Party On!

Beautiful birthday girl, making a curtsy.

Katie Grace and two of her best buddies from church. Jillian had to go to a jazz band concert, but Jennifer stayed for the party. And I am so glad she did! She was a real blessing and help with the crafts and games. Plus, Katie Grace just loves both these girls.

Making magic fairy wands.

Pin the fairy on the flower.

This was one of my best mommy ideas EVER. I had Michael invite a friend. Whereas normally Michael would have been tormenting Katie and her guests, with Mitchell there, the two of them hung out in the back of the hall, played their own twisted version of Monopoly, and consumed copious amounts of snacks. They surfaced only to help whack the pinata and eat cake.

Daniel. Still one. He likes to tell people.

That was one tough pinata.

Finally, it cracked!

Even Daniel found some loot--a hair band! I tried to put some non-candy in the pinata-- hair bands, erasers, stickers. Daniel has a bit of a hair band obsession. He'll sit and twirl them around in his hands while making growling sounds. It's cute and scary, all at once!

Present time!

Katie Grace always has time to love on her baby brother!

Balloon silliness.

The cake! Yes, it was storebought. No, I don't feel guilty.

Katie Grace and Ariana playing with one of Katie Grace's fairy books.

"I have a boo boo".
An invisible, non-existant boo boo.
Typical Nicholas!

And who doesn't like balloons! I mean, yeah they're a giant choking hazard and they're probably toxic and and they aren't good for the environment and they scare the poop out of Chip when they pop, but they kept Daniel busy, so they must be good.

Happy Mother's Day!

Emily did the funny (and thanks for posting it! My kids think that is hilarious!) so I will do the sappy and sentimental.

Mother's Day blessings to you all!

Happy Birthday, Katie Grace!

It makes me think of the good old days,
Happy birthday to you!
You sure grew out of your baby ways,
Happy birthday to you!
It's your birthday, wish you many more,
Health and wealth and friends by the score.
Cut the cake and let's eat some more,
Happy birthday to you!

OK, so the cake eating will actually happen tomorrow at her party. I can't believe my baby girl is seven! Seven's a great age. I loved being seven. I hope she loves it as well.

I am woman. I am invincible. I am exhausted.

Seriously. I'm really, really tired. Today I had an appointment with a local nurse practitioner who specializes in "women's issues."

First of all, let me say her office was just lovely. It smelled nice, she had soft music playing and a place with tons of different types of tea, and it was so peaceful. In the entry way was a quote from St. Benedict: Always, we begin again. I don't know why, but whenever I go into warm, nurturing places like this, I feel like crying.

Anyway, the reason I went is I am so exhausted. I've tried going to bed earlier, getting up earlier, napping, supplementing with vitamins and herbs, cutting out caffeine, eating better, going for walks, and no matter what I do, I'm just too pooped to party. She is going to check my thyroid and maybe do a hormone panel, but get this-- she thinks I may just have too much going on.

This doesn't sit well with me, let me tell you. Sure I'm a mother of four, but there are plenty of other women out there with twice as many kids who don't feel like they need an 11 AM nap and another one at 3. And there's La Leche League and Sunday School and MDC and the fact that I haven't been to Mass in months so I am not getting fed spiritually and co-op where I taught again and general pastor's wife stuff and running kids around (swim team sign ups were tonight!) and trying to make more food from scratch and gardening and homeschooling and... ok, well when I type it all out it seems like too much. And yet when I am living it, it doesn't seem like nearly enough.

So, I don't know what's going on. There doesn't seem to be a lot of wiggle room in my life right now, and yet things somehow have gotten horribly out of balance. Daniel is getting molars and is up nursing five or six times in the night, Nicholas is obedience-challenged, Katie Grace and Michael are just so stinking busy. I do know that something has to change. If I keep going on like this, I'm just going to collapse in a heap.

Tomorrow morning I'm getting up at 6 AM to go have bloodwork done. And then I'll make breakfast and spend the day getting Katie Grace's party together, including decorating a cake. And at the end of the day I'm probably going to feel just a little bit more tired than before.

Rumplestiltskin is my name...

H.O.M.E (Heart of Mary Educators) presented Rumplestiltskin last Sunday. They worked so hard!



Michael at his cheesiest

Thrift Store Saturday

I really made out this weekend!

Dehydrator: $3
Yogurt Maker: $2.50
Beautiful Handmade Wooden Trivet: $1
Three books, 25 cents each
Six books on tape/Twin Sisters Tapes, 25 cents each
Mandolin for kitchen: $1
Doughnut pans (2): 75 cents each
Some misc. rainforest stuff for vacation church school, including a hat for DH, not shown
A bag of clothes for $1

And, my favorite: 10 little flower wreaths for 15 cents each that will be perfect for Katie Grace's flower fairy party on Friday!

Guess what I did today!

OK, it looks like I peed in 5 big jars, LOL! But nope, that's not it. I was inspired by both Emily's soup posts and an old post I had printed from Large Family Logistics, as well as some counsel from MOMYS on saving money on lunch meat-- I boiled a chicken, saved the meat for sandwiches, and made my own chicken broth!

Go me!

Ascension Day

I was looking for Ascension Day ideas and came across this on Catholic Culture:

A custom has survived in some parts of this country of opening the New Testament at random on this day, considering that in the page chosen there may be, as it were, some final message from Jesus as he makes his way back into heaven. Each one in turn opens the New Testament and reads the whole chapter he has lighted on, while the rest of the family or group help him to make that chapter practical for himself.

At first, it seemed a little... I don't know... bordering on superstition? But hey, if it's good enough to post on Catholic Culture, it's good enough for me.

Each of us picked up the Bible, and these are Scriptures that were given to us (Daddy was working. He had a funeral earlier today and is at an Ascension Day service now):

For Mama:
Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. (2 Corinthians 3:4,5)

For Nicholas:
For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. (1 Corinthians 3:9)

For Katie Grace:
Blessed...are those who hear the word of God and obey it. (Luke 11:28)

For Michael:
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Pretty interesting. We're going to copy out the verses and put them someplace where we can see them every day.

Around the World with the Blessed Mother: Our Lady of La Leche

During Mary's month of May, we're studying geography with Jesus' Mama. I was inspired by this post over at First Heralds. I popped over to The Bookwork for resources and ideas as well.


We started out in Florida, with Nuestra Senora de la Leche y buen parto-- Our Lady of Plentiful Milk and Happy Delivery. Since we were waiting for a baby to be born, this seemed like a good place to start!

First stop was the website of the Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche. We talked a little about the history and found Florida on the map.

You Tube of all places had a video that showed the statue in detail and we prayed the Hail Mary.

Finally, we printed out the images and the prayer and made some cards for some new mamas and mamas-to-be. Nicholas glued the picture and prayer on a piece of shiny cardstock for me to put up on my dressed.

Prayer for Motherhood:

Lovely Lady of La Leche, most loving mother of the Child Jesus, and my mother, listen to my humble prayer. Your motherly heart knows my every wish, my every need. To you only, His spotless Virgin Mother, has your Divine Son given to understand the sentiments which fill my soul. Yours was the sacred privilege of being the Mother of the Savior. Intercede with him now, my loving Mother, that, in accordance with His will, I may become the mother of other children of our heavenly Father. This I ask, O Lady of La Leche, in the Name of your Divine Son, My Lord and Redeemer. Amen.

What a day!

Poor Emily over at Free Range Ramblings had a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day. I hope she doesn't move to Australia though, because people in this town who get me are in short supply. I'm also worried my kids somehow broke her house, LOL!

We had a beautiful day. We lit one of our Candlemas candles so we would remember to pray for our friend Donna who was scheduled to have her fifth baby girl today.

We also discovered that we only have 11 more days of school to log- whoo hoo!!!
What we've been doing:
MATH: Both kids have moved into next year's texts. Michael is working on number sense and where numbers fall on a number line and Katie Grace is reviewing doubles and near doubles in sums through ten.
GEOGRAPHY: We started our "Around the World with the Blessed Mother" unit. I'll do another post on this.
DEVOTIONS: We're still working on the fruits of the Spirit. This week's fruit is joy.
LANGUAGE ARTS: Michael is doing a newspaper unit. Next week he's going to read a bio of Ben Franklin, but this week he's reading Kipling's A Jungle Book. He's a little annoyed with Disney for dumbing things down. Katie Grace is in the home stretch of The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. She's also reading Arnold Lobel's Mouse Tales to me. Then there's spelling and handwriting, but that's not too exciting.
READ ALOUD: Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
STORY OF THE WORLD: We're back in Rome. Julius Caesar was assassinated today. Nicholas seemed a little appalled.
SCIENCE: We're starting on birds on Monday.
ART: We're learning about portraits. We did profiles this week. Bless their hearts, they try.
MUSIC: We sort of took the week off. We learned lots about Haydn last week though. And really, with cello and piano and choir and ballet, we never really take the week off.
HEALTH AND SAFETY: We baked up a storm this week. And today we finally used our new ice cream maker--yummy!
CHRISTIAN ED: Today we learned about good St. Joseph who worked so tirelessly to provide for Mary and Jesus, and also about Ascension Day.

And the day ended with some brotherly goodness. Did you know our little corner store still sells 25 cent ice pops? How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity.