Feast of the Assumption

Our Assumption altar....



...with several Marian holy cards (and one lone St. Rose of Lima one...her feast day is coming up), Maria's Marian bouquet from the Little Flower's tea party, and Assumption banners she and Kain made today. Usually we make a special dessert for feast days....but I was not so motivated today, so we made a Krispy Kreme run after mass instead. I'm sure I could come up with a religious significance for donuts if hard-pressed.

I wanted to add an explanation of our altar for non-Catholic friends and family that read my blog. This is a family altar...it is not an altar of worship as in "we worship Mary on this day, so let's put all these pictures of her up there"...it's an altar of prayer, and of remembrance. The liturgical seasons and feasts have great significance in our faith, and when I pick items for our altar I am looking for items to do with remembrances for that month...for example, in June, I put a flower from our wedding because our anniversary is during that month, and in January I put my grandfather's scapular and funeral card because he died in January. Jesus is always on the altar, always higher than anything else that's on it, and He is the only one we worship.

I'm a busy girl....

with no time to blog! I've been frantically trying to get ready for our new school year in the amount of time these pesky kids will allow me,,, :) I'm actually having a good time with it. As I've mentioned, we moved our school room at the beginning of the summer, so I've been forced to do some fierce reorganization and purging...piles of old school papers, toys that need organizing, new school supplies to set up, materials to gather for Jack...I'll post some pictures when I'm done. I was hoping to paint the room before the school year started, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. It's just as well...Jack is still sleeping in that room too, and I didn't really know what I was going to do with him while we painted. We are still working on getting Kain to settle well enough at night that we can put the two of them in the same bedroom. But I did pick a color...a bright, energetic apple green. Maybe this fall.... I'm also stewing over the best arrangement of the room, but it's a waste of time right now, really...we've got a third of the room being used as Jack's bedroom, and when he moves out it'll all change around again anyway! I did turn in my homeschooling notice of intent to the school district yesterday, so we are all official and legal for another year.

one lone picture....

was all I got at the aquarium...



This was taken in the coral reef room, a room enclosed on three sides from floor to ceiling by an aquarium. This picture doesn't really capture the coolness. But Jack was captivated and we stayed in here for a long time. After taking this pic, I put Jack in the back carrier and stashed the camera,,,then forgot all about taking it out again. :( Too bad, because we had a great time. Kain adored the shark room, the jellyfish, and the turtles especially. Maria roamed the place several times over with a friend in our group. Her favorites were the seahorses and the alligators, and petting the stingrays. We even got to see a pair of enormously fat beavers which timed nicely with our recently spotted beaver lodge. Then Kain and Maria blew their allowance at the gift shop buying shark teeth necklaces and rubber dophins, while John picked out a stuffed macaroni penguin for Jack. He has been fond of these since reading "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear".

Aquarium trip preparations....

When the kids couldn't locate their nature journals for our trip to the aquarium this morning.....

Maria---Look Mom, I have a folder with some blank sketch paper clipped into it and a pencil in the other pocket so I can draw the creatures that we see.

Kain---Look, I have my Pokemon book so I can see which Pokemon the creatures look like.

works for me Wednesday

I've seen these on other blogs and have wanted to do this on mine for several weeks now...but I usually forget when Wednesday comes around, haha! But finally, I remembered, and now I get to pass out unsolicited advice....

Here's my brilliant idea of the week...take a fresh look at those moments in your day that cause you irritation. Often they are so easily fixable and you wonder why you never fixed them before. For example, yesterday we were baking blueberry scones (recipe from here,,,they are YUMMMY!). I enjoy baking, and most of the things I bake are pretty simple and can be quickly done, but often I avoid doing it because it creates extra mess, especially measuring flour. I have a lovely set of canisters I received as a wedding gift. I keep white flour in one, wheat in another, and sugar in another. But the mouths of the canisters are just a smidge to narrow to measure neatly over, especially with flour...you know, where you have to scoop and level carefully. Each time I spill flour over everything and the canister and counter then have to be cleaned. Also, the canisters, while standard canister size, really just don't hold a ton of flour for someone that bakes several times a week and they have to be filled often...another messy job. So, while measuring and leveling flour for the scones, I had a scathingly brilliant idea...under the sink I had stashed one of those big 5 gallon plastic ice cream tubs. I dumped the flour in there, added a scoop and a butter knife to live in there for quick and easy measuring, and stashed the tub in a cabinet. I plan to get two more tubs to replace the other canisters, then I will wash the canisters and put them upstairs in our "master bathroom in progress" to hold cotton balls and hair scrunchies and that kind of stuff. The lids to the canisters are yellow and blue, and coincidentally our bathroom will be painted yellow. Now I've just got to eat my way through 10 gallons of ice cream...such is the price of brilliant organization...

things you hear at my house....

There are many phrases that I must say 80 times every day. Especially to Kain, because he doesn't listen. And if he does listen, he doesn't remember. I guess every mom has those phrases that you wish you could just tape record yourself saying so as to save the energy or repeating it all day long. Like....

..."Use your quiet voice."

..."Be gentle."

..."You have to try three bites of everything on your plate."

..."You are interrupting."

..."You left the front door open."

..."Kain, you have to come IN HERE, I can't HEAR YOU! I SAID, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!" (Kain always insists on talking to me from the next room. Always. Several times a day.)


All day...I say these things to Kain all. Day. Long.

And then there are the comments I make to Kain that should just should never need to be said. Like...

..."It's not ok to throw your bike at people. Even if they did make you mad."

..."You can't wear your ninja hood to church."

..."Please don't pretend to shoot people when they are coming back from communion."

..."You cannot hide grapes in the couch cushions."

..."When I'm walking right behind you carrying Jack and three bags of groceries, why is that the ONE TIME IN YOUR LIFE that you decided to shut the front door?"

Our past school year in review, and our new school year coming up...

Thoughts for this past year...

Maria has been awesome. She works independently well and works with me well also. It has been really fun for me to move out of the early elementary age stuff and have some good discussions with her on topics of all kinds. Math has been especially an enjoyable challenge. She started out the school year feeling very overwhelmed at all the new topics in Saxon 54, and through this year she has learned many "big kid" concepts, like decimals, division, percents, etc. We will continue with Saxon 65. Her spelling slowly improves. In fact, John and I noted just lately that she seems to have made a big leap in this problem area. We will continue Writing Road to Reading and Starting a Spelling Notebook, and with Intermediate Language Lessons' gentle approach to grammar and writing. I look forward to developing her writing skills quite a bit this coming year. Our curriculum makes a big leap in that area during 5th grade, and it's not an easy subject for her. We'll also use Handwriting Without Tears for one more year of cursive practice. We will continue to work with the St. Joseph's Baltimore Catechism, this time with No. 2, and also with Faith and Life's 5th grade book, Credo. We'll memorize more poetry, including the very long Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. We'll work through Latin Christiana I again, including the grammar lessons this time through. We'll be starting the Concepts and Challenges in Earth Science book, as well as having fun with these monthly science kits on all kinds of topics. We'll continue with Pioneers and Patriots for American history, as well as all the great historical literature recommended by Mother of Divine Grace. We'll be using The Ultimate Geography and Timeline Guide for, well, geography and our timeline. And finally we'll be using bimonthly art kits from My Lil Picasso with all the kids. Maria will also be working through the Drawing Textbook and doing picture studies from Seton's Art 5 book. We will also continue to use Our Musical Year and Introduce Your Child to Classical Music in 52 Easy Lessons as a family. And at some point this year I hope to purchase a piano so Maria can begin piano lessons. We will also use the wonderful reading lists published in Real Learning by Elizabeth Foss and in Catholic Mosaic by Cay Gibson.

In particular for Kain, who will be joining our homeschool this year for first grade, he will finish working through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (love those easy lessons), as well as reading through many easy readers and the Little Angel series. We have been working through the first third of Teach Your Child...over the summer. He will start memorizing poetry as well, especially young-child friendly Robert Lewis Stevenson, and memorizing the St. Joseph's First Communion Catechism. He will make an illustrated book of narrations about various Saints, as well as one about Aesop's Fables. He will practice printing with the Handwriting Without Tears series. We will work through the Saxon 1 book for math, and pursue as many interest-lead nature studies as I can fit into our days. First grade is a light year with lots of time for learning through play, and I will be putting together quite a few Montessori-style activities for Kain as well.

Both of the courses of study are largely what is laid out in Mother of Divine Grace. The ideas are not mine. :) It's a lovely curriculum that truly respects the mother and the student. We have been blessed to have it.

Jack will be starting a slow three year-long perusal through Little Saints preschool curriculum. He also has a fun subscription to monthly Brighter Vision kits, and he'll have plenty of Montessori lessons to try and distract him from other fun activities like dumping cereal boxes on the floor or putting toys in the toilet.

As for our coming month off, the kids will get to sleep in if they'd like, have plenty of freetime, swimming a couple of times a week, days at the park, a couple of days at least at the lake, a visit to Grandmom (my grandmother), Meme and Papa over to visit (my mom and dad), and beginning flag football and cheerleading with Upwards. I will be organizing our school room, making some Montessori lessons for Kain and Jack, and just generally doing all the "getting ready for school" stuff.

a case for year round schooling.

So, we are officially done with this past school year. Those of you August-to-May homeschoolers among you are undoubtedly horrified. :) But we do homeschool year-round. It started off by accident. The first year, we pulled Maria out of "real school" half way through the school year. I was working full-time and planning a June wedding, so things ran into well into the summer. The second year we moved in October and purchased, some would say unwisely, a fixer-upper. I also became pregnant that January and spent the first trimester teaching between naps on the couch. So we ran well into the summer. The third year, also in October, Jack was born. And again,,,we ran into summer. The fourth year, which was this past year, I thought, "Why am I trying to fit school into the whole 'August-to-May' thing again?" So, I didn't. And it has been a good fit. Here's our benefits to schooling this way...

---Learning becomes a lifestyle, not something we take big breaks from. Even during our shorter breaks we continue to read, add to our timelines and nature journals, write, craft...and the kids learn not to blink and eye when their mom declares a "beaver unit study" and say "Mom, there's no school during summer!" (Maria did this kind of thing the first three years of homeschooling anytime she smelled me drumming up a "learning opportunity".)

--It lets us plan our school year around the liturgical year. We can celebrate the church year to it's fullest when we have plenty of time off around Christmas and Easter, as well as take the day off for smaller feasts.

--It let's us enjoy nature more as well. Summer in Arkansas is yuck. It's hot and humid and we probably spend as much time indoors during the summer as yankees spend indoors during the winter. It gets so hot and humid and miserable that the kids sit inside and complain about being bored far more often than they do in the winter. Many winter days are suitable for going on a day hike, exploring a nearby cave, or going to the zoo. Fall and spring are mild and beautiful...outdoor learning prime-time. Why waste them all inside?

--It let's me plan around family events with more flexibility...like that move, that pregnancy, that birth, ill and hospitalized extended family, deaths in the family, and visits to family that live out of state...not to mention the stretches in January where everyone has the flu one after another and no one is well for three weeks.

So, we have our own calendar. We start our school year in September. Labor Day is in fact our first day of school. Weird, I know, but it's a "fun day"...we pile up all our cool new books and fun supplies, look through them, do some fun activities that I'm sure I'll be describing here in a few weeks, and then go to Chuck E. Cheese for our "not going back to school party". The next day starts our school year for real. I aim to get through 12 weeks of our syllabus. We have school 3-5 days a week. The syllabus plans 4 days a week, 32 weeks a year, but we just do them as we get to them. It's usually four, but sometimes it's an odd week. Depending on illness, field trips, co-op days, Holy Days, and various unplanned factors, we stop in early to mid December and take off until after Epiphany.

We start up again the second week in January and school anywhere from 10-13 more weeks are so depending on where Easter falls that year. This time seems to be a bit slower-paced than the fall activity-wise, but it's also the most likely time to lose kids to illness for several days at a time. In any case, we stop by holy week at the very latest...preferably a week earlier to leave time for spring cleaning chores. We take four weeks off, no matter what. We are usually feeling fried and need a long break by then. Then we pick back up and finish up our school year for as long as it takes, or until the end of July, whichever comes first. The spring is usually pretty busy with activities, but then when May comes things slow down again and we can lay heavy on the books and finish up.

So, that was our plan last year. And it's our plan for the coming year. I have received my pretty new planner in the mail and mapped out our plan for the year. We have our books and syllabi and we are ready to start....well, kind of. I mean, we *could* start, but I have a lot of organizing to do in the school room and some things to set up for Jack before September comes...

An altogether lovely day...

I planned to stay home today and finish catching up on all the neglected housework from the previous week.....
....and then realized it was a beautiful 72 degrees outside, very unusual for Arkansas in July. So, chores were shoved aside once again and we headed outdoors before the good Lord realized how inappropriate the weather was and cranked up the thermostat. We had a lovely morning, and I don't regret schlepping off the chores one bit. They are still here, waiting for me.

This park is almost always empty and kind of an undiscovered treasure for us. The playscape is old and simple, and it's tucked back in a residential area. But it is really a lovely place with lots of shade, big open fields, picnic tables, bathrooms, BBQ grills, and a wooded path. The blog-sized pictures just don't do this place justice, not to mention my gorgeous group of kids, so feel free to click on the photos and see it all close up. :)

So...first a turn on the swings. My one regret with this park is that it lacks a baby swing. Today, however, Jack gave the big-kid swings a try! He did really well too...

But this big-kid equipment proved still a little too big.

Off to the woods...

Here's the best part...the woods have a fresh spring-water creek running through them. The park used to be the site of a hotel and sanatorium. Fabulously cold and fresh water, even on the hottest days...this is the basin the spring bubbles up through. The mom behind the camera is trying not to imagine the emergency room visit that would follow a slip from this wall...Maria is trying to build a dam to slow the flow of water.

Here is an "island" in the creek. Kain is playing "stranded shipwreck victim", while Maria is playing "nervous kid scared to death of crawdads whose Mom talked her into going into the creek anyway". Jack is carefully picking his way over the rocky bed. He is completely fearless and fell in the water several times trying to climb steep, slippery banks.

Our discovery of the day, a small beaver lodge! The prospect of exploring this was enough to even make Maria brave the water.

The very tiny "beaver pond" on the other side of the lodge.

And the most pitiful picture ever...on the way back to the car, soaking wet still, Jack begged another ride on the swings. He wasn't so lucky this time and fell hard, belly first, onto the sand. Here he is, very wet, very dirty, and very tired.

We came home, threw grubby river shoes in the washer for a rinse cycle, cleaned up poor Jack, and had a quick lunch while we looked up beavers in our animal encyclopedias, then looked for some pictures of beavers and their lodges online. The best part of homeschooling....learning continues even during summer break. Mom's teacher hat is always on.

blogging lite...

Sorry, I have not been a very good blogger this month. I won't be for the rest of the week either. We are eating/sleeping/breathing vacation bible school at our parish this week. Here's some gratuitous photos to make me feel like I accomplished something here. I'll be back in earnest in a few days with lots of "starting our new school year" news..



John and the kids, reading away...we do this a lot in our house.



Some decorations I made with our Little Flowers group for our end of the year tea party. I have beautiful pictures of our sweet girls, but can't post random pictures of other people's children. :)



Some photos from the Tulsa Air and Space Museum...



Kain the pilot...



Kain was really into this tornado machine and played with it for a long time...until we finally had to drag him away to see the show at the Planetarium.



Jack and Maria building a space ship.

The face of super-genius

So, Jack is showing signs of being, well, pretty darned smart. I hesitate to say "gifted", because I'm not even sure you can judge such a thing in a 2 year old, but he's definitely very bright. I posted here about realizing that he could count to 10 a several months ago and how no one knew where he learned to do that. A while later he could count to twenty...shortly after that he counted to 30...except he said "twenty-ten" for thirty. :) He also quickly learned all his shapes and colors. Then we realized he knew all the letters of the alphabet. Upper and lower case. And he can recognize written numerals too. We found that out when he started reciting license plates when we would walk through the church parking lot. Now, I'm seriously not sitting him down and teaching him this stuff. First of all, you can really sit a two year old down and teach them anything,,,,at least not this two year old. He has learned this all through play,,, play, and being read to many times a day. He loves to be read to and will often bring you a book and demand that you read it. He seemed to learn his alphabet from alphabet books we've read, and then cemented the knowledge with his wooden ABC blocks. He went through a stage of playing intently with those blocks many times a day, lining them up, naming the letters, grouping them by color, etc. He was so interested in the letters that the next logical stage seemed to be to start casually teaching him the sounds that they make. Again, I'm not one for formal teaching young ones, quite the opposite, but I do follow their natural interests wherever they may lead. So when I would change his diaper, I would hand him one of his blocks, say one with a "D" on it, and he would turn it over and say "big D" on one side, then "little D" on the other. Then I would say, "D says "duh", and he would smile and repeat it. Like a little sponge, he learned them all, and he would sit and practice with them on his own..."P says "puh"..."Q says "kw"...and often adding objects from books that we've read..."Q says "kw", queen". We've just been blown away by how quickly he's taken to this. One day, we heard him reciting the alphabet *backwards*. Backwards! Who can do that? Not me! Just quickly and naturally, "Z, Y, X...", all the way to "A". He also memorizes picture books...like whole picture books that we bring home from the library and read a handful of times. Makes me wonder what he'll be like when he *does* start kindergarten! He's just a joy because he enjoys it all so much...thoug at times it's awkward, like when you're out in public, say in the doctor's waiting room with a handful of other toddlers, and your toddler is walking around and pointing to the animals on the mural saying, "Hello orange lion. Hello green sea turtle. Hello purple giraffe." Then goes up to magazine covers and points to letters saying, "T says "Tuh",,turtle. I says "ih,,iguana,,,k says kuh, koala bear." Then goes to a toy clock on the floor and says, "Zero! Zero's the hero of the number tree! Get out of our tree the bumblebees shout, and all the numbers tumble out. Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3, will there be a place for me?" And the other moms are staring at him, and finally they ask, "How *old* is he? Three?" Um, well, no, he'll be three in October. And then I feel oddly embarassed about the whole thing for some reason.

GREEEEEEN ACRES IS THE PLACE FOR ME!

I wish ya'll could check me out today. I have been the picture of industry. My yard has been extremely overgrown for a while now, especially the back. We are talk primordial-looking here.



So, today I purposed to mow the grass. On my own, home alone with three kids, my big double-sized lot full of thigh-high grass. Oh, and I couldn't get my riding lawnmower to start, so I've been doing it old school. I'm so proud though, cuz I've been wacking at it off and on all day, and it's almost done. I started early this morning and did the front yard (for the neighbor's sake, though it wasn't really too bad there) and moved on to do the shorter third of the back yard, the area that is shaded all the time. Then during Jack's nap I tackled another area of the side yard that is shaded in the early afternoon until the sun starts to fall over the backside of the house toward evening. Now all that's left is the very worst part...the big, open, gets tons of sun all day long and the grass is wild and thick part. I'm going to put the boys to bed early this evening and tackle that mess. How, may you ask, can I do this with a push mower? Very, very slowly....it takes forever. But I'm so tickled to see the yellow-green, damp paths I leave behind me when I mow down a thick stretch of grass, bugs flying in all direction, obviously shocked that their home, having been undisturbed for so long, is now being shredded by some large, sweaty, sunburned individual singing "Green Acres" at the top of her lungs. I'm sincerely hoping I don't run into any other animals living in there. In the meantime, I off to pick up a drive-through dinner. If I'm going to do a man's job, I'm gonna cook like a man. Then I'm going to throw these boys in bed, bandage up my blisters, and off I go.....

So blessed to be Catholic....

....this brings tears to my eyes. Lovely.

the real meez

OK, Entropy got me totally addicted to this crazy thing, and this is how I've spent my morning, creating this
crazy person. Anyone that knows me can attest that I've truly managed to capture the Essence of Mel, right down to the messy living room in the background. I'm quite proud.

And Independence Day thought...

So, it's the 4th of July, and I have a cd on for the kids, Wee Sing America, and I was struck by how many passionate references to God there were in these old anthems....lots. Lots and lots. This is not a Christian collection or anything either, and there are a number of lighter, silly songs like "Eating Goober Peas" and "Yankee Doodle".

From "America",,,a.k.a. "My Country Tis of Thee"
"Our father's God, to Thee,
Author of liberty
To thee we sing,
Long may our land be bright
With freedom's holy light;
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our King!"

From "America the Beautiful"
"America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success by nobleness
And every gain divine!
.....
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

From "Battle Hymn of the Republic"
"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loos'd the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword,
His truth is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me;
As He died to make men holy let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on."

These songs were often written during war time, to express patriotism so strong that men were willing to die for it. And men did. And do.

How did we go from that to this in 200 years? Is this really what most Americans want? I know that Americans still have far more freedom than many countries, but sometimes I feel like we are sliding down the other side of the slope. Have we traded freedom of religion for intolerance of religion? In another 200 years, will we still have freedom of religion or will atheism be the new "religion" of the state?

heard today....

Kain- I'm really bored today. Really.

Me- Well, you could help me clean.

Kain- Aunt Mel, I wish you'd be serious at a time like this.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John was sitting on the coach between Jack and me. At one point I kissed John, and Jack climbed on John and leaned over and said, "No. Kiss Jack."

a long due meme

I was tagged with this meme months ago by Entropy and put it off *forever*....I guess because, like Entropy, most of the books I read anymore seem to be either children's books or nonfiction books about the church/faith. Honestly, I spend most of my reading time pre-reading stuff for the kids. I do very much enjoy good literature though, and I have many well-loved books kicking around in the deep recesses of my aging brain, and I know that I'm going to do this meme and then go, "Shoot, why didn't I say blahblahblah...." But, I'm finally going to do it anyway. Even if some of my answers come from children's books. :) I did glance around my bookshelves a little to jog some ideas, but it wasn't very helpful because I don't own a lot of adult fiction. We are major book hounds with overflowing shelves already, and so except for classic children's literature I try not to own a lot of fiction books we can get at the library. I do have lots of nonfiction and a couple of handfuls of grown-up classics have either been gifts or that I've had for years, and I'm sure will increase as my oldest gets older so I can (make her read them) introduce her to them.

Booked by 3 Meme

Name up to three characters . . .

1) . . . you wish were real so you could meet them.

1. John from The Green Mile...to see what it's like to speak to an innocent soul.

2. Atticus Finch, one of the most noble characters in all of literature, from To Kill a Mockingbird, the best grown-up book ever. I just want to sit and have a cup of sweet tea on his porch and pick his brain.

3. Jo, from Little Women. Any explanation necessary?

2) . . . you would like to be.

1. Dickon's mother in "The Secret Garden". She just seems like a really warm, confident mother. This book one of the loveliest books in the whole wide world and if you haven't read it you must simply drop everything and do so *right now*.

2. Meg, in A Wrinkle in Time. I think part of me was Meg as a kid. I just remember really identifying with her as a kid, and I have since reread the books and like her a lot.

3. Alec, from The Black Stallion...because he had the Black Stallion. I was crazy about this series as a kid.


3) . . . who scare you.

1. Daisy in The Great Gatsby. What a nut job. She doesn't scare me. I just don't like her. A lot. Does that count?

2. The Savage's mother in Brave New World. I don't remember her name. I just remember feeling really disgusted with her every time I read it. I guess there's not many characters in literature that are truly scary to me...many are victims of circumstance, many unlikeable, even detestable, but scary?

3. Jack, from Lord of the Flies. Ok, he's pretty creepy.

Whom shall I tag? I'd love to see Cay Gibson's responses to this, just because I know she's a book-hound too and would have some great replies. :)

a morning laugh

This is really cute...and my daughter loved it...a little too much. Yes, most of these words have come out of my mouth a bit too often I guess...

http://matschsticks.typepad.com/matschstick_adventures/

All About Kansas

I guess I should post about my trip, because I keep thinking of things I want to post on and think, "No, you still need to post about the trip!"

I left early Friday morning and in a terrible mood. I had very mixed feelings about leaving all along, and suddenly late Thursday night I just didn't want to go anymore. I was completely anxious and unhappy about it, for no particular reason whatsoever except that I just knew that something terrible was going to happen to one of my babies while I was gone (sniff, sniff). But I had reserved an expensive hotel room, paid to pre-register at the conference, and made John take time off of work, so I was going regardless. I snapped at John all morning, especially when he decided just as I was walking out the door that he absolutely *had* to go check the tire pressure on my car,,,,the I tearfully apologized, cried on my 2 year old's head, and I was off. Once good and on the road, I was fine and wondered what the heck all that emotion was about!

My trip up was a bit complicated. I had a doctor's appointment on my way out of town. I don't know why I thought scheduling things that way was a good idea...I guess because it was a rare day that John was off of work and I could go to the doctor without three kids in tow! I also had Maria with me. She was invited to a friend's birthday slumber party that night and I was dropping her off on my way. John's tire check made me 10 minutes late for my appointment and they had already taken the next patient back, so my appointment took *forever*...by the time I finished that, dropped Maria off, stopped at Walmart for a couple of last minute purchases, etc., it was nearly 1pm by the time I really got on my way.

The drive up was uneventful and actually really relaxing. I realized that I'd never actually taken a long car trip without kids. Ever. I discovered that between here and Kansas City there is pretty much nothing at all....4 hours of tiny towns and flat roads. But there was an impressive selection of radio stations, especially as I got closer and closer to KC. At one point, I was scanning through the stations and kind of half-listening when something very vaguely familiar grabbed my attention....it was a rap song, which was odd. Not a big rap-listener here, although I do sport a token 10 year old Salt-N-Peppa cd in my collection (yes, really). I back-tracked and found the station...Vanilla Ice. Seriously. Someone was playing Ice Ice Baby on the radio. It cracked me up. And it cracked me up more to realize that I still know ALL THE WORDS. So, if you live in KC and spotted some crazy white girl in a Ford Taurus car dancing to Ice Ice Baby, that would have to be me. Sad but true.

When I arrived in KC, it was getting close to the first events of the conference. I'd hoped to check in and settle into my hotel room first, but I decided I'd better find the conference center first. The conference center was actually outside of KC and down a long road to nowhere. I found a large building with a cross but no sign...it was dark at this point...I wasn't sure if it was it or not, but since there was nothing else around I pulled into the parking lot to check it out. There were lots of minivans sporting pro-life bumper stickers...promising...but still, could just be a bunch of Baptists! I decided to park and walk around. Lo and behold, I began to notice rosaries hanging from probably 80% of the vehicles' rear view mirrors. Bingo! So I left my own rosary-wearing vehicle and found the front door.

I registered in time to get 15 minutes to browse the used curriculum sale and pick up a couple of things. I'd already bought my curriculum for the year, $400 worth, so I brought a set amount of cash to keep my spending under control. Then I found the room with the rosary and the two talks of the evening. I won't go into details on the talks here. They were all worth traveling for and a few of them have triggered some post topic ideas, so I'll come back to them later. By the time the talks were over and I found my hotel around the corner and checked in, it was after 10pm. So much for making much use of my hotel room! I'd looked forward to having some time to veg/read/watch cable tv which we don't have at home anymore, but no time. The conference started again early the next morning. I did spend about half an hour giving the TV a shot...a quick check at EWTN revealed again why my dh calls the station "All Mass, All Rosary, All the Time". I flipped through some channels and re-affirmed that we really weren't missing much at home without the cable. I ended up watching a Dharma and Greg episode...oh, that crazy, crunchy Dharma....

The next day was a long one. I attended a couple of talks, walked the vendor floor and quickly spent nearly every cent I'd brought with me, attended a wonderful mass with the KC Archbishop (anyone that doesn't think the Novus Ordo can be done respectfully and solemnly oughta have been there), had lunch, attended a couple more talks, one of which was given by the lovely and talented Cay Gibson...I finally got my copy of Catholic Mosaic and then made her autograph it like a big ole groupie. I even met a couple of her girls, which was very surreal because I've seen and read so much about them on her blog. By 4pm I was on the road back home. The drive back home was a bit more tiring than the drive up...I was beat. By the time I got home, all the kids were in bed, so I had to wait until morning to smooch on them all properly. It was totally worth it though. My favorite part was just the atmosphere, the huge collection of lovely homeschooling families, at least huge compared to our small Catholic homeschooling group back home, so many Moms that I had so much in common with, many with several children, many pregnant or with a little baby in arms, all with so much wisdom and support to share. So often I feel like such an odd duck in my world, and it was nice, for an evening and a day, to be surrounded by so many familiar souls.

back from Kansas City

I just returned from my first homeschooling conference. This one was in Kansas City, a four hour drive from here, and I was away from the kids OVERNIGHT! I'll post more details in a day or two...my in-laws are coming in a few days and I have a lot to do...I'm just going to say that I had to make an emergency pit stop for "supplies" at a gas station on the way, and WHO is buying these maxipads without WINGS?
I mean, the winged maxipad is the finest innovation in the feminine hygiene product line since, well, probably EVER, and since they are still SELLING the wingless ones I can only assume that SOMEONE must be buying the dang things. So, WHO is shopping for their monthly necessities going, "You know, I don't really WANT the nice, winged pad that stays where it is supposed to...I want the WINGLESS one that will twist itself into a useless little cigar-shaped WAD." This is the second time in recent history I have been forced to buy these useless, wingless things, and I am most unhappy. I know it is shocking to some of you to read about such an uncouth topic on a nice family blog...the rest of you know me well enough to not really be surprised at all.

Other than this unhappy occasion, the conference was a great experience and I've got details to come....

"Yes, Jesus Loves Me!"

My parents came to spend the day with the kids last week so that John and I could have an anniversary date. It was very nice, and the first time we'd been out in a very long time. That night, while I was rocking Jack to sleep and singing his requisite couple of songs, he demanded for me to sing "Sigh-No". I didn't know what the heck that was supposed to be, but he sure did. He kept crying, "Sigh-No, sing Sigh-No!" I realized that this must be something my mom had sang to him when she put him down for a nap that afternoon, but I couldn't figure out what it could be. I distracted him with other songs, but the next couple of rockings he would continue to demand that I sing "Sigh-No". I thought and thought about what on earth she could have sang that he would be thinking of. Finally, it dawned on me that he was talking about "Jesus Loves Me". I started to sing it and he gave me a big smile and said, "Sigh-No!" and laid his head on my shoulder as I continued to sing..."Jesus loves me, this Sigh-No".

Dear Maria,

I'm sorry I couldn't let you go play inside your friend's house today. I'm sorry that you don't understand why I can't let you play in other people's homes that I don't know very well, and why saying "hi" to someone's parent a couple of times is not enough for me to tell whether or not that person runs a meth lab in their garage or has a liking for young girls. I'm sorry you don't understand why I laughed when you said, "But his dad's not even home, no one's home!", like you thought that would make me more likely to say yes. It doesn't help, judging from the numbers of random neighborhood kids who parade through our home all the time, that not many other parents seem to have the kind of rules we do. I know you think I'm strict and overprotective. I promise you will only feel like that more as you get older. You are so lovely and sweet, so friendly and trusting, and I'm trying to keep anyone from taking that away from you....I am walking a thin line of trying to keep you as safe as I can without becoming a neurotic freak that scowls at every guy that glances at you in Walmart, a line between trying to make you believe that most people are sane and ok, but that there's enough crazies out there to really make these kinds of precautions necessary, and everytime we have a conflict like this I wonder if I've crossed too far to the other side of that line and if *I* am going to be the one to screw you up. If you only knew how I worry every time you spend the night away from home, how I wait with worry when you pedal your bicycle to the library 4 blocks away. I let you go anyway, because I hope these small freedoms will be enough. And I hope that someday, if you are lucky enough to have a precious girl of your own, that you will start to understand. Right now, I guess you can keep on being mad and hiding in your room if you want. Sooner or later, you'll want to eat.

A day in June- only 11 days late!

Today was our first day of homeschool with Kain...definitely a day worth recording! Lots of kinks to work out....

The night before--I fell into bed after a long day at the pool with the kids, wiped out, and begged God for help in getting up on time in the morning. My watch was in the diaper bag downstairs and I didn't want to go down and get it to set the alarm...and John already had the alarm set for him.

6:37- I wake up, feeling pretty good, and look at the clock. I whisper a quick "Thank you Lord" and I get up and get ready to head downstairs. Once up and good and awake, I look at the clock again and see it's *5:40*, not *6:40*. Oh, that God. What a sense of humor. I spend the hour talking to John, at least as close as I can come to intelligent conversation that early in the morning, making coffee, toasting John a bagel (the closest he'll come to a hot breakfast this early), unloading the dishwasher, and gathering the massive laundry waiting to be folded. Then I head upstairs to shower.

6:45, for real- Back downstairs, I give a "preliminary wake-up" to Maria and Kain, i.e., I turn on their bedroom lights and rub their backs. Kain is extremely irritated. That promises a good day. Generally the mood he starts out in is the mood that sticks. I go and start hot cocoa and oatmeal, put out fruit and milk, and start sorting the aforementioned laundry for folding.

7:00-ish- Jack is awake and I go change and dress him quickly. I notice when I go into his room how dark it is...it's very cloudy and gloomy looking. Everyone is finally at the table for breakfast. The kids love the hot cocoa..."Get up, your cocoa is getting cold" is a good motivator for getting them out of bed. After breakfast, everyone clears their place at the table. We also say our Morning Offering with Grace.

7:30- I send the kids off to do their morning lists while I fold some of the laundry. I nag after Kain and smile at Jack sitting on the dining room floor with a pile of board books. I wash some backed-up dishes and make a mental note to call someone to come fix the dishwasher.

8:00- Maria starts her typing, Kain plays in the playroom with the train set, Jack is playing in the living room with his alphabet blocks. I start beef stroganoff in the crockpot and love the fact that it's 8:00 and I'm practically done cooking dinner! I wanted to make something homemade for tea later, but no such luck...maybe later. Lots of thunder outside...storm coming.

8:30- Maria starts some cursive and map book pages. Kain has computer time. Jack and I go into the playroom for his "school" time, which is pretty much just play time with Mom at this point. We stack Lauri pegs and roll roll-arounds mostly. I fight the urge to let him play while I do other stuff and concentrate on being present with him. Kain wanders into the playroom about 15 minutes later and I lose my time with Jack because Kain wants to give me a play by play of what he is doing with the train set. I make a mental note to tell him gently tomorrow to leave Jack and me by ourselves during this time.

9:00- I put Jack at the dining room table with play dough while Kain and I start his school work. During the summer, this is just a reading lesson from "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons", a page of printing in Handwriting Without Tears kindergarten book, and a couple of easy math sheets. We plan on accelerating him through 2nd grade this year because it bothers him so to be a year behind, and I think he'll be able to handle it,,,except for handwriting. No way he's ready to start cursive this year. Even printing is difficult and tedious. He struggles still just to hold a pencil properly. We work slowly on it and I work with him to take his time and properly form each letter. The lessons in this book are short and I go for quality over quantity. We practice with the slate board first and then the book. In the end, he has painfully made a few decent "F's". Kain does pretty well at first and then starts to get restless halfway through. But he does ok. Jack is demanding that I make ice cream cones with the playdough..."Make purple ice cream! Make green ice cream!" He doesn't really do a whole lot with it himself. Maria is at the table too and very distracted. I tell her tomorrow to work in the schoolroom or in her bedroom. At 9:30 it's Maria's time to entertain Jack. She sits and does playdough with him for a while and then they go into the playroom.

10:00- The kids pick a quick snack and then Maria and Kain go to pick up their zones. I make some pasta salad for lunch.

10:30- Maria sets Jack up to play Jumpstart Toddler. Maria and I sit to do school, which at this point in the summer is pretty much playing catch up with math. Kain is supposed to play in the playroom, but he's irritable and wants to play outside...now. Then he wants to go to the store and spend his allowance. I tell him we will go after Jack's nap and he throws a fit. His attitude has been pretty lousy since we finished his school work. He ends up going for a timeout. I'm pretty irritated myself and remind myself that this is standard. Any behavior problems a kid has are magnified when you start homeschooling. You have to root out all the bad attitude stuff. He comes out and we talk it out and make nice and go on.

11:00- It's Kain's turn to entertain Jack. He does this for a few minutes before complaining about being bored and wanting to play pacman. He's just lovely today. I finish folding laundry while Maria does her lesson practice problems. Kain starts whining about going to the store again, and I tell him I'm going to start taking ten cents back from his allowance for every time he nags me.

11:45- The kids are outside playing in the rain. They insist it's "barely sprinkling". I go into the playroom with Jack and work on some piles on the school table.

12:30- Lunch, pasta salad, veggies and dip. Kain has a cow about what's offered and after three "thank-you bites" he eats peanut butter. Jack eats peanut butter too. He had peanut butter for breakfast also, with a banana. Jack's hopeless, even worse than Kain with the food thing. I lose my temper, finally, with Kain. He is griping and moaning about the food, something I don't allow, making a huge episode over each minute bite, and I finally lose it and then regret it. After lunch, Maria is in charge of clearing while Kain and I tidy up in the kitchen. I soak some more dishes.

1:00- I change Jack and lay him down and tell the kids to get something to read. Then we have reading and rest time for 30 minutes, my favorite time of the day. The house is completely quiet for 30 minutes...what bliss! I lay down on the couch for a few minutes, then my mom calls and I chat with her.

1:40- The kids are done with R and R and we sit to say the rosary. Kain is quickly learning the prayers. He doesn't sit and hold a rosary...instead he looks through the box of holy cards and medals. This works better for him. He does remarkably well for sitting still for so long!

2:15- I get Jack up..he has been fussing off and on this whole time and is obviously not going to sleep. I'd planned to spend this hour working on the piles in the laundry room...it badly needs a purging and organizing. This is his second day in a row with no nap. He does this every so often lately, and just when I start to worry that he's going to quit napping altogether he starts sleeping well again. I put away some laundry while Jack watches Signing Time, and then I check some emails, wash some dishes...

3:00- Tea time...I never did make anything, so I break out some Chips Ahoy that John has stashed. We read Pascual and the Kitchen Angels, finally...been meaning to read it for a week!

3:30- off to the store, finally. I have a migraine and take some ibuprofen on my way out the door. Kain and Maria go off to decide what to spend their money on while Jack and I get milk and a couple other things. Jack has brought his three favorite trains and carefully holds all three at once, refusing to put any in the diaper bag. I take my time...this will be Jack's outing for the day. The afternoon is hot and humid after the storms and I don't want to go outside to play anyway!

4:30- We are home after careful deliberation. Kain bought some transformer toy and Maria bought a jigsaw puzzle. I sit and read with Jack a bit and just feel lazy and tired for a bit. Headache is gone now at least. We read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Chicka Chicka 1,2,3,,,these are his favorites and he knows them by heart. He then brings me a few more...Spot Can Count, Thomas and Friends Colors...he loves to be read to, sweet boy.

5:00- To the kitchen to soak some more dishes, start a load of laundry, and get dinner on. I also pick up the playroom a bit. It's Maria's job today, but Jack has trashed it so much that I feel bad about leaving her with the whole mess! I make some egg noodles and some frozen broccoli/cauliflower/carrot mix. Kain plays video games, at least what passes for them in our house...we have a couple of those joysticks that plug into the TV and have pac man and pole position..that kind of thing. Jack loves to watch and does for a bit, then goes back into the playroom to play. Maria works on her new puzzle and then watches Even Stevens when Kain is done with the tv. Apparently no interest in neighborhood kids today.

6:00- Time for dinner...Kain eats mostly plain noodles and bread with butter after the obligatory Thank You Bites. Jack eats plain noodles and rolls a carrot around on his plate. Darn kids. I ignore it. Not gonna do this battle again. After dinner we clean up, Maria clears and sweeps, Kain and I clean the kitchen.

6:45- Starting the tub for Kain, and I'm fading fast and trying to keep from being irritable. Maria is having a cow. She has sunburn and poison ivy and doesn't want to take a shower, but I insist. I really am not entirely sure when she had one last, and she looks like a greaseball. I can hear her wailing and moaning upstairs in the shower. What a drama queen that one is! When she comes downstairs, she tells me she took an ice cold shower because she was afraid any warmth at all would make her poison ivy itch worse.

7:30- Kain is still marinating in the tub. I've decided to go ahead and put Jack to bed since he didn't have a nap. I can tell he's beat...he just lays still and limp on me while we rock and sing. I snuggle him and smooch on him and wish I could just sit and rock him for a long time, but not tonight...bigger kids yet to fry.

8:00- finally done with Kain's bath. We sit and read Owl Moon and That's Not My Dinosaur...the later is a baby book, really, but he likes dinosaurs and wants to read it. It's also very short, so I'm not arguing. We say our evening prayers and I find out that Kain hasn't brushed his teeth yet, and I haven't given him his meds either.

8:40- Finally Kain's in bed after his nightly singing of Over in the Meadow, only 25 minutes late, haha. I sit to blog this. John calls and says he's on his way home.

9:20- John is home and I realize how late it is! I shoo Maria to her room, put John's dinner in the microwave, reboot laundry, and go tuck Maria in. Then I sit and talk with John, and we watch a MASH rerun. I just want to finish this entry and go to bed, but I know he'll be going to bed as soon as he's done eating and so I sit with him instead.

10:00- John goes up to bed and I finish blogging. After this I will reboot laundry again and throw a roast and some sauce in the crockpot for BBQ beef sandwiches for lunch tomorrow. Then I'm off to bed too. I'm wiped out and won't even read this before posting, so I hope it makes sense!! Lord, help me wake up again tomorrow!!

Back to the Ordinary- again

Been meaning to post a picture of our Ordinary time altar now that Easter season has come and gone...there's a picture of the Sacred Heart there, and a heart shaped box that has a picture of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on it, and Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart votives. June has the feast days of both of these. Then there's a Father's Day gift Maria made last year, a frame with a prayer to St. Joseph for Fathers in it, and a boutonniere from our wedding in honor of our anniversary.

If you give a mom a muffin...

This has been circling the web for a while...I posted it in empathy with Entropy...(say that five times fast!).

If you give a mom a muffin, she'll want a cup of coffee to go with it.
She'll pour herself some.
Her three-year-old will spill the coffee.
She'll wipe it up.
Wiping the floor, she will find dirty socks.
She'll remember she has to do laundry.
When she puts the laundry in the washer, she'll trip over boots and bump into the freezer.
Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan supper.
She will get out a pound of hamburger.
She'll look for her cookbook. (101 Things To Make With A Pound Of Hamburger.)
The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail.
She will see the phone bill, which is due tomorrow.
She will look for her checkbook.
The checkbook is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two-year-old.
She'll smell something funny.
She'll change the two-year-old.
While she is changing the two-year-old the phone will ring.
Her five-year-old will answer and hang up.
She'll remember that she wants to phone a friend to come for coffee.
Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup.
She will pour herself some.
And chances are, if she has a cup of coffee, her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

Happy Anniversary! and the "8 things meme"

To my wonderful husband, my best friend and soul mate. When I was a kid, I knew so many people that were divorced that I pretty much thought that hardly anyone was really happily married. I'm still not sure all that many people are! But I am one of the lucky ones, praise God. A good marriage is truly a blessing, and nothing is more stressful than living in an unhappy one. I should have a wedding picture to paste, but I am not motivated to dig one up. Maybe next year! John and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary yesterday. That's right, you can do the math. Maria is 10, we've been married for four years.....

And that leads me to the "8 things Meme" I was tagged with by Barb a little while back in which I am supposed to list 8 random things/habits about myself. So here's the first.

1. Maria is not John's biological child. In my "away from the faith" late teen/young adult days I married (sort of...if you call getting married by a notary public in your neighbor's apartment "getting married") when I was 19 and Maria was born two years later. A year after that we were separated and he disappeared very shortly after...kindest thing he ever did for both of us. I had started attending mass again when I was pregnant with Maria and made a general confession and came fully back into the church after my divorce. John and I met when Maria was 3 years old, so he's the only father she remembers, and he adopted her soon after we married four years ago. Told you he was a good one.

2. I used to be a smoker. It always amuses me when I tell people this because they almost always say, "Wow, you don't look like a smoker." I'm not sure exactly what this means, except that I think it means I'm too fat to be a smoker...you know, like I should have that oral fixation thing covered by the overeating. :)

3. Well, that's all the dark history-of-me stuff I can think of, at least all that I'm willing to put on a public blog. What else? Habits... I can really only clean with music on, preferably Aretha Franklin or some other kind of Motown. We are not a "religious or classical music only" kind of homeschooling household. Life is not complete without Aretha. Or without my Beatles LP collection.

4. That being said, I have a weird collection of music and people are usually perplexed when they notice cd's like Aretha, Bonnie Raitt, Janis Joplin, Brooks and Dunn, Tchaikovsky, and Weird Al all on the same cd rack. What can I say? I am a complex individual who refuses to be pegged. And Weird Al is a musical genius.

5. I don't much like cleaning, and my house shows it. I do, however *love* organizing...this means that even though my house is generally messy, there are weird pockets of anal-retentive organization, like the immaculate condition and rotation system of the boys dressers (Maria is in charge of her own now,,,nuff said), or the complex toy-rotation system I have in place. This causes me great stress as well, because there are certain areas of my home that refuse to be organized. For example, like most homeschoolers we have a large book collection. Most of our books are kept in the dining room simply because there is a lot of shelf room in there.



These cabinets came with our new kitchen, even though they face the dining room. That's my kitchen on the other side. Other than the little drawers right under the counter and the pretty stuff behind the glass doors, every inch of this space is filled with books.



These shelves are built onto one whole dining room wall. This room has not been remodeled yet, so excuse the newsprint wallpaper. The shelves go almost from floor to ceiling, and they are filled with children's books.

There is plenty of room here for our books, but other than separating them into adult/children books there is no way to organize them. The shelves, as you can see, are very different in size...the inside of those cabinets is the same way. So the books get shelved where they will fit....science books with fiction books, craft books with history books,,,it's madness I tell you! The only attempt at organization is that Jack's board books are down on a low shelf where he can reach them.

My pantry is the same way, a big built-in floor to ceiling deal with shelves of very different heights...this leads to vegetable oil on the same shelf as breakfast cereal, taco seasoning packets on the shelf with dried beans and rice....it's enough to keep me up at night!

6. We are social nerds here. The three biggest "adult conversation fodder", politics, current events, and sports, are subjects I choose to be completely ignorant about. I think politics is a worthy enough subject...I just don't have the interest for it, and I find politicians extremely irritating. I read current information, don't get me wrong...I can tell you the latest treatment for neonatal sepsis or discuss with you the recent article is Discovery magazine in which they discussed whether time exists on a subatomic level...I just am disinterested in politics and government completely. John, as a compulsive newspaper reader, keeps up with these subjects better than I do and he will often point me to articles worth reading. And before an election, I try to give myself a little crash course so that I can be an Informed Voter. Usually though, I am interested in current events that affect my little world or interests, which I know is really narrow-minded of me...I can live with that.

7. The third "fodder" subject, sports, does not exist in my house. It just doesn't. I realize this is blasphemy to many. It's not that I think there's anything wrong with sports. There is just absolutely zero interest in sports by everyone in my house, including my husband. In January we have been known to say, "Hey, did you know tomorrow is Superbowl Sunday?" "Oh yeah? Who's playing?" "I don't know...the Lakers?." "Um..no, I think that's basketball."

8. I miss being a nurse. Don't get me wrong, I don't miss being a *working mom* in the slightest little bit. I love, love, love homeschooling and raising what I hope will be a big family, and those things are not very compatible with working. But I loved being a nurse, I loved pediatrics and obstetrics, and before becoming a stay-home mom I had the pleasure of working at a great Catholic hospital on an awesome unit. There were things I didn't like to be sure...like to moral challenge of attempting to see Christ into some wretched excuse for a parent that was going to be allowed to take a precious newborn home in the morning, or sending a child that I *knew* was being abused back home with their abusers and fighting the urge to smuggle the child down the back stairwell during the night, or most of the obstetricians. But I loved the challenge of managing a challenging, very ill child and knowing that that child survived the night because of my care. I love helping a family make it through a very challenging time in their lives. I loved being one of the first people to make contact with a sweet newborn, fresh from God's hand, all ooky with blood and vernix and crying mad at the abrupt and shocking changes to it's little world, and being one of the first people to snuggle it and coo to it while I bathed it and wrapped it in warmed blankets before sending it back to nurse with Momma, making some kind of small but surely forgotten impression on that child's psyche. My husband is a nurse to, and a very good one. Our big "if we win the lotto" dream is for John and I to build and run a home in which we take in a slew of foster kids with special medical needs and disabilities. Just waiting for the money, Lord! :)

not fit for company

What have we been up to this weekend? I haven't posted in a few days because I've been in a less than rosy mood, one that doesn't make for nice blogging...no reason in particular except I've been burning myself out trying to catch up on things that need to be done around the house, my dear hard-working husband has been nearly unseen since Wednesday because of his work schedule, and I'm just feeling...petulant. Isn't that a great word? Some words just sound exactly like their meaning, and I'll bet if you've never heard of the word "petulant" in your life it would still bring an image to mind....



I don't know this child, it's a stock photo, but isn't she the most fabulously petulant thing you've seen your life?

So, anyway, Friday and yesterday I worked my tuckus off around the house, just generally cleaning, catching up on laundry, grocery shopping, meal planning, etc., etc. I missed my Day in the Life post,,,,Friday was June 1st,,, but it was intentional. You wouldn't want to read a whole day of my whininess! But I will do that later this week. Today after mass we went to our parish's annual picnic. I *did not* want to go. I hate going to those kinds of things without John. But Maria really wanted to go, and Kain was at his dad's which made flying solo a bit easier, so off we went, and it was a nice afternoon after all. When we got home I laid Jack down for a too-late nap that will come back to bite me in the rear-end at bedtime tonight, but I was frantic to take one myself...as soon as I fell asleep I got a phone call from Kain's dad saying he wanted to bring him home already...I swear he picks him up later and brings him home earlier every weekend,,,,and my sour mood returned. Yuck, I can hardly stand to be in the same room with myself! So, aren't you glad I posted today so as to share my loveliness with the world?! I'm off now to have a cup of tea and try to lift myself up from my funk. And to give Kain the computer so he will quit hovering around my head and nagging me...AAAACCCKKK!!! Not helping, Kain!!

Why we are trying to stay home....

A day at the creek

This is a little man-made creek just a couple of blocks from our house...our own little nature spot. We come here often. It's a great place to watch for seasonal changes. There's another, better trail a 15 minute drive away that we go to less often.



Here's Jack's first time discovering the creek. Notice how nice and clean he is!



Then he finds rocks to throw in the water. What is it about boys and throwing rocks?
They both did so much of this I was afraid we would deface the creek bed completely.



Feet in the water...getting brave.



More rocks...and muddy feet.



Kain is trying to catch tadpoles here. They were big ones too! But we didn't come prepared for anything to catch them with or keep them in.



Maria finds some frog spawn on a rock. This totally freaked Kain out.



And snails....tiny ones. We showed these to Jack, but I he thought they were rocks and threw them in the water.



Not clean anymore! This was after a couple of half-tumbles into the water. He had so much fun though. This boy *loves* being outside. He never gets enough. This is was so enjoyable for the kids that I am planning a picnic at the other trail when Kain gets out of school.

Bug #24

This is Kain in costume as Bug #24 in his breakthrough performance in the kindergarten musicale, Bugz. His antennae are a little cockeyed because he spent the majority of the performance twisting pulling them down to form "guns" to shoot the girl next to him on the bleachers, and then wrapping them around his head and in front of his mouth to form a microphone. He didn't really do much actual singing though. His Adderall wears off around dinnertime and from then on he's pretty much the captain of his own ship, you know?

Today is Pentecost....

the birthday of the Catholic Church. That's right, Protestants. You read it right. LOL...Sorry, but every Pentecost I'm reminded of an old Assembly of God neighbor of mine that was very determined to convert me for many months before she gave up on my papist rear-end altogether, God love her, and one day I mentioned Pentecost Sunday to her, I don't remember why...she looked surprised and a little impressed to find out that Catholics know what Pentecost is...in fact, religiously speaking, Pentecost is second only to Easter in the Catholic Church. Her surprise faded to irritation that we do, in fact, regard Pentecost as the birthday of the Church. Apparently she did not celebrate it in the same vein. :)

We plan to have a BBQ if the weather holds out, and some birthday cake of course!

Veni, Sancte Spiritus!

But I do, occassionally, do windows

I've said before that in having Kain we seem to have crossed a threshold of some kind into "larger than average family"...which would be kinda funny if you could see some of the families we hang out with. In homeschooling circles, a family of five is maybe mid-sized at best. Anyway, a few weeks ago when I took Maria for the learning disability evaluation the psychologist was impressed, or maybe disgusted, with shrinks it's so hard to tell, with the age range of the kids and that I intended to homeschool all three next year. She recommended putting Jack in preschool because I surely wasn't going to be able to meet the needs of three children that are, admittedly, in completely different stages of development. I wish I could say I came up with a cutting reply, like "I wonder if the average preschool teacher can really meet the needs of 20 3-year olds in her care, some of them for 12 hours a day," or, "Golly, whatever did women do before daycare existed, it's a wonder the human race survived to this point at all." But I did not. As often happens when unexpectedly put on the spot, I stammered some vague defense and hoped she'd change the subject. I wasn't, after all, prepared to defend having *Jack* at home. I was prepared to field questions about homeschooling Maria and meeting *her* needs, but not Jack. In the end, she leaned towards me and said, in a voice one would use when speaking to a not too terribly bright child, "You know, how can you do it *all*?"

Ah, there it is. Doing it *all*. Don't we all want to do it all? Did I do it all when I was a working mom? Absolutely not. Do I do it all now? Nope. But it's a question I get often about homeschooling, "How do you do it all?" This question means different things from different people. From the shrink it meant meeting the educational and psychological needs of these three children all day long. From another mother, it usually means getting a passing amount of school work done while staying on top of housework, laundry, and cooking. When you read homeschooling blogs and see pictures and descriptions of moms grinding their own organic wheat to make homemade bread everyday, their children outside working on wonderful unit studies (authored by mom), cloth diapers (hand-sewn, of course) hanging on the line, and there becomes this pressure to "do it all" in a whole new way. So I will say, here and now, we don't do it all. Neither does anyone else, even those moms in those blog pictures. I've met many homeschooling families in the last several years, and while they often accomplish amazing things, they don't do it all. So, here's a unapologetic list, in no particular order, of things we *don't* do.

---I don't hang laundry outside. I know it's better for the environment. But I don't like lugging laundry back and forth to the clothesline, and I don't like crunchy clothes. Neither does my husband.

---I don't cook everything from scratch. I do cook many things from scratch, but there are certain convenience foods we have decided are worth using, including certain cold cereals and certain foods for the kids to have for morning snack.

---I don't buy organic. I think this is a worthwhile thing to do, certainly, but we simply cannot afford it. Our grocery bill is our biggest expense as it is, and the things I would be most motivated to buy organic (dairy and meat) are the most expensive to buy. Plus, the closest natural foods store is 45 minutes from here and I have serious doubts about just how "organic" many of the organic brands at Walmart really are. I do shop at local farmer's markets for some organic produce and we have a small organic garden of our own.

---I don't put together my own curriculum. I nearly drove myself insane the first two years we homeschooled trying to do just that. I am attracted to new and shiny curriculum like some kind of homeschooling crow, and the tendency to buy more and more cool stuff to squeeze into my lesson plans is too strong. I picked a curriculum two year ago that is most in line with our educational goals and I stick with it.

--I don't try to keep right on our lesson plans. We try to start on time, and we generally try to work for a certain amount of time and stop where we are. This is a home, not a classroom, and life happens while we school. Sometimes I have a cranky toddler, or a repair man needs to be called, or a child that's taking longer than anticipated on a particular assignment. Sometimes it's just a nice day and we decide to knock off early and go to the park. If we haven't finished everything on the list for that day, it gets shoved over to the next day. This often means we are on week 8 for history, week 11 for grammar, and week 4 for art. That's ok. We catch up on the "behind" subjects at the end of each term.

---I don't prepare time-consuming meals. I enjoy cooking when I can do it without a 2 year old wrapped around my legs, but we usually eat three meals a day here at home, at least two largely made from scratch, and that's a lot of time in the kitchen with even simple recipes. When I'm looking for recipes, I'm looking for ones that have "real food" ingredients and have reasonable preparation times...generally 15 minutes for lunches and 30 minutes for dinner. I often bake something to have for tea time, although often those things are made by my 10yo, or may come out of the breadmaker. I also don't cook breakfast. I put out cereal, oatmeal, and fruit most mornings.

---I don't bathe my kids every day. Maria is of an age, hormonally speaking, that she has started showering every day. The boys alternate evening baths. When it's not their bath night, they will get a quick scrub of their face/hands and lower arms/lower legs if dirty from outside play.

---I don't sew their clothing. I have made a couple of dresses/skirts for myself and for Maria. I do enjoy sewing, though I'm not very good at it. I just can't find much time for it right now. In the past it has been worthwhile to sew for Maria because it has been difficult to find the kind of modest dresses and skirts I wanted for her without shopping at expensive stores, but in general, sewing clothing, especially for kids, doesn't seem to save me much money. Cheap fabric falls apart quickly, and good fabric can be expensive. Mostly, we shop at thrift stores and fill in the gaps at discount stores.

---I don't keep the house spotless. We work on tidying up a couple of times a day, I work on cleaning it once a week, but it is often cluttered and messy. Frankly, many weeks it's all I can do to stay on top of laundry and dishes. This isn't a house that stands empty while everyone is at school and work all day. We are all here most of the day, and we use our house hard. I am endlessly in the kitchen preparing or cleaning up meals, the kids are dragging out toys, craft materials, and books all day, the bathrooms are used by everyone all day long. We live in a smallish house and frankly, all the rooms are used all day long. When I am cleaning up, some small person is right behind me making a mess. So if you come over to visit, watch your step!

---I don't spend much time in personal prayer. We have prayer times together as a family, but I don't take much time to pray on my own. I offer up my day as a prayer for different intentions, and I am trying to train myself to take a few minutes at different times of the day to say quick prayers, i.e., the Angelus at 6 and 12, the chaplet of divine mercy at 3, but I often forget. I have recently acquired my grandmother's Liturgy of the Hours book and have ordered a guide for it, and I plan to start saying those prayers after the kids are in bed. I am often reading a chapter of the Bible or one faith-related book or another at bedtime. And I often throw up random ejaculatory-type prayers during the day, like "Dear Lord, please keep me from hurting this child." But other than those things, there is no "sit down and pray" time scheduled in my day. I hope there will be more time for that someday, but in the meantime....motherhood is an active vocation, not a contemplative one, and I pray by living my vocation the best I can.

---I don't spend a lot of time providing entertainment for the kids. I do school with them. We read together every day. We will often do crafts together. I take them to homeschool group activities. I provide them with good toys, and space to play. Sometimes, especially when it's too nasty to play outside, we will play board games, do puzzles together, etc., but I don't sit down on the floor and play with my kids on a daily basis, and I expect them to play with each other and to learn to entertain themselves for periods of time.

So there it is...all the things I don't do. I feel all cleansed, like I've just left the confessional! This list is not tied to any kind of value judgement...I'm not saying, in other words, that the things on this list aren't worth doing. Some of these things I wish I did do. I probably even *should* be doing some of them. But there are only so many hours in a day, and in the end we all have to choose *not* to do certain things to make time for what is most important to our families.

blog question

Anyone know why my picture up top came out so darn big???