Category - Family Life

Feeling Better

I appear to be on the mend. Nobody likes being sick of course, but what I really hate is how some illnesses just linger on. If I’m going to be sick, then fine, I’ll be sick. But when I’m feeling better I want to be better. None of this various symptoms hanging on thing. Today I think I’m actually fine.

Some of the fall-out of mom being sick is that the house falls apart. It not only doesn’t get any neater or cleaner, it actually seems to get worse. So now I’ve got that to contend with, too.

On the good news, we have managed to keep up with school. I don’t get crazed about trying to keep to the schedule I’ve planned, but I try to avoid taking too many days off. We all end up too cranky and it’s frustrating to have to remind the children what we were talking about. “Last time we had school we were talking about the Roman Republic. Do you remember what a republic is?… They don’t have a king…their rulers are…elected…by…the people… Beuler? Beuler?”

Though Pumpkin Girl did manage to work the phrase “crossed the Rubicon” into her conversation the other day. I shouldn’t complain.

So life is getting back to normal, slowly. Our Christmas decorations are coming down and the house is getting back to it’s sanitary, if still cluttered state.

It’s good to be back.

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Confusion

I think the boys are fighting again.

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The calendar says January and the temperature is 68 degrees and climbing.   Fine if you live on the California Coast, but disconcerting to say the least if you’re on the East Coast.  I want the cold weather back, please.  I’ve got some cheesy potato soup and a crunchy french bread waiting in the wings.  My children are starting to overheat in their long sleeves.  I’m pretty sure that if I didn’t have 2 sets of brand new Land’s End snow pants in the closet that we’d be having a blizzard.  Sigh.

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Ephiphany Play

I hab a code in by nose.

When I was younger, I could handle colds just fine.  They barely slowed me down.  Now they make me so tired.  Like lay down and sleep all day tired.  Or at least sit in bed and look at yarn catalogs while my children bring me lunch.  Which is what happened today.

Anyway, what I really wanted to share was pictures of our homeschool group’s Epiphany play.  The children wrote it themselves and they acted it out after mass on Saturday.  Then we had a pizza party, complete with a Kings Cake.

Here’s the caravan/chorus:

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While not “on stage” the children stayed together off to the side.  They sang Christmas songs in between scenes.

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The Magi study maps and scrolls to figure out what the star is all about.
Our group has only 3 school age boys, so girls played the Three Kings.  That’s Pumpkin Girl as Caspar in the middle.  She had some major issues with having to play a “boy’s” role at first.  But later, when she learned that she was one of the stars of the show and had a lot of lines, she embraced the role.  We were really proud of her, she learned all her lines by herself and really tried to act them, not just say them.

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King Herod and the High King discuss the prophecy of the Messiah.

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The Star of Bethlehem points the way to the Holy Family.  Boo is Joseph and Bip is toddler Jesus.  Because of course, Jesus was no longer a baby when the Magi found him.

These pictures are actually from the dress rehearsal, when I was able to move around and get close to the actors.  During the play, the greenery in the background was lit up with white lights and Bip refused to play Jesus. “Me no want to!” complete with crossed arms and pouty face! We brought a backup baby, our family doll Pumpkin, who at the age of 37 is quite the veteran of many a church Christmas play and didn’t act up a bit.

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Pondering the New Year

Wow, I haven’t blogged all year!

Mostly because Philip’s been home and he’s been giving me the look.  Ladies, you know which one I mean.  He spies me from across the room, one eyebrow raises, then his eyes narrow.  Yep, the look that says, “Are you on the computer again?”  So I’ve been laying low the last couple of days.  But he’s back to work now and blogging can continue as normal.

I love the start of the New Year.  A fresh calendar on the wall is just teeming with the possibilities of the year to come.  Even if you don’t make resolutions, it’s a chance to change things and make a new start.

We’ve got a lot of changes ahead of us this year.  At least we think so.  You know what they say about making plans and God.  I don’t think he laughs at our plans so much as he smiles indulgently and says, “We’ll see.”  Like a parent to a child asking for a new toy or a piece of candy.  So we’ll see what really happens to our planned changes.

In the meantime, it’s time to get over the Flood of ’06 already.  Yes, it was awful.  Yes, leaving for vacation and never returning to your old house is difficult.  Yes, nothing un-motivates faster than your best laid plans going wrong.  But it’s been a year and I’m tired of using it as an excuse.

Like so many others, I’m Decluttering this year.  Again.  Still.

I mean it this time.

I was doing pretty well cleaning out the random Corners of My Home, but I’d like to do better.  I’ve got to keep up with the regular housework and caring for the family at the same time.   I think I’ve got a pretty good plan to accomplish all of this.

First, I’m going to keep up with my modified FlyLady plan.

Next, I’m going to follow this Declutter Calendar.   Even though I’m not going to see a lot of major changes with this schedule, at least it is easy to follow, which means I will stick to it.

For the regular housekeeping stuff, I’m using Motivated Moms.  Again, simple and easy and do-able.

I think I’m going to concentrate on serious decluttering one room a month.  I don’t even have 12 rooms in our house, so here is where I think I’ll see some serious clearing out of the junk.

Those three plans are going to overlap a little, so I’ll have to work out the details a little more.  I’m not going to stress over it though.  It’ll all work out.

I’d also like to scrapbook one double page layout a week.  Not a huge goal, but better than nothing, which is what I’ve been doing lately.

Sounds good, don’t you think?

I can almost hear God saying, “We’ll see.”

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Birthday Fun

So yesterday was Pumpkin Girl’s special day. Several years ago, Philip started taking each child out to lunch on their birthday. Somehow that morphed into the whole family going out, if the birthday child chooses, to dinner. Since Pumpkin’s birthday is so close to Christmas, Phil can easily take the whole day off to spend with her.

What did she choose to do? Go to IKEA. Love that girl! More Disney Cruises for her.

Off we drove to our local Ikea, which is about 40 minutes away. We ate lunch there, then dropped Pumpkin and Boo off at the children’s play area while we shopped. I don’t really like most of Ikea’s stuff. I’m more of a country furnishings kind of girl, but even I can manage to spend some money there.

Two bags of meatball for Bip who could eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus some more of their bag clippy things (cheaper than Pampered Chef and work just as well). I also found this little magazine rack to hold books downstairs. We used to have a book bin in the living room, but I don’t know when and why it went away. This is cuter anyway.

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But the best thing we bought was this ottoman with storage capabilities.

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(Don’t you love how with a some careful cropping the living room mess is instantly gone? ) It’s got a washable, denim colored slip cover which has blue piping that matches the couch in the background. It also goes very well with the armchairs (bought at Ikea at last-year’s birthday lunch) in our red, white and blue living room.

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But wait! There’s more! Life the lid on this ottoman and look inside:

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It’s our school books! No, not all of them, of course. Just the ones currently in use. History, science and religion are in the two bottom piles, with my teacher’s guides and workbooks in the top piles. For over a year now, I’ve been using a rolling rubbermaid bin for in-use books. It was strictly functional and not one bit attractive. It often doubled as a coffee table. It got pushed to an out of the way, but still very visible location during the weekend and school breaks. It worked and when you live in cramped quarters, you do what you can.

But now, our Ottoman of Organization can stay right in front of the couch. Our school books are readily accessible when needed and out of sight when not. Bip can do somersaults from it on to the couch. Philip even put magic sliders under the legs so we can move it when we want. I love it!

We all left Ikea very happy. Boo and Pumpkin had a great time playing, I had a great time shopping. We came home and Pumpkin opened her presents (lots of pink!), then we had cheesecake.

A good day, don’t you think?

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Another Birthday!

This time we wish a Happy Birthday to our sweet Pumpkin Girl! She turns 7 years old today and what a fun seven years it has been. She is our chapter book reading, dancing and singing, big brother squeezing, joke telling, big eyed girl. What a blessing she is! Happy birthday, Pumpkin!

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The Way it Was

So Christmas Day has come and gone and now we are basking in the calm, relaxed days before the New Year.  This is one of my favorite times of year.  I enjoy the anticipation, the hustle and bustle, and the excitement of Advent.  But this week is just so restful.

Except for the sounds of Bip screaming, “No!  Boo-ah!” from upstairs.

Christmas Eve was a good one.  Mass was different this year.  A couple of months ago, the military Arch-Bishop (did you even know there is a military archdiocese?) decreed that we could no longer have a re-enactment of the Gospel during Mass.  Not even if it was after the actual Gospel reading.  Sigh.  I have some strong feelings on this issue, but this is not the time or place.  Instead, we had a small childrens choir which sang appropriate songs interspersed through the Gospel.  I’m not sure the bishop would have liked that either, but since we  no longer even have a bishop, any complainers will have to take it up with the Pope.

Anyway…there was a tense moment during “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem” because during rehearsals my two children kept skipping the second verse and taking the whole choir with them.  After some intense practice at home, they were doing fine and got it right during Mass.  They both beamed at me immediately afterwards.

We came home to our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of tamales, rice and beans.  We got the children all nestled snug in their beds, but not after a last minute note for Santa.  Pumpkin Girl very nicely thanked him for coming, asked about Santa Mouse, then wrote “Sign Here” and drew a line for a signature.  I suspect next year she’ll be requiring 2 photo IDs and proof of insurance.  Of course, Santa was more than happy to sign her note.

Christmas morning dawned not too early with the sound of a herd of buffalo stampeding down the hallway.  Several minutes later, the herd returned and revealed itself to be Boo and Pumpkin who were anxious to get us up and going.

Forty-five minutes later, the presents had been opened, wrapping paper was everywhere and all was good and right in the world.

One of our biggest surprises came later in the morning when the phone rang.  I thought it was my mom, so I had Boo answer it.  He was silent for a while, then said, “it’s Goofy!”  We all crowded around two phones and listened to Goofy welcome us home from our cruise and wish us happy holidays and a festive New Year.  He hoped to see us again soon, then had to rush off because his cookies were burning.  Nothing like a little Disney magic to brighten your holiday!

And now we’re enjoying some time off from school and general responsibilities.  We may go house-hunting later today – in the most non-committal, we’re just looking kind of way.  I wonder if there are any good 50% off after-Christmas sales on houses?

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Dear Rebecca,

…winter is here. And so is your birthday! I remember that day, just 4 years ago. I was hoping you would arrive in time for us both to home for Christmas. I thought it would be particularly special if you arrived on the first day of winter.

And you did! How fun to have my little girls born 3 days before and 3 days after Christmas. And both of you were born at 8 pm! You, however, outweighed your sister at birth by 2 pounds!

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I remember seeing that you were a girl and being so happy! We hadn’t really decided on a boy’s name. Then Daddy made the announcement that you had two deep dimples. Oh no, we were going to be in so much trouble as you grew up!
We talked the doctor into letting us come home on Christmas Eve. It was our Best Christmas Ever.

I remember Christmas Night and your brother and sister were asleep. Daddy was working on assembling more of the castle. I sat on the couch and snuggled you. You looked deep into my eyes and I fell in love.

So Rebecca, winter is here again and so is your birthday. We miss you so terribly, sweet baby and it hurts worse than anything we’ve ever known. We’ve already cried today, so we’ll try to rejoice now. Because today is the day that you arrived and brought us more joy than you could imagine.

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Happy Birthday, Rebecca.

 

(the book Dear Rebecca, Winter is Here is available at amazon.com)

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