Another Birthday

We now have a 9-year-old boy in our house! He had a great day. He started his day by serving for the Bishop at Mass (score!), and then we had caramel rolls, opened presents, and had a big brunch. A friend came over in the afternoon and stayed until about 10:00am this morning (gotta love homeschooling!). It was our first hosted sleepover. I'm in the "I-like-all-my-kiddos-where-they-are-supposed-to-be" camp so we haven't done too many sleepovers at all. I think the kids had an absolute blast. Naptime is a definite must today because we have a full week.

The birthday boy requested a "tree cake" this year since his birthday fell on the first day of Advent, and traditionally we put the Christmas tree up on that day. Usually we decorate the tree little by little, but because of space restrictions, the whole tree is decorated and looking beautiful!

The early morning birthday shot that he'll regret when he's older.

Aidan loves the "Redwall" books.

The crew lined up watching a movie way too late!

Post Thanksgiving Daybook

For Today:
November 27, 2010

Outside my window...Winter has arrived! The snow on the ground now will be the last snow that melts in the spring. I love the snow. I don't think I will ever get sick of the snow. Truly. It's so beautiful and calming, and I have a son and husband who shovel for me.

I am thinking...It's impossible that I will have a nine-year-old son tomorrow! Nine! I'm not old enough to have a nine-year-old. Okay, truth be told, I am, and he will be, and we will celebrate with the best of them tomorrow!

I am thankful...for this wonderful weekend with my husband and kids. I'm thankful for a healthy in utero babe, for the warmth of our home, for the delicious Thanksgiving feast, for a respite from the craziness of "this time of year".

In the schoolroom...I'm afraid to walk in our school room because the kids have been crafting in there all morning. I'm sure it will all get cleaned up when they are finished so I'm not going to bother getting stressed about it now. We've taken a lot of school off lately between my birthday, a snow day, and Thanksgiving. I'm fine with that. One of the beauties of homeschooling is that we can take time off from the books and learn about life in different ways.

From the kitchen...The kitchen is calling me today. I have nothing on the agenda, we're not going anywhere, and I plan to spend a lot of time in my kitchen baking yummy goodness. Caramel rolls and birthday cake are on the top of the list. Some bread might appear too depending on when I get going.

I am wearing...Some non-maternity "comfy" pants, my Newman Center long sleeved t-shirt, and red slippers. Comfort is a necessity today, and I'm doing just fine in that department.

I am creating...menus, budgets, and a long list of liturgical activities for Advent. I love Advent!

I am going...to focus on a handful of small tasks each week this Advent season. The shopping is finished, and now I want to focus on preparing for our celebration of Our Lord's birth!

I am reading..."Little Men" by Louisa May Alcott on my Nook. Too fun! I'm also reading "Mere Christianity" by none other than C.S. Lewis. I'm ashamed to say I haven't read anything of his except the Narnia series to my children. I am thoroughly enjoying it.

I am hoping...that my hunting husband either gets his deer or calls it quits after the "morning stand" today. Truth be told, I can't stand hunting season. Brett has been great this week about staying home so I can hardly complain about him being gone all day today. I just love having him home and I know that the next 2-3 weeks are going to be extremely busy.

I am hearing...the dehumidifier going in the bathroom, the two youngest girls playing with balloons, and the four-year-old.....talking.

Around the house...The house is not suffering too much from the festivities of this past week. I will throw a couple loads of laundry in the wash and straighten up a bit, but mainly it will be a chill day today. Tomorrow's another story. The tree comes out and our celebration of Advent begins.

One of my favorite things...toddlers. Especially red-headed, blue-eyed ones. We are thoroughly enjoying this phase with Veronica. She is the most challenging toddler we've had to date, but she is so much fun!

A few plans for the rest of the week...I don't really want to think about the rest of this week. The kids and I don't have much planned, but Brett will be gone every evening. This week begins our "coping" weeks of the semester. The weeks where we keep plugging along here at home and try to include the sweet man who lives here whenever he can pop in for a minute or two. It's a rhythm that we're used to, but not one I look forward to.

One Year Older

Guess who turned 30! I haven't posted much lately because we've had a lot going on. Last week my parents came to help us celebrate this big milestone, and then of course there was Thanksgiving (yummy!).

I had a great birthday! We got a babysitter and the four adults went out to a nice restaurant. Brett didn't even make me play him in a game of tic-tac-toe while we waited for our food to arrive. I sipped a little wine (scandalous I know, but I only turn 30 once and I'm pretty sure our baby likes wine), had a nice, relaxing, and warm dinner, and went back home to eat cake with some sweet kiddos! It really was a perfect day.

The 30 year old! (photo credit: Aidan)

Some special people flew in to help me celebrate. Here's my mom getting some post-bath snuggles.

I can't believe those are the only pictures we have of the weekend, but we really did just enjoy every minute of it and apparently didn't think to capture it with the camera.

Snow Day

The sign the kids woke up to after our first "real" snowfall.

Nica's first snow experience this year.

Attack of the marshmallow kids!

Sled-pulling (no hills in this backyard).

Nica's turn!

On Being Grateful

(note-this picture has nothing to do with this post, but aren't they cute?)

After the disappointment of not getting the house we were looking at it I've been forced to look at the big picture a little bit. Guess what? Now, this may come as a surprise to you, but we don't have it so bad. I know, I know, shocking.



We have worked very hard in the past 3 1/2 years to make this house a home. We've painted and remodeled and rearranged furniture. Another baby is not going to make this house unlivable. We'll just have to be a little creative in how we manage it. Who am I kidding anyway? The current "baby" of the house still sleeps with us every night. I won't even pretend we're trying to encourage her to move into her sweet bed that Brett made for her. We're not. We get ready for bed, she gets tucked into "Mama-mine" bed and there she stays, my private heated blanket. So, really. Our situation in this house is really no different. People used to raise much larger families than ours in houses much smaller than this one.



Our house was built in 1933. In 1933 every one in the household had but 2 outfits. Not the case these days. In 1933 kids didn't own huge, awkward-to-store toys. We try not to have too many, but we have too many. Basically, if we lived like they did when our house was brand new we could live here forever, which is something worth considering.



So, we've come full circle here. We don't have it so bad. I'm grateful for this home, for the people in it, and for the memories we are creating here. If the perfect, larger house, shows up then that will be great. For now though, I'm content with being here. And I vow to stop whining.

The Mystery Revealed

I don't think that all my "crypticness" was really necessary, but I just didn't feel like blogging excitedly about something that was not likely to happen. And alas, it's not going to happen.

We've been looking at houses to better accommodate our family. We had a great opportunity to purchase a huge (read: really, really, really big) house on 30 acres that would have been our "forever" home. However, another offer was on the table and they are currently in negotiation with that offer. It's not an official no, but a "most likely" no.

So, that's that. We're still "in the market", but there's really nothing worth looking at right now. Someday the whole story will come out, but until then we're going to prepare to spend the winter in our cozy little house that is still home.

On Having Sisters

What would a boy do if he didn't have sisters? There would be no Polly Pocket finger creations. (Hmm..until seeing this I didn't realize that Polly Pockets were so..anatomically correct...my apologies.)

There would be no sisters to imitate his every move.

And there would be no sisters to admire his work.

We don't know what this next baby is, and we don't plan on finding out. I do know that if it's another girl the boy in our family will be just fine.

Is this working?

I have to laugh and apparently take the time to blog about this. Aidan was the main culprit in this morning's "disruption of our peace". Round 1 of his punishment has been to put our "ice locker" back together since everything was taken out of it for Brett to paint. The problem with this punishment? He's enjoying every last second of it. He loves organizing and he jumped at the opportunity to do it. Hmmm....somehow this doesn't feel like a punishment. Ah well, I'm going to just go with it since it means that I don't have to spend time reorganizing. Instead I can do more productive things...like blogging about Aidan reorganizing.

A Grumpy Beginning Daybook

For Today

November 9, 2101

Outside my window...I'm not sure what it looks like. My curtains are still closed. We get a lot of foot traffic by our house so until I'm ready for people to possibly see me, my curtains stay closed. It's been one of those mornings and I'm not yet ready to open my world to *the* world.

I am thinking....of ways I can creatively punish two children who seem to be having an impossible time being kind to one another. Waking up to children bickering is not pleasant.

I am thankful for...A sweet toddler who makes us laugh, a 4 yeard old who has many things to say (see previous post), a 7 year old who gives her baby sister anything she wants (hmmm...is this a good thing), and an almost 9 year old who can be very helpful (when he feels like it).

From the school room...We took all of last week off. It was technically the end of our quarter and I used to take a week off after we completed a quarter of the year's work. Last week sort of just got away from us. This week is looking a little bit better.

From the kitchen...Golden Grahams were on sale and I have never purchased them for my kids. We had the "no sugar cereal" rule in our house growing up and on occasion my mom bought it for us so I can't imagine it's horrible for you. We're having soup for lunch, and spaghetti for dinner. I am working on being more diligent in planning our meals and having freezer meals available so we are not tempted to get fast food in a pinch.

I am wearing...My pajamas.

I am creating...hmmm....I'm not sure why I even include this one in my daybooks. I'm really not creative, and well...the creative juices are not flowing these days.

I am going...to be 30 soon! Weird.

I am reading...Betsy-Tacy with the kids. So, so, so sweet! I don't know why it took me so long to find these books.

I am hoping...We hear about some important news today. Waiting is driving us all crazy.

I am hearing...that sweet toddler asking if she can candy, Gianna telling me some sort of story, Emma getting ready for the day, and Aidan stomping around, griping, and composing a song about how he doesn't like his mother...classic. It might be a long day.

Around the house...we (meaning Brett) completed the last of the painting that needed to happen in our house. Now, in the 3 1/2 years we have lived here we have painted the whole place from top to bottom. Things are still out of place from the project and I know just the person who will be reorganizing it all.

One of my favorite things...walking into the kitchen and seeing that my sweet husband has left me just a taste of coffee. I'm not big on caffeine when I'm pregnant, but a sweet (sweet because I drown it with yummy creamer) warm 1/2-cup of coffee is always a welcome treat.

A few plans for the rest of the week...The rest of this week depends entirely upon what news we hear and when we hear it. Please pray. No one's sick, hurt, or in spiritual danger. We just have something important going on that is currently out of our hands. Sorry for being so cryptic, I promise to disclose all information soon.

A picture for today...Veronica just couldn't make it through our read aloud yesterday. She was getting very crabby, crawled up on the couch, pulled a blanket over her and started naptime early. Whose kid is this anyway!

4 year olds

Do they ever stop talking? Just asking.

I'm grateful that not many of my family members read my blog otherwise I would have all sorts of comments about how this particular four-year-old is what I have "comin' to me" for all the ears that were talked off when I was 4, and 5, and 6, and 7, and....well, you get the idea.

Interesting Comment

We took our kids to polls with us today to vote. As we were leaving a gentleman made the comment, "You sure have a lot of voters with you". Of course we just smiled and said, "Yep" or something like that.

It dawned on me. I've thought about this before, but today for whatever reason it was more apparent. We may not have many current voters in our household, but we sure do have several future voters. I'm not sure the anti-life agenda is counting on us pro-lifers outnumbering them some day. We have the chance, in a generation, of turning this nation around. I do realize that not all of my children are future pro-life voters, but the chances are pretty good. If all goes well in this whole parenting thing we will have at least 5 active citizens who will respect all life and who will be skeptical of a government that tries to tell them otherwise.