Waiting around.

While waiting in the car for Christopher to finish lacrosse practice, Rolo and Keener played.  They love climbing over the seats and sitting in the front seat.  Rolo came over to me, looked me straight in the eye and in a very serious voice said "Mommy, I love you.  I REALLY REALLY Love you.  I'll love you forever."  Then he gave me a hug and a kiss.  He has gotten so affectionate and tender since Honey has been gone.  I am loving this so much.  It's moments like this where you don't want them to grow up, but at the same time can't wait to see what kind of man he will become.

A New Record =5

Today I had 5 doctor appointments, a new record for me.  The most I had previously had was three.  Yippee for me!  I sometimes wish I had gone to medical school, so I would at least be paid for all the time I spend in the doctor's offices!!! The forms are what really kill me.  While the government was annoying us with another piece of paper to sign-HIPAA- a totally useless piece of junk that only lawyers care about--Yes that's right, you heard me! the rest of us DO NOT CARE!    Anyway, the government should have invested the time to create a standard intake form, with name address, next of kin and insurance information.  A short family history form and a long family history form, and a "Yes I read HIPAA" form. If I could bring those papers with me to any doctor appointment then it would save me 30 minutes a doctor filling out this junk.  It literally took me longer at the GI doctor's office to fill out the forms than time I spent with the doctor and Dr. Lee is one of those doctors that spends a lot of time with you.   Come on AMA help a patient out already!!!

Elizabeth's Lacrosse

Even though it was Keener's 2nd Birthday, We still had sports to get to.  Elizabeth had her first official game of the lacrosse season, she had a scrimmage last week and eventually, I will get those pictures on here if I can ever figure out how to get flicker on the blog!.  She loves playing middie and she seems to really enjoy the sport.  I am so glad that we signed her up last year.  It is nice to see her enjoy a sport. Here is a picture of my fantastic lacrosse player with Uncle B.  Sorry for the photo quality, it's definitely user error,  too many moving parts for me.

Final Four

Today was Keener's 2nd Birthday.  How did my baby get so BIG!  She is talking up a storm, the funniest is when she tells her "knock knock" jokes.  It just makes you laugh because a baby is telling you a joke!  She is such a little spitfire and boy is she fast.  She can run and climb so fast it is amazing.  Much faster than the other kids, but I guess that's what happens when you want to keep up with the big kids.

   To celebrate, my dear friends Uncle B (Christopher's Godfather) and Aunt A came over with their own littlest baby (who's now 15!) and their grandson R- (he's 3).    R- gets along so nicely with Rolo that it is always a pleasure to have him come over.  He loves being around all the big kids and they are so good with him.  I barely notice that there is another kid around except it REDUCES the bickering to have him around!  Needless to say I wish they would come over ALL the time!  We had beautiful weather and Uncle B grilled dinner and we ate cake.  It was a wonderful day for me because I got to have an adult conversation, a glass of wine, and dinner with friends and my sweet kids.  What a wonderful day!  The only thing missing was Honey.

Ready 

Set

Blow!

Lacrosse Begins for #2

      Christopher drug me out in the rain to watch Navy play Georgetown today. (They won-yeah!).  After that he went to his first Lacrosse game today.  He looked great out there.  I think his practice is paying off.  He does a good job of catching and throwing, especially for his first year playing.  He looked like he had a lot of fun, but he was disappointed that he did not score a goal. He did have an assist though.  I told him he can work on his skills and try again in the next game.  I have no doubt that he'll do it, he just needs to not forget that he's on a team!  My sports nut is at it again. (He's #2 Red in the photos, with the green pants.  Did I ever say he was color coordinated?)

 

Mom's Day

 

It was Mom's day at Rolo's Preschool.   Mrs. H is his teacher again this year.  He really likes her.  She has already had Christopher as a student 3 years ago.  I like having the familiar face and  she is so good with the kids.  Rolo showed me around his classroom and built puzzles with me and flew airplanes with me.  It was wonderful to spend an hour alone with him and just enjoy being with him for a minute.

The Storm

 

     My dear little niece came over today to spend the night.  She gets along very well with Rolo since they are only 9 months apart.  Despite the fact that they are normally trouble free when together, their quiet project turned into a mess-fest.  Baby Keener decided to join in the fun and quiet painting became a big mess.  But how do you get mad when they are so cute in their devilment?

    Keener loves painting on herself.  Luckily she has never found any permanent markers!

The Calm

We had nowhere to go today and boy did it feel nice to just stay at home.  We got so much done with school and had great attitudes doing it.  We even finished early!!  So, I let the kids build forts in the living room with the couch cushions and blankets.  They had great fun building the mountain and being extra tall.  Keener and Rolo took the cushions off the couch just to use it as a trampoline, they LOVE to do this.  The kids had tickling matches and enjoyed each other. What a blessing a day at home can be.

Here's  a few photos of Keener and Rolo. "We're Crazy!" They shouted to me as I took the photos.  I had to agree.

  

Late lunch

My first day with both Lacrosse practice and CCD (Catholic Catechism Class) was craziness indeed.  We now have to eat dinner at 4:30! in order to be at lacrosse practice at 5:15.  I never understood why other families would eat that early, but now I know.  It feels so odd to eat that early.  It feels like a late lunch.  

We of course were still rushing out the door, but what else is new? When I am early it shocks me more than being late or squeezing in right on time.  Going down our usual route, there was an accident that blocked the road and we had to detour.  My sweet Christopher suggested saying a prayer for the people in the accident.  At least something I am doing is getting results.  I am proud of my baby for his thoughtfulness.

A Day of Cakes

While Christopher was making his cake, Elizabeth decided to make her own cake.  She chose to make a Gingerbread Cake. I let her make the cake entirely by herself-no help at all.  It definitely took a lot longer to make than I would have taken, but with food its all about the results, not the process.  So how did it taste?  Great!  I am proud of her for making her first solo successful dessert.  She's turning into quite a little cook.  I would post a picture here, but there's not cake left to take a picture of! 

Crazy Cake

Today Christopher made a crazy cake for Boy Scouts.  Here's the basic idea of the event: the boys bake a cake then decorate it.  Let them be creative, and see what happens.  Then they "auction" the cakes off, but only the boys can bid.  The max bid is $20.  He got to decide what he was making, so with all the Easter stuff in the store, he went with a "dirt cake" in an Easter basket (bucket). Here is the picture of his cake that he made which went for the max bid of $20.  Congrats to him for being creative!  Well, I'm sure all the candy had a little to do with it!  

   

Here is the description of his cake that was on an index card for the viewing table.

Easter Bunny Basket Cake

Created by Christopher 

A Crumbled white cake is mixed with a crumbled chocolate brownie cake.  Resembles “dirt”.  “Dirt” is filled with jellybeans.  It’s all ready to start your own Jellybean garden! Basket is filled with “grass” icing , more jellybeans and a few surprises from the Easter Bunny.

The second picture is of the cake that he won, he paid $2 for the one he bought.  It spells CIA, the picture didn't take too well because of the foil it's sitting on.  The theme was supposed to be "When I grow up", but they said to just let the younger boys be creative and if it happens to fall into the theme, then great.   I guess Christopher wants to be the Easter Bunny when he grows up!

Navy Lacrosse Hero

Luckily for the kids their lacrosse practices were canceled Saturday and we were able to go to a USNA Lacrosse "Meet the Mids" event.  We had been last summer to the "Meet the Mids" event with the football players and the kids enjoyed it very much.  Due to the late notice of the canceled practices, we did not make it to see the game, but arrived while the parking lot was emptying out.  Great for me since I got a parking spot 3 places from the entrance!!  Since we were late & the line was long, I let the kids get some USNA lacrosse T-shirts and browse the shop while we waited for the line to shorten.   This of course meant that we were literally at the end of the line.  This lasted about 15 minutes until two more families showed up.  

While in line ,  I let the kids play within eyesight while I waited  and chatted with the person in front of me.  His daughter ran and played with my brood and we talked about Hawaii, USNA, and submarines.  He was stationed in Pearl Harbor the same time we were.  I was grateful to have someone to talk to.  It made the 45 minute wait go by a lot faster.  

Once we got to meet the midshipmen, I was very glad that I had gone.  Christopher is a huge fan of #14 Tim Paul's and was anxious to meet him.   The event is set up into a receiving line with tables for the mids to sit and sign their autographs.  Since we got to meet all the mids, Christopher had to wait until almost the end to meet Tim.  In the meantime he was carrying his goalie stick and all the goalies were so nice to him and chatted about being a goalie, what team he played on and other lacrosse topics.  The Plebe goalie RJ Wickham was very friendly and spoke with Christopher for several minutes.  I was personally very impressed with the team; they had lost the game, we were 3rd from last in line, and it was cold, yet the players were friendly and courteous to all the kids.  Elizabeth enjoyed talking with the players since she plays lacrosse and has something to chat about.  When Christopher finally reached Tim Paul, he was very excited and I must say that Tim was very kind and generous with his time.  It made the event so worthwhile to let my child meet his lacrosse hero and have his hero be a real gentleman to him.  The simple acts of kindness from all of the players meant a lot to my children.  I am grateful to have had a great day filled with memories for my kids.

  

Here's a photo with his new shirt signed by all the players.  Here's Rolo ready to play as well.

Mothers vs Fathers

At my local homeschool family night, a few other parents and I were playing Blokus (check out how to pronounce it, too)  and chatting. Keener had been acting like a hamster.  She was busily stuffing food in her mouth and storing it in her cheeks.  She finally reached the point where nothing else would fit, so rather than try to swallow any, she took option B,  Spit it out.  She was pointed away from me towards another mother  (Mrs. P) who instinctively put out her hand to "catch" the gunk.  Luckily for Mrs. P's hand, I grabbed a cup and slipped it under Keener's mouth just in the nick of time.  This started a discussion:  What would a mother in this situation do vs what would a father do, if the child was not your own?.  Mrs. B said that her husband would have scooted his chair back and gotten away.  All the dads at the table all agreed with Mrs. B.  They were not about to catch a child's chewed up food unless they had to.  All the mothers agreed that gross or not, we would have just caught the gunk.  So here's  a cheer to all you mothers helping each other out with the grossness but necessity of life.

Elizabeth's words

Just for fun, Here's Elizabeth's joke of the Day.

Holy Sheep!

Totally inappropriate I know, but funny none the less.

Teeth

We lost another tooth!  Christopher had a tooth that has been threatening to come out for two weeks.  Finally it came out tonight, with a little help from Mommy.  With a little sprinkling of fairy dust, a gold coin was exchanged for the tooth.  

Chuck E. Pleeeeeaaaasssseee!!!!!

I finally indulged my children and allowed them to have a party at Chuck E. Cheese.  Craziness and expensive bad food that kids somehow love!   The kids had a great time and for that I am grateful.  Rolo celebrated with his preschool classmates and a few homeschooling friends for the older kids.  They had a great time and I am glad that I was smart enough to have the party on a weekday afternoon.  There was no crowd.  So, now that I can check that off of my list of things to do (and not repeat!!!) in my life, I am happily past the 3rd of four birthdays and looking forward to being done with Birthday month.  Poor Keener, I will always be grateful when her birthday is over since it will mark the end of the Birthday season in our house.

Thank Goodness for friends like these!

With Honey gone, it has been tiring to deal with all the sickness and get anything done. Especially during birthday month!  I am so grateful to all the people who have helped me out by running errands, fixing meals, watching the kids, taking them to a practice or playdate.  I don't know what I would do without them.  It fills my heart with such joy that I have surrounded myself with such caring people.  Despite the fact that Honey is gone, I feel a great amount of love, and for that I am truly thankful for my many blessings. 

Spring

The first sign of Spring.  Ahhhh, I can feel the warmth coming back to my bones!

My Turn

So last night it became my turn to get the stomach bug.  Oh joy!  The headache that accompanied it, kept me on the couch all day.  Thank goodness for Elizabeth and Christopher.  Without them helping with Keener, I don't know what I would do.  I could barely make it to the phone to cancel a play date for Elizabeth.  This is definitely one of those times that I miss Honey the most.  September will not come soon enough!  In the meantime I just keep reading Job and thanking God that my trials are not as hard as Job's, even if it feels like it somedays!

Basketball Finale

For the last game of the season Christopher hurt his ankle and had to leave the game for a quarter.  Luckily he was fine, but unfortunately they lost the game.  Afterwards the whole team went to the end of the year party at Dairy Queen which is a favorite for the kids.  I had to run errands and couldn't stay, but luckily Christopher's friend  and teammate was taking him to the see the Harlem Globetrotters that night.  I wish I had been able to see the Globetrotters.  They are so entertaining.  Maybe next year.   He came home tired, but thrilled to have had such a fun and busy day.

Seeing the Whole person

Our dear friends and Keener's Godparents came over to dinner Friday night.  I should say that they brought me dinner, not that I made it.  What a wonderful treat to not cook and have friends over! You can check out Mary Lenaburg's blog here.  They have a son 19 (home from college for spring break) and a daughter 16.  Their son is so wonderful at playing with my boys.  They love roughhousing with him and playing on the Playstation with him.   Their daughter Courtney is a special gift from God.  She has her struggles here on earth more than anyone I have ever met, but she perseveres and has beaten the odds.   Non the less, she does have her daily struggles and must remain in her wheelchair most of the time and eat dinner on a separate time schedule.  So on Friday night, my children set the table as they usually do and set a place for Courtney, as they usually do.  It is not possible for Courtney to join us in sitting at the table, although she normally joins us from her chair right beside us.  What struck Mary about this seemingly small event of setting the table, was that my children always set a place for Courtney.  My children are able to see Courtney as the whole person that God created.  Many people would pass over her and not set a place for her, as if she was not entitled to eat with the rest of us!  I am no perfect person by any stretch of the imagination, but it does make me proud that my children see the beauty and humanity in every person.  I hope that they will always set a place for Courtney.

VII

March is the Month of Birthdays in our house.  Today was child #2.  It is amazing how it truly does not feel like 7 years since Dr. Farr was running into the delivery room to try to catch my baby.   Okay, delivery my baby. (Really, truely it was catch...)

    What a crazy world of energy the doctor brought into my life.  Even today he was go! go! go! all day long.  He came to wake me up this morning by telling me that I had not told him "Happy Birthday" yet.  In my groggy state, all I could reply was "I said it last night at 12:30".  Ughh, I am NOT a morning person.  He most certainly is!!!  I always say that I only want to see the sun rise because I stayed up to see it, not because I got up to see it.

   Christopher definitely keeps me hopping and I am eternally grateful for such a wonderful boy.  He just keeps my supply of hugs and kisses full.  He has told me that when he is grown up, I have to see him on his birthdays so he can give me a kiss.  Make my heart go pitter patter!

Dogs

I received news that my dear puppy's "boyfriend" died today.  They were born only a few weeks apart and grew up going to "puppy play group" and being great pals.  Leader was such a sweet dog.  I only wish that their puppies had  survived.  At least my puppy does not have to know that her friend is gone. 

   What is it about dogs that makes them so hard to loose?  Maybe it's the unconditional love and affection or maybe its the happy face every time you come home.  Maybe it's just the big slobbery kisses, but having a dog is such a wonderful thing that it is hard to imagine my life without one.  

Beep............. Beep.............. Beep

I am desperately trying to sleep, so what do I hear? Beep............ Beep............ Beep............ Beep............

I wish I had a gun.  I would shoot that blasted smoke detector!  I mean really.  It is only 1 day after daylight savings and it is EARLY this year too!  Why does in need it's battery replaced NOW at 4 in the morning!!!    And of course it's the one that I need the ladder for!

  Job, well, he's a friend of mine.   We understand each other!!!!!!!!!!!

Time

After a month of not knowing what time it is for Honey, I finally got smart and changed the Microwave clock to "Honey time."   So I expect the power to go out tomorrow and ruin all my plans!

    A lot of people seem to notice that I write the blog really late at night.  Am I the only one who never checks the time on blogs or emails?  The sweet truth is that I can not sleep without my Honey near me.  I just have to live with less sleep for several months while he is gone and I will be a grump sometimes.  My sweet puppy is the only creature that can help me sleep.   She has comforted me on many deployments and I am grateful for such a wonderful dog.  I just wish she could live for another 12 years.  

X

Yesterday Elizabeth turned 10 (X in Roman numerals for you scholarly types!).  Wow!  A whole decade old.  It is hard to imagine that my little baby is 10.  It seems like yesterday that I was singing her songs and rocking my little baby.  Time is such a funny thing.  It crawls some days and it flies away on others.  How does it do that?

      It was a very special birthday for her because when I was 10 I got a special ring from my grandmother.  It was supposed to be given to my oldest daughter on her 10th birthday.  I was shocked a few months ago when I realized that the time had come to pass it on to my dear Elizabeth.   I was very glad to give it to her and look forward to seeing her wear it.

Mothers

     I got a startling call today from my dearest childhood friend.  Her Mother had unexpectedly passed away yesterday.   I feel so saddened for my friend and hope that she finds strength to move on.   I guess when you have no choice but to move forward, you just do it.   Motherhood is such a precious gift and a joy, but the loss of a mother must be heart wrenching.  I remember very clearly when my own mother's mother died.  Not knowing what to say to her (and who does really know the right thing to say?),  I said "It will be alright."  What my mother said back to me has echoed in my ears all these 15 years since.  She said, "No, it will not be alright.  It will never be alright again."

     How true she was.  It never has been the same.   I long for my grandmother.  I long to know what she thought about silly things like her favorite song or flower, but especially once I had children of my own.  What does she think of my choices in life? Would she be proud of me? happy for me? It's the unanswered questions that bother me, for I will never know the answers. It is amazing how you can miss someone so much, even though many years have gone by.  Even now it is hard to think about her without crying.

    A daughter's relationship with her mother is like a wave in the ocean, sometimes it's calm and sometimes it's a tidal wave.  Even still, when the seas are rough,  what remains is that this woman chose to give me life.   She took care of me so that I could take my first breath, and for that no child could ever truly thank her.  How do you thank someone for the gift of life?

SOTW-Homeschooling Link

Story of the World Additional Reading Library List

For fellow Homeschoolers here is the link.

Sorry!

"Patience is a virtue." 

I say this to Christopher almost every day.  Of course, I wish someone would stop and say it to me every day!  Today we played a nice "relaxing" game of Sorry!  If, by relaxing, you mean pulling Keener off the table every 30 seconds, taking away the game pieces that she continued to steal because they were "candy", and constantly reminding each kid to take his or her turn.  I was Soooo glad when the game was over!  It certainly was a lesson in patience for me today! The good news is that the kids had fun and are doing great at working together.  I lost of course, but not for lack of trying to win.  The cards were stacked against me!  

        This is such a great example of how their attitude, since I have started homeschooling, is so different.  It is amazing.  They nicely reminded each other to go next, they didn't skip anyone on purpose, & there was no taunting.  Dare I say, that they seem to be developing friendships amongst themselves?  Not that they are angels every day, but that would be a little dull I think.  

I am grateful to be able to teach them & let them teach me too. Thank you Honey for believing in me and letting me give homeschooling a try. One of the best parts is the "tips". When I am tired and stressed, Rolo always knows and gives me a hug, a kiss and an "I love you Mommy".  He really keeps me sane some days.  

No offense to any Dominicans

On our way to CCD today Elizabeth and I were chatting about the upcoming election next Tuesday (a special election to fill a vacancy).  There are signs everywhere for Moon (D) and Cook (R).  Northern Virginia has become a battleground area for the Democratic Party (previously only a Republican area).  The Republican Party lost a great number of seats last November and also in February (The 1st Round of Special Elections).  Knowing this, Elizabeth asked if it was illegal to have only the Dominicans in office.   I replied, "Uh, I think you mean Democrats Elizabeth..."   I guess I REALLY need to get working on that Geography now!

    From my soapbox: Don't ever miss an opportunity to vote in an election.  Too many people fought for that freedom to be blasé and think it doesn't matter.  

Let it Snow!

 Home Sweet Home

Yeah! Finally the kids got snow this winter.  We were visiting with Daddy in South Carolina during the last snowstorm, so the kids have not had the chance to play in the snow.  7 Inches!   Boy were they thrilled.  I, of course, had a Chiropractor appointment,  so I had to go shovel the 7 inches of snow to get out!   

     Elizabeth stayed outside forever!  The boys on the other hand thought 10 minutes was fine.   Oddly enough our Hawaiian born dog LOVES the snow.  She frolicks and jumps in the snow like a kid herself.   The snow did give us the opportunity to make Laura Ingalls Snow Candy (Little House Cookbook) .   I remember making this when I was little.   It is sooooo easy, so here's the recipe.

1 cup Dark Molasses

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

 

4 nine inch cake pans filled with snow

1  two quart pan

1 spouted ladle or small heatproof pitcher

1 cup with cold water (To test for hard ball stage of candy

or you city folk can use a candy thermometer if you must!)

Combine Molasses and Sugar.  Heat on Medium heat on the stove.  Stir to prevent burning.    When it reaches hard ball stage, pour on snow in patterns.  Eat when cooled.  

The kids loved making the candy, but don't like the flavor of the molasses.  Oh well, sometimes the adventure is the journey not the destination.

   The kids do love eating the icicles

Straightjackets for all my kids!

Keener is manic girl at the basketball games for Christopher lately.  She keeps wriggling out of my arms and running out on the court.  Thank God for overalls, at least I have built in handles to grab her.   Luckily. she's only stopped the game once... If it wasn't so funny, I might be more embarrassed.   I would buy a straightjacket, but it won't help.  Both boys have been put in one and strapped down in the ER while getting stitches, and they both GOT OUT!!   My kids are way to wriggly for the simplistic notion of a straightjacket!   

  

In like a Groundhog out like a Tasmanian Devil

Boy am I glad it's March!  I am awake at 2:00 in the morning because Elizabeth is having her 2nd go round of the stomach flu.  This is not uncommon, but I just feel so sorry for her.  My Sweetness has always had a very weak stomach and I just know in my heart that one day the mystery of her stomach problems will be revealed.  Until then, I can only pray for her comfort and healing and the end of her suffering.  

    February has been in like a groundhog and out like a Tasmanian Devil with a Tornado in the middle!  I think we have been sick more days than we have been well.  Here's a cheer for March and the 4 birthdays of my children.  Plan a party, clean for party, bake a cake: (Repeat 4 times until done).   I guess there's no rest for the weary... soooo April's looking good for me to have a day of rest????!   Maybe I should put that in my schedule?