Pre-Lent Miscellany

I made a pretty (and hopefully useful) thing! We have been struggling with complaining/selective deafness when I ask the kids to pitch in with jobs around the house, and I have been nagging/wanting more structure to the kids' chores, so I whipped this up last night, laminated it, and posted it up on the fridge. Each time the kids complete a daily chore, they get to cross it off, something I know our big kids at least enjoy doing! And now when I am wanting to pawn a job off on a child, I'll know exactly who to ask (note spaces for write-ins)- "It's right there on the chart!" I am excited to see how it actually works (I'd say Day 1 has been a success. Jack folded laundry happily!). I can't complain too much about these guys and their helpfulness, though. When I woke up yesterday morning, I walked down the hall to the girls' room and found this. "We're folding all of our clothes, Mom!" They had dumped all of the ruffled clothes out of their drawers and were refolding them. And Abigail just put Toby down for his nap. I'll keep 'em. We went into St. Vincent de Paul's last week during Iris's karate, and Jack pointed out a cool 3-D puzzle. It said it was for ages 12 and up, but I told him maybe Dad would help him. A few nights ago, after the little kids and I had a spontaneous dance party upstairs (see video below), we all went down to "help." The little kids just walked on the pieces and put them into random piles, and Kitty started chewing on them and carrying them off. I can imagine they would be satisfying to chew on- they're pretty thick and spongy. But Mike, Jack, and I have each gone down to work on it by ourselves some since then (Kitty is banned from the basement for the time being) and we've made a wee bit of progress. This thing is nuts. We finally finished the base, and that's the easiest part (grass and trees). The remainding 900 or so pieces are gray o_o Some random pics of kids being creative :^) We've been keeping an eye out for a larger tank for Jack's bearded dragon, Draco, for a while now (he was like 6" when we got the little guy last January, and now he is nearly 18 inches long!) I found a nice one on Craig's List, complete with lights and bowls and climbing things for a great price, so we all hopped in the van and headed an hour and 15 mins south to Rockford, a city in Illinois that Mike will grab any excuse to visit (it has the closest Steak 'n' Shake to us). We still need to hoist him up on the stand, but Draco loves his new surroundings. Now, I really just need Jack to teach him this trick...



We have been trying to prepare ourselves and our hearts for this season of Lent, which begins tomorrow- it's been a long time coming! I forgot to take a picture, but we had Paczki, a traditional Fat Tuesday treat, for breakfast. The kids colored Alleluias, which we "buried" to unearth at Easter. I got out all of our Lenten books and put them in our liturgical year book basket. And Iris helped me make a Lenten calendar- I decided to make this larger- and more interactive- one from Shower of Roses this year. The kids have each been thinking about sacrifices and additional works of mercy they can perform this Lent. I decided that in addition to extra spiritual reading/devotions/prayers (and trying to lead these little people in a good Lent), I am going try to give up complaining. I feel like I've fallen guilty to that vice a lot this pregnancy (my husband is so patient), but I know I have a wonderful opportunity to offer up any pain or discomfort and remember Jesus's suffering.

I posted a video of Toby... dancing? doing some sort of charades?... on fb the other day- here's another cute one.

Happy Fat Tuesday! And wishing you a blessed/productive Lent!

This and that

Sweet reader

A friend gave me this book a few weeks ago- what a delightful read! I actually read it in like two sittings, it was so good (it's not a particularly short book). And I came away with a lot of ideas on how to freshen up our homeschool routine, starting with a longer "Morning Time"- all-together-time for prayers, reading scripture, reading/memorizing poetry, singing hymns, read-alouds and narration... We've been doing it for a week so far, and it's been going really well. We even got to do it outside in the glorious warmth of mid-February in Wisconsin (hah!) a couple of days this week. And that may have contributed to the joyous attitudes). Jack has been memorizing poetry all year, and I wasn't sure how Abigail would react to the prospect of, but after I read our new poem to memorize- "Opportunity" by Edward Rowland Sill, she looked at me, astounded, and said, "That's a really cool poem!" !!! It is so fun to see these kids enjoy learning. And to be learning right along with them. I am getting a second education- Medieval history, religion, the saints, sentence diagramming (how come I never did this in school?)...

We had a bunch of friends over this morning, and it was just what we all needed- some adult conversation for the moms, and the kids all got outside to play and had a blast showing their friends around our yard. We had the most perfect day for it. It reached 70 degrees here today! Heavens alive! I think I could get on board with Wisconsin winters if this is what they're like (but it's not- this is SO unheard of). Caught it! None of the other kids have shown any interest in this ball... taking after his Uncle Roma <3 The long weekend was lovely, too. We all spent a lot of time outdoors- Mike and I completely cleaned out the garage, the breezeway, and the van, and we had our first grill-out and bonfire/s'mores of the year. The goats were also enticed out of their pen with everyone in the yard and they haven't really gone back in since (at least during the daytime)- those two are like two puppies- they LOVE running and bucking around with the kids. But it makes me sad to see them unearthing and gobbling up my tulip bulbs and gnawing all of the bark off of the fruit trees :'( We need to fix their fence again (when don't we?) We've also made it to different parks a few times in the past week- trying to take advantage of the weather while it lasts! It feels so nice to get outside and get some vitamin D! A nice, new shelving unit to replace the wonky built-in particle-board shelving, which cut into the ceiling The first time we ever walked through our house, the basement smelled pretty good. That was because Stanley Steamer had been there that morning to clean. The large air movers were still drying away, in fact. The day we moved in, though, the smell of the previous owners' cats was back and there to stay. Until our basement flooded three months ago- and then it smelled like mildew for a few days until all of that old carpet and padding was ripped out- praise be! We finally have brand new carpet down there, and it smells like... new carpet! I'm sure our cat will help with that, but for now, it's a very big deal :^D We are rejoicing over having our play room and school room in use once again! (photo by Abigail)

I am 30 weeks today and am feeling okay, energy-wise. Though, come 5:00, I am usually all spent, and Mike often doesn't get home until the kids' bedtime. I think this is very typical at this point, though- it gets difficult to sleep. I wake multiple times in the night with an arm "asleep". I will ask my doctor next week to check for sure, but as of right now, I am sure he is positioned differently than the others, who always kicked just below the ribs on my right side. I was having a hard time getting comfortable last night, and it felt like his head was where I normally feel kicks... breech? Of course, there's still like ten weeks to turn, but it's uncomfortable for the time being- something else to offer for those I know would welcome that discomfort!

I have been reading The Little Oratory (for years, actually), and I finally broke down and set up our own little oratory (a sacred place in the home for prayer). I'm very excited about it - it brings me such peace, and really puts me in a prayerful mindset. I'll take pictures and share in another post. At dinner tonight (which was so graciously delivered this afternoon by my sick friend's husband because she thought I "could use a meal at this point in pregnancy") Abigail suggested that we go around the table and say what we each were thankful for. Sometimes, they can be stinkers and play Rock-Paper-Scissors across the breakfast table and send milk and cereal flying (and me into a rage... ahem...) right before company comes. But right now, I feel like my cup is overflowing. I am so thankful for God's abundant mercy and graces, which cover a multitude of sin. We are so blessed.

Valentine's Day

Some (fuzzy) pictures from our local homeschool Valentine's Party... Opal won in the box category of "Most Valentiney" (There were five categories in all). Fun fact- our group has like 24 kids, and there are two duplicate names- two Isaacs, and two Opals!

And last night, we finally tried out a new restaurant, Pizza Ranch, with some friends from this same group (kids eat free on Tuesdays!), and I think we've found Mike's Steak 'n' Shake replacement ;^P And we talked about this great Christian martyr- a lot of myth surrounds the actual man/men whom this feast day is commemorating. Here are some surprising facts about Saint Valentine.

February Miscellany

I got my third-this-pregnancy iron infusion on Wednesday, and I am feeling good enough post a few catch-you-ups on happenings around here. Iris joined Jack at Bring a Friend day a few weeks ago, and she's been asking to take karate ever since. We had her finish up what I had paid for horse-riding, and she had her first lesson on Thursday. She has been all smiles about it so far. Plus, two friends from a local homeschooling group also just signed up and are in her class, which makes it even better. She and her sister have also been asking for weeks to get their hair cut, especially after I came home from a homeschool meeting last week with my hair chopped off (the meeting was moved back 30 minutes, so I popped into a hair cutting place down the street- I'd also been entertaining the idea for a long time). I cut all three of the boys' hair last week, but I don't feel quite a confident cutting theirs how they wanted it, so after Iris's karate, I took the two big girls to get their hair cut. Iris announced, upon seeing a picture of her four-year-old cousin with her hair cut very short that morning, "That's how I want to get my hair cut!" After the woman was finished, she asked Iris how she liked it, and she responded, "I... Loooove it!" That's really all that matters :^) I know my iron infusion is working because I let the kids make and decorate their Valentine boxes for their party next week without getting stressed out at all- and I even let Opal modge podge by herself while I went up and took a shower. I KNooooW! Mike says maybe an iron infusion is what he needs ;^P I bookmarked this simple, collaborative Valentine project from The Artful Parent last week, and the kids really enjoyed doing it (and it satisfied my desire to doodle). You just take turns adding decorative borders, and Jack and I worked on one together. We used a thick paper with Sharpies, and they came out wonderfully.

Tonight's Mass was Jack's first time as an altar server. He did a great job and we are very proud of him. I was hoping to get a picture of him in his cassock, but I left my phone at home, and Mike's phone was dead, so we got nothin'. The author, Julie, holding our book

Just a quick update on the book I illustrated and some cool ways it has been spreading lately. It was featured as one of seven in the National Catholic Register's Sacramental Guide last week (If anyone happens to be able to obtain a copy of the Feb 5 issue for me, I would be very grateful!). This article just came out in the Arkansas Diocesan paper, and it was also just featured on Radio Maria here. The segment on the book begins at 29:20 (a bit on the illustrator at 41:20 :^)). I have been so grateful to have been a part of this ministry! And then there's this one's godmother, my dear friend, who sends Fisher Price Little People sets as well as puzzles and books and goodies and bunch of other fun things to keep our kids happy and distracted so I can get some mom things done after a long day <3 (He seemed shocked when I asked him if he was cooking the animals)

That's all I've got for now! We are blessed!