Daybook: More Snowy Days Edition

Right now...Nursing and typing. Just returned from Maddy's Spanish class where the poor girl had an attack of test anxiety and fears she did not do as well on her test as she knew she could have.

A little later...Ballet and basketball.

Speaking of basketball....Poor Lilly. She was looking forward to playing on her birthday (and winning). Alas, the snow shut everything down. We did however have a lovely dinner of her favorite things, salmon cakes and creamy cauliflower soup. I find this amusing since she is so picky, but these are the two things she really loves.

Later this week...Tae Kwon Do, basketball, Co-op and more.

Live the Liturgy...Feast of the Presentation tomorrow. One of my very favorites. And special now because it was meant to be Johnny's due date. I think we'll decorate some candles. Happily, I discovered I already have all the supplies necessary.

Keeping the home...My poor schoolroom is badly in need of attention, but it feels overwhelming. I think I'll tackle it one bookcase at a time. Laundry needs lots of work this week as well. Should have focused on more this weekend. But John gave me some very rough nights, especially on Saturday when he was essentially awake from 12am to 8am. You can imagine this left me rather fatigued.

From the kitchen...I have lots of stuff in the freezer and pantry to cook with, just need to carefully plan it out. Highlights for this week should be sweet and sour pork stir fry, flank steak and sweet potatoes, chicken...something, um....see, need to think this through.

Thankful for...My parents safe return. I am so spoiled, living close. I miss them when they're gone.

Praying for...A local friend on bed rest for the next 3 weeks to keep her little babe tucked in safe.

Reading...need to find something good.

Creating...Order in my home.

From the schoolroom...I have a good plan in place. Simple. Uncluttered. Reading and narrating from a few choice books.

Picture Thought...

 

This is from late September. I can see how much John has already changed. He certainly has more hair.This is a classic John expression. And the eyes. Oh my, they're irresistible.

Daybook: Routines and Rhythms Edition

Right now...Nursing and typing. I can hear something loud and silly happening in the basement. Love the sound of my big kids and little kids sharing in the same fun.

A little later...Basketball practice for Sam. Dave is home early, but not feeling to great, so I may have to do the driving...and make dinner. Mondays are hard.

Speaking of basketball....Poor Lilly. Another loss this weekend. However her team played much better and she didn't get any fouls. She fouled out of a game the previous weekend.

Later this week...Tae Kwon Do, basketball, Co-op, Abuelo and Abuela back from Peru (yay! we always miss them so much when they're gone, lucky them got to go to the beach) and...

Lilly turns 14 on Saturday!...And of course she thinks it is just perfect that she gets to play basketball on her birthday.
 
Live the Liturgy...Anna made her First Confession on Saturday. The very best part was watching the kids faces as they walked out of the confessional. Have you ever seen what grace looks like? I have. Awesome.

Keeping the home...Here's the part that needs routine and rhythm...I'll let you know when we get there.

From the kitchen...Meal planning has been going well and I'm back in a pattern of only 2 visits to a grocery store a week. Still not in the bread making pattern. Hope to really get this going this week. Highlights for this week will be Beef Stew (hopefully with that home made bread), gnocchi (Lilly's birthday), and maybe Salmon cakes.

Thankful for...My beautiful Church, Holy Trinity.

Praying for...An end to abortion and for all the women and families traumatized and injured by this brutal act.

Reading...Ah, a slight political moment. I got some trial offer for 4 magazines subscriptions for $8. I picked TIME as one of them. I received the first issue featuring an article about Obama. It was interesting, by which I mean a tiny bit infuriating. I walked away from the article with the feeling that the author was trying to tell me Obama is having a harder time in the polls right now because he's just a little bit smarter than us, more of a thinker, and we just don't get what he's trying to do. And it blames the Republicans. Cheap shot and predictable.

Creating...Careful plans for the next 8 weeks of school. I was delighted to see that I already have, on my shelves, every book I might need for Sam's next unit. Hooray.

From the schoolroom...See above.

Picture Thought...

This Anna and baby Aggie, so this is about 3 years ago. I can't believe how little Anna looks!

Haiti

Haiti already suffers such staggering poverty...Lord have mercy and let us all do what we can materially and spiritually to aid the people of Haiti.

Real School

Just so that I'm real around here...be assured that homeschooling in my home is not always exactly, um ....idyllic.

This mornings hour (yes, just one good hour, because...well, you'll see) was a series of interruptions that resulted in my saying things like this every few minutes:

"Just please go to the basement for a little while Aggie....please....please."

"No Aggie, don't glue anything right now, I'll fix your fairy."

"Kay, DO NOT touch your sister with your toe again."

"Sam! Grab the baby. He's headed for the stairs."

"Anna and Carmen, you are too old for me to have to stop to tell you not to shove each other."

"Aggie! Don't pull your brother by the ears!"

"Carmen! Grab the baby, he's headed for the stairs."

"Anna, get that look of your face and please change your attitude right now."

"Sam! Clean up Aggie's hands before she touches anything, she's covered in green chalk."

"Aggie. PLEASE go downstairs."

"Kay, keep still."

 And imagine a very squirmy active one year old wanting to nurse and crawl around,at the same time.

On and on it went. Sigh. There's always this afternoon.

Daybook: Very Short Edition

Right now...Cracking the whip, trying to get my big girls to finish evening chores, waiting fir Dave to get home and feed him some dinner. And nursing the baby.

A little later...My bed.

He's home...So that's it for this Daybook.

First Daybook of 2010

Right now...Just returned from many many errands. Too many. Somehow jumping back into our busy activity schedule caught me off guard and Mondays are particularly busy. So I'm feeling a little disoriented, pondering how different life was just a year ago as I tried to help my preemie make up his lost time in the womb by snuggling him close all the time. A year later, the dear boy still loves to be held, all the time.

A little later...Feed a quick dinner to everyone (except Dave), run Sam to basketball, where we'll be met by Dave so I can be home quicker and don't have to take John out in the cold night.

Speaking of cold....Brrrrrr! Hoping for some global warming, but the forecast doesn't hold out much hope.

Later this week...Tae Kwon Do (Have I mentioned I am joining in with Anna once a week? I'm getting pretty good. We had a 2 week break so I'm thinking tomorrow is going to hurt a little bit.), more basketball, co-op, a family portrait, a family party, a basketball game...

Live the Liturgy...I know the Church celebrated the Epiphany on Sunday, but traditionally it was celebrated on January 6 (it may still be in other countries throughout the world). Our family tradition is that the grandchildren spend the night at Abuelo and Abuela's on the night of the 5th and celebrated "King's Day" with a big breakfast in the morning. Besides Christmas, I think it is one of my children's absolute favorite days of the year. The way things have worked out this year, Johnny and I will be spending the night too.

Keeping the home...New (much longed for) furniture will arrive this week, so the front room needs deep cleaning and major reworking. Not quite as intense as Elizabeth, but work nonetheless. Having to make room means things in other places, like the schoolroom have to make way. I feel purging coming our way.

From the kitchen...Now that the holidays are over it is time for serious meal planning. One of my goals this year is to cur our grocery bill drastically. My sister gave me this great book for Christmas and I baked some today, with dough left for 2 more loaves. I'm hoping to get into a regular dough mixing/bread baking routine. I was also intrigued by Elizabeth's idea of blogging through a cookbook. I've great success (and compliments) on the free recipes I've cooked from the Pioneer Woman. In fact I gave each of my sisters a copy of her book for Christmas and had decided I really did want one of my own...

Thankful for...my teens. Just between you and me, my girls are awesome. :)

Praying for...an old friend of the family, very ill. My mother-in-laws twin brother, recovering from a stroke. Colleen.

Reading...Finished Catching Fire in one day. It is so good, I wish I hadn't because now I have a long wait. Thinking of delving deeply into Pope Benedict's Caritas In Veritate after watching a brilliant discussion about it on EWTN.

Creating...um, a redesigned front room? Does that count?

From the schoolroom...Need to rework schedule and routines now that I have a better idea of what the basketball schedules will look like. I think the little girls will keep working the Holy Land and then step over into India, with much more simplicity than we approached Africa. In my zeal, though we learned a lot, it was a constant feeling of being under the gun to just finish.all.those.books.

Picture Thought...

Johnny a year ago. That's a newborn diaper he's laying next to and one of the smallest onesies we owned.

Happy New Year!

Um...

Well, judging by my last post, you can see life's been busy.

So first off, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Second...

John is 1 today!

I can hardly believe it. Especially when I think about how we spent last year. Lots of fear, lots of unkowns. But today, we celebrate. We celebrate because God was so generous to bless us with our little boy, that God was so faithful in keeping him safe and healthy when the odds were against him, that our friends and family were so faithful with their prayers and support. Honestly, today I really want to be about being grateful for the miracle their intercession brought us...a happy, healthy and joyful little boy.