways of thinking.  One of my favorite books I've read about it is called Boys Will Be Boys, and it's about encouraging them and fostering their male-ness.  It's helped me understand how I can serve their natural needs better!  I'm also about to read How Do You Tuck in a Superhero, as I'm going to the author's day-long retreat in a couple of weeks, but I've heard this is more of a humor book about raising boys.  Maybe I can prepare myself for what's to come!  I'm trying to plan more hands-on messy activities, and trying to get them outside to play more, though it's been hard with all of the rain!  I'm also watching Luke interact with other boys, gently encouraging him to play fairly, use his words, but also to stand up for himself.  He's really growing up so much!

Gifts

 I was going through some of my old posts and realized I never posted photos of the beautiful cards and gifts we received after my miscarriage in September.  We received some beautiful letters from sweet friends and family members, some who have sadly miscarried before and personally understood how devastating our loss was.  My book club girlfriends brought over an Edible Arrangement, which included some yummy chocolate-covered strawberries (on of my all-time favorites).  Some of my homeschooling friends sent a card and a rosebush, which unfortunately doesn't look too good right now in the middle of "winter" so I didn't take a photo of it, but it's still alive!  I intend on planting it after we get our fence up in the backyard, in the garden outside my bedroom window so I can see it from my bed.  We're planning on making that "Samuel's Garden," and will include this stone sent by a very special friend:

The stone has been in my kitchen since we received it because I don't want to put it outside! 

Ryan gave me a beautiful box with a crucifix with a couple of medals and Christmas ornament that we hung on the tree.  The box is on our display case, the ornament we'll bring it out every year and think of our little saint.

Ryan and I are both okay.  It's still hard to think about the milestone dates, and knowing it'll be something carried around with me forever in my OB records, but it changed our hearts- and our family- forever.  We were blessed with a few short weeks, and for those weeks with my fourth baby I am still thankful.

Art

Blogging from my phone! Today the kids finger painted with a homeade mix of glue and shaving cream, dyed with food coloring. Lots of fun but their hands are stained pink and purple! Beth said, "mom, the painting was fun but my hands look like pinkalicious!"