More

Wow, I go months without a post and this is #3 for today! Just more of the kids and the lovely gingerbread house that we did with Lauren and her kiddos. It was fun but tasted like cardboard....what do you expect from a kit that was probably made months ago. We got blue potatoes from our co-op and mashed them and they made a great shade of purple. Jameson liked them, but Abbie said she didn't like them, but would like them better if they were pink. She is such a girl.

What's under our tree?

Modelling wax (Jameson), doll stroller (everyone), Rainbow stacker (Adeleine), 2 more playsilks (everyone), stockmar crayons (Abigail), painting boards (Jameson & Abigail). They are also each getting a book and their own handmade teacup. Stocking contents will be a toothbrush, Schleich animals, a few beanbags and an orange. Everything is ordered and on it's way except for stocking stuffers!

Signs of the Season

Seasons of Patience

You wouldn't know it from reading my blog, but I think about blogging everyday, and I even blog in my head. I write long, random blogs while changing a diaper, folding laundry, preparing a meal. I guess that's all the blogging I am going to do during this season of my life. The needs of three kids is more than I could have imagined. It would be easy to keep them fed and fairly clean, doing only what is necessary to keep them alive. It the nurturing and time that takes a lifetime. I have been trying to focus on them, and less on "what I have to do." I convince myself that beds must be made everyday, showers must be had, floor must be mopped, dinner must be perfectly balanced and warm. I was really fooling myself. I would love to be able to do all those things and spend tons of quality time teaching and nurturing the kids, but that is not the current season. My children need me. That's it. My time, my attention, my love, my kindness, my direction, my encouragement, my bedtime stories, my hugs. That takes about all I have. Everything else but our basic needs does not fit in my day. I am very tired and feeling very fragile, but I realized that this is what they will remember. Time as a family and family traditions. This needs to be my focus, not appearing like the picture perfect wife and mother. I want to be my version of perfect, and that means putting down the mop and begging mother Mary for patience and help to make it through the day. I need it today!

I really have a lot to blog about and lots of new pictures, but a serious lack of time. Bill is on a business trip and we have a sniffly teething baby spending lots of time in the Ergo. Maybe tonight if I am not too sleepy...

(I find it very funny that I just made a post about not having time to post....as if anyone but me really cares if I post :))

Feast of Sts. Jude & Simon

Today the Church celebrates the feast of Sts. Simon and Jude whose names occur together in the Canon of the Mass and are also celebrated on the same day. Possibly this is because they both preached the Gospel in Mesopotamia and Persia where it is said they had both been sent, but in actual fact we know nothing for certain about them beyond what is told us of their being called as Apostles in the New Testament. St. Jude is the author of a short Epistle which forms part of the New Testament.

However meagre in details is the history of these glorious apostles, we learn from their brief legend how amply they contributed to this great work of generating sons of God. Without any repose, and even to the shedding of their blood, they "edified the body of Christ"; and the grateful Church thus prays to our Lord today: "O God, through the work of the apostles you have spoken your Word of love, your Son, into our world's deafness. Open our ears to hear; open our hearts to heed; open our will to obey, that we may proclaim the good news with our lives."

St. Simon is represented in art with a saw, the instrument of his martyrdom. St. Jude's square points him out as an architect of the house of God. St. Paul called himself by this name; and St. Jude, by his Catholic Epistle, has also a special right to be reckoned among our Lord's principal workmen. But our apostle had another nobility, far surpassing all earthly titles: being nephew, by his father Cleophas or Alpheus, to St. Joseph, and legal cousin to the Man-God, Jude was one of those called by their compatriots the brethren of the carpenter's Son. We may gather from St. John's Gospel another precious detail concerning him. In the admirable discourse at the close of the last Supper, our Lord said: "He that loveth Me, shall be loved of My Father: and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him." Then Jude asked Him: "Lord, how is it, that Thou wilt manifest Thyself to us, and not to the world?" And he received from Jesus this reply: "If any one love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make Our abode with him. He that loveth Me not keepeth not My word. And the word which you have heard is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me."

The churches of St. Peter in Rome and Saint-Sernin at Toulouse dispute the honor of possessing the greater part of their holy remains.

(St Jude is my favorite saint, and was going to be Adeleine's name if she had boy parts. Maybe next time? I am excited about today. I have been anticipating it for a few weeks! During our family prayers this morning, we busted out the special feast day candle, red alter cloth and my fav...the incense. Other than having to stay home and wait for the plumber, today is a great day!!)

Father, you revealed yourself to us through the preaching of your apostles Simon and Jude. By their prayers, give your Church continued growth and increase the number of those who believe in you. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

We Miss Her

My sister is coming home for Thanksgiving!!!! When she left for college in August, I told the kids that they would see her in November. I knew that they really had no concept of how far away it was, but it has seemed like an eternity. There was a question for awhile about if she was really coming home, since flights were $$$ and she is coming home for Christmas 2 weeks later. She found out that she has to leave campus during thanksgiving, so she is coming home! The kids are so excited, so to help them countdown the days we made a paper chain and they can tear them off daily. It was a fun little project. The weekend plans include a family trip to the library, a few outdoor projects and family pictures after mass on sunday...wish us luck!

We had a great day today. We did a little learning time and then headed to my favorite park to play. Abbie kinda embarassed me while there by telling all our weird family secrets to a sweet grandma with her granddaughter. She left shortly after that so I think I scared her. Oops! After that I tackled the 6-7 loads of laundry that needed to be folded. I dumped it all on the couch so that I had to fold it in order to sit. We then had a nice healthy dinner followed by a easy bedtime! Tomorrows agenda includes a trip to Target and more laundry!

The awesomest park ever.

Massive play equipment, lots of grass, swings, shaded picnic area and 3 minutes from my house = my perfect park!

Apples

So, I hadn't really wanted this to be a "homeschooling" blog, but just more a journal of thoughts and days, but we had so much fun and I am so excited about our new "nature study" that I had to share. I like the idea of very relaxed unit studies. Since the kids love nature and I wanted to do more than just "sit at the table learning" for nature, I decided that each month will have a theme and we will learn as much as we can all about our nature theme. This month we started a few days late, but I chose apples as out theme. We took a trip to the library last week and got books about apples and Johnny Appleseed (which Jameson thinks is a hilarious name and starts calling everyone "mommy appleseed", "Ada appleseed", etc) and put them in their seasonal reading basket.
We went to the store and bought all the different varieties we could find, and as I washed and sliced them, we talked about their names and how they looked, felt, etc. They thought that granny smith was a pretty funny name! (I am noticing a theme...a 2.5 year old things everything is funny!)





We let them boil, added cinnamon, organic sugar, and nutmeg and our applesauce is so yummy! I left the skin on and I like it so much better that way. We are planning a trip to Oak Glen to go apple picking next weekend, so that should finish up our study this month. I don't know if I should do leaves, or acorns next?? Any ideas??

Feast of the Nativity of Mary

Mary was born to be the mother of the Savior of the world, the spiritual mother of all men, and the holiest of God's creatures. Because of her Son's infinite merits, she was conceived and born immaculate and full of grace. Through her, Queen of heaven and of earth, all grace is given to men. Through her, by the will of the Trinity, the unbelieving receive the gift of faith; the afflicted are tendered the works of mercy; and the members of Christ grow in likeness of their Head. In Mary all human nature is exalted. We rejoice in her birthday, as the Church has done from the earliest times. This is one of the three birthdays in the Church Calendar — the Birth of Jesus (December 25), the Birth of John the Baptist (June 24) and the Birthday of Mary. All three were born without original sin, although Mary and Jesus were conceived without sin, and St. John was cleansed of original sin while in the womb at the Visitation of Mary.

According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today also commemorates St. Adrian. The liturgy of Our Lady's Birthday in Rome included a procession from the church of St. Adrian in the forum. It is possible that he is a martyr of Nicomedia who suffered during the Diocletian persecution.

We celebrated with homemade vanilla cake, complete with candles and singing! Today is a very blessed day...where would we be without her...?

First Baseball Game

We took Jameson to his first baseball game with Grandma & Grandpa last weekend. I was SOOOO excited for him, more excited than he was. He wore his his baseball shirt, his glove and big boy underwear and was ready to go. We ate hotdogs, peanuts and the weather was perfect. We left after the 7th inning, before the kids got too stir crazy. It was the last Quakes game of the season. I can't wait to go back next year!

Cutest baby in the whole world

She is the happiest baby....and I love her to pieces!

Yesterday.

Good but long. There were no naps by the bigs, so the energy level in our house was very high! We went to the park with a friend in the afternoon, and then to Grannie Fae's for dinner. The park was great! Neato play equipment and sand area. There was also a nature center that had real live deer, owls, tortoises and a racoon. The kids were wet and sandy, so it was great for them and I got some much needed time with a great friend. Dinner at the in-laws was good, and I didn't eat too much so I was proud of myself. I was down 4 lbs this morning to 150lbs. So I was stoaked....all my hard work is starting to pay off! Hopefully today I can tackle the laundry situation and get back on track and sew Abbie's doll sling...she has been waiting so patiently!

Productive Weekend

Bill and I were very productive this weekend. It felt soo good to climb into bed last night and not feel like all we did all weekend was sit around drinking coffee and reading books (although thats not all bad!) Here was our weekend:

- clean off patio
- put 2 coats of paint on our bedroom bookshelves (yeah...it's finally done)
- put drawer hardware on shelving unit
- paint new shelf for living room
- hang new shelf in LR
- found a new home for Pixel :(
- visited with Mom, Dad and Grandma Bobbie
- went to mass
- visited Great Grandma Peggy
- washed diapers..twice!
- made homemade bread
- made homemade organic chicken stock
- made yummy dinner of wild alaskan salmon, garlic fries and broccoli
- played puzzles and math games with the kids
- watched another episode of Rome

All this while still changing about 8 diapers a day, taking 2 year old potty on the toilet about 6 times a day, feeding everyone three meals a day, dealing with 4 year old attitude and 2 year old tantrums and finding time to love the 28 year old also! NO wonder I did not want to get out of bed this morning! I actually feel asleep last night before Bill was finished reading our nighttime prayers..ooops. The kitchen is a mess, and laundry is everywhere, but I am enjoying hearing the bigs playing together, watching Adeleine sleeping and feeling blessed that this is my life!

Queenship of Mary

Father, you have given us the mother of your Son to be our queen and mother. With the support of her prayers may we come to share the glory of your children in the kingdom of heaven. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

I have been gushing over the birth of little (but big), Adeleine. Her birth was very much anticipated since I was quite unsure what exactly would happen. After two hospital births and two epidurals, I was starting to question what I was thinking and how it would all play out. How would I endure painful contractions for an unknown amount of time, and after all that, push the baby out?? I had an awesome, highly recommended midwife, I had done my hypnobabies for 10 weeks, I had surrounded myself with positive people who knew that homebirth was safe and they were praying for me. Was all this enough? Along with a lot of praying by me...it was! When L the midwife arrived she checked me and I was already 10 centimeters. I started feeling like pushing and a few minutes later Adeleine Rose was born weighing 9 lbs 8oz. I was on a birth high for weeks and weeks. All I wanted to do was think about it and I could not believe that I had done it and it went perfectly! I am still in awe that God allowed my body to create this perfect human being and then have an amazing (not very painful) birth. I am so blessed.

Old Friends

I am very happy and excited to have talked to an old friend today. We have seen eachother a few times in the last few years, but we connected on the internet today, so keeping in touch is a whole lot easier now. We worked together for almost 4 years and we were quite the duo. We were total opposites, yet great friends. We listened to eachother and had a deep respect for the other, which made us great fiends and working buddies. I left when Abbie was born and she is still working there. She had a baby last year and I think thats what has made her a softie :) She was a great friend to me, and I an excited to see her again!

Sadness in the South

Ada and I got back Tuesday night from North Carolina, where my parents and I bid farewell to my BFF, my sister. It was so hard saying goodbye, and when we hugged, I didn't want to ever let her go. I told her I loved her, would miss her and to be smart! She is an awesome person and I know that she will be wise and have a great time. I was still at the hotel sleeping when my parents said their goodbyes, but I can only imagine how hard it was for them to leave their pampered princess 3000 miles away! My mom will have a hard time adjusting to LOTS of time to herself since my Dad works long hours and has a nasty commute and my bro (who is still at home at the ripe old age of 25) isn't often home. Luckily I have enough laundry and grocery shopping to keep us both busy!

My wonderful husband took two days off work to stay home with the bigs while we were gone. He did an awesome job of handling everything. When I got home the house was clean, laundry was folded, and he even did some organizing! I was so proud of him! I was so happy to see them. I have never spent a night away from Jameson and only after I had James did I spend the night away from Abbie, so it was a little hard leaving them in the airport.

I am in love with North Carolina! The architecture, the accents, the food, the trees overgrown with ivy, the way everything is closed on Sunday, the church steeples, the friendliness, the porches and the slower pace of life. If my parents were ready to leave I would move tomorrow. I would be sad about leaving good friends and our church, but I long for those things for my kids. We would miss a lot of Bill's family here and it is important to us both that our kids know and love even the extended relatives, but being able to sit down as a family more than 1 or 2 days a week and have dinner and being able to fish, hunt and explore nature in your backyard are really important to me. Those things are available to us here, it just takes sacrifice (for the family dinners possibly moving so that Bill doesn't have such a long commute and more camping trips and organized outings for nature). No one is ready to leave yet, but each time I go out there my desire to up and leave intensifies. As I had lots of time to ponder moving and living somewhere other than Cali I made a mental list of requirement I have for any state we would move to. My list is as follows:

1. must have state trooper not highway patrol (This may come from watching to much COPS!) silly...I know!
2. car dealerships must use those metal nameplate things that they put on the back of the car (usually opposite the name of the car, and almost always the dealership name is a man's name)
3. must have places named "Bojangles", "Piggly Wiggly"...where else would you find names like that
4. must talk with an accent. I heard they cutest kids talking all southern in walmart (which leads me to the next requirement)
5. must be Walmarts on every corner (I try not to go very often, I am more of a Target girl) but they are everywhere and a true sign you are not in CA
6. must have a battlefield in the state. How cool is that!?! We went to Cowpens in SC, and it was amazing to be out in a field and imagine that a real revolutionary war battle was fought right where you are standing. I was thinking of all kinds of neato things you could do while homeschooling when studying the revolutionary war

So, the trip was good. I am trying to settle my brain of crazy thoughts of moving tomorrow (my mom isn't helping this since she is just as eager to move as I am). I am focusing my thought and prayers on my sister who is 3000 miles from all her family in a strange city with no one she really knows. I pray for her to meet good friends who value her as much as we do and for her to be comforted in her times of loneliness. I love her and miss her tons!!!

2 recent obsessions

Two of my new favorite things are:

1. Rome. Bill rented this last week and now we are hooked! It's juicy drama and historical. It ran on HBO for two seasons and we are quickly watching season 1. I recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind graphic killing, graphic sex and likes history.

2. True Lemon. I almost always have lemon in my water and I use so many lemons (and our newly planted trees don't have fruit yet) that I run out a lot. I found these at Vons and love them!!! Nothing artificial, no sweetners and made with real lemon oil. They taste just like real lemon and are easy to take on the go.

Abbie has 3 little stuffed dogs that she has been playing with the last few days. As she was playing with them this morning I asked her what their names were. She told me Jack, Maxie and Paddie. I didn't think anything of it until Bill said "isn't that funny?" It took me a minute and I realized what he was talking about. What's even funnier, is that I don't even call them Maxi pads!

Good news and bad news

1. The air conditioner in the van is fixed, and it cost us $0.00. I guess sometimes it pays to have a Kia with a 60,000k mile warranty on everything! I am running errands today just so I can enjoy cold air again!

2. I do not like earthquakes...never have and never will, unlike my husband who thinks they are "fun." The 5.4 the rocked us yesterday has me wondering if every big truck that drives down our street is the rumble of another quake. I screamed yesterday when it started and scared the kids, so I think I have damaged them forever. My neighbor even came over to make sure we were ok because they heard me. I was quite embarassed :(

3. My sister is leaving in 6 days for North Carolina :( I am so sad that I don't even want to discuss it or think about it. My entire family is going to be so sad. I will be going with Adeleine out there and flying home with my parents to help move her in. The kids will miss her terribly, so will Bill. I almost can't quite comprehend her not being here.

The many faces of Adeleine

I thought it was time for a few pictures of her. She totally melts my heart!