Journal: February 3

Outside my window: Whaddaya know, grey and cold again.  blah.

Clothing myself in: yoga pants, brown t-shirt - lazy Sunday hurrah!

Around the house: Finally finally scrubbed the kitchen floor, Cinderella style.  It is a pain, but it seems to be the only thing that really gets it clean.  The linoleum has grooves that get dirty and need to be really scrubbed, and the only way I've found to do it effectively is on my hands and knees - thus why I procrastinate doing it endlessly.  Andy got one wall in the bedroom downstairs built (studs, drywall hung)
Got garden plans tentatively made for this Spring.  We don't need to buy very many plants/seeds because of propagating them from last years crops, but I do think we'll be buying two grafted tomato varieties just b/c we haven't found roma or sandwich tomato varieties that we just love yet.  (For those who care, we're looking at a grafted San Marzano and a grafted Mortgage Lifter from Gardens Alive.)

Ira: 
-Got to go to the ER last Sunday night with a high fever and confusion/lethargy.  It was really scary to see him so incapable of understanding things (didn't know/understand how to take the tylenol tablets out of my hand and chew them, didn't know how to get his shirt on, had to be carried out of bed and to the car.)  I don't think I've ever been as fearful for my child's health as I was that night.  They checked him for pneumonia and meningitis at the ER and said that it must have just been the high fever possibly combined with dehydration causing it.  He missed the first two days of Catholic School's Week due to the fever.
-Is getting better at spontaneous jokes.  We were at the dinner table this past week and Andy was talking about someone he works with named Kevin and Ira chimed in "Henno!" (Like Kevin from 3-2-1 Penguins.)  It took Andy and I a second to catch it, but it was SO FUNNY!
-Had a particularly rough time with him Friday evening and Saturday morning as he's developed a "rude-dude-attitude."  He spent over an hour in our room (he just distracts himself with reading in his own room) adjusting his attitude and wow, the rest of the day was really nice.  Andy and I sat down with him after his "room time" and had a great talk with him about  pride, sin, having a contrite heart, etc.  It was good.
-Had his school's winter carnival last night.  Came home with a couple handfuls of junk treasures and the book "The Squire and the Scroll."  I was thrilled as I've wanted to buy the book for him each time I've visited the Catholic Bookstore, but haven't ever been able to justify the brand-new cost.  

Ruby:
-Was sick last weekend just like Ira, but her fever never got as high.  Pretty sure she inherited Andy's immune system & Ira inherited mine (lucky girl, poor guy.)   She still has the cough, but it doesn't seem to bother her too much.
-Still concerned about whose turn it is to talk, although not quite as intensely as last week.
-Has been successfully keeping her underwear dry at naptime (and bedtime most nights, although she wears a diaper then.)
-Had a very fun time at the Winter Carnival last night.  Got her hair sprayed red and orange, had quite the arm on the bean bag toss, and won the big prize (a giant pixie stick) at Plinko.
-Had to throw her last two binkies away this week because they were totally, totally torn up/disintegrating.  She threw the last one away today before her nap and no tears were shed and she slept great.  Could it really be that simple?  We shall see!

In the Kitchen:
Bobby's Goulash with Green Beans (this btw is an absolute favorite, easy, delicious, healthy - I can't wait!); Chicken Quesadillas with Black Beans; Hamburger Vegetable Stew with Foccacia

Hobbies:
Made some homemade mama cloth for my sister who should have her baby any day now.  It was the project I referred to in my post last week.  I think I'm finally pleased with my design.  I'm hoping to make some for my own stash before maybe setting up an Etsy shop to sell them.

Bringing me Joy:  This is the month!!!  We get to go to PPVI Institute this month.  I am so anxious/excited/nervous/thrilled/hopeful about finally getting some concrete answers about our difficulties.

Thinking about: Everything I have to get done/ready/packed/talked about in anticipation of aforementioned trip.  Feeling a little overwhelmed and like I just want to retreat to bed and not deal with it at all.  I'm sure that'll help.

Pictures to share:

Fun hair from Winter Carnival.

Sissy got her hair did too!
This is what she did when I said "Let's take a picture of you!" Such spunk!

Journal Take 1

So, yeah, trying to jump back into blogging, thought I'd jump on the journaling bandwagon...  Before I start though, you should probably know that way back in August, we miscarried another baby - that's kind of why the blogging came to a halt.  We had genetic testing done to see if there were any genetic/chromosomal issues that were causing our miscarriages.  Nothing abnormal showed up on the tests, but they did indicate that our baby was a girl.  That's still just surreal to me.  We've always guessed before, but to know?  Wow.  Other than that, life is still just plowing along. Hopefully I'll be able to document better the quickly passing days with this journal.  I'm not known for my dedication to this blog though, so we'll just play it by ear I guess...

TODAY

Outside my window: Sunny, 60s, the garden finally bit the dust this weekend with a couple freezes.  Except maybe the lettuce might survive?

Clothing myself in: Blue long sleeve shirt and jeans. With a belt. Because they won't stay up without it.

Around the house: I DEEP cleaned nearly 2 weeks ago.  I keep telling myself that "it's still clean" despite the fact that um. it's not. Hmmm... and the fish aquarium needs cleaned badly.  I should do that.

Ruby: Talks and sings all the time.  Is in a bit of a "whiney" stage lately.  We're working on "using big voices."  Has a huge imagination.  Her favorite toys lately have been the Fisher Price Little People and Animals.  We purged a ton of them, but have a few left and boy do they get played with. Daily.

Ira: Has a very loose tooth on top.  Got new glasses that fit him SO much better.  Is reading nearly 4th grade level books for AR for school.  Is getting better at doing his chores (or paying me to do them.)  Has been showing less resistance/anger when he gets in trouble.  But also has been terrible at mass the last 2 weeks.

In the kitchen: Tomato Mushroom soup with grilled cheese, Not Red Spaghetti Sauce with Angel Hair Pasta, Ground Beef Stroganoff, and Pitas and Hummus with Black Beans and Eggs.

My hobbies: Getting ready to make yogurt this week again - it's been awhile.  Finally started my online (self-paced) class on Photoshop last week.  I've learned a TON.  Made a "scuba diver" costume for Ira last night.  Turned out really cute and was very easy!

Bringing me joy: Got our letter from Pope Paul VI Institute today regarding our recurrent miscarriages.  They want to see us and run every test in the book (or so it seems.)  I am SO SO SO happy to finally be going somewhere with this all.  Seriously was a bawling mess when I got the letter.

Thinking about: Family drama, keeping my temper in check, being patient and LOVING even when it's REALLY hard.  How cruddy I've felt lately because of how out of whack my hormones are.  Heap. of. tears. All the time.

Picture to share: (which for now will be totally unedited, because I am still figuring out my workflow and I don't want that to keep me from sharing pictures.)

Andy & I at my Class Reunion a few weekends ago.  

Random bullets...

So it's been a few weeks since I've updated the blog, which means that I have been living my life and thinking about posting on the blog, but not actually doing it. Then I get overwhelmed because of "everything" I would need to do to update it, then I procrastinate blogging until "next week."  But my house is clean (for once) and Ruby is sleeping and Ira is in school, so what have I left to do but blog...or sleep... I suppose I'll blog.  I'll fore-warn you that it may be random and incomplete, but it's a start and then hopefully next week I'll return to the "regularly scheduled" What I Loved posts.

• Ira went to Totus Tuus for the first time this summer.  He totally loved it!  We hosted the girls from the team again this year.  It is always fun to get to know young Catholics on-fire for their faith.  They give me hope!
• My best friend from high school, Laura, came down for a visit during Totus Tuus week.  We talked and talked and talked.  It was so nice to spend some time with her before life gets busy again with school (she's a teacher.)
• That same week, (what is it about Totus Tuus week and bad things happening in Andy's family?) Andy's mom ended up in the hospital because of stomach pain.  We spent many hours up at the hospital and the kids were troopers about it.  She ended up having to have a laproscopic surgery done to straighten out a "knuckle" in her small intestine that was causing an obstruction.  The whole thing was a pretty miserable experience for her, but luckily, she's recovered well and quickly!
• Successfully used my new pressure canner to put up some tomatoes for fall/winter/spring.  My first try, I didn't know what I was supposed to be listening for with the "jiggler", plus I used the raw-pack method, which left me with not enough product in the jar to create a hermetic seal and not enough certainty about the canning process that I just decided to freeze that batch. (the Mirro canners don't jiggle constantly, only 2-3 times per minute they let out a big puff of steam - of course, it couldn't say that in the directions... I had to dig that up on the internet)  I wasn't going to give up though, so the next week, I successfully canned 9 pints of tomatoes.  We have enough for about 4 months now, but I think I'm going to have to supplement with store-bought tomatoes (that I'll can myself) that I saw on sale the other day.  Our tomato plants are looking pretty dried up at this point.  
• Went to the Catholic Family Conference as a family for the first time.  Ira really enjoyed the Kids Program and Andy and I enjoyed many of the talks.  It was kind of a crazy weekend because we also had an out-of-town wedding to go to on Saturday afternoon/evening, but we made the most of it and made it through the weekend and hope to go back next year.
• Went to my cousin's wedding (whom I haven't seen for 6 years!)  It was so good to see family and celebrate!
• Sent the kiddos to Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend!  Andy's parents had all 4 of their grandkids (6,6,3,&2) over for a fun-filled time (Fri afternoon 'till Saturday night.)  Andy and I went out to dinner and then had movie certificates to use.  So we decided to go see a movie for the first time in probably 5 years.  I regret (and hesitate) to inform you that we saw "The Campaign" because we'd seen previews and thought it looked funny.  Although there were some funny parts, it was filthy and raunchy and just downright uncomfortable oftentimes.  I'm honestly embarrassed that we saw it.  What was even worse was that the theater was packed and everyone else seemed to think that the whole thing was just a riot.  I guess that's what I get for going off previews alone and not looking up reviews in advance.  Epic. fail.  Lesson learned (for 5 years from now when we go see a movie in the theater again.)  We did enjoy sleeping in the next day and then went to lunch and worked in the yard.  It was a nice break, but we were both ready to see the kids by Saturday night!
• "Dreaded" the end of summer.  Unlike last year, where Ira and I were BOTH ready for school start, I was really sad to see him go back to school this year.  He's growing up and maturing into such a neat little boy that I truly miss having him around during the day.  I didn't spend as much one-on-one time with him as I would've liked to this summer, but we really did have a great summer with him at home.
• Rubyism: "I need a dan-daid.  My tummy's on wrong."
• Prepped the garden for fall, leaving only the tomatoes, green peppers, green beans, and okra still standing.  The squash bugs had obliterated the zucchini and were moving on to the cukes and melons, so we just pulled it all up and sprayed with malathion to try to curb the problem.  Seems to have worked so far.
• Need to get all the fricking bermuda grass out of my front flower bed before it completely swallows up my flowers.  I was on top of it until mid-June, then it laughed and said "you think you can stop me, watch this!" and proceeded to fill in most of the flower garden.  We've worked on it a little bit, but it's such an obnoxious task that part of me just really wants to mow it all down and say "to heck with it."  Real mature, I know.
• Andy and Ira had "boy time" on the weekend before school started.  They camped out (in the backyard) and then went fishing.  Ira positively loves "boy time" and I think Andy enjoys it a lot too!  (Ruby and I cleaned and played and painted our fingernails & toenails while they were gone.)

Well, I think that catches you up for the most part.  Now I can go back to just being "whelmed" about posting.  Hopefully you'll hear from me again next week with a normal "What I Loved" post.

What I Loved About Last Week - 15th Ed.

Sheesh, I didn't really take many pictures or write down much about last week (usually I write down keywords on a notepad by the computer) So this one's going to be from the 'ole noggin alone... results may vary...

Here's what I loved about last week - June 25 - July 1st.

1. Met with my Napro doctor again.  No, I am not pregnant. Keep praying on that one.  We have decided to pursue post-peak Progesterone shots to see if they make more of a difference than the Progesterone capsules were.  I am both excited and scared.  Excited because this is THE protocol that Pope Paul VI Institute in Nebraska would follow -  Scared because first off, it seems much more serious than just using progesterone capsules and secondly, because I have heard that the shots are painful.  The progesterone is compounded in sesame oil, which means that it is a thick shot – think cortisone shot.  It is administered in the rump (I know, laugh away) and has to be administered slowly because of how thick it is.  Andy gets to learn how to give them to me.  Fortunately, the progesterone is longer lasting than the capsules, meaning I only have to have the shots every 3 days.  Prayers for bravery (for me) and a steady hand (for Andy) would be appreciated!

2. Rubyisms.  Luckily, my light-of-my-life’s (Ira & Ruby) keep me from stressing too much over the shots.  Ruby has been obsessed with going out and playing in the snow lately.  I would think the hours that we spend outside each day would be enough to convince her that it is most certainly summer.  Nope. Pretty much every day this week, she’d ask, “Should we put on our pink mittens and go out and throw snow?!?!” And she was genuinely disappointed each time when I told her “There’s no snow, Ruby, it’s summer!”  So silly.

3. Garden dinners.  We are still battling the squash bugs (removing 100-200 eggs from the plants every few days) but luckily, it seems as though we’re at least keeping up with them, because we are still getting zucchini from the garden.  Seeing as how it was the end of the month, I had to get really creative with dinner one night last week.  We had like nothing left in the cupboards (or at least not enough to make a meal out of really… cheerios with black beans and green chilis anyone??) So, Andy smoked some zucchini slices and we topped them with couscous that I had made with tomatoes (canned from last year) basil, green onions (both from the garden), and balsamic vinegar.  It ended up being really delicious.  Even the kids loved it. (Ira has decided that his two-year-running dislike for zucchini is a thing of the past – HOORAY!)

4. Shopping with my mother-in-law.  I am seriously SO blessed by my mother and father in law.  They are about the nicest, most generous people you could ever know.  Last Thursday when we were talking during swimming lessons, she mentioned about going shopping to get the 4 grandkids clothes for having their picture taken together later in July.  Later that day, she picked us up and we went into town and got the kids some adorable coordinating outfits for pictures.  She also let Ira get some Angry Birds underwear, an Angry Birds shirt, some cool (size 2 big kids!) leather flip flops, and a Toy Story Book.  She got Ruby a purple tank top, Nike flip-flops, and a “You are my Sunshine” book.  No, my kids aren’t spoiled at all…  After shopping, we went and got drinks at Sonic (strawberry vanilla limeades – SO GOOD!)  Although the kids got a little antsy while shopping, we had so much fun and enjoyed the diversion from being at home all day.

5. 3-2-1 Cake.  My parents (also kind and generous) surprised us with six, yes 6! boxes of angel food cake.  On vacation, we learned how to make this awesome treat called 3-2-1 cake.  You use one box of angel food cake mix and mix it with a box of any other kind of cake mix (confetti, strawberry, yellow are some of our favorites) in a ziplock bag.  Then, when you’re ready for a sweet treat, you mix 3 Tablespoons of cake mix & 2 Tablespoons of water in a microwaveable mug.  Heat for 1 minute in the microwave and voila!  Delicious, easy, one serving of your favorite cake.  Try it, you won’t be disappointed!

6. Swimming lessons are over!  Ira didn’t pass, but he really improved his swimming a lot over the course of lessons.  I am sure that with some more time and practice, he will be able to pass next year.

7. Family day. Last Saturday, for once, we didn’t have anything at all planned.  We had a nice lazy morning and went swimming as a family in the afternoon.  Ruby, who is just about too big for her britches, decided that she likes to jump off the side of the pool all by herself. She jumps in and bobs to the top at which point we grab her and help her to the ladder (in 5 foot water no less.)  She and Ira spent the better part of an hour jumping in. I’m glad that she’s not afraid of the water, but I wish she feared it just a little bit more.  We’ve talked to her about never jumping into a pool when mommy or daddy aren’t in, but I’m just not sure how much of that she “gets.” Pretty glad at this point that nobody we know owns a pool.

8. Pickles.  For the first time, I canned some dill pickles on Sunday.  We had fresh dill from our garden and 8 pounds of pickling cukes that needed something done with them, so I pickled them with a recipe from my Ball Canning Book (Grandma’s Dill Pickles for those who also have the book.)  They are absolutely, positively delicious!  And the pickling cukes really are more crisp and crunchy.  We don’t normally eat a lot of dill pickles around here, so I had thought the 7 pints would last us all year.  However, with as tasty as these are, I’m guessing I’m going to have to make a lot more to last us through the whole year.

9. Early Independence Day.  We celebrated 4^th of July a few days early with Andy’s family.  On Sunday, we went out to their house and had brats (with our yummy dill pickles on top) and shot off fireworks.  Ira is still pretty leary of lighting anything (although he did let grandma pay him a dollar to light a smoke bomb.)  Ruby loved helping light things (again with the no healthy fear thing…) and doing sparklers.  Andy and I had fun throwing firecrackers in the lagoon and watching (and listening) to them explode.  While we were shooting fireworks, a kitten showed up and the kids had lots of fun petting it and holding it.  I tried my hand at some long-exposure photography (despite the fact that I didn’t have my tripod) with the fireworks.  I got a few good ones I think!  It was a great end to a great week!

Stomping snap-n-pops.

First shot

 

Last shot

What I Loved About Last Week 14th Ed.

Here's what I loved about June 18-24:

1. Swimming Lessons: Ira is taking swimming lessons for 2 weeks.  I don't love the time, as it's kinda smack in the middle of the morning, but I do love the skills he's learning.  It's so amazing to see him grow and develop as a swimmer.  (He's going to pass his mama before long!  Although I'm plenty comfortable in the water, I never took lessons past level 2 or 3 - so I never learned any strokes or anything.  I can tread water and do a mean dog paddle though!)  Ruby has lots of fun playing in the baby pool while Ira has "blessins" each day too.

Wearing the swimsuit that I wore when I was her age.

Ira jumping in at 5 foot.

2. You probably didn't notice in that photo of Ruby in the baby pool that she didn't have a swim diaper on.  That is because little Miss Ruby potty trained herself last week.  I can take absolutely no credit because it wasn't even really on my radar for her.  On Saturday the 16th, while at our nephew's swimming party, she said she needed to go potty (which she's said before, but never does.)  Regardless, I took her inside and sure enough, she went potty on the toilet.  On Sunday, during dinner, she again said she needed to go potty.  So I took her and again she went.  So Monday morning, I asked her if she wanted to wear underpants.  She answered with an enthusiastic YES! and has been wearing them ever since (except for naps and night time.)  I didn't want to "jinx" it last week, but since it's been over a week now, I think we really are done with diapers!  She's stayed dry at naps since last Monday and has even woken up a couple times during the night to go potty.  Absolutely blows my mind!  I am so thrilled!

Riding the Plasma car with her cousin on a nice evening last week.

3. Weeded the garden.  It looks so nice now and I am so impressed with how easy it is to pull weeds.  We are also very impressed with the results.  We have about half of the potatoes dug and have been pulling beets as well.  The lettuce is on it's way out with the heat, but we picked 2 cucumbers on Saturday, so I'm sure they'll be in full swing soon.  We also started picking jalapenos and green peppers this week - hooray!!  There are lots of green tomatoes on the vines right now, I'm sure they'll be ripening up over the couple weeks.  Let's see, what else?  The green beans are tiny, but coming soon I'm sure, as are the watermelons.  I LOVE the garden, that's for sure!

4. Beds.  With the addition of bunk beds, we needed to do the "bed shuffle" at our house.  So last week, here's how it went down: queen bed moved downstairs and set up in the "spare bedroom", crib moved downstairs and set up in the "spare bedroom", twin bed taken down in spare room and moved box spring to the storage room.  Mind you, I did all this while Andy was at work.  He never seems that surprised though when he gets home and the furniture isn't where it used to be.  Does anyone else hate bed frames as much as I do?  Good lord I can't stand those dumb metal things.  They are such a pain to get set up just right and then they fall apart after you get the bed on them, and then you pinch your finger trying to get them back together... maybe it's just me?

5. Pictures framed and up.  I had prints made of the Old Time photos we had taken in Galveston and hung them up in a collage in our living room.  I also had updated photos printed for our dining room wall photo collage.  It was a project that was long overdue and I'm thrilled to be done with it.

This one's for you, Karen.  You asked to see a picture of this grouping like a bajillion years ago.

6. Rubyisms: "I need a dam-baid" (bandaid).  And in response to one of the lines in the Litany for Liberty (join us in prayer!!)- "Give us your flowers."

7. Family Reunion.  We hosted my dad's side of the family who live nearby, but who we never manage to see throughout the year, at our house on Saturday for a reunion.  It was wonderful to see everyone and amazing to see how much the kids had grown/matured/changed since last year.  We had to play our traditional game of "Annie, Annie Over" which was lots of fun.  It seems as though there is always a twist in the game (like the year a plastic yard duck got thrown over my Grandma's house.)  This year, our team sent two balls around the block in a car to get "points."  Never a dull moment 'round here.

Waiting for another ball to come over the roof.

Look here comes another one!

8. Devil pepper.  Picked this pepper Sunday night and just thought it was too funny not to share.

Look at the horns on that thing!

What I Loved About Last Week 12th & 13th Ed.

So I realize, I'm still a week behind, but no more!  I'll catch you up on the last two weeks around here. (Don't mind the highlighting, blogger is being dumb...)

Week of June 4-June 10:
1. Picked dozens of cups of snap peas and started digging up potatoes.  This new method of gardening is rocking our socks off so far.  We are digging up red potatoes that are 4 and 5 inches across.  I've never  seen red potatoes that big before.  They are also mighty tasty!

2. Celebrated 7 years of marriage to my wonderful hubby.  He surprised me with flowers and dinner out sans kids.  We ate sushi at our favorite place and took my ruby ring to get it fixed (I lost the ruby on vacation.)  We also browsed through a kitchen store and found lots of cool gizmos and gadgets.  It was a just our style of date.  Love that guy more and more with each passing year!

3. Took the kids out to harvest wheat with Grandpa Bill.  We all got to ride and eat lunch out at the field.  We took lots of pictures at Bill's request because this was apparently the best wheat they'd ever had at that particular field (and probably the best they ever will.)

4. Washed my car.  We borrowed the power washer from the farm to wash the dune buggy (it's for sale by the way, so if you know anyone...) and decided to wash my car as well.  It was a fun family project with everyone scrubbing and spraying.

5. Got new tires on the car.  One of those things that you love to hate spending money on.  I always get a dorky satisfaction from taking care of things like that though...

6. Along the dorky lines.  I got new laundry baskets and I could not be more excited.  They are red and sturdy and so much nicer than the falling apart ones that we were using from when Andy was in college.  It's the little things, really.

7. Probably the biggest news of the week (at least in Ira's books) is that he finally got all of his toys back.  Not sure if I ever shared that story on here, but about 6 weeks ago, Andy and I were so disgusted with how Ira had acted at church the last 2-3 weeks, that we took every single toy he'd ever gotten and put them away until he could behave as we thought he could at Mass.  He improved little by little each week and finally on the 10th, he was good enough to earn them back.  It was like Christmas morning at our house seeing all the long-lost toys.  I must say, I didn't really miss them much, and quite honestly, the kids didn't seem to either.  I foresee a toy-clearing-out-athon in our future (if the hubs and I can agree on what to keep and what to let go of.)

There you have it for that week, now onto this past week - June 11-17:

1. Legos.  One day during Ruby's nap, Ira and I spent some time building with his newly-returned Legos.  It was really, really cool.  I built a fire truck.  I don't think I'd ever really built anything with Legos in my life, so it was a lot of fun to share that experience with Ira.

2. Laundry.  When Ira ran out of shorts (I know, I'm a terrible mother), I finally decided it was time to do the laundry from vacation and the week following.  It was a TON of laundry, and my washer ran pretty much the entire day nonstop, but it sure felt good to get it all done!

3. "Blunk beds."  Well I thought I would just be bragging about the fact that I finally ordered bunk beds for the kids, but the company we ordered them from is awesome and after ordering them on Monday afternoon, they were delivered on Thursday afternoon (for free no less!)  Andy got them set up that same night and both kids were sleeping in them by Friday (when Ruby's mattress came in.)  The kids have done excellent in their new beds.  I think all they really needed was their own spaces, because the circus that is bed time has calmed down significantly and I think everyone is sleeping better!  If you are ever in need of bunk beds, I would highly recommend Bunk Bed King.  The service was excellent, the shipping was free, the prices were great, and the bunk beds are S.O.L.I.D.  No fake wood here.  We could not be more pleased with our purchase. (And no, I am not receiving anything for this review, just a satisfied customer.)

4. Ira has figured out how to snap (for the most part) and it is so cute because he does it whenever his hands are free (like when he's waiting for his turn in a game or when he's in between steps on building legos.)

5. Swimming.  We've been spend a lot of time at the pool lately.  I can't believe how much more confident Ira is in the water.  I also cannot believe how comfortable Ruby is with it.  She'll wear just her floaties and float around the 4-5 ft. range just kicking and splashing and having a jolly good time.  Going to the pool this summer is so much more fun than last summer when all she'd do was stay on the step!

6. Celebrated my nephew's 6th birthday.  He had a swimming party and all the kids had fun swimming and "slip & sliding"  - even Ruby!

7. Climbed a silo.  Now that was pretty awesome.  After the birthday party, Andy's parents watched our kids so that we could climb the silo at the dairy farm.  I picked the tallest one (figured if I was going to do it, I might as well do it right) and up we went.  It was kind of grueling climbing it (but that could be because I'm an out-of-shape-lame-ozoid) but boy was the view at the top worth it all!  Just amazing.  Such a fun mini-date with my hubs!

We climbed the one on the right. About 85 feet tall.

If you look real close (or click on the picture to make it bigger,) you can our town on the horizon. It's about 6 or 6.5 miles away in this picture.

And if you look real close (or click on the picture to make it bigger,) in this picture, you can see the town I grew up in on the horizon.  It's about 13.3 miles away in this picture.

Although the sunset surely would have been beautiful to watch from on top the silo, there was no way I wanted to climb down in the dark!  So this was as close as we got to a "sunset" picture. Ad n by-the-by, you can see Andy's parents' house in this picture (the two silos in the middle of the photo are theirs.)  We were going to climb them, but decided to climb the taller ones at the farm.

8. Father's Day.  The kids and I got Andy a new smoker for Father's Day (along with all the fixins - wood chips, charcoal, a cover, ribs.)  We decided to have both of our dads (and moms too of course!) down for dinner on Sunday night.  Andy smoked ribs and potatoes and we had a delicious meal together.  Ruby thought it was pretty fun having two grandmas and two grandpas in the same place.

9. Rubyism - "Ira give me my stink eye back!" (She was referring to a pirate eye patch.)

10. Iraism - "Mom, I know you want the house clean, but that won't happen until nobody lives here and they demolish it."  Thanks Ira, thanks a lot.

Hope you have a great week!!

What I Loved About Last Week 9th Edition

Here's what I loved about last week (May 14-20):

1. Birthday.  Monday was my birthday and Andy found the most awesome card by one of my favorite children's authors, Sandra Boynton.  On the back it says "Boynton!  Trying to think of a motto since 1973."  If you haven't seen any of her books, you seriously need to go buy one right NOW.  Some of our favorites are "Moo, Baa, La La La," and "The Bellybutton Book."  Andy also made my day by having flowers delivered.  It was such a sweet surprise and totally made my day.  We took the kids to a Japanese Steakhouse (where they do tapanyaki cooking right there at your table.)  Although initially scared by the fire, Ira recovered nicely and said "awesome; that is so cool; and, how did you do that?!" for the rest of the dinner.  Ruby was pretty enthralled too.  They both had fun using chopsticks with little helpers on the end (plastic pieces that made them almost like a clothespin.)  I hadn't been there since my 20th birthday (long long ago) so it was fun to go eat some delicious food and see a fun show again (and of course the mom in me loved sharing the experience with my kids as much as anything.)

2. Fieldtrip. I helped chaperone Ira's kindergarten class' trip to the zoo.  It truly was a ZOO!  I only had 3 kiddos in my group (Ira included) but the zoo was so busy with other schools' fieldtrips that about the only thing I did all day was make sure that I hadn't lost one of my kids.  By the end of the day, I had a killer headache and a backache to boot, but it was fun getting to see Ira with his friends.

3.  We went through some boxes at my parents' house last week and found our old Geo Safari with about half a dozen sets of cards.  Nobody else wanted it, so I snatched it up thinking that it would entertain Ira this summer.  Boy oh boy, is it entertaining!  We've been learning all kinds of things from Geography to Spanish and Landmarks to Puzzles.  He loves playing it by himself, but we've also had fun playing 2 players.  I foresee the Geo Safari getting lots' o' use this summer!

4. Rubyisms.  Sheesh, this is becoming almost a weekly feature, but I tell you what, the girl cracks me up.  Her latest are: pree-dee-ah-school (preschool - we drive by her cousin's preschool on our way to pick Ira up from school.)  And then there's this: We duh duh duh cleem uh def uh Lord, we da cleem uh resuhrehtion, an you not tome a din, an you not tome a din!"  (The Mystery of Faith that we sing at church "We proclaim your death oh Lord, and profess your Resurrection, until you come again.")  She is also really into singing "O Saving Victim" at the top of her lungs all throughout the day.  It's a hoot that I've yet to catch on video (because although she sings it at the top of her lungs, she gets all shy about it when you start paying attention to her.)

5. Schooooooooooooool's ooooouuuuut for Summer!  (did anyone else's mom sing that on the last day of school each year?.... just mine?.... hmmm...)  Ira finished kindergarten on Friday and (surprise of surprises (to him at least)) he gets to go to 1st grade next year!  I am SO excited about having him home for the summer!  We have plans to do a little learning and a lot of playing and swimming and I CAN'T WAIT!

6. Lawn and Garden. We spent all day Saturday outside work work workin'.  I weedeated and mowed the WHOLE lawn (we have a BIG lot - like over 1/2 an acre.)  The weedeater must have rattled every muscle in my body because I'm achin' like bacon right now (does bacon ache?) but the lawn sure does look nice.  While I lawned (should totally be a word), Andy gardened (see what I did there, lawned... gardened... forgive me, I'm apparently a little loopy today.)  He built structures for our cukes, tomatoes, watermelon, and cantaloupe to climb.  It turned out pretty awesome and we can't wait to see how it'll work out this summer.

The garden all but done (just need to put straw down between the last 3 rows.)

Not really a picture of our lawn, but look at how big my flowers are getting! 

 7. Kids in the same bed.  The kids had (because they broke their streak last night) gone to bed in the same bed for the last 3-4 nights very well.  It helps that we completely wore them out all weekend.  I guess we'll have to see what this week brings to see if it was luck or learning that led to those 4 nights...

With that, I'll bid you adieu!  Thanks for hanging with my goofiness this week!

What I Loved About Last Week 8th Edition

Whew, it's been kind of busy 'round here, but it's not really going to get any less busy this week, so I decided to get up early so I don't miss posting this week.

Here's what I loved about last week (May 7 - 13th):

1. Allowance.  We actually started this LAST week, but I forgot to write about it, so I'm including it now.  Since Ira is 6, we decided to start giving him an allowance of $1 each week.  (I know, inflation, sheesh, when I was little, I got a quarter a week.)  A friend's book review got us talking about it awhile back.  We liked her idea of dividing out the amount amongst jars, so here's how we have Ira doing it: 4 jars; one for tithing that has 8% written on it; one for charity with 2% written on it; one for saving with 50% written on it, and one for spending with 40% written on it.  We give his allowance to him in change and he has lots of fun (and good math practice) divying it up between the jars.  Our hopes are that this starts him down the road to a good understanding of money and finances and that this makes it easy for him to tithe as he becomes older and the amounts grow larger.

2. Rubyisms.  Ruby has been wearing disposable diapers a lot lately (rash issues, stink issues with the cloth diapers) and the other day she kept asking for "Buzz Affinity Beyond" wipes.  It took me the longest time to figure out that that's what she was saying.  Although we normally use cloth wipes, we do have a tub of wipes that has Buzz and Woody (who she is VERY familiar with because of Ira's toys) on it.  What cracked me up is that "Infinite Beyond" wipes actually sound like they could be a real product.

3. "Motshell." or "Muhshell"  Another Rubyism.  One that I love to hate.  She's been calling me by my first name lately.  Don't know what wild hair made her decide to try that (although with her personality it doesn't really surprise me.)  Not a habit I want to encourage.  At first I told her that I would listen to her when she called me the right name, now I've taken to ignoring her request until she calls me the right name.  And you know what, she gets it.  She'll correct herself now when she notices me ignoring her.  Even just over the last few days I've noticed her doing it less.  Thank goodness!!

4. Watering system.  Andy had the genius idea of running pipe underground from our well head to our garden (so that there doesn't have to be a hose strung over the ground that we have to move every time we mow or need it elsewhere.)  Let me tell you, it is the most awesome system.  He ran pipe to the garden, but then also ran it across the front of the garden and put a pipe and a valve up to each bed.  All I had to do was run a soaker hose through each bed.  Now we can turn each bed on and off individually.  It is a really nice system!  My hubby is so smart!

5. Mother's Day.  Andy and the kids REALLY exceeded my expectations this year.  They treated me like a queen, letting me sleep in, fixing me french toast and orange juice, spoiling me with sweet, thoughtful presents (several new varieties of Stash DeCaf tea, new hotpads and oven mitts, dark chocolate, and a homemade trivet and poem from Ira), letting me take a nap in the afternoon, and taking care of bedtime/cleaning up duty so that I could watch the series finale of "Desperate Houswives."  I know, seriously, I watch that crap.  It was such a nice, relaxing day.  More than anything, I just felt blessed to be a mom to two sweet, precious, amazing kiddos here on earth.

Love sweet Ira's face in this picture.  He probably hugged me and told me "Happy Mother's Day" no less than 50 times during the day.

My new trivet (which I'll hang to avoid scuffing/fingerprinting up any more) and my poem which reads:
"My mom is Michelle
She likes to cook
She always talks
Sometimes she plays with me
The best thing about my mom is that she is my mom."

What I Loved About Last Week 6th Edition

Lots of things to love about last week (April 23rd-29th)!

1. Ruby. doing. puzzles.  65 piece puzzle.  Perhaps 2 pieces? connected together that actually go together.  So funny!

2. Ira's Baptism Anniversary.  We celebrated with cookies and one of his favorite meals (fried chicken with mashed potatoes) as well as a Renewal of Baptismal Promises.  It was the first year he seemed to really understand what was going on with the renewal and that was cool!

3. Spring Music Program.  Ira's school held their second concert of the year.  His class sang 5 great songs.  One of which I cannot get out of my head! ("Never Polka with a Porcupine.")  The whole concert was very well done.  I am so impressed with the way that their music teach has them singing (enunciating, breathing, holding notes, and dancing.)  It was a very enjoyable program.

4. Cleaning.  Got my car washed/vacuumed, cleaned our disgustingly dusty/sheetrock-muddy oscillating fans, and cleaned out closets and cabinets throughout the house.  Not fun tasks, but definitely feels good to have them done!

5. Confession.  Needed it.  Did it.  Got grace.  'Nuff said!

6. Date night!  Sweet Andy surprised me with a much needed date night on Friday night.  We ate dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant that we hadn't been to in probably 5 years, then went out for ice cream and coffee after that.  It was so nice to spend some time together away from the crazies kids.

7. Visitors.  Ira got to meet with a very special lady on Saturday who sends him postcards from all over the world.  It was wonderful to get to meet her and have her meet Ira.  She is traveling to Hungary/Austria/Slovakia in July and we are excited to see the postcards and stamps from those countries!

8. Garden.  We FINISHED the 6th and 7th beds.  All told, we moved between 35-42 tons of dirt by shovel over the course of 3 weekends.  I. am. SO. DONE! with that!  

9. Professional Pictures.  We got 2 and 6 year pictures of the kiddos taken as well as family pictures.  Although I've had better experiences, I think Portrait Innovations still did a great job on the photos.

Look at that Farmer's Tan!!!

9. Sleeping kiddos.  The circus that is "going to bed in the same bed at the same time" is mildly improving.  They both slept in the big bed all night twice this week.  We have a "zero-tolerance" policy on Ruby getting out of bed/goofing off too much.  That's really seemed to help her understand the boundaries and to be successful twice!  Hooray!

10. Shout out.  A  dear friend of mine started doing her own "What I Loved" posts.  I always enjoy her perspective on things.  Can't wait to see more posts from this beautiful woman!

Have a GREAT week!

What I Loved About Last Week 5th Edition

Here's what I loved about last week (4/16-4/22):

1. Paying off Andy's student loans!!!  Quite some time ago (probably close to two years ago) I mentioned on the blog that we were putting away our extra money each month to pay off our student loans.  When Andy got furloughed, we decided to just keep the money in the bank in case we needed it.  We never did have to dip into it and last week were able to pay off his student loans.  HOORAY!!!!  It feels so good to have that debt off of our backs!  Next up in the debt snowball:  my student loans, followed by our house!  Then we'll be debt FREE!!!!!

2. Ruby galloping.  So often throughout the day Ruby gallops instead of walks.  It is the cutest little thing.  A video would probably be more convincing, but for now, you'll have to take my word.

3. Butterflies on our Salvia.  Talk about the glory of God's creation.

4. Rummage Sale finds.  Twice each year, several of the "supermoms" in our parish host a Rummage Sale to benefit the missions.  They collect items on Monday then have a sale on Tuesday and Wednesday where everything is 10 cents.  I was able to find a pair of uniform pants for Ira and two school sweatshirts in the next two sizes up for him.  I also got an adorable dress and 3 pairs of tights for Ruby as well as some sewing notions, some Little Golden Books, and some kitchen utensils.  I think I spent $2.10.  Seriously?!  Does it get any better than that?

5. Rubyisms.  Ruby has been delighting us lately with all her little sayings, so I thought I'd share them with you.  She calls granola bars "monkey bars."  Her sandals are "shoe schlops."   Dump it is "bonk it."  Band-aids are "ban baids."  An umbrella is a "bunumbola."  When you ask her where something is she says, "I don't knoooooow.... I lose it again?"  And she calls the little pocket in the door of the car "the bathtub."  Ruby - where's you're binky? "In the bathtub."  She's such a goose!

6. The new Muppets Movie.  Ira received "The Muppets" for Easter from Andy's parents, but we wanted to pre-view it before we let him watch it.  It truly is a wonderful, wonderful movie.  We laughed a LOT, I cried, and we even re-watched several scenes after the movie was over that were just too funny not to rewatch.  It's definitely a movie we would let Ira watch.  There were just two things that I thought they could have left out: they said the word "butt" once and "idiot" once or twice.  We'll probably watch it with Ira to make sure that we can voice our disapproval over those words, but overall, wow, AWESOME movie!

7. Ruby helping Andy make biscuits.  It's their little thing together and it is so darn precious to witness!


8. We got the 5th bed for our garden done on Saturday.  I tell you what, that double-digging is some arm/leg/neck/feet/back-breaking work!  We still have two more left to do and I can't wait until they're done!

9. We also got quite a bit else done in the garden on Saturday: finishing up the fence for the peas, putting up fence for the blackberry bushes, and planting: green onions, beets, marigolds, cilantro, chives, oregano, and nasturtium.  The kids were dolls and played outside all day.  It just makes my heart swell to hear them playing together.  After wondering for so long if we would ever be able to give Ira a sibling it just feels like I'm living a dream to hear them playing and laughing uproariously together (because they were throwing sand at each other...still...)

10. Cardinal friends.  We have a very friendly male cardinal in our yard who supervises us gardening.  He'll seriously come within 5-10 feet of us and doesn't dart away when/if we move from what we're doing.  Andy was able to capture a picture of him and his lady friend on the bird feeder just a few feet from our house.

I think that about covers last week!  Also, if I could ask for prayers, Andy and I are trying to get pregnant again, which as you can imagine, is kind of a bittersweet situation to be in.  If you would, pray that we are able to embrace whatever God's will is for our family.  Obviously, I hope that means more babies, but there's that whole "Thy will be done" thing that I try to submit myself to too.

What I Loved About Last Week 4th Edition

Here's what I loved about last week (4/9- 4/15)
1. Weeding the garden.  That's not something I would typically love, but with the wide raised beds that we have now, and the walkways to stand on, it is very, VERY easy to hoe all 4 beds in a matter of 15-20 minutes.  I even hand weeded around the lettuce.  Weeds/grass just come out so easily because the dirt isn't compacted from being walked on.  So yes, I actually enjoyed it!

2. Moving the big bed into the kids' room.  Andy and I are trying to get Ruby into a big bed, but we only have one bedroom (besides ours) in our house right now.  So with some gut-sucking effort, I (by myself) moved Ira's twin mattress, box spring, bed frame, and headboard downstairs and moved the Queen mattress, box spring, and bed frame from the basement to the kids' room.  I set it up in their room like a "kid's King bed" (i.e. tucked the sheets in at the long side, not the foot, like you traditionally would.)  It's nice to have room for 3 (or even all 4) of us to be able to snuggle in and read books at night.  Ruby has done fairly well taking naps in it (she's definitely not the "the floor is lava" type like Ira was, but she does stay in the room - just not always in the bed.)  Night time.  Well, that's not something I love.  It's like a freakin' circus in there with 2 of them in the same bed.  They bounce and squeak the mattress, get out of bed, come out of the room, jump on the bed, and Ruby even BIT Ira last night!! (Where they're getting all this I do NOT know as they NEVER act like that any other time.)  So we're still trying to figure out what to do at night.  Ruby has ended up in her crib both nights we've tried because Ira does has school in the morning and we don't want him to be too tired.  The Queen bed is temporary anyway until we can find a twin over full bunk bed that has enough headroom on the bottom bunk that when Andy/I sit down we don't hit our heads on the top bunk.  (Really, is that asking too much?!)

3. The Easter Bunny brought me some amazing Easter Lilies (cut, not potted) and they have lasted beautifully.  Plus their smell is just out of this world.  I don't think I've ever smelled an Easter Lily before, but wow, they are just SO aromatic and delicious smelling!

4. At Mass one day last week Ruby wanted swaddled in her blanket (seriously, I know, she's crazy) As I was holding her, she arched her head back and it was like total deja-vu of all the times I saw her on sonogram when I was pregnant with her.  She still has the exact same face/cheeks/chin/head shape as she did in utero.  I was certainly waxing nostalgic.

5. The irises and some other beautiful green, leafy thing that I have no idea what it's called are blooming.  I added some of them to my Easter Lilies and have a beautifully full bouquet on the table.  Really though, any ideas on the greenery/hangy flower stuff to the left?

6. The soften button on our microwave.  It's the little things really.  But it has come in so handy lately to soften but not melt or even heat up frozen shredded cheese, frozen yogurt starter, and ice cream.  Seriously, it is really cool.

7. With the weather predicted to be scary on Saturday, I decided that if our garden was going to get hailed out/blown away, we were at least going to enjoy something out of it.  So we picked a surprisingly big bowl of lettuce to go with our homemade pizza on Friday night.  There's just nothing like lettuce fresh from the garden.  It was DELICIOUS!

8. Making yogurt in the cooler.  I always use the heating pad method, but that's kind of a pain because our stinkin' heating pad automatically shuts off after 2 hours. Yogurt has to "fester" for 8 hours or more, so I'm constantly setting timers and unplugging then plugging back in the heating pad.  My mom sent some directions for making it in the cooler awhile back and I finally decided to try it.  It worked wonderfully.  It's still not very thick, but it does seem less tart/tangy than the heating pad stuff.  The kids (and Andy and I some too) have already gobbled up 3 Quarts of it - totally UNSWEETENED!!!  We just put some homemade granola on top and my is it tasty.  (They never ate the heating pad stuff unsweetened.)

9.  Surviving.  By the grace of God we were spared from an EF-3 Tornado heading straight toward us on Saturday night.  Seriously, it miraculously stopped less than 2 miles from our house.  It was horrifying to actually be taking shelter from a very imminent and real (and large (1/2 - 1 mile wide) tornado.  Andy's brother and his 2 children joined us in our 10-15 sq. ft. under-the-stairs closet.  There were 7 of us in there along with all the stuff that we had put down there during the day in case we really did get hit: (a duffle bag with jeans, shirts, socks, underwear, and tennis shoes for all of us; 5 of Ruby's diapers, a cover, wipes, and wetbag; my NFP charts and my medicines; a box of my contacts and my glasses; our external hard drive; peanut butter crackers, granola bars; a gallon of water; our wallets, cell phones, and keys; all the camcorder tapes we've taken; our DSLR camera and charger; flashlights; a battery powered radio; 4 heavy pilllows from our bed, a DeWalt sawz-all with 3 spare batteries; and a hatchet - just in case you're curious.)  It was surreal to be sitting in our storm shelter wondering not if, but when we would get hit, what it would sound like, and how bad it would be.  We heard them say on the radio, "Town X, you are in a Tornado Emergency.  If you are in Town X, you need to get underground or you will not survive."  We heard lots of loud booms (thunder apparently) then it was silent for a long time.  Ira nearly passed out/puked (because of the total lack of oxygen) but we escaped unscathed (both ourselves and our property.)  A number of homesteads outside of town took direct hits, so please keep those families in your prayers.  No injuries, but there are a number of total property losses.  I can't even fathom if it had been us.  Andy said our guardian angels must have been standing outside of town slashing the tornadoes apart.  And I tell you what, the "Angel of God" prayer had never been more meaningful than praying it that night with the kids when we put them to bed (before we went to the basement.)

 "Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God's love entrusts me here.  

Ever this night be at my side: to light, to guard, to rule, and to guide.

Amen."