Well, Hello There!
Only 43 more hours, until my husband is home again… Not that I’m counting or anything! 😉
I had such great plans for this week, to celebrate the feast of St. Agnes, have a Tea for Our Lady of Altagracia, finally move on to D week, catch up the laundry, organize the school room and do a little planning for the second half of our school year which begins next week, and finish up some blog post drafts, but that was not to be…
It has been a rough week around here!
Monday I had an appointment with the allergist to try and figure out what it was that made my throat swell right before Christmas (I’ve had other facial swelling before, but never my throat) and then again shortly after. I opened the paperwork just before leaving and realized that the appointment could last from 1-3 hours depending on the testing and results. They weren’t kidding and I was very thankful I took Twinkle Toes along to help with Bud.
I had suspected an allergy to our outdoor cat, who loves to sneak in the house to
After the doctors appointment we went to get something to eat and to run a few errands. I somehow managed to bend a prong on my wedding ring so I dropped that off at the jewelers to be repaired, spent my Gymbucks at Gymboree, and picked up some groceries at Trader Joes. We then headed to Costco to stock up on more groceries since it had been weeks since a trip to town. What a job, but the kids were thrilled to finally have some more food in the house.
I was hoping that Tuesday would be a calm day, but no such luck. We woke up to trash all over the yard (thank you raccoons) and no water (thank you freezing cold weather). Of course the first priority was to make some coffee so I headed out to the well house to see if I could thaw the pipes with my hair dryer. Hours later I gave up and melted some ice from the freezer. Anything for a cup of coffee!
In the meantime, as we continued to try and troubleshoot the lack of water, despite it warming up outside, my Dad (an electrician) walked me through taking apart the control box so I could text him a picture.
He wasn’t happy with the results – I guess those copper heads shouldn’t have been touching and something had tripped the breaker – so he headed up and brought along some water with him! Yay!
After reseting the breaker and testing the electrical wires the pumps still wouldn’t run and we also found out the holding tank was empty – which means the pump was most likely not working for quite some time, especially considering I hadn’t been using much water on Sunday or Monday. It was then time to call the pump guys!
Around 3:30 they arrived, along with my sister to take the girls to their Irish Dance Class, since I needed to stay home. They finally discovered that the pipes coming up from the deep well were the ones that had frozen, and once they got the ice thawed and opened up the restrictor we finally had water running back into the holding tank. It also ended up being a very good thing that the breaker had tripped, preventing the deep well pump from burning out. That would have ended up being much more expensive… Anyways, by 5:30 we finally had running water in the house! Hooray!!
Today wasn’t as challenging and I finally have had some time to start cleaning house from the past couple days, get ready for the tutor tomorrow, and clean out the detached garage in the rain. Yep… the garage was definitely not on the list for today!
Of course, after weeks of cold but dry weather, it finally started to rain this afternoon right when I had the glass company scheduled to replace the cracked windshield on Sean’s car. Thankfully, with the boys help, we made enough room to fit most of the car inside and the windshield is fixed!
Sigh... I think I need a nap. And a Zyrtec! 😉
{pretty, happy, funny, real} :: 35th Birthday Edition
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| Instagram Photo taken by my sister Julianna |
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| Me and My Seven Sweeties |
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| David, My Dad, My Niece, and My Kiddos |
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| Way too many candles… |
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| So tired, but very happy and very blessed! |
My sister, sister-in-law, and Twinkle Toes took more pictures, but the rest just make me want to go climb back on the treadmill! Yikes! Instead I am going to show you a picture from my 1st birthday. (You can see more childhood birthday memories here.)
I showed this picture to the kids the other night and they all thought that Bud looks just like me as a baby, if you ignore the dress and the bow! What do you think?
Announcing the Winner…
Since Rascal volunteered to help me fold all the entries I asked him if he would like to choose the winner. After reading so many of your comments and realizing that the 2013 Saints Calendar & Daily Planner is out of stock everywhere I was really wishing I had more than one to give away… Next fall I will try and remember to post a reminder when the new 2014 Saints Calendar comes out in September, and maybe even host another giveaway.
Made with Love :: A Birthday Cake for Mom!
Last night my girls had so much fun shopping for a few supplies to decorate a cake for me this year, after I wasn’t able to find a cake pan I was looking for at three different local stores… (More on that later!) This morning the big boys borrowed my camera and the girls kicked me out of the kitchen! Everyone helped while Bud napped and I had some quiet computer time with my cup of coffee. I just had to hop back online to share a few of the pictures I found on my camera, along with the completed cake and a picture of seven of my greatest blessings!
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| I’m very curious to find out what is inside the gift Sean left with the boys… They are making me wait until I have blown out my candles to open it! |
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| Pink Roses from Chiquita |
A beautiful bouquet of flowers just arrived from Sean (I miss him so much!), we are headed to town for a few treats, and my Aunt Bridget is coming over in a couple hours to make dinner for us all! I’ve closed the comments on the giveaway and will draw a name tonight or tomorrow morning, after I have had a chance to finish printing and cutting all the entries! 🙂
A Few Changes and A Saints Calendar Giveaway!
Christmas Day in the Morning
I am so thankful for my husband! I always realize just how much during times like right now, when he is gone for weeks and I have to try and keep up manage without him. He really helps so much around our home. I was so exhausted, and not feeling very well, following Midnight Mass on Christmas that he told me to just rest while he took care of filling all the stockings, setting up the rest of the nativities, laying baby Jesus in the manger, and placing the children’s gifts under the tree. We hadn’t gotten home until around 2am and he didn’t get to bed until nearly 5am, which was when I woke back up nurse the baby and then snap a few pictures.
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| Holy Family Stockings for the Boys and Angels for the Girls |
I’m still working on a system for storing the boy’s legos, and am hoping to hang a few more wall shelves in their bedroom soon. Usually the top of their dresser is covered with their creations and others are displayed on their bookcase. The rest are in boxes in the closet. I love Charlotte’s Lego Trays, but my boys have under bed drawers, otherwise I would have made some by now!
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| Bud enjoying the gifts from his godparents! |
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| Opening gifts from Grandpa and Grandma |
After the children had opened their gifts I put my camera down and didn’t pick it up again all day. We enjoyed the day together as a family and, after dinner, we drove out to my parents to deliver gifts and see more of my visiting siblings. It was such a beautiful blessed day, and just the beginning of our celebrations for the Twelve Days of Christmas and the whole Christmas season!
Our Christmas Day Christkindl Family Gift Exchange
We loved incorporating the Christkindl tradition into our own family traditions this year! On the first Sunday of Advent we all drew names, and though out Advent we prayed and did special favors for that particular person. We did our best to keep who had who a secret and we actually did really well!
We wanted to end with a Christkindl gift exchange, so that was a little challenging, since some of the children needed my help to get the gifts for their Christkindl. We gave them each an allowance to do so, but my hope is, as they get older, they will make gifts for each other… it just wasn’t practical this year, especially with our Advent birthdays.
I already knew that the Snuggles and Rose had each other, and had been helping them throughout Advent, and then I helped Rascal, Twinkle Toes and Chiquita with their gifts as well, but not until a couple days before Christmas. However, I still didn’t know who had me, that narrowed it down to Sean and Captain, and I really thought it was Sean! (Though he did have me confused since I noticed him doing things for others throughout Advent too – Feeding the Cat for Rascal some mornings before work, beating me to putting the dishes away in the middle of the night so that Captain would find an empty dishwasher in the morning, bringing me home a coffee… I really wasn’t sure who he had, though I did know it wasn’t Captain!) It was a nice surprise to find out that Captain and I had each other!!
Anyways, Chiquita started our gift exchange, carrying her gift (a box she choose to fill with little packages of lego mini-figures) over to Rascal. Rascal then gave his gift (a set of Rebecca books) to Twinkle Toes.
Twinkle Toes had her Daddy! She was so cute and reminded him of a few nights before Christmas when we were praying the rosary… Sean sometimes asks the kids if they have a specific intention they would like to pray for. That particular night he asked Twinkle Toes and she responded, “My Christkindl!” Sean went on to expand on that intention, praying specifically for certain things for that person (grow in virtues, etc) and he had no idea he was asking for those things for himself! Very sweet!! And he loved the Latin Mass Missal Cover I helped her order for him, along with a Hershey’s candy bar.
Sean went on to give Chiquita her gift (a set of Kaya books). (There was the surprise! I really did think he had me, ever since that hug!) At that point we just had Snuggles, Rose, Captain and I! I gave Captain Big Ben to build and he surprised me with a gift card to my favorite coffee shop and a hand-drawn picture to line the gift box! Snuggles and Rose exchanged gifts next… then it was time for more coffee breakfast, before the kids began opening the rest of their Christmas gifts. Gift opening aways takes quite awhile in our home! 🙂
Christmas Eve in Pictures
At the Tree Farm
My Daybook :: January 10, 2013
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| Our 2012 Christ Candle on Christmas Day |
Outside my window…
the ground is covered with snow and my awesome little brother was outside early this morning, changing the master bedroom outlet breaker for me – the one that would trip nearly every time I turned on the treadmill for the past year, requiring a trip outside usually in the dark. I’m so excited that it is fixed!
I am thinking…
about how much I miss having Sean home. Why does it always get so crazy around here when he is gone? Thankfully we are nearly through the first week, of three… Is it really Thursday already?
I am thankful…
that I didn’t need stitches last night, after cutting my thumb. Ouch! I need to slow down a little bit… I knocked over that pretty soap bottle while washing the dishes and stuck my thumb right into a sharp piece of glass when putting more of the broken pieces into the trash can. I didn’t need stitches, just a Steri-Strip and a Tetanus shot late last night. Now I just need to keep it clean and dry for the next four days…
Learning all the time…
This week didn’t get off to a very good start, but that’s always the case after a break, right? We have gotten through the essentials, but I am really hoping we can get back to The Alphabet Path (letter D), Science (I’ve been nervous ever since the Tooth incident), and finishing up our Civil War Unit Study these next couple weeks. Thankfully everyone is right on schedule with Math, Language Arts, and Latin.
Celebrating the liturgical year…
I spent some time pulling out some of our saint books for January and updating the sidebar. I’m hoping to get back to organizing all of our books and categorizing them sometime soon. (I started last fall and never finished.) Other than another Tea on the Feast of Our Lady of Altagracia and incorporating something in honor of St. Agnes, I don’t have many plans for the rest of the month.
From the kitchen…
Thirteen different flavors of jam! I had been collecting them for awhile with the intention of making an Epiphany Tart. After spending so much time in the kitchen on Saturday, preparing our Twelve Days of Christmas Dinner Party, followed by an early morning driving Sean to the airport, I was just too tired. At least we are stocked up on jam for awhile! And maybe we will still make it eventually… We’ll see.
I am working on…
potty-training Rose. It’s (past) time! Monday I woke up to a couple sick children and after uncountable dirty-diapers (Bud) I gave Rose a bath and decided not to put another diaper on her. Unlike in the past, I thought she was finally ready! We haven’t had any daytime accidents, and just one accident last night (which is probably because I wasn’t home to put her to bed). She is doing great!
I am creating…
a new budget. I knew the Dental Insurance we signed up for was going to start coming out of my husband’s paychecks this month, but I wasn’t prepared for just how much (tax increase too?) his paycheck dropped… I usually preschedule bill payments and I ended up having to raid all the kids piggy banks and make a late night trip to the ATM on payday this week. Thankfully it all worked out, and I didn’t bounce anything, but it was way too close. Whew!
I am going…
to try and continue catching up on emails! I finally have it down to “only 100” emails sitting in my inbox from the last year waiting for a response… That’s progress! 😉
I am hoping…
that the scale starts going down a little bit. I’ve been walking/jogging every day this year and it still hasn’t budged… I keep telling myself that I am gaining muscle and the scale will start coming down eventually. Still, it has been discouraging.
I am praying…
that next week isn’t nearly as “eventful” as this week has been!
I am reading…
excellent posts on discipline over at Like Mother, Like Daughter. I’m often asked “How do you do it all?” It is a difficult question for me to answer (My first thought is “I just do… and I don’t get to everything that I’d like to!”), but I think it all comes down to well behaved and obedient children, in addition to thinking and planning ahead. We have required and trained our children to be obedient since they were babies. They are still children and get into arguments with each other and have to be reminded to do their chores frequently, and it is always a work in progress, but they are great kids. A couple Sundays ago I had to take the baby out of Mass and Hubby had to also leave for a few minutes – the remaining six children sat in the pew and paid attention to Mass. The usher came up to me in the back and said “My kids would never have done what your kids are in there doing, if my wife and I had left them there by themselves! I’ve never seen anything like it.” I was a very proud momma at that moment! 🙂
Here is a great post to start: Six-to-eleven year olds need less patience from you. Then maybe move on to The Reasonably Clean Kitchen starts with rules for the kids.
Pondering these words…
from Auntie Leila’s post on Destruction-proofing your family:
I am listening…
We are still listening to The Lord of the Rings, and we are now on the second part of The Two Towers.
On Sunday afternoon Rascal started building his new Helm’s Deep lego set. He had it finished by dinnertime!
It’s been fun to see all their new creations, incorporating some of their old sets as well.
Around the house…
there are still signs of the Christmas season, even though we took down our tree this last weekend. We will leave our Nativity out until Candlemas.
The short little phone calls from my husband, even though he hasn’t been able to talk for more than 10 minutes each day. They keep him BUSY on these trainings!
Survive! 😉
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