Valentine's Day

We spent the first part of Valentine's Day at a party for our girls/boys clubs that we belong to.  They made mailboxes (with the special help of Grandma and Grandpa since I was at a birth the day before!) and exchanged Valentines with their friends.  It was a gorgeous day at the park, and the boys did their thing and fed/chased ducks, played with sticks and friends, and nearly fell into the water several times, while Beth danced with the older kids.  We had a picnic lunch with the whole group before we left.

By the time we got home, it was about time to get ready for our annual Valentine's day family date night!  We dressed up nicely as usual and I had time to grab a few pictures before we left.  They were already all a little tired from being outside all morning; Jack didn't feel like taking nice pictures before we left!

I brought a plethora of cards and notes to dinner.  We received a few in the mail and Ryan had made notes for each of the kids.  Beth and Luke made cards for everyone.  I think I brought a stack of 30-40 envelopes for us all to open!  That kept them busy while we were waiting for our dinner- I must remember this trick next year!

 

After dinner we walked over to the mall to ride the carousel, then went to the bookstore for a little bit.  We considered buying everyone their own books for a special treat but by this time... pushing 8 pm... they were ALL done and ready to go home.  We had a long, full, fun day!  So we picked up our car from valet (another special Valentine's day treat!) and went home for the night!

Soccer Player!

Here are a few photos from Luke's soccer games.  He began playing on a local league in February.  Ryan is the assistant coach of the team (our friend is the head coach and Luke's friend is on the team).  They practice every Friday night and have games every Saturday morning.  Grandma and Grandpa have been faithful supporters- I think it brings back memories of when they were watching Ryan play soccer so very many years ago. :-)  So far being a soccer mom is pretty easy since Ryan is the one taking him to practice and coaching his games! ;-)

First soccer practice!  He was so excited to go- but poor guy, he was cold!

Not sure what he's pointing at, but that's Luke with his arm up!

Jack on the sidelines... He found a stick, of course.

So proud of his first game!

From a game a couple of weeks ago. 

And here is a photo from today.   He scored his second goal!  Ryan said we need to work on how he celebrates- we were all cheering for him and he kind of shrugged it off.  So modest! :-)

goal!

 He has a few more weeks of the season left, then I guess we'll talk about if he will join the summer league.  I have a feeling he'll want to!  I know Beth does, she is chomping at the bit ready to play!

Another Saint in Heaven

Ryan and I are sad yet proud to announce that we have another child in Heaven with our Lord.  Our baby, whom we named Veronica, was born into our Lord's arms on Thursday, March 21, at only 5.5 weeks gestation.  She wasn't with us for very long, but just like our first saint, Samuel, she made a huge impact on our lives and will continue to be in our hearts until we can hold her in Heaven.  A few friends and family members knew about it during the time and helped take care of us as we mourned, and it's still very early for me to talk about it openly.  We appreciate the love and care we received during that time; how beautiful it was for others to recognize that this baby was a very real part of our lives, even for the short period of time she was with us!!! 

There isn't much more for me to say about this except that please pray that God's will be done in our lives.  We would love to be blessed with another child on Earth, but I am beginning to wonder if the desire in my heart to have a large family was misunderstood by me.  I have five children- three on Earth and two in Heaven.  I ask that none of you forget that, because the two in Heaven are just as much a part of my family as Beth, Luke, and Jack are!

Saint Samuel and Saint Veronica, pray for us!

Worst. Blogger. Ever.

I know I said I wouldn't apologize for being neglectful of this blog, but I bet no one even comes here to read it anymore so I'll throw my apology out to the universe: I'm sorry! 

I have no pics but I'll write a bit right now just because I always tell myself, "I have to remember to blog about this!" then I don't...

What's happened?  Why don't I have time to do this anymore?  I posted several times a week when I had an infant... I'd think I'd have more free time now but I don't?  I guess I allot my time differently now?  I try not to get on the computer as much during the day because it can be very distracting.  I hardly use my camera anymore and I lost Photoshop when we installed Windows 8 about two- three months ago.  I spend time on my doula blog but certainly not as much as I'd like!

Anyways, I'll continue to ramble. 

We're practically done with our kitchen remodel.  The only thing left is one little "surprise"  that I was going to finish up (Ryan doesn't know what it is- and it's nothing huge, just something I wanted to do) and I just haven't had the time to do it.  So once I get that part done (I'm aiming for this weekend) then I'll take pics and attempt to post the second part of our kitchen rennoavation.

I got sick in February for about 3 weeks.  It wasn't the flu, but it was some nasty head cold that migrated from my nose to my ears to my chest, then it finished up in a grand finale when all my previous symptoms came back at once to haunt me.  No one else got sick but me.  I think it was because I spend so much time making sure the kids eat well that I always wind up eating the leftovers and scraps and food from the pantry.  Ryan is really good about remembering to take his vitamins and supplements, which leaves me and my little old weak immune system to duke out this 3-week monster cold.  Oh well, at least my immune system is stronger now... But now I have seasonal allergies!  I can't win!  At least it's beautiful weather outside; the light streaming through the windows into the kitchen in the morning REALLY makes a difference in how I mentally feel.  It's amazing what a little natural sunlight can do! 

We took last week "off" for Spring Break.  Really, what happened was we didn't do formal school but we had a few field trips and when we came home I had Beth work on some things relating to what she learned.  So, we had sneaky school- the best kind!  We also did a special unit on studying about the Papal Conclave and about our new Pope Francis!  We were in the car on the way home from the plant nursery when they announced his name, so I pulled over and Beth and I watched it on my phone while the boys slept.  Then I gave her the phone for the rest of the trip back to the house so she could watch and hopefully remember that special day. 

We were at the plant nursery because we've started our new project (without completely finishing the first one... I know...) and built two raised vegetable garden beds and a long bed up against the side of the fence for cutting flowers and some fruits.  This has been a relatively easy project for me- physically demanding for Ryan as he's had to shovel and move several yards of dirt and mulch, but for me it's been sort of easy. ;-)  The kids have had fun getting totally dirty and sincerely helping shovel the dirt into their kid-sized wheelbarrow and moving it into the backyard.  Hopefully we'll get some food out of this!

Beth is continuing to do well with school.  She's reading very well, she says math is her favorite subject, and she would like to be an illustrator when she grows up.  She illustrated practically everything right now, so I can't say that I'm surprised- she's a beautiful artist!  I really want to enroll her in some art classes to foster this love of hers!

Luke started on a soccer team in February, and Ryan is the assistant coach of the team.  They practice every Friday night then have a game on Saturday morning.  His team consists of 6 players, and they take turns playing games of 3-on-3, so each kid gets lots of playing time and it's not a huge competition to get the ball.  As it is, they're a bunch of 4-year-olds running around and having a good time- but some of them are pretty serious too!  Luke is REALLY into knights right now, every day he slays dragons for me and then 20 minutes later he puts on his construction man uniform and asks me what he can repair around the house.  We're looking forward to the days when he can actually do some real projects!

Jack has dropped his naps.  I feel like that's made a huge impact on our days now because we don't really HAVE to be home for rest time anymore.  When we are home (most days), the kids still have an hour in which they have to go to their bedrooms so Mommy can have some quiet time, and Jack hasn't quite figured this out yet.  He's still so young to have dropped his nap- not even 3!  Luke was still napping just a few months ago!  Different kid, different needs- I know.  But seriously.  :-/  He's also very into parroting everything that Luke does, and I mean everything.  Sometimes Luke likes this and sometimes he doesn't! 

Hopefully I can post some pics soon, we are going to take pictures in the blue bonnets tomorrow!

Our Kitchen Renovation, Part 1

Literally the day after Ryan and I got back from Jamaica, in December, we started our kitchen renovation.  I have to start by saying this was a process that I was looking forward to SO much, even knowing how stressful it can be.  I went it to it feeling so lucky because I have been waiting for years to do this!  I wanted to do it in our old house, but knowing we wouldn't be there forever made it hard to sink money into it.  We very much feel like this could be our "forever" home, but in any case, it was built in 1998 and was in desperate need of an upgrade.

Last year we "started" the project by having new lighting installed.  We had someone installed four recessed lights and two pendants hanging over what I thought would be our future bar.  Then, in late November, Ryan and I rearranged some of the upper cabinets over the sink.  Of course I don't have a pic of this, but if you'll notice in these pics, the upper cabinets are different colors. There are a few new ones and we made use of one old one, and we found the cabinet that goes over the fridge on the side of the road over a year ago!  We had this plan all along!

Before- notice the sink and dishwasher placement, builders-grade cabinets, and floor with dirty grout

The countertops were laminate that crawled up the wall to make a backsplash.  Behind the oven there were some lovely silver stick-on tiles.

Dining area with the old floor.

And here's the first phase of remodel finished- the part we hired out.  Within a week, we had new porcelain tile flooring in the kitchen and all the bathrooms (from Home Depot), honed (instead of polished) "absolute black" granite countertops installed, and the (new, deep!) sink and dishwasher moved to their new homes.  We chose to forgo the raised bar behind the sink that I originally had planned, because someone told me that would date the kitchen and I was unsure of how much usable space I would actually get.

Diswasher and sink are in their new homes!

I also took the little shades off the light fixture over the kitchen table- made a HUGE difference to me- I LOVE it!  Totally free and a big impact!

For the new floor, we chose 18-inch porcelain tiles from Home Depot and asked them to install it in a "brick" pattern.

Honed granite isn't as shiny as polished granite, so it has more of a matte finish.  I love how it sort of looks like soapstone- something I considered but didn't want the upkeep or the price!

 

You can see here that Ryan added our new backsplash- a pre-primed wainscot.  He took a jigsaw to cut out the holes for the sockets, which I had already measured out for him.  But he spent the time and effort cutting everything perfectly, and glued it up using liquid nails.  He finished this project literally the day that our first round of Christmas guests arrived- we like to work under pressure around here. ;-)

You can also see in this photo our new crown moulding!  This was another huge project!  Crown moulding seems like it should be easy enough to figure out, but we spent hours and finally consulted with a friend to figure it out.  He and Ryan finished up this side, which was tricky since they added "Mr. Box," the raised part over the middle of the cabinets.  It was something we were contemplating before, but after we rearranged the cabinets and installed the new ones, we realized that the middle cabinet (an old one) was about one inch taller than the surrounding cabinets!  We contemplated several options and decided that raising it would look best.  I think maybe it's a trendy look, but we really didn't have any other options at that point!!!  And it looks fabulous, it adds that "custom" look to it.  Ryan did a FABULOUS job with it, and now he REALLY wants a miter saw to trim out the whole house. ;-)

Thanks honey!  And thanks to our friends who loaned us the saw!

We had to get up close and personal with some glue and painter's tape to hold everything together.  We also had some wonderful neighbors loan us their nail gun- would have been nearly impossible to do this without a nail gun!

Working hard getting it just perfect!

New corbels over the stove

And in this post, the last three things we also added were four corbels, shoe moulding, and quarter-round. Two corbels over the stovetop and two on the other side.  The shoe moulding, of which I don't have a picture, goes all around the base of the cabinets and adds another custom feel to the whole thing.  The quarter round is under the cabinets, where the wainscott meets the cabinets, and it was just to finish things off where they weren't quite perfect.  You really can't see it, but we're sort of perfectionists around here. :-)  Oh, and I forgot!  He also added wainscott to two raw sides of cabinets, I'll get a picture of those for my next post.

So I consider that "part 1" because it was a huge change, but the paint is what is really going to bring it all together.  Before paint, we had four different color of wooden cabinets, all next to each other.  And that looks a little unfinished, lol.  At this point I am MOSTLY done with the paint, if you're a friend on Facebook you've seen some sneak peeks!  I have one more coat of paint on my upper cabinets, then wax, and I have some unplanned sanding and priming to do.  I have gotten an awful cruddy cold, and I had planned to have this finished by this weekend (it's almost been two months in the making!) but I am not sure I will meet my deadline because I feel so awful. And I know right now that it's going to take me a looooong time to add some little decorations because I am super picky about that sort of thing.  I like for my decor items to be functional and/or very meaningful, so I have a hard time going to Hobby Lobby and picking something just because it's "cute."  I will consider my kitchen done when I have no more painting to do!

Part 2 hopefully coming soon...

Christmas 2012

Here is my post about Christmas, only a month or so late. :-)  We had a busy month of hosting all sorts of friends and family members, parties and gatherings, church activities, and memory-making.  I think at one point we had 14 people sleeping in our house, and we could have easily fit more!  I love having a big home so we can have everyone here, it makes my heart so happy to have a full house with mingling families and so much love.  :-)

This year we hosted a Christmas Eve party which was attended mostly by family and a few good friends, and the next morning we woke up to a yummy breakfast casserole and coffee, then opened a few gifts, went to mass, then opened a few more gifts, then hosted Christmas dinner, then went over to my grandma's house for dessert and more visiting with family.  In retrospect, I might have been a little crazy for hosting so many activities and people, but really, I live for this sort of stuff.

We had late night chats and early morning visits, moments of quiet and moments of insanity!  A house full of Christmas decorations and grandparents/aunts/uncles/cousins/friends.  Busy, but perfect.

Making cookies

Cousins

The night before Christmas...

Christmas morning

Santa Finley

Five Cousins

Welcome 2013!

Another year already!  I just looked at my New Year's Eve post from last year and seriously, it looks just about the same as it did this year, except for Beth's hair is longer and everyone's a little taller!

For new year's eve we invited two couples and their kids over to our house, shared dinner and drinks, then put the kids to bed upstairs so the adults could stay up and usher in the new year together!  We played games then right before midnight, took our champagne outside to watch the neighbors shoot off fireworks.  There were quite a few- there always are- so we opted to watch the real ones instead of the ones on tv!  It's nice having older kids who will sleep through the fireworks!

I continue to contemplate my new year's resolutions this year, but after rereading my post from last year I think I've figured it out.  Last year I chose the word "Joy" to define my year, and I feel like I did a pretty good job of sticking with it.  There were times when I would remind myself to find joy, be more joyful, and to create an atmosphere of joy.  Looking back I can see where I could have improved-certainly there were many times when I was grumpy! On the whole one thing I came to focus on through the second half of the year was just to be more relaxed about everything.  We've raised our kids on schedules and routines, and I love that now that they're older and they know the basic way we run our lives.  But sometimes I feel like maybe it's too much, and I want to not expect so much from them and not have them worry about what's happening next.  That's a source of stress in my life, and I want them to be able to just go with the flow.  So now that they're older, I want to loosen the reigns and just be more Jamaican- no worries. ;-)

So this  year, with that in mind and with my other new goals, my word for the year is Peace.

• I want to create a peaceful home in which we are able to share our thoughts and feelings- and without having to argue, raise our voices, or fight. As a family, we've all agreed to work on noticing and improving the tones of our voices in how we speak to each other.  This is especially important for me, because as the mother I set the tone for our whole day, and I can have a very harsh voice.
• I want to be at peace with my home and the gifts that God has given us.  I want to avoid jealousy by giving thanks for the things I already have!
• I want to be a peaceful presence to my husband, my children, my family, my friends, and my clients.  For me, this means putting my needs last and their needs first by being a servant.  However, I don't want to burn out- and I know that I can definitely burn out fast if I don't take care of myself- so I am going to be diligent about taking my vitamins and exercising!  And maybe I should schedule a monthly massage or something too... :-)
• I want my mind to be at peace.  This will only come through dedicated prayer, and now that my children are older and I get sleep on a regular basis, there is no excuse for me to not carve out time for daily prayer.  There is a season for everything, and my life has scheduled time for school, house cleaning, clients, and play... It's time for me to put the Lord back in the number 1 place again! 
• Also, and this has nothing to do with peace, but I resolve to clean my shower on a more regular basis... Eww.

On December 31st I got an iPhone, so Ryan and I both have the ability to sync our schedules and plans with a special app that we've downloaded.  I am hoping that by keeping our schedules in one place, it will allow us both to just sit back and relax to some extent!  Maybe that seems counter-intuitive for some but for us, by creating order we are also freeing ourselves to not worry about missing events or overbooking our schedules.  Now it's all in one place so I won't have to spend time emailing him our schedules or trying to figure out when to schedule meetings with clients!  This should also bring us some peace!  But the app has a place to "journal" my day, and while I try to keep my blog for that I think I'll try take one picture per day and write some way about the peace or joy it's brought to my family.  It will be a gratitude journal, so to speak.  Maybe one day I can figure out how to blog about that?

I wish you all the best- a happy, healthy, and very blessed 2013.