Bountiful Blessings

Phones

2011-11-14T16:50:00.000-07:00

I think I might be getting old.

I mean, I guess I knew it was bound to happen eventually, but sometimes I have a seriously hard time remembering that I'm not seventeen anymore. (And then I realize that seventeen, for me, was half a lifetime ago...sigh.)

What got me this morning was my cell phone. Having rocked Austin to sleep in my quiet, darkened bedroom, I pulled out my phone to play a round (or few) of Angry Birds before moving him to his crib. Lulled into a contemplative reverie by the hum of the humidifier, his soft, even breathing, and the rhythmic rocking of my big comfy chair, I was struck, for some reason, by the novelty of this ubiquitous little gadget. It can play games, music, and videos. It can show me a map of my town or of the night sky. It can take photos. It can surf the internet. It functions as a flashlight, address book, calculator, calendar, and alarm clock. It tells me the weather. And—are you ready for this?!—it even makes phone calls! What a crazy concept!

This whole line of thinking made me nostalgic for, of all things...pay phones. Remember? Those big, shiny metal boxes mounted on walls of most public places, with phones attached to actual cords? It was a strange realization for me that such a simple and commonplace item from my childhood could seem all at once so outdated in this age of smart phones, Skyping, texting, instant messaging...concepts that were, not so long ago, as foreign as pay phones are now!

Funny, I can't remember the last call I ever placed from a pay phone. I do, however, remember calling my mom a number of times from the pay phone located outside of my high school's office, to inquire about schedules or to excitedly report the results of long studied for tests. (I know, I'm such a nerd!) I remember frequent calls to a crush at his place of employment from the pay phone outside the school cafeteria (scandalous!), calling home from a bank of phones in the mall to ask if I could ride a later bus home (I will never ever ever allow any twelve year old of mine to ride unescorted on public transportation to or from the mall!), phone calls from movie theaters, restaurants, the library. I remember the clink of quarters and hoping for enough time to talk before having to deposit another one. I remember one fateful call home to my mom from a public phone on campus after meeting my husband-to-be for the very first time. :)

I'm sort of slow to jump on board trendy, tech savvy bandwagons. I play music on a CD player, not an ipod, and actually still have quite a few mixtapes from the early 90's. ;) I read actual books, not a Kindle or Nook, and my computer is of the desktop, not laptop, variety. I'm still not actually sure what an ipad does. But, I have to say...I'm kind of loving my little smart phone! And, I'm thinking that in another few years, I might actually be bold enough to explore another of the above mentioned items!

But I do still sort of miss those pay phones. And, because I'm feeling nostalgic, I'm closing with one of my favorite songs, even though yes, thank you very much, it does actually predate yours truly. Darren is just going to loooove me for including it here, hahaha! (Right, honey?) ;)

Birthday Girl

2011-10-18T10:37:00.000-06:00

Our sweet Caitlyn turned EIGHT years old last weekend! I can't believe how fast she's growing up! Since her birthday was on a Saturday this year, we took full advantage of the day by visiting the pumpkin patch, which has expanded even more since last year! First, though, she wanted to open her gifts. :) Apparently she and her friends have decided that they are all going to dress as purple witches for Halloween this year, so she was SO excited to see the beautiful Halloween costume she received in the mail from her Nonny and Poppy! It couldn't be more perfect! She was also thrilled to receive a brand new, beautiful "real" guitar! It is gorgeous, and just right for her! She has already gone through two toy type guitars that just weren't made well, but this one is much better quality and we're hoping to also check into the guitar lessons she's always wanted!

Our trip out to the pumpkin patch was wonderful! It was a gorgeous day, and since Meghan and I had been out there the day before on a school field trip, she was excited to go again and show Caitlyn all her favorite things. Austin was particularly cute, running around and playing with the others just like a big boy! I took so many photos of all my children, but since the blogger uploader is so frustrating and it took me so long to format these I'm only including my favorites of the ones featuring my birthday girl. Maybe I'll dedicate a future post to the rest of my pumpkin patch pictures. :)

We were gone for most of the afternoon, but I had just enough time to make her birthday cake before the delicious dinner she requested (chicken fried chicken, mashed potatoes with cream gravy, and corn!) Uncle Robby stopped by with a birthday gift but, due to another commitment he had that night, was unfortunately unable to stay for dinner. Cait absolutely loved the Justin Bieber CD he gave her, though, as well as the cute puffy Halloween stickers! :) This year, for the first time, Caitlyn designed her cake entirely by herself. She drew a sketch of it for me and told me exactly how she wanted it; all I did was bake it and decorate it according to her specifications and it turned out so pretty! My baby girl is really growing up!

Oh, what a morning

2011-10-11T09:16:00.000-06:00

My backyard looks like it's covered in snow.

Darren was home from work for the past six days, four of which I spent in all day re-certification courses for work, but it was so nice having him here that it was really, really hard to send him off to work this morning. Things were actually moving along well for us and we were even just the tiniest bit ahead of schedule, but...things quickly went downhill as soon as he walked out the door.

The new hairstyle I was attempting on Cait was clearly just not working, but, being the ~~hardheaded~~ determined person I am, I just had to try a few more times until finally I admitted defeat, re-wet her hair, and went with something simpler. (Which meant that Meghan's, in turn, was even simpler, because I had wasted so much time on Caitlyn's.) As I was putting shoes on Austin I realized Dylan didn't have his glasses on, so I made him stop playing his new DS until he found them. But, he couldn't find them and I won't even begin to describe the drama that ensued when I told him he couldn't have his DS back until the glasses were found. (I finally found them under a box of trading cards under his bed. !!!!)

It wasn't until I was helping the kids put jackets on that I realized I had forgotten to pack lunches last night! (My only defense is that Darren and I were SO wrapped up in LOST! We've almost finished season two and OH, boy. These past couple episodes are killing me! The questions! The suspense! I have been so tempted to take just the quickest peek at Wikipedia to clue me in just a little, but I really don't want to ruin the surprise of anything. I love guessing what new twists the plot will take!) So anyway, this morning. I logged on quickly to MyLunchMoney dot com and found, to my relief, that we still had enough in our account to cover lunches for today. Caitlyn was disappointed to see on the lunch calendar on today's menu...chili fries. (Seriously?! Chili fries?!) But, as she said to Meghan, "Well, at least we also get a pumpkin cookie."

We finally made it out the door and had already finished saying our morning prayers by the time we were halfway down our street. Glad to have survived the chaos back home, something made me reiterate, "Okay, remember you're all buying your lunches today, right? And we all have our jackets. Does everybody have their backpack?" To which Dylan quietly replied from behind me, "Except me." What?! Oh, you have got to be kidding me! Checking my phone, I saw that the time was already 7:44, much later than we're usually leaving. We turned around and RAN back to the house, grabbed the backpack, and started off back down the street. We made it to the school yard with just enough time for the girls to play for a few minutes before the bell rang, and I sent Dylan off with (hopefully) everything he needed. (Thank goodness I had at least had the foresight to check for pink socks last night, necessitating a trip to the store for a pair of pink anklets for him to wear today. It's pink sock day today for breast cancer awareness week; tomorrow is pink accessory day and I'm thinking of trying to make him a friendship bracelet with multiple shades of pink embroidery floss I have in my stash, but I haven't make one since middle school and I'm not sure I remember how!)

I was so glad to be back home with my little ones. Quiet. Relative calm. Passing by the dining room window, Kristen says to me, "Um, mom? Come see." Giant balls of white cotton stuffing, all over the backyard. Which is why it now looks like it's covered in snow. Mounds and mounds of fluffy stuff ripped right from the big comfy quilt I had just bought yesterday (second hand, thank goodness) for the puppies. What! The! Heck! Those pups...urgh! My mom assures me they'll outgrow this stage. For their sake, I sure hope so. ;)

So...how is your day going? :)

A Super Mario Birthday!

2011-10-03T16:00:00.000-06:00

At long last, here are (finally!) some pictures of Dylan's Super Mario Birthday cupcakes! I still can't believe my boy turned TEN years old on September 21st!!! I was sad that he had to go to school that day, but he really enjoyed his birthday anyway. We made him a special breakfast and I packed him a fun lunch with a little card tucked inside, and, since Darren took the day off, we were ready to open presents as soon as the kids got home from school! He was SO excited to see that we finally got him a Nintendo DS Lite, something he has wanted for a very long time! He also got some really neat Star Wars Lego gifts, which he loved, and some nice cards in the mail from far away family. We grilled cheeseburgers, his requested birthday meal, and enjoyed his Super Mario cupcakes with ice cream. All in all, a wonderful tenth birthday!

My ten year old birthday boy before school!

More Cupcake Toppers!

2011-09-02T13:19:00.001-06:00

Okay, now I'm stumped! I was having a great time making some more of these after dropping the kids off at school, but now I've reached a point of indecision. I had started off making all the dots and text the same color according to the character, but then just for fun I started using two colors and I really love the way those look, too! I still plan to mount the circles on a solid color cardstock, but I can't decide if that would look too "busy". What do you think? Of course I'll ask Dylan's opinion this afternoon and probably bug Darren to death about it when he gets home tonight, but any input you can offer would be appreciated. (And Jen, I think it would be so fun to make some of these for your son's birthday! We'll consider these my trial run.) ;)

Oops! Editing to add that these are not all of the characters I have, but they're a good representation I think of what I'm working with. Also, it occurred to me just now that I could easily make some with the same color borders and some dual tone. And, obviously I'm way over thinking all of this. I should probably just back slowly away from the computer for the time being. :)

I love Photoshop!

2011-09-01T20:32:00.000-06:00

I have totally found a new hobby! I had so much fun making this little tag in Photoshop this afternoon. With Dylan's tenth birthday approaching in just a few short weeks (!!!), I've been thinking about what to do for his cake and decorations. He wants a Super Mario Brothers theme this year and I thought it would be really cute to have little cupcake toppers with the different characters—there are so many and they are so colorful! I found some really neat ones on Etsy, very bright and fun, but they seemed a little expensive. Then it occurred to me that I could just make them myself! It would be a fun project and they'd be even more special if I could personalize them with a few special touches! I was so proud of myself for finally learning how to make these nifty little dotted circles in Photoshop; I've always loved those but never knew how to make them before today! I also downloaded a Super Mario Brothers font and learned how to wrap text in Photoshop, combining the two layers over an image of Mario. I love it! There are many more to be made and I can't wait to get started! I'm thinking I'll coordinate the colors to match each character (green for Yoshi, pink for Princess Peach, etc.). I'll print them on white cardstock and then mount the circles on matching, solid colored, scalloped edge cardstock punches (using something like this.) I'll have to post a finished product when I'm done. I'm really hoping they'll come together the way I'm imagining they will! :)

A day in the life...

2011-08-23T22:55:00.011-06:00

Probably this will only be interesting to my future self, husband, and children (and possibly the grandparents) but I just love the idea of recording the events of an entire ordinary day. I really wish I'd done this periodically when my older kids were little, and while I was still homeschooling. But, better late than never! Enjoy!

Around midnight—Austin is standing in his crib at the side of our bed, crying. I pick him up, kiss his soft cheeks, and bring him in to our bed to nurse. We're both asleep again within minutes.

4:00—Austin is awake again. He turns onto his tummy and sweetly pats the bed with his chubby little hand. I turn over onto my side, hoping that he'll go back to sleep if he thinks I am, too. Every now and then he raises up to pat me, as though to reassure himself that I am still there. I roll back over and rub his back. I consider getting up since I'm wide awake and the alarm will be going off in less than an hour, but eventually we both fall asleep again.

5:19—Oops! Guess I didn't hear the alarm! I get up, prop some pillows against Austin who is still sound asleep beside Darren, and head to the kitchen. I start a pot of coffee, pet the kitties, and fill their food dishes. I get in the shower and think of all sorts of important things I need to do today, none of which I can remember now, while I'm lathering up my hair.

5:45—Waiting for the steam to clear from the bathroom before I finish getting ready, I go check the kids, who are still sleeping peacefully. I fix my first cup of coffee, finish dressing, wake Darren, and apply a bit of make-up. My hair will have to keep it's curls today; it's too hot and humid to try straightening it!

6:00—I remember to put the kids' juice filled water bottles into the freezer so they'll be nice and slushy by the time we're ready to leave. Since I still have a little bit of time before I need to start waking everyone else up, I sit down at the computer with a little snack pack of graham crackers and a second cup of coffee. I e-mail our AHG troop coordinator to let her know I won't be able to make it to our next meeting and briefly check facebook. I empty, reload, and run the dishwasher.

6:20—Time to wake the kids! I start with Dylan, opening the blinds on his window and singing him "Good Morning to You" in the tune of "Happy Birthday to You". Eyes still closed, he smiles and stretches. I sit on the side of his bed and rub his back for a minute, then move on to the girls' room. Sitting on the side of their bed, I sing to them, too. A cheerful rendition of "Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory", followed by kisses and tickles, has them up in no time. They ride the Mommy Express to the dining room, where I deposit them from my back into their chairs. Peanut butter toast and glasses of milk are served for breakfast, then it's time to start getting ready. Since I'm feeling so generous, I make their beds for them while they brush their teeth and wash their faces. :) We listen to Justin Bieber songs on YouTube while they dress in the clothes that we laid out last night, and I have just enough time to try a new hairstyle I saw yesterday on Meghan. I style two french braids in Caitlyn's hair and ask her to please get me some clothes and a diaper for Austin. She's such a good helper! Dressing him quickly, I have the kids put their backpacks on, then I add ice packs and their water bottles to the lunch boxes I had filled last night. I think we're ready to leave! Out in the garage, I'm buckling Austin into his stroller seat and realize Dylan and Caitlyn aren't wearing their glasses. Quick! Go find them and put them on! Okay. Now we're set. But where's Cait's watch? Another run through the house but it's not to be found. I'll try to find it later today.

7:30—With Kristen and Austin buckled into their seats of the double stroller and Meghan standing on the back platform, we head off down the street towards their school. It's a beautiful morning, breezy, almost cool. We talk about the day ahead and I kiss them goodbye at the fence. Meghan is worried that she won't find her teacher, so Caitlyn holds her hand and leads her to one of her little friends. I help her line up with her class when the bell rings. I wave to her as she's walking into the building, but she doesn't see me. I stand and talk with my cousin, whose son is also in kindergarten (but in a different class) for a little while before heading back home. I let Kristen hop and skip alongside the stroller and she lets me stop to photograph the lovely Slender Dayflowers blooming in the great expanse of desert bordering the school yard. We inhale the aroma of desert shrubs and pine trees, listen for different bird calls, admire other peoples' yards, and are greeted with barks by every doggie we pass. Kristen collects rocks and pine cones for her collection. I sing "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood".

8:20—We're back home. Our neighbor crosses the street to deliver some mail that had been mistakenly put in his box, including a Country Door catalog, which Kristen and I enjoy looking through while we have our breakfast. (Honey Nut Cheerios for her, a soft buttered cinnamon raisin bagel for Austin, and a toasted bagel with cream cheese for me.)

8:40—Austin and Kristen color pictures for me at their little table while I start typing this blog post. We play with Mega Blocks on the living room floor. We read Honey...Honey...Lion! by Jan Brett. (Kristen's current favorite.) After cleaning up toys, we get out a My Little Pony game and Kristen plays with Austin. I upload some photos from my camera and am so pleased with a few that I took this morning.

10:00—Austin's acting sleepy so I take him to my room to rock and nurse him. I doze off for a little bit and he falls asleep in my arms. I try to transfer him to his crib as gently as possible, but he pops up as soon as he touches the mattress and starts screaming. I leave the room for a little bit anyway, hoping he'll settle down, but to no avail. I try again with the same results--he falls asleep easily but won't stay down. Again, I leave the room and answer a phone call from Darren. We talk for a few minutes and I post a photo to facebook. Kristen and I play quietly for a little while and I listen from the living room, thinking maybe he's finally fallen asleep. But then we hear him talking and laughing in his crib, so we go to ~~rescue~~ get him.

11:00—Austin's buckled into his highchair and Kristen's situated at the bar to help me make banana nut muffins. I had considered double chocolate zucchini muffins but remembered the strange contact dermatitis I developed the last time I made zucchini bread; I'll have Darren shred some for me tonight! I offer Kristen a real lunch while we work, but she's adamant about waiting for the muffins to bake. I do convince her to have some fruit and cheese, though. :) Austin is still so sleepy. He's reached the exhausted cranky stage now...he's refusing lunch, refusing his sippy, and is an inconsolable mess. Poor baby. :(

12:00—The muffins are baked, Kristen's been fed, and I'm going to try one more time to get Austin down for a nap while Kris watches Tangled on the computer in the living room. Crossing my fingers that we're successful this time around!!!

12:15—Okay, enough of that! Austin is obviously just not going to nap today. :( He joins Kristen watching Tangled with a mini banana muffin in hand while I unload the dishwasher, wipe down the counters, and sweep the kitchen floor. I enjoy a small bowl of cold pasta salad while checking my e-mail on my phone, then feed the dogs and cats. I give the toilets a quick scrub and empty the bathroom trash cans. Ahhhh. That's much better!

12:45—I join the kids' on the living room floor with a basket full of clean laundry to be folded while we watch Tangled together. Austin helps by handing me all the towels and wash cloths. :)

1:30—Yay! Darren's home! He left work early today so he could attend the first PTO meeting of the school year with me this afternoon. Kristen and Austin are so excited to see Daddy and tell him all about our day! I know the big kids will be so thrilled to see him when they come out of school. :) We put shoes back on and I retouch my make up, pack a small diaper bag, and we're good to go!

2:20—We load up into the van, hoping the little ones will behave at the meeting! Darren waits for Meghan outside of her classroom while I go pick up Dylan and Caitlyn at the designated pick-up spot. We meet up outside of the library and head inside for the meeting. There are so many other kids there! I shouldn't have worried. The PTO president, we discover, is a woman who was the sacramental coordinator at our church for part of last year (and who still teaches catechism lessons this year). Awesome! Another active Catholic! :) The principal and vice-principal sit at our table and our family stuffs envelopes for the upcoming jog-a-thon in an effecient assembly line fashion. Cake and juice is served and everybody is happy!

3:30—Darren drops us off at home, then leaves to run a few errands. I unpack lunch boxes (and discover that not one of my children ate the pasta salad I packed for them today) and review backpack contents. Dylan plays an online video game for thirty minutes and the girls tell me all about their day. Caitlyn, who will not eat a banana or even a banana smoothie under any circumstances, devours two of my banana nut muffins with a glass of cold milk. Score one for mom! :) Austin climbs up into my lap to nurse and is finally, immediately, asleep for the nap he refused to take this morning. I wonder what sort of mess this will make of bedtime tonight.

4:00—I send Dylan to his room to ready quietly, and I let the girls watch The Berenstain Bears in my room. I get online to update this post and to read a few news articles and I chat with my brother for a few minutes when he calls to check on how the kids' second week of school is going. Darren comes home and brings me a cold Strawberry Daiquiri SoBe. I love that man. :)

4:30—It seems that the chicken we planned to cook for dinner is still frozen solid, so it looks like it's hot dogs tonight! Somehow, I don't think any of the kids will mind. :) I start searching through drawers and closets for complete school outfits for tomorrow, right down to shoes and accessories. Darren works on getting dinner ready while the girls play in the tent Meghan made in the living room.

5:00—We sit down to eat. Hot dogs, potato chips, and sweet tea. I don't think we could have come up with a simpler meal! When everyone's finished I put the food away, finish loading the dishwasher, and wipe down the table and counters. My brother calls to say he's on his way over. I start putting together lunches to save time in the morning. Austin wakes up and I'm relieved that he didn't sleep as long as I thought he would.

5:30—Robby arrives just as Darren is leaving for his nightly walk. (It helps relieve his joint pain that is so bad by the end of the day.) Rob's happy to hear that we're listening to a mix of David Archuleta and Justin Bieber. :) I give him the birthday gift that arrived in the package my mom sent me last week (his birthday is on Thursday) and have to tell him that his gift from us, unfortunately, will most likely be late. He does, however, receive an absolutely amazing Super Mario Brothers picture from Dylan! I wish now that I'd scanned it to save a copy before he gave it to him. D'oh!

6:00—Rob leaves and I start the first round of baths. Kristen and Austin splash together in the tub and I can tell that they will both fall asleep easily tonight. Darren arrives home while I'm dressing them and I get Caitlyn and Meghan into the shower. Once they're out and dressed, I tuck Kristen into our bed and sit down in our big rocking recliner to nurse Austin. His eyes keep closing, but he's fussy. This might take longer than I expected.

7:00—Darren tucks Meghan and Caitlyn into bed and gets Dylan's shower started. I can hear that the girls are not settling down right away but at least they're staying in bed! When Dylan's finished getting ready he reads in bed for a while. I lay Austin down in his crib and head down the hall to kiss all the other kids good night. Kristen is still asleep in our bed with a tiny white kitten curled up in her hair. :)

8:00—All is finally quiet. Darren feeds the dogs and checks to make sure the house is locked up before we settle in to watch LOST. I am so glad we started watching this series on Netflix!!! We are so very much enjoying our evenings spent watching it together!

9:45—Darren checks a few websites while I check the kids. We're both tired, but I want to wrap this up before I go to bed. Just need to upload a few photos and I think I'll be done!

10:10—Argh! My photo editor isn't working and I have to restart the computer. I go get ready for bed while it starts back up.

10:20—Well, let's try this again. So far, so good! Seems to be working! Now to upload to blogger. Formatting in the old editor used to be so easy.

10:50—I think I'm done! "Publish Post", and I'm off to bed. Goodnight! :)

First day of "real" school

2011-08-16T10:59:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was the first day of school for Dylan and Caitlyn and a half day of kindergarten orientation for Meghan. And honestly, I thought my heart might never recover from the exquisite pain of it all. I thought we were prepared. I thought we knew just what to expect. But what I could have never prepared for with any amount of careful planning was the tumble my heart would take when I saw my sweet little homeschoolers join the throngs of other children on the great big playground for the first time. I'm sure I should have felt proud--and I did, just a little, but not near enough to compensate for the sick jolt of loss and despair that cut me to the very depths of my soul. Walking away from my babies, abandoning them there adrift in a sea of strangers, was one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do. But, I really felt that we did have to do it. For a number of reasons which I may or may not address in a separate post, this was the decision we'd made because we thought it would be best for our children. And, after so much careful and prayerful consideration it just seemed wrong to not give school a fair chance. "We know the alternative," we reasoned. "If it doesn't work out we will not hesitate to bring them back home."

But. The happy children who rushed to greet us upon our return yesterday afternoon were clearly not traumatized. They were, if anything, more confident than they had been upon arriving that morning. They had not only survived the day but enjoyed the day. Caitlyn had made new friends and discovered that her teacher is an active parishioner at our church. Dylan actually participated in class and remembered an astonishing number of details to share about his day, and was happy to see that one of his classmates is a girl from his catechism class. Meghan loved the orientation she and I attended together and is really excited to return to her classroom on Thursday, her first day of kindergarten. It's tricky business, this growing up. It's so hard for me as their mother to see these beautiful souls as separate from me, but they are. Each is truly a unique individual, made by and for our Father in heaven and I look in wonder and awe at His marvelous creations. I was so worried about relinquishing them to outside influences, but one of my friends on facebook addressed that unspoken fear so perfectly that I have to share it here: "Don't worry, momma, they won't forget who they are in public school- they'll be great kids anywhere they are!" I love that! I just have to hope and trust that Darren and I have done our jobs well up to this point and of course we will remain very much involved in their education and socialization. I'm missing them terribly today, but have to reluctantly admit that I'm eager to see the new directions this path will take us!

Thank You, God, for making me the mother of these beautiful children,
and for the joy and privilege of being their first teacher.

New beginnings

2011-08-08T13:25:00.000-06:00

Hmmmm...Well, I had hoped that changing the look of my blog might make me more inclined to write here, but nope. It's been three days now and so far I still have nothing to say. Or rather, too much to say for such a small space. Feelings too big to be summarily confined by the boundaries of a single blog post. Big changes are underway here at our house and I feel like I'm right in the middle of a major identity crisis! Those of you who are friends with me on facebook know that we've made the difficult decision to send the three big kids to public school this year. We'll be registering them for fourth grade, second grade, and Kindergarten in a few days, and our family will begin a whole new chapter in this wonderful adventure! I hope to continue writing here as a way to chronicle our family's happenings, especially for the grandparents who are so far away. And, if any of you blog friends happen to read this, I hope you'll still stop by from time to time to say hello!

Date Nights*

2011-04-14T23:47:00.000-06:00

I had a date with my beautiful Cait tonight—dinner together at Whataburger before heading to our AHG meeting. :)

Tomorrow will be date night with Dylan. But, I'm thinking ours will be more along the line of Starbucks and the mall. A tall, tasty Frappuccino sounds to me like the perfect ~~bribe~~ reward for taking him shopping with me. (He needs a suit for his First Holy Communion and I'd much rather he try it on in the store rather than taking back several that don't fit, feel, or look right.)

*What? You didn't actually think I'd be talking about date nights with my husband, did you? If only I could be so lucky. I'm totally penning him in on my calendar, though. I figure sometime around the year, oh, 2014 or so we should be good to go. ;)

I love my boy

2011-04-07T09:05:00.000-06:00

"Hey Dyl!" I say to him, grasping a handful of slack from the back of my now slightly saggy jeans. "Does it look like your ol' mom's lost a little bit of weight?"

"No," he responds in characteristic deadpan. "It looks like you've lost a LOT of weight."

:)

Blogging in bullets

2011-04-06T18:17:00.001-06:00

Fresh from my shower this morning, I walked into the kitchen and found my nine year old son standing at the counter brewing a pot of coffee--FOR HIMSELF. Hahahaha! It's really too bad I make him drink decaf; I'd have really enjoyed a cup, too. ;)

That same boy is meeting with the deacon at our church this afternoon as one of the final requirements before receiving his First Holy Communion on May 8th (Mother's Day!) I can't believe that day is (finally) nearly here!

Caitlyn and I are having so much fun working towards more AHG badges! She created some beautiful works of art for her Artastic badge; even Dylan joined us at that kitchen table for that one! I love including the other kids whenever possible for the requirements we complete at home.

I am seriously loving getting up early each morning. I was up at 5:00 a few mornings ago and was able (in addition to emptying all the trash cans, sweeping the kitchen, starting the dishwasher, and sorting a load of laundry) to say a whole rosary while watching a beautiful sunrise. The loveliest shades of pink filled the morning sky while I sipped my coffee in the quiet living room.

Having said that, I'm realizing more and more that I'm a terribly lazy person. This morning I accidentally overslept, waking (again) at 7:15 and feeling terribly behind from the moment I set foot out of bed. So, just for fun, I decided to play a little game with myself; I called it "Let's see how much I can accomplish while Caitlyn has her bath". The answer: a LOT! Had I known how much I could get done in a mere 10 (or so) minutes, I'd have given up facebook long before Lent! Or maybe not. ;)

I'm itching to take another road trip. We went to Tucson in February and it was so much fun! One night in our hotel room, as we were all sprawled across the two Queen sized beds laughing our heads off at America's Funniest Home Videos, I said (not entirely in jest) to Darren that I wished we could sell all of our things, including our house, and just move into a hotel--the ultimate experience in family togetherness. :)

Netflix is awesome and I can't believe we held out for so long. But now a certain five year old is reminding me that I told her she could watch a movie while I prepped for dinner so I guess that's my cue to get off the computer. ;)

Look who's walking!

2011-04-05T08:38:00.000-06:00

He finally figured it out yesterday afternoon! Caitlyn saw his first steps and came running to tell me. We bribed him with chocolate cookies to keep him going. ;)

Kristen's Third Birthday (aka St. Patrick's Day)

2011-04-04T12:34:00.000-06:00

Puppies!

2011-04-02T17:48:00.000-06:00

I never imagined that puppies (of all things!) would bring me back to blogging, but I tried e-mailing this video to my mom and the file was too big. So, I'm posting it here because it's the only other way I can think of for her to see it. She's not on facebook and besides, I gave it up for Lent. ;)

Meet Bailey and Janie, the two newest members of our family!

More about Picasa Web Albums

2010-11-03T18:11:00.009-06:00

Charlotte asked a good question and, since others might not know about these Picasa albums, either (I didn't until last night!) I thought I'd try to explain it a little better here (as well as I'm able!). I checked and I don't see anything in the new editor that shows how much photo storage has been used, so if you're using the new editor, you'll first want to click "Settings", scroll down to the bottom, and select "Old Editor". If you're already using the old editor, this is the box you'll see when you click the "Add Image" button in a blog post:

I've added a big red arrow next to where it says, "You are currently using xxxMB (xx%) of your 1024MB". There's an orange question mark next to it and if you click it, you should reach a page that will explain a little more about the Picasa Web Albums (with a link to them, too). From what I understand, these Blogger albums are not viewable to the public unless you choose to make them so. From the side bar of my album page: "Blogger albums are unlisted by default. You can make these albums public and searchable to the entire Google Photos community as well as Google Search for Images." I won't choose to make mine public, and I'm relieved to know that they won't be without my permission! But I was surprised to see how very, very MANY photos were there that I uploaded just as tests (old banners, backgrounds, posts I never published, etc.) I'm sure there are more I can delete, BUT! It states clearly (also in their side bar): NOTE: If you delete an image from the Blogger album here, the image will be removed from your Blogger blog as well, so please delete images with care! Yikes! That scares me. For some reason, I have duplicates of some photos, but I'm afraid that if I delete them I'll lose them here, as well!

Anyway, hope this explanation helped a little bit. I think that from now on I might have to be a little more selective about what photos I post, LOL! I never knew I might actually someday reach a limit! ;)

Whew!

2010-11-03T17:44:00.000-06:00

That was a close one! I experienced a brief moment of panic when I tried to upload this totally adorable photo of Austin after voting last night and Blogger told me I'd reached my limit of photo storage! What?! I never realized such a thing was even possible! Guess I should have been paying more attention to that little note in the photo upload box (hmmm, I know it's there in the old editor, but now that I think about it, I'm not so sure it's there in this new one...) Anyway, I spent some time today (too much time, if you ask me) deleting old photos that I had no idea were being stored in the Picasa web albums that I didn't even know I had. Apparently Blogger stores them there automatically every time you upload a photo, even if you never publish it! Good grief! I couldn't even believe the number of useless photos I had stored there taking up valuable space. But, by clearing out those cluttered albums I've gained more room for new photo uploads, so I'm happy. :)

Birthdays! (Better late than never.)

2010-10-28T11:02:00.000-06:00

Dylan turned NINE years old in September and we recently celebrated Caitlyn's SEVENTH birthday!!! I love that their birthdays are right at the beginning of fall, kicking off my favorite time of year with back to back celebrations! This year Dylan decided to have a Lego themed party, and he got some really neat Lego gifts. One of my favorites was a Lego game called Creationary, similar to the classic Pictionary but with Lego pieces used by the players to build their creations instead of drawing them! (And let me tell you: this is harder than it looks! But with three levels of difficulty, it's a game that several of us can enjoy together.) We had bid on (and won) some SpongeBob minifigures from eBay just prior to his birthday, but we told him that since they were a gift, he had to wait until his birthday to have them. So, he decided to use them as decorations on the Lego brick cake I made! It turned out so cute.

I had originally planned to make a Barbie cake similar to this one for Caitlyn's birthday (she LOVES Barbies right now!) but she reminded me that she really wanted a pumpkin cake this year. She really enjoys fall and Halloween, but I had never used that as a theme for her birthday until this year! We looked at a lot of really neat pumpkin cakes at this website, and we just loved the way her cake looked when it was finished. It was SO easy to make, too! (Um, that is to say: it was easy AFTER I discarded the top layer, which completely fell apart when I was trying to frost it! Oops!) Her birthday was extra special this year because it was her last day of swimming lessons. Being a June baby myself, I remember going swimming on many of my birthdays, but this was definitely a first for her!!! And, since her birthday was on a Friday and I had that whole weekend off from work, our family was able to visit the pumpkin patch the next day! That was so much fun, deserving an entire post of it's own. :)

Fall Blogging

2010-10-26T18:57:00.000-06:00

Ahhh. Perhaps now that I've finally gone ahead and switched over from my summer template to a more suitable autumn layout, I might actually be inclined to blog here more frequently! Hope to see you here again real soon. :)

No contest

2010-10-10T15:55:00.000-06:00

"Who loves you?" I prompt my two year old, nuzzling her soft cheeks and covering her sweet neck in kisses.
"Daddy!" is her immediate reply.
"Yes, Daddy loves you, but who else loves you?" I hint, hugging her tighter.
"Um, Grandpa!" she answers, enjoying this little game.
"Yes, you're right. Grandpa does love you. But who else loves you?"
"GOD!" she shouts, laughing now.

That's it. I'm beat. Not even Mama can compete with God. :)

Seasons change

2010-10-07T09:02:00.000-06:00

This morning, during this blending of seasons in southern New Mexico where chilly mornings are a sweet reprieve and hot afternoons greet early evenings, one of my girls clings tightly to the fading days of summer, bedecked in a now-too-small Fourth of July sundress and a huge bow headband while her sister, eagerly anticipating the cool, cozy days of fall, has dressed herself in khaki pants and a soft orange, long sleeved, lace trimmed tee. Equally appropriate, each is uniquely beautiful.

Trying my hand at digital scrapping

2010-08-06T08:56:00.000-06:00

Darren has been kindly reminding me for the past week that it's been nearly a month since I've updated my blog. I've got many other topics about which I could post, including the most recent Lego contest Dylan and Caitlyn entered, the comic book class Dylan participated in, the astounding rate at which Austin is growing, the plans I have for our upcoming school year, the designs I have for my girls' room, the joy and beauty of our summer days, the abundance of our vegetable gardens, the sweetness of sisters, the creativity of my children...but, I'm afraid those will all have to continue waiting patiently for another time. Here's something, though: my newest ~~addiction~~ hobby--digital scrap booking. Oh my goodness, what fun! I thought I'd see if I could design a couple of cute poster size layouts to have developed and framed for the kids' rooms, and I just have to say that I love these; they're my two favorite so far. I'm sure there will be many more. :)

Bingo! Beating Summer boredom, one square at a time...

2010-07-09T09:54:00.013-06:00

We had been doing a pretty good job of staying busy during the first few weeks of our summer break, but had recently lost a little bit of that momentum. The unhappy result was boredom, irritability, and overall bad attitudes. We've still got a few more fun activities planned for later this month, but in the meantime, we are SO thrilled to be playing the SUMMER BINGO game! I first heard about this wonderful idea when Celeste posted a link on facebook, and then Jessica shared how she and her family had adapted it for their own use, and after talking about it with Darren, we decided to go ahead and give it a try! I spent most of last Saturday making game sets for each of the three older kids, and I love how they turned out!

I basically used the same set of rules shared generously by Stacy. In fact, I think our entire game is put together much like hers: small ring holding a 4x6 laminated card stock "cover" with a photo of each child, laminated Rule Card, then a BINGO card (I didn't laminate the actual playing cards because they'll be using a new one each week).

Like Stacy, I used a 5 x 5 table filled with activities to do during the week. Many of them are duplicated on all three cards, so they can all work together to earn a sticker for that square, but quite a few are specific to each child according to their interests and tasks I'd specifically like them to complete. (Dylan, for example, has three separate squares that say "Practice Piano for 30 minutes", one that says "Post something new on your website", and "Create a Comic Book and mail it to someone").

Their cards are nearly full now, lacking stickers only for the squares that say "Make up a water game in the backyard", which we'll be doing tomorrow morning. ;) I am SO proud of how they've all responded to this game! Meghan, especially, has so enthusiastically embraced it, asking me every day what she can do next. I'll leave you with a final photo, because I think it's so cute: "Have a tea party in your playhouse". :)

Laziest Fourth of July Ever.

2010-07-06T20:30:00.005-06:00

I haven't decided yet whether I find it more hilarious or pathetic that the only photos I managed to take over an entire four day holiday weekend were these few of my patriotic children drinking the delicious watermelon slushies we whipped up in the blender (twice, because they were just so good). What a lazy few days! They were wonderful while they lasted. :)

"Look, Mama! I found my feet!"

2010-07-06T14:51:00.003-06:00

Original Creations by Dylan: LEGO Shrek and Fiona Minifigures

2010-07-02T21:53:00.005-06:00

Backyard Beauty

2010-07-02T21:23:00.013-06:00

Thank you so much for all the sweet comments on my last post! I honestly wasn't expecting any, but I had just had to share those beautiful photos of my Meggie! And Blair, you were right! While I'd still really LOVE an SLR, these were taken with my poor little point-and-shoot. I'd done nothing but bad talk it at every photo taking opportunity, cursing it's poor picture quality, ruing the day in December that I'd bought it as a cheap replacement for my previous camera, which had finally succumbed to one too many falls at the hands of certain little people who live here. ;)

The indoor picture taking capabilities of my current camera are just absolutely horrid. Awful! No matter what settings I use I get blurry, grainy, washed out disappointments. But a few weeks ago, having finally started taking outdoor photos again on a regular basis, I was delighted to discover that under proper conditions, this loathsome little lens is actually quite capable of capturing perfectly lovely pictures! It was such an "ah-ha!" moment of discovery when I finally realized it that I laughed out loud! There's just no stopping me now. I'm just so happy when I'm out there snapping photos!

Here are just a few of my favorites from the many dozens I took tonight. :)

Flitting Flower Fairy

2010-07-01T12:22:00.007-06:00

Legos and Pizzas and Pets, Oh My!

2010-06-27T20:26:00.013-06:00

There's this fabulous little pizza parlor here that Dylan and I first discovered while out for an evening with my brother last December. And we, in my family of animal-loving Lego maniacs, were delighted to learn that once a month over the summer, it will be holding Lego creation contests with different themes. The one dollar entrance fee is donated to the local animal shelter, and the first, second, and third place winners of each age group get a trophy, ribbon, mystery mini figure, a coupon for a free pizza, and a chance to win one of two grand prizes in August! Dylan and Caitlyn were so excited to participate in the first challenge last weekend. The theme for this first contest was "To the Moon and Beyond", and I think their entries were wonderfully creative!

Dylan decided to make a moon scene display, covering one of his green base plates with white and gray bricks to simulate the surface of the moon. He included a space shuttle, a lunar rover and space station, both of which were manned by astronauts, an American flag, a UFO, and an alien in a landing pod.

Caitlyn took a different approach with her creation and chose to make a display of an audience gathered to watch a rocket launch. I thought hers was so cute! There was a cowboy mini-figure whose horse was grazing alongside him, several other mini-figures whose Lego racers were parked in the road, and a fire truck on stand-by in case of catastrophe. :) And, c'mon...how adorable is that rocket with smoke plume?!

They both did well with judging and each ended up winning third place in their age groups! Darren and I were so proud of them! The next competition will be held in July; the theme will be "American Freedom". I can't wait to see what my clever, creative kids will design!

Six Month Photo Shoot

2010-06-17T15:23:00.011-06:00

I can't believe that Austin will already be six months old on Saturday! I'm working on switching out the photos in our hallway (exchanging 8x10s for 5x7s) and since I always spend way too much money when I take the kids in for actual studio portraits, I decided to just take my own and order prints online. Austin looked so cute this morning that I couldn't resist taking these a few days early. :)

June

2010-06-16T17:32:00.014-06:00

I love June. It's always been one of my favorite months because, hello! Summer vacation! But also because it's my birthday month (I'll be 33 a week from today!). I still remember being very, very excited every year to get my little postcard in the mail from Baskin Robbins, entitling me to a free scoop on my birthday. (Darren cannot for the life of him understand why I always chose pink bubblegum). And oh hey, look! Guess they still do it! I'm totally signing my kids up. :)

Anyway, I love June for so many more reasons now than my own birthday, including (and especially!) my husband's birthday! Darren's big day was about a week and a half ago, but we've been so busy that I just haven't had time to post pictures. He said it was one of the best ever, though, even though I didn't buy him any gifts (sorry, honey!). We spent much of the day outside, which was awesome, and even had a wonderful (but too brief) thunderstorm late that afternoon. Breakfast was a huge success--fruit salad, coffee, and the most delicious cinnamon rolls at our patio table.

This month has been absolutely perfect. It's so nice to be on break from school, with more relaxed days and virtually no agenda. Last week my sister-in-law decided to come down for a visit with my niece and nephew, which was an absolute blast! Totally spur of the moment and totally fun. On the day they left, Darren's mom, sister, and nephew arrived from Texas for a weekend visit and while we loved seeing them, our time with them went by much too fast! It had been six years since we'd seen his sister and nephew, but I sure hope it won't be another six years before we see them again!

We've been spending much more time outside than I ever remember doing at this time of year, but at the right time of day and with the right circumstances it's really so very pleasant. Mornings in our backyard are just lovely, and evenings can be quite nice, too. Our gardens are doing so well right now and we are just so pleased with the wide variety of little critters who are frequent visitors to our yard (especially the quail--so cute!). I laughed recently to see that Darren and I had taken nearly identical photos of our garden at different times of day, his in the morning and mine towards evening:

We're amazed every day at how tall our sunflowers are getting. I can hardly wait to see how beautiful they'll look later this summer!

I've set a few goals for myself this summer, including (but certainly not limited to): learning how to pickle; learning how to grill; making Dylan's 2nd grade and Caitlyn's Kindergarten scrapbooks; and maybe, possibly, re-reading the entire Twilight series (ugh, I can't even believe I just said that. It's my SIL's fault!). Also I'd like to get a much better start on planning our new school year, including actual written plans for both school work and liturgical celebrations. And, I'm really, really itching to rearrange rooms again. (Honey, just pretend you didn't see that!) Oh, I'm just dying to make some of these darling hanging book displays, except that I broke the needle on my sewing machine a few days ago and I have no idea how to change it. Maybe I should just ask Dylan to take a look at it for me. He could probably figure it out. ;)

Introducing...

2010-06-13T20:36:00.006-06:00

Leah Peaches!

The last lonesome kitten being given away at the Farmer's Market yesterday morning...and now the newest member of our household. :)

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

2010-06-13T16:28:00.016-06:00

Butterflies in our backyard

2010-06-08T07:03:00.011-06:00

I considered uploading all of these butterfly pictures in the new extra large format offered by blogger, but realized that quite probably nobody else will be as interested in them as I am and also, it didn't seem fair to feature them more prominently than photos of my own children. ;)

Except I just couldn't resist enlarging this last photo of one of our many black swallowtails. She was so gracefully circling me two days ago but never would land, so I finally decided to zoom in and hope for the best. This shot came out way better than I hoped for; I hadn't even noticed that caterpillar (on the far left stem) until I transferred these photos to my computer! So, while I still feel like I'm just biding my time until I can afford a sweet new DSLR, I suppose my little point-and-shoot will work just fine for a while longer, after all. :)

Memorial Day Weekend

2010-06-02T14:10:00.025-06:00

It was the perfect holiday weekend, in which we played outside most of the time, finally planted Meggie's pumpkin and watermelon patch, cooked over a fire, and made many happy memories to last a lifetime. Here it is, in pictures:

This made me laugh until my stomach hurt.

2010-06-02T11:51:00.000-06:00

♪ My "Little" Preemies... ♫

2010-05-17T21:22:00.009-06:00

My formerly tiny babies aren't so tiny anymore! Both Kristen and Austin had check-ups today...which was purely coincidental, because we scheduled them at different times and didn't even realize they were on the same day until I finally penciled them in on my calendar a week or so ago! Darren took Kristen to her two year appointment this morning and, although we knew she was growing really well, we were shocked to discover that she's grown right off the growth chart! She's measuring 37.5 inches now and weighs 35 pounds. (I suspect it won't be long until she catches up to Meghan, who, at four years, is 41.25 inches and 36 pounds!) She is such a doll!

And our little Austin is doing so well that, upon entering the exam room, the doctor laughed and said to me, "When I came in here I thought, 'This must be a different baby!' I thought I was looking at the wrong baby! He's grown so much!" He explained that, even without adjusting for prematurity, Austin is well within the average range for both weight and length: 15 pounds 2 ounces, and 24.5 inches! And he was so impressed with how well Austin just holds himself up, looking around and smiling and cooing, even when placed on his tummy on the exam table! I'm so proud of my big baby boy!

*A note about the title of this post: Remember me saying before how much I love to sing? As soon as I wrote the words "My Little Preemies" I thought of this song from way back in the day, and don't think I won't be singing my own rendition often and loudly from now on. :)

Bumbo, Baby!

2010-05-11T13:59:00.007-06:00

Blue Girl

2010-05-06T10:49:00.001-06:00

My kids are used to me working night shifts; I've been doing it all their lives. And with few exceptions, my chronic fatigue is a fact of life about which they rarely complain. Still, I couldn't help but laugh when I saw the comic strip Caitlyn was working on yesterday. In this most recent creative collaboration (Dylan is her editor!), Blue Girl is running to wake her mom on Christmas morning. Her poor mother, however, is sound asleep, oblivious to Blue Girl's excitement. Taking matters into her own hands, Blue Girl decides that the next best course of action is to climb up onto the chest of drawers and jump onto her mother's bed! "Alright...you asked for it!", she proclaims, perched on the precipice as she prepares to pounce her peacefully prone parent! Hmmm, now that I think about it, I better watch that girl! Might be a good idea to sleep with one eye open after working all night! :)

He Cannot Tell a Lie

2010-05-05T14:31:00.005-06:00

"That's 'Your Wildest Dreams'," I told Darren, belting out my best impersonation of The Moody Blues.

"No, it's not," he said. "That's more like my wildest nightmare."

His honesty is just one of the many things I love about him. ;)

(And hey, I never said that I could sing...only that I really, really, enjoy singing.) :)

Sugar Bear

2010-05-05T08:38:00.008-06:00

Austin has the most adorable little way of grunting and growling while he's nursing, earning him the affectionate nickname "Sugar Bear", which we all call him with a smile because he's just the sweetest little bear! (And, I just have to say that I don't remember any of my other children being so enthusiastic about nursing! He is so funny: his entire body wiggles and his little feet start kicking and his whole face just lights up when he knows I'm about to feed him!) His chubby little body is evidence that this is one little boy who skips no meals! ;) I don't know exactly how much he weighs now, but I know he's growing; I can no longer easily scoop him with one arm from his little bed into ours for night time feedings! And he's mostly wearing size 3-6 month clothes now, which makes me so happy because we have such a large selection of the cutest little outfits in that range. :)

Have I mentioned here that he can roll over now from his tummy to his back now, too? It's a trick he learned a few days ago while I was in the shower! I couldn't believe it! The big kids were supervising him while he enjoyed some tummy time on a little play mat on my bedroom floor, and Caitlyn started knocking persistently on my bathroom door, saying, "Mommy, Mommy, Austin rolled over!" I'm so glad that my other kids get as excited as I do about every little achievement. :)

He was hilarious at dinner time last night. We were telling a story, all of us taking turns around the dinner table, each adding more details to the plot of an imaginary trip to the zoo. It was really becoming quite hysterical ("POPCORN FIGHT!") and we were all cracking up. Pretty soon, Austin, who was sitting in Darren's lap, was laughing right along with us! It was the funniest thing to hear his piercing squeals and little chuckles! Seriously, cutest thing ever!

Facebook is killing my blog.

2010-04-29T12:51:00.000-06:00

Okay, so that may be a very broad generalization, but I do find that lately, it's much easier to post a few simple lines and a picture or two on facebook than to come here and actually try to formulate coherent thoughts and sentences. I'm still "blaming" the new baby for that, except he's four months old now and I'm not sure how much longer that will work. ;)

At any rate, stealing from facebook and my photo organizer, here are a few more of my recent favorite pics, because I promised my mom some and if I wait until I'm ready to share nice little stories about each one then she'll be waiting forever. :)

Sleepy sweetheart

A recently found photo of Dylan, taken by Caitlyn in the backyard

Homeschooling at it's best!

My little laundry helpers

Sweet morning snuggles

Art: In which Dylan combines a few of his favorite things

2010-04-29T10:21:00.002-06:00

Hello, blog. I've missed you.

2010-04-25T22:22:00.000-06:00

We made it to 8:30 Mass again this morning for the second time this month, which, really, is nothing short of a miracle for us. Honestly, I don't know how families who send their children to "regular" school do this every morning! I had everything ready last night, too: diaper bag packed, car seat brought in, baths done, clothes laid out...and I still ended up having to do my make-up in the car! Maybe we need a few practice drills; I'm sure we can improve our time. :)

Anyway, I realized this afternoon that it's been way too long since I've posted anything new here, so I'm sharing two of my favorite recent pictures of Austin, who turned four months old on the 19th. I can't believe how fast he's growing! There is so much I could say about how awesome he is and how in love with him we all are but it's already nearly ten o'clock and if I got started now I'd be here all night. I'm really tired so I'm going to bed instead. ;) Hope to be back to "chat" more soon, though. I'm happy and loving life right now!

A Backyard Map

2010-04-15T19:59:00.002-06:00

Wow, I just wasted so much time but had so much fun creating a clip art map of our backyard! Jill, this is for you! :) I realized I had no good way to show my back yard in it's entirety, but figured I could probably draw a rough approximation. I just scanned it in, saved it as a JPEG file, and filled the rest in with clip art and photoshop! And, just so you know, I'm sure the proportions are all wrong but it looks right to me, so this is what you're getting. ;)

I'm sure it's all pretty much self explanatory, but, starting at the back porch and moving clockwise around the yard, this is what we've got:

First of all, I feel the need to clarify that we actually have a covered porch with a patio table and chairs, but this was the closest clip art I could find.
Our Mary garden is on the west side of the porch, and is bordered by...
A large area that will become our pumpkin (and watermelon, and squash) patch, which is lined with desert plants, and includes a winding pinkish gravel trail that will hopefully (someday) be adorned by outdoor stations of the cross, ending with...
Our cactus "island" and picnic nook!
Continuing along the back wall, we have three new raised garden beds (our first attempt at these, which have yet to be filled...) I want to name them according to their contents and help the children make hand painted signs for them. I know for sure that one of them will be the "Salsa Garden", for example, and will contain tomatoes, green chiles, jalapeños, and a few onions. And I totally want to try a "Pickle Patch"! Dylan and I are so excited about trying our hand at pickling this year. I have never even considered pickling anything on my own but think it would be so fun to learn. I have no idea if it will even work, but we're hoping to grow cucumbers, beets, and okra, all of which we really enjoy as "pickles"!
Our Sunflower House is in the corner nearest our house, and I still just can't stress enough how happy this makes me! I seriously think a little gate like this would be a super cute detail at it's entrance, but that might just be my overly enthusiastic nature...I get that way about projects that really excite me. :) Oh, and as a note to myself for future reference, I'd still really like to find (or order) copies of Sunflower House, Sunflower House: A Book for Children and Their Grown-Ups, and Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children.
Against our east wall is a small butterfly garden, with two butterfly bushes and a few other plants we've added specifically to attract butterflies. It might also include some herbs later in the summer...
Continuing along (we're almost done!) is our original vegetable garden, which we started two (Oops! Make that three!) years ago. (Awww, my kids were so little back then!) Darren has been doing a lot of trimming, pulling, and planting out there lately and honestly, I'm not even sure anymore what's growing. Guess I'll be surprised. ;)
Moving back up onto the porch, we've got the flower bed which represents our first attempt at growing anything when we first moved into this house. (You can see some of it in this post...and many others, I'm sure, if you really want to take the time to search. I tell myself all the time that I should go back and label all my posts, but that seems like such an overwhelming task! Oh, wait, I just remembered that I have another super cute picture that shows our wild flower garden...let's see...ah, here it is! Way at the bottom of a post about my Grandpa's birthday, which is actually coming up again this weekend! How funny!)

I think that's everything! Whew, I feel like a need a drink now! What a tour! Hope you enjoyed it. :)

Our Spring Gardens: The Cactus Garden

2010-04-15T12:44:00.011-06:00

This happens every Spring. I just can't seem to stop myself from photographing our gardens! I was outside with Darren yesterday at a particularly lovely time of evening, the sun hanging low in the sky before it's finally descent below the horizon, warm but not unbearably so. The light was just beautiful and our blooms were so very pretty that I just had to run back inside for the camera. (Thanks for fetching my shoes for me, honey! I only had to pluck one splinter from my toe this morning!) I think they're a much more intimate illustration of our cactus garden, anyway, more perfectly capturing the beauty and essence of what is quicky becoming my favorite area of our yard. And, since he checks my blog multiple times throughout the day at work, I'm posting these photos for my sweetie. I know he'll love seeing them, and if I don't do it now while they're fresh on my mind, I'll probably forget entirely. ;) Enjoy the tour!

Our Spring Gardens: The Picnic Garden

2010-04-13T19:55:00.003-06:00

Darren and I had, on many occasions in the past, discussed the possibility of relocating a majority of his cacti in order to free up more space in the backyard for our children to play. He had collected so many plants in the years we've lived here that they occupied a large portion of our yard, and we no longer felt safe just letting the children run around and play out there. (Especially Kristen, who, quicker than lightning, has already had a few run-ins with them.) So the cactus garden, too, underwent an exciting renovation and has now become a lovely little picnic nook!

We kept the large main "island" with many of our taller or bushier native plants, and moved many of the taller cacti to the border against both walls. (They meet in the corner of the desert garden.) All the plants from the center of the native area were relocated, to clear an area which will become a pumpkin patch, and then Darren painstakingly moved the many, many little cacti from below the big Mexican Elder and tucked them in wherever there was room among the other plants.

We pulled weeds, raked leaves and twigs, moved more rocks and gravel, and have finally created the neatest little picnic area beside his handsome cactus garden! And it will be so neat when that large center area is full of pumpkins. :) Here are a couple pictures I took recently at different times of day. The picnic table is completely shaded by late afternoon, perfect for dinners outside this summer! We hung a wind chime up within the branches of the tree, and there is the sweetest little nest we've been watching expectantly these past few days. I love our new picnic garden! Eventually I'd like to line the walkway with these beautiful outdoor Stations of the Cross, so we can have our own little winding "prayer path", through the desert garden, but those can come at a later date. I think what we have right now is perfectly lovely, and I can't wait to spend many happy evenings out there this summer!

Our Spring Gardens: A Mary Garden

2010-04-13T11:33:00.005-06:00

Our gardens are still very much a work in progress, but while Darren was home all last week we were able to accomplish SO much towards the gardens we envision! A quiet, contemplative Mary garden has been another dream of mine for quite a while now, and I actually started working on one beneath our bedroom window last year but just never did get it finished. This year, Darren and the children were a HUGE help and together, we were able to create a beautiful Mary garden! (Noticeably absent at this point is a statue of Mary, but I'm working on that! I found a really pretty statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe at one of our local garden centers, but I'd really like Our Lady of Grace to grace our garden. I LOVE the look of this one, but would like to shop around locally a little more first.) Anyway, I found many wonderful ideas of how to plant a Mary garden while searching around online, and finally decided to print out this wonderful article to keep as a reference. Ideally, we'd love to continue adding to our garden over time, but here's what we've planted to get us started:

Rosemary (Mary's nosegay), which was already planted along one edge of the garden
Honeysuckle (Lady's stick), which was also already growing up the trellis
Several Roses (these have different symbolic meanings depending on color); I was SO EXCITED to find a Pope John Paul II rosebush at our garden center!!! We also planted one called "Blue Girl", which caught my eye because that's the name of a super-hero character created by Caitlyn, but which also works because, you know..."Lovely Lady dressed in Blue"...it works, right? :)
Carnations (Mary's Love of God. "These flowers are said to have bloomed at Christ's Nativity, according to a German legend.")
Marigold (Mary's gold)
Scabiosa (Mary's pincushion)
Snapdragon (Infant Jesus' shoes)
Salvia (Mary's shawl)
Bachelor's Buttons (Mary's crown)

I'd also like to add a small bench or two, although I'm not exactly sure where, and this garden certainly won't be "quiet" or "contemplative"! It will actually overlook the playground we plan to build later this summer, but I'm equally happy with that, too. I love the idea of Our Lady watching over my children while they play!

Our Spring Gardens: The Sunflower House!

2010-04-12T17:08:00.019-06:00

I've been dreaming of a Sunflower House for our children for the past two years and this year, we finally decided to create one in a corner of our back yard! You have no idea how happy this makes me! We had to relocate several plants in order to clear a large enough area, and I am hoping and praying that they'll survive the move. Even if they don't, though, I think the sacrifice will have been worth it! I can't wait for our sunflowers to start growing! We bought several varieties so they'll grow at different heights. :)

Easter

2010-04-12T07:16:00.001-06:00

Happy Easter! It's a good thing Easter lasts for 50 days, isn't it? Darren took all last week off of work and we spent most of that time out in the gardens! I am so thrilled with how much we've gotten done so far. I've plenty of pictures of our work, but I'll save those for another post. I just wanted to quickly share this morning a few of my favorites from Easter!

Coloring Easter eggs on Holy Saturday

Easter morning! Kristen found a cute, sweetly scented Strawberry Shortcake doll in her basket. Dylan was thrilled to finally receive the Lego Star Wars Visual Dictionary he had been wanting, and Caitlyn was so happy with her new earrings! Meghan was so excited to see that the Easter Bunny had brought her a new Veggie Tales movie, and Austin had his very own little basket, minus the sugary treats. :)

Our best attempt at an Easter photo. It probably would have been a better idea to try this before Mass, but we were running a little late that morning! Poor little Austin had just had enough by the time this was taken. Still a cute picture of my Easter sweeties, though! :)

Snuggling with Daddy

Hunting for Easter eggs

Mmmm, chocolate!

For the Grandparents

2010-04-02T11:58:00.007-06:00

Well, it's not the best video, but so far it's the only one I have of Austin smiling. It's something he's deliberately doing on a regular basis now, and it is so cute!!! You can also sort of hear him cooing in this clip, if you listen beyond the overwhelming noise of my other children and my own voice. Also, I'm attaching a super cute picture of my super sweet Caitlyn, looking quite Spring-y today. Enjoy! :)

Kristen's Two!

2010-03-31T23:40:00.001-06:00

Her birthday was on Saint Patrick's Day, but I just realized I never posted these pictures here! Looks like I've got about twenty minutes left in March, though, so it's all good. :)

She really did have a great birthday...a Polly Pocket ice cream sandwich cake, some new LEGO duplos, a beautiful new whacky ball game to replace the broken one she loved so much, her own magnetic drawing pad...and a classic monchhichi doll. What more could a little girl want? ;)

My little rockhounds

2010-03-22T10:12:00.002-06:00

I am such a bad blogger. I just found all these wonderful photos in a drafts file I started last week. I don't remember now why I never published them! Anyway, I have to just preface this post by saying that my darling husband is a serious rockhound. We used to love going out collecting together before we were married (and even after, before we had kids) but he just doesn't take the time as often now to go out into the desert like he used to. He still loves his mineral collection though, and is always on the lookout to buy or trade with other enthusiasts that he knows here in town, and he is really hoping that our children will share his passion for rocks and minerals! So, he was more than happy to take them out rock collecting in the desert one day during "R" week, and, for the first time ever, we ALL went to the annual "Rockhound Roundup", a gem and mineral show hosted by the Deming Gem & Mineral Society, Inc. That was so much fun! The big kids were especially thrilled with all the free goodies being handed out by so many of the participants. :)

Saturday Stream of Consciousness

2010-03-13T17:14:00.013-07:00

My mom and I both had our hair done on the Saturday before she left. I was going to cut mine really short, but decided to just get the ends trimmed instead. (Which they realllly needed!) Also, for the first time in years, I added some highlights and lowlights. (Note to my SIL: I kept the curls, but have noticed that they're not so tight and straighten much easier now that they've been color treated. Isn't that weird?) Anyway, my little brother practically cried with joy when he saw me for the first time after, gushing "Oh my gosh, I finally have my young sister back again! Liss, you don't look like an old lady anymore!" Haha! I took that as a compliment. :)

Our weather has been gorgeous the past two days and we're totally taking advantage of it. Yesterday was Darren's Friday off and we spent a lot of time out in the backyard. I'm convinced that people in general (and housewives especially) would be much happier if we could all just live outside. Hello, we'd never need to clean! Dirt would be expected! And with all that glorious sun, who would ever need antidepressants? I know that my mood, at least, was greatly improved after spending the afternoon outdoors. I tucked Austin into a sling and he, too, enjoyed a nice bit of fresh air. I just have to share these two side-by-side photos. The first I scanned from my pre-digital days and is dated, as you can see, March 7, 2004...almost exactly six years ago! I just love my little Dylan and little Caitlyn; aren't they just too precious?! It makes me smile to see how young I looked back then! My hands felt so full with just those two little ones!

And, on the topic of slings, Austin has already outgrown the one I made for him just a few short weeks ago! Now, granted, I think it was a little small to begin with. And, I'm pretty sure it shrunk a little in the wash. (Note to self: next time, pre-wash fabric!!!) But, still, I'm a little sad! I told Darren I'll just consider that one a prototype. :) I'm already looking forward to making a new one, except dang it! I'm out of fabric and I've given up "fun" shopping for lent. And frustratingly, no matter how hard I try, I just can't seem to make fabric into an absolute neccessity. ;)

So, there is obviously so much more I could say right now but I've already been on here way too long. The thing about getting so far behind on blog posts is that it's so hard to catch back up! We've completed weeks R, S, and T on our Alphabet Path and Darren keeps asking when I'm going to post about a multitude of other fun things we've done. Oy, if only there were more hours in a day. ;)

Little Boy Blue

2010-03-10T12:45:00.003-07:00

Wordless Wednesday

2010-03-10T09:32:00.004-07:00

Couldn't be more perfect....

2010-02-25T08:56:00.003-07:00

From a little devotional book my mom brought home from church yesterday:

Father,
sometimes the family
gets me down.

The children are noisy
and bills pile up.
Relatives and friends make demands
on my time and attention.

I try to keep first things first
and create an atmosphere where Your name
is honored, Your word observed.

But I get tired
and a hard edge creeps into my voice.
Help me to cope with the daily strains
of living in a family.

Help me to sustain a climate in which my partner
can grow in Your love,
to encourage my children to develop fully
the talents You have given them
and to make of my family
the community of love
that Your Son came to bring.

Amen.

Brilliance.

2010-02-22T18:36:00.004-07:00

After singing "Gitchi Gitchi Goo" like five times in the span of about two minutes on the way home from piano lessons this afternoon, I finally said, "Ack! I can't get this dang earworm out of my head! Maybe if I turn on the radio I'll finally stop thinking about it."

Laughing, Dylan responded from the backseat, "Yeah, but what if you hear a song that just pushes that one out and puts a new one in?"

"Hmmm, maybe you're right..."

"Hey, I know! Why don't you just put it to a Mexican station? If you don't know what they're saying, it probably can't become your ear worm!"

Pure genius, that boy!

I love my mom!

2010-02-22T16:02:00.002-07:00

She has totally gotten into the spirit of the Alphabet Path! Tonight for dinner she's making Ravioli, with Raspberry Sherbet for dessert! Haha, I love it! She also picked up ingredients for Rice Krispie treats, but we just didn't have time for those today. Maybe tomorrow! She said she laid awake in bed last night brainstorming fun ideas for "R" week, and this morning she had a frank discussion with my kids about Rules and Respect. (Ummm, yeah, we've had a few behavioral issues lately. Who needs Nanny 911 when we've got Nonny, LOL!) My mom is awesome. I wish she could stay with us forever.

P.S. I'm posting this from my brother's MacBook while he's giving Dylan his piano lesson. I totally want one. (A MacBook, not a piano lesson. Although honestly, both would be nice.) :)

I made a sling!

2010-02-22T09:34:00.004-07:00

Okay, this has to be quick because I can hear that my kids are clearly not doing the work I assigned just a minute ago! My mom's out shopping with her mom, though, so I'm flying solo for a little while. ;)

Anyway, I just had to share what I made last night! A pouch style sling! I have two different ring slings that I like well enough, but I wanted to try one of these. I remembered yesterday afternoon that I had this fabric up in the top of my closet and found this awesome tutorial online. I whipped this up in no time and I love it! Yay me! I hope to make another this afternoon. :)

Highlights of Weeks "P" and "Q"!

2010-02-20T21:14:00.000-07:00

Pink Princess Pudding Party!

Pizza Math
(We did have a Pizza and Pepsi night, but instead of a family movie, we stayed up to watch the Parade of Nations in the Winter Olympics opening ceremonies!)

Prayers and Pretzels
(Materials for these cute prayer lapbooks included ACTS acronym, "Prayers I Should Know", "More Prayers I Should Know ", and praying Boy and Girl coloring pages.)

Painters and Painting

Quartered Quesadillas

Quilts
(We read The Spinner's Gift, The Quiltmaker's Gift, The Keeping Quilt, and The Quilt Story, and made family "quilts" out of card stock squares. I love them!)

Fat Tuesday

2010-02-16T22:48:00.007-07:00

Best Valentine's Day ever!

2010-02-15T10:00:00.006-07:00

My favorite picture from P week

2010-02-13T09:50:00.002-07:00

Waiting...

2010-02-10T12:29:00.000-07:00

Father/Daughter Dance

2010-02-09T16:41:00.001-07:00

Caitlyn had been looking forward to attending the American Heritage Girls Father/Daughter Dance since first hearing about it last fall! Back then, February seemed so far off, but the night of the big event finally arrived last Saturday! I can't even begin to describe how impossibly sweet I think the whole thing was, so I'll just let these pictures speak for themselves! :)

Along the Alphabet Path: Highlights from "O" week

2010-02-09T15:45:00.000-07:00

I feel the need to hurry and post our "O" week before we've finished "P" week, especially since my mom will be here TOMORROW (!!!) and I don't know how frequently I'll be blogging during the month she's here! So, quickly, here's the abbreviated version of what we did:

St. Odilia and Orchis Fairy coloring pages

Oceans
Tuna fish sandwiches and ocean cups, examining our sea shell collection from Nonny!

Fun with Cheerios!
The Cheerios Play Book and Cheerios bracelets!

Owls and Oil Pastels

I think these are the only things I managed to get pictures of. Other topics that week were the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, for which we made Oatmeal Pancakes from our Alpha-Bakery cookbook. Crepes might be more traditional, but I read this in The Catholic Home: "...all Christmas ornaments, decorations, and anything else not taken down on January 6 must be packed away until next year. You can easily offset any reluctance to do this with the promise of a pancake breakfast. Pancakes and crepes are traditionally eaten for Candlemas because of their sunny color and shape." I totally went with the pancakes. :)

We read The Our Father and Hail Mary, and The Owl and the Pussycat, and other assorted storybooks. We had fun with Ocean Math, Ocean word worksheets, and...I guess that's about it. Doesn't look like much now, but it was a fun week!

Pangolins and "P" week

2010-02-08T08:50:00.002-07:00

After putting the kids to bed last night, Darren came to me and said, "Dylan wants you to read to them about pangolins from his Ranger Rick magazine this week."

"Penguins?"

"No, pangolins."

"Oh. Um. Okay. What's a pangolin?"

"Google it! They're really cool!"

So, "google it" I did, and they are, and it seems Dylan will again be teaching his old mom a thing or two this week! Should be fun and interesting, to say the least!

I'm still working on my post from "O" week (it was a great one!) and I'm really excited about "P" week. So many wonderful topics! Pirates, Princes, Princesses, Presidents, Pilgrims, Pioneers, Pyramids, Pharaohs, St. Patrick, Prayers, Plants, Pandas, and...Pangolins! Of course there's also all the fun food to consider, such as Pizza and Pepsi for a family movie night...one beginning with "P" of course! I was thinking maybe "Pirates of the Caribbean" but Dylan informed me that we're not allowed because it's PG-13. ;) So, maybe something a little more old school, like "Mary Poppins", which I've never actually seen. (I know, can you believe it?!) Anyway, I'm open to suggestions here if any of you have any great "P" movie recommendations. :)

(Best part about this week: my mom will be here Wednesday! For a month!)

Happy Monday!

Along the Alphabet Path: "N" week

2010-02-01T17:01:00.001-07:00

Here are the highlights from last week's stop along the alphabet path! "N" was for Nasturtium fairy and St. Nicholas, and also:

'Nana pancakes!

Narnia and Neverland

Numbers and Noah's Ark

(I found the idea for this Numberbow game at Starry Sky Ranch, and my kids and I LOVED it!)

From our Alpha Bakery cookbook, "N" was for Nibble Sticks
(Perfect with mugs of tomato soup on that cold, rainy day!)

"N" was also for Noodles! Yum! Haha, can you tell I love to incorporate food as much as possible along our alphabet path? :) All credit goes to my honey for these culinary creations, though, at least as far as main courses go. Snacks and desserts I can do, but actual meals are best left to the master! I asked him if he could come up with something to go along with Strega Nona, and, since he had already made spaghetti and meatballs for us the week before, he chose this:

Linguine with a creamy chicken and herb sauce and oh my, was it delicious! I am so lucky to be married to a man who loves to cook!!!

"N" was for Nana as we read Nana Upstairs & Nana Downstairs, and also had a chance to visit my own Nana, who got to finally meet Austin for the first time!

"N" was for New Mexico, adding two more pages to our state-by- state scrapbook:

We also enjoyed reading Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile, What Makes Day and Night?, and learning about Nutrition in Health and Manners. We had also hoped to go on a nice Nature walk near our house, but another snowfall made it too cold and wet for that. Our New Mexico skies and mountains were looking particularly lovely, though! :)

Three Stooges

2010-01-30T09:59:00.002-07:00

Just a small example of why even a simple trip across town is far from boring! :)

Big Baby, Little Baby (And Their Very Tired Mama)

2010-01-28T12:23:00.001-07:00

If I had Super Powers...

2010-01-27T09:10:00.005-07:00

1426 square feet.

3 bedrooms.

1 living area.

Dining room/School room/Kitchen.

Seven family members.

This morning, while yet again shifting things from room to room, it finally occurred to me what trying to comfortably fit all of us into this house reminded me of:

AAARRRGGGHHH!!! I've always hated those stupid puzzles! I always wished that just one more square would magically appear so I could more neatly arrange my tiles. Of course that's impossible, just as it's not likely that one more room will suddenly magically appear in this house! Too bad I'm not Wonder Woman. Looks like she could take on anything, even the challenge of organizing this house. :)

Updated to add: This post was only written in jest; I hope I didn't sound at all ungrateful for the house I have. I am so blessed. Thank you, God, for my happy home!

Words to live by

2010-01-26T07:50:00.005-07:00

From Parenting with Grace: Catholic Parent's Guide to Raising Almost Perfect Kids, by Gregory and Lisa Popcak:

"Most of us can think of someone in our lives who has most closely mirrored Christ to us. A person whose wise counsel we have followed, and whose wisdom we respected. A person who generously gave of himself or herself, whom we would willingly follow to the ends of the earth. That is the kind of person our children need us to be to them."

Learning along the Alphabet Path: "M" week

2010-01-25T15:09:00.000-07:00

I don't remember when or where it was, but I read once that a certain blogger never blogged if there were dirty dishes in her kitchen sink. I liked that rule, and I've been trying to follow it, too...which explains why I haven't been posting much lately! :)

Anyway, here's a quick look at a few fun highlights from "M" week! "M" was for Mallow, Mozzarella, Michael, Martin, and More!

Coloring pages (still waiting for our flower fairy book to be delivered!):

Monkey Bread:

Inspired by this book:

...we had this for dinner! (Made with love by my dear, darling Darren!)

Memories

One day last week Caitlyn really wanted to look through all of our old photo albums to see pictures of herself and each of her siblings as a newborn. It was so fun (though a little bittersweet) to take a little stroll down Memory Lane! In the photo above, we were looking at pictures of me pregnant with Dylan. Look at that belly, LOL! (Ohhh, and if you look really closely at that middle picture of me you can see the holding chair in the corner of the living room in our first apartment!)

Other "M" topics (our actual school work) included Mealtime Manners, Money, Migration, Motion, Mountains and Meadows, and Maps. References included:

Proper Manners and Health Habits
Money
They Swim the Seas
Where Do They Go?
Energy, Forces, and Motion
How People Move Things
Mountains
Meadow
Maps and Mapping

I also really, really enjoy searching our bookshelves for topic relevant picture books, or titles that correspond to our letter of the week! Some of the books we chose for "M" week were:

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Izak the Yak
Ming Lo Moves the Mountain
When I was young in the Mountains
Mountain Meadow 123
Town Mouse, Country Mouse
One Morning in Maine
Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel

Also can't forget all the Maze and Magic Eye books we had fun with! "M" week was a good week, I'm having a little more trouble with "N" week! Today went well, though, hopefully the rest of the week will, too. :)

Learning along the Alphabet Path: Week "L"

2010-01-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

While I had every intention of posting each week's learning highlights, I've done a terrible job of actually doing so! I think the last letter I posted about was "H", and we also finished "I", "J", and "K" before Christmas. Rather than trying to backtrack, though, I'll just start with the weeks we've finished since starting school again.

Last week was "L" week. It was so nice having Darren home for our first week back to school! "L" was for St. Lucy, Lovely Lilac, Lavender, and Lily-of-the-valley. Copywork included our letter L practice handwriting pages and a little verse from Aesop's Fables (The Lion and the Mouse). History lessons targeted Abraham Lincoln and Leonardo da Vinci. (I think this graphic novel was Dylan's favorite book that week!) Here are some of the other books we enjoyed; sorry, I'm too lazy to link them all right now. ;)

Science topics included Leaves, Lions, Ladybugs, and Light. I took this picture of the table beside our couch one day that week because it was just looked so lovely:

We had many fun read alouds that week, including The Little Red Lighthouse, Ladybug Girl, Dandelion, and Honey...Honey...Lion ! We just love Jan Brett, and from her website I printed some lion coloring pages that go along with Honey...Honey...Lion! Simple, but the kids enjoyed them!

We also enjoyed playing and experimenting with light! We read The Magic School Bus Gets a Bright Idea and then completed the little experiment from their website.

Taking advantage of brief periods of sunlight, we also took the children out into the backyard to demonstrate the neat little trick of magnifying sunlight. They thought that was so cool!

(I love that last picture of Dylan! It is such a perfect snapshot of my quickly growing boy: shaggy hair, bubble gum bubble, intent focus on the leaf he'd just burned...and look, you can even see in the top left corner the sad remains of the snowman we made weeks ago!)

Of course we also had to have a tea time treat; this week, from our Alpha-Bakery cookbook, was Lemon Squares! Yum! Next time I'll be sure to double the recipe. :)

Coming up next: Week "M", which we just finished! I thought I'd post it this morning, too, but I'm out of time. Maybe this afternoon! Hope you're all enjoying your Saturday!

It's all about the little things

2010-01-22T17:34:00.008-07:00

This was a happy day. Now granted, it's not over yet, but I'm pretty sure that it will remain a happy day. And, without revealing too much about my true character, let me just say that it is very uncommon for me to have an entire, all day, happy day. So this feels huge! I really think that having a good morning helped set the stage for the whole rest of the day; I can't stress enough what a difference that makes for me, to wake up with the right start! On this particular happy day, I was nursing Austin in the rocking chair in the dim quiet of the living room when Darren, without being asked, brought me my first cup of coffee. Such a simple gesture of love can speak volumes!

I was going to make another banana bread this morning, too, but since none of the bananas at the grocery store were ripe last night, Darren bought me blueberries, instead. I found this recipe for lemon blueberry bread and oh, my goodness. This was quite possibly the best bread I've ever tasted, and certainly the best I've ever made! It was devoured immediately, so I never did get a chance to photograph it's loveliness, but this image (which accompanies the recipe) is a perfect illustration of the moist, tangy, delicious goodness we enjoyed this morning. I managed to save a cup of blueberries from the remaining cartons (the rest of which were enthusiastically consumed by my children at lunch) and I can pretty much guarantee that we'll be having this again for tomorrow's breakfast. :)

I am loving the weather here right now. It's been so cold and windy the past couple days, and it rained off and on all day today. We had hoped for some more snow, but it looks now like that might not happen for a while. Last night, at Dylan's request, we got out a bunch of old home videos and watched a couple before bed. This morning, the kids and I enjoyed watching some more, staying in our pajamas until nearly noon in our warm, cozy home while the wind howled outside. What a perfectly lovely morning!

My lunch today was so awesome that I just had to take a picture:

You'd be correct if you're thinking that it looks like nothing more than a big bowl of cauliflower. But if you're also thinking that it seems pretty boring...well, then that's where you're wrong! Darren made a big pot of this cauliflower as a side with our pork dinner last night, and it was amazing. It was prepared with bacon and this really incredible cream sauce, and I knew then that it's what I'd be having for lunch today. Oh, SO good!

I thought I might get started on organizing Dylan's closet this afternoon, but I just never did get around to it. (Although I did manage to wash, blow dry, and straighten my hair!) And it was so much fun helping Dylan make a mini figure of himself! :)

I don't have many plans for the weekend, but I am so glad it is Friday! I survived my first week of Darren being back at work! I think I'm getting the hang of it, but it sure is much nicer when there's another grown-up around. Oh, and speaking of that! We've asked my mom and step-dad to be honorary godparents at Austin's baptism, but sadly, he will be unable to come out here again so soon after their Christmas visit. He e-mailed me my mom's itinerary this morning, though, and she will be coming out to stay with us for a month! She'll arrive February 10th and return on March 9th. We are SO excited!

Of course I couldn't leave this post without a picture of Austin! And, I hate to end so abruptly, but this post has already been interrupted so many times that I'm finally going to have to just hit "publish". :) I hope to post again soon!

Joining the fun!

2010-01-22T16:35:00.005-07:00

A special birthday boy's Mama playfully shared these delightful LEGO mini figure templates on her blog this morning and I, being the Mama of another LEGO lover myself, just had to join the fun! Happy birthday, Professor, from one LEGO lover to another! :)

My new normal

2010-01-21T08:05:00.003-07:00

I have all these blog posts in progress that I'll probably never finish, I'm shamefully behind in e-mail correspondence, there's a stack of extra Christmas cards and birth announcements on my desk that, embarrassingly, I forgot to ever send, lesson plans are seriously lacking (although our Flower Fairy coloring book should--hopefully!--be here any day now), and my body has completely forgotten how to remain awake at 5:30 a.m. I haven't washed my hair since Monday. (Okay, about that: before Austin was born, I was hot ALL the time. Now I can't seem to get warm. Usually, after my shower, I'd just scrunch a dab of gel through my hair and let my curls dry naturally. Now I freeze just thinking about having wet hair all morning. So, while Darren was at a doctor appointment with Austin on Monday afternoon, I took the opportunity to blow dry and straighten my hair and wow, what a difference! And it feels so good to not have that unruly mass of hair to fight throughout the day; now it's smooth and easily combed and I hadn't actually used a shower cap since I was like, what, nine or ten years old? But by some miracle I found an unopened one--provided by some hotel, I think--under our bathroom sink along with all the other miniature toiletries that I just love to collect. What a lifesaver! Or time and sanity saver, anyway. And don't think I won't be using it again! Heck, maybe I won't wash my hair again until Saturday, when Darren's home again to watch the kids while I tame my hair into submission for an hour in the bathroom. That should work, right? Provided no one gets close enough to really see or smell me until then. ;) Although, since I never actually go anywhere anymore, that shouldn't be a problem.)

Okay, I'm out of time now. The banana bread came out of the oven ten minutes ago and I can't hold these hungry kids off much longer. I didn't touch on half the things I wanted to say here, but that's the story of my life lately: Girl, Interrupted. ;) (Wait, wait...to clarify, I'm not saying my life is actually anything even remotely close to the movie, I'm just saying that I'm constantly, you know...interrupted. Which is okay! Life with five kids!)

I'm sure the grammar in this post is all wrong but I'm not proofreading, and I'm sure I said "okay" a few too many times, but I'm sure that can be overlooked, too, right? Thanks. I miss you, friends. I hope to post more soon!

One Month!

2010-01-19T16:02:00.004-07:00

Beautiful Baby Boy

2010-01-15T11:04:00.000-07:00

Austin is home!!!

2010-01-09T10:30:00.004-07:00

The Birth Story

2010-01-05T08:44:00.001-07:00

There's a chile cheese dog from our favorite place nestled neatly into it's styrofoam take-out container in the back of my fridge. Never mind the fact that it's been sitting there for over two weeks now, I just don't have the heart to throw it out! Because I'm weird like that, you see. It's become, to me, "the hot dog from that fateful Friday". The Friday that started out as normal as any other, with a routine check-up with my midwife that morning, at which we both rejoiced that, as of that very day, I'd made it to 33 weeks. It was farther than I'd gone with Kristen, and we were happy! We joked that perhaps it wasn't the 17P injections that were keeping him put, but the fact that he was a boy! My girls had come sequentially earlier and earlier, and we were really hoping to keep this little bun in the oven for a while longer than his sisters. ;)

It was around noon when I finally left the office, and I called my friend to let her know I was headed to the hospital. We had planned to meet there to work on our annual education modules, but wanted to stop first in the cafeteria because it was enchilada day and we both LOVE the enchiladas from the hospital cafeteria! Seriously! I had two each of red and green, plus beans and rice, and a Choco-Taco. :) I was so full by the time we headed over to the computer lab, and after three hours of tests, I was more than ready to head home! I wasn't really feeling well by the time I got home, but thought for sure it was the huge (and hot!) lunch I'd consumed followed by three hours of inactivity. For days--weeks, actually--I'd been bothered by the discomforts of late pregnancy, anyway, and thought that at least some of the pain was simply more of the same. I rested on the living room couch while Darren made a quick run just up the street for those infamous hot dogs, but by the time he got home, I just really didn't feel like eating. I was worried I'd hurt his feelings, but he assured me that he didn't mind me skipping dinner. I never do that, though! I should have known something was wrong.

I rested for the remainder of that evening, watching movies with my little family, trying with little success to find a comfortable position in which to lay. My lower back and abdomen just hurt, and while I wasn't entirely convinced it was contractions (this was more of a constant, burning pain), I thought I'd try a warm bath to see if that might bring relief. Oh, my goodness, it felt like I'd died and gone to heaven as I eased my heavy body into that warm water. I never wanted to get out! Darren came in and kept me company at the side of the tub as I poured pitcher after pitcher of cascading water over the island that was my belly. Finally he helped me out because I'd used up all the hot water, and I was surprised to find that, once out of the tub, I still felt bad. Thankfully, I'd had the good sense to throw a few things into an overnight bag just in case, because when I went to the bathroom a while later there was bright red blood. That's the point at which I always freak out; it happened with both Meghan and Kristen, too, when I wasn't expecting labor. Bleeding gets me out the door and to the hospital, quickly! We started making some calls, but on a Friday night, it was frustratingly difficult to get in touch with anybody to come watch the kids. My brother called right after we'd left a voice mail, though, and was able to come right over. (He and my dad, who are both teachers, had just begun their winter break and were able to take turns watching the kids over the rest of the weekend. Thank God!)

I was actually joking with my friends at work when I got up to the floor, and, had it not been for the bleeding, would have felt a little silly being there. Sure enough, though, as soon as they got me hooked up to the monitors, it was clear to see these were definitely contractions! And they were starting to actually feel like contractions, too. By the time my nurse finished my admission assessment, I could tell when one was coming and when it was fading, very different from the constant pain I'd been feeling at home. I received two doses of terbutaline to try and stop the contractions, but they didn't really do anything. Next came an IV drip of magnesium sulfate, which made me feel awful! But I loved that so many of my co-workers came in to visit and wish me well. One sweet nurse even brought in her own laptop and a DVD for us to watch..."The Proposal", the appropriateness of which just made me and Darren laugh, because after midnight it was technically our anniversary! And the movie was really funny, a nice distraction from all that was going on.

I think I slept from about three to four o'clock in the morning, but dozed only intermittently after that. Darren left around six so he could be home when the kids woke up, since we were sure Kristen would freak out if one of us wasn't there; his plan was to get the kids dressed, fed, and settled before heading back up to the hospital, a process which was greatly expedited when it was determined, meanwhile, that since my labor never really stopped, I would be transferred to a hospital an hour away! I was a wreck while I waited for him to come back. All I could think about were my kids, and how desperately I didn't want to be away from them! Nor did I want to leave the familiar comforts of my hospital and friends! I didn't want to be cared for by anyone other than the nurses and midwives who are like family! I was so glad to see him come through that door. Of course, then I just wanted to cry. His strength does that to me.

It was a hot and bumpy hour to the hospital in the back of an ambulance. I was strangely calm, though, and remember thinking, "Won't the kids think it's so cool that their mom got to ride in an ambulance!" Darren arrived there shortly after we did, and I was soon surrounded by a number of impersonal personnel. I missed my friends. I missed my home. Thank God I had my Darren.

We settled in for the duration, not really knowing how long it would be or even, really, what to expect. Thus far, nothing had progressed like my previous labors and I was tired, frustrated, and more than a little emotional. I was still feeling horrible from the magnesium sulfate, with chest pain and a monster headache. The doctor to whom my care had been transferred came in shortly and decided that since I had already progressed to 5cm, there really wasn't much point of continuing to attempt to stop labor; it was better now to go ahead and deliver baby before the opportunity for infection became a greater risk. So, the magnesium sulfate was discontinued, Tylenol was dispensed for my headache, and while I did, in that regard, begin to feel somewhat better, my contractions never did come closer than about five to nine minutes apart. For that reason, it was decided to begin a different IV drip--pitocin, which, instead of stopping my contractions as we had previously been trying, would actually bring them stronger and closer together! This I endured for much of the day, laboring in bed with Darren at my side, never even considering the possibility of mobility or other pain relief measures. It was awful, so much different from "my" hospital, where walking, showers, tubs, birthing balls, and other natural means are encouraged for comfort and progress. Here, I rarely saw a nurse unless I called for one, and her usual response as she was walking out the door was, "Well, if you decide you want an epidural, just let me know." Argh! (I had very plainly stated upon admission that I would likely not want an epidural. Darren and I were under the very distinct impression, however, that this is how laboring patients are "managed" at this particular hospital. Very frustrating!)

As the day wore on, I never really progressed past six centimeters. Eventually, it all became just too much for me to bear. I had been laboring with little rest for nearly twenty four hours by that point. I was exhausted and in so much pain. Emotionally, given the circumstances, I was a wreck. And so, although it pained me greatly to surrender, I did ultimately decide to go ahead with the epidural. My hope was that it would relax my body enough to go those last few centimeters, and that's exactly what happened. About a half hour or so after the epidural, I felt an incredible amount of pressure and asked Darren to please find my nurse. I was complete when she checked me, and the room was quickly set up for delivery, but the doctor was not there! I have no idea how far away he was when they called him, but it seemed like an eternity waiting for him to arrive while trying not to push. Finally, he was there. I had never been so happy to see anybody in my life! And after a couple of strong pushes, Austin was born! He was perfect! He was born "in the caul", or with the water bag still intact, which we thought was pretty amazing! (And with a little research, I've just learned that this is supposed to be sign of good luck for baby! Interesting!) We also discovered that I'd had a 10-15% placental abruption, which explained all the bleeding I'd experienced throughout labor, and made us all the more glad that Austin had been safely delivered. I hate to even think what the outcome might have been had my pregnancy been successfully prolonged!

Darren remained with Austin, who was quickly whisked away to the NICU, and we were so happy with how well our baby boy adapted to life outside the womb! We were especially impressed that, despite having been born seven weeks early, he weighed a whopping five pounds, eight ounces! (Kristen was born eight weeks early, and weighed only four pounds, one ounce.)

I was discharged the next morning, beginning a painful long separation from my precious boy, and I've been traveling back and forth nearly every day since. (There have been a couple of times when Darren has traveled alone.) And I've just got to say that, for a girl who has never been particularly fond of highway driving, night driving, or big city driving, I've become quite adept at all three! I'll be SO happy, though, to finally have him home! He's really doing very well, and the only factor prolonging his discharge at this point is how well he tolerates his feedings. He's been a little slow and sloppy with the bottle, but is improving greatly, and is a little champ at the breast! So hopefully, it won't be much longer until we are able to bring him home. His brother and sisters are so eager to meet him!

Who's teaching whom?

2010-01-04T11:36:00.002-07:00

I was perusing the books on our shelves this morning in preparation for "L" week, which we'll begin next Monday. I was having a hard time deciding what exactly we should study, having already selected Light, Lions, Abraham Lincoln, and Leonardo da Vinci. I paused at our selection of volcano books, thinking that perhaps Lava could be included with L, but decided instead to wait until we got to letter "V". (Our topics that week, I'm sure, will be much more limited.)

A short while later, I settled myself into the comfy rocking recliner in my bedroom for a quick session with my breast pump and watched as, ironically, Dylan typed out a new magazine (Bananature: The Earth: Our Amazing Planet!) with lightning speed. This particular section just made me smile!

Quick update

2010-01-03T20:04:00.003-07:00

Darren keeps asking me when I'm going to update my blog, but honestly, I still feel too overwhelmed with everything that's been happening in the past two weeks to write a coherent post. To say I'm exhausted would be an understatement. But thankfully, little Austin is doing well and we are hoping to have him home sometime this week (although I almost hate to get my hopes up). Sorry I don't have more to say at the moment, but here are just a few pictures I absolutely love. They were taken on New Year's Eve, after he pulled out his feeding tube while I was changing his diaper. (It was later replaced.) Had to get a few photos of that perfect little face while I had the opportunity! :)

Meghan's Birthday

2009-12-22T06:50:00.000-07:00

Meghan's birthday was last Thursday and I feel so bad that I never did get a chance to post pictures of her big day! I still can't believe she's already four; when did that happen?! She is so cute...when I asked her what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday she told me she wanted a "big huge cupcake with a cherry on top!" Happily, I had just seen the perfect cake pan set at Walgreens a few days before! It was so easy to use, too. We made a Boston cream cake and it was delicious! She even got her cherry on top! :)

Introducing...

2009-12-20T20:57:00.002-07:00

Austin James
Born December 19, 2009 (On his Mommy and Daddy's anniversary!)
5 pounds 8 ounces, 16 inches

Despite his unexpectedly early arrival, Austin is doing well and we are just thrilled to finally welcome our precious new son! My labor with him was nothing at all like any of my others, being particularly long and traumatic, but I marvel at the way God perfectly orchestrated the events surrounding his birth. Praise be to Him! What a perfect Christmas blessing!

Our New Son!!!!

2009-12-19T22:57:00.002-07:00

Our new little son - Austin James - was born this evening at 6:08, and is our first little Texan, weighing in at 5 pounds, 8 ounces! Liss went into labor yesterday afternoon at 33 weeks and was shipped to a hospital in El Paso since she was pretty stable. Both her and the baby are doing great and she should be home (with pictures!) tomorrow night. We do not yet know how long Austin will have to stay in El Paso - about an hour away - but would appreciate all of your prayers.

Darren