12th Day of Christmas!

Okay, so I'm slipping this one in a little past midnight... must be a Sunday night!

I ordered about a bajillion-and-a-half books from Amazon last night with some Christmas money.  I am SO excited to get them and start reading.  Following the lead of some people who inspire me, among other things I purchased "The Great Divorce" by C.S. Lewis, "Anima Christi" by Mother Mary Francis, "The Four Cardinal Virtues" by Joseph Pieper, and "Imitation of Christ" by Thomas a Kempis.  Yeah... I'm going to be a busy girl this year!

After Mass today (where Ira sang loudly in my ear while I was trying to play piano, which is adorable and distracting all at the same time...) we started getting ready for the week by catching up on some laundry (that was still in baskets from when I didn't finish it 10 days ago...)  Then I got it in my head that we needed to go through our closets (I like to declutter at the beginning of the year... last weekend I went through our storage room and got rid of about 8 boxes of stuff.)  So we did that and did the hall closets as well.  3-4 More boxes of stuff!  Now I just need to work my way through the living room and kitchen and we should be good to go!

Tonight was back into the routine of lesson plans!  I am actually VERY excited to get back to school - our curriculum is SO AWESOME!  It is a rather eclectic curriculum of Mater Amabilis with some additions/substitutions (Logic of English, Noeo Science, ALEKS Math, Handwriting Without Tears, I Can Do All Things Art Curriculum and various religion books to supplement for Sacrament Prep.)  I have been thoroughly pleased with the Mater Amabilis book recommendations.  We have found some true gems that I'm sure we never would've come across otherwise.  And Mater Amabilis charges NOTHING for their plans (you have to buy all the books, but still, Michele Quigley has done a TON of work/research/etc. to create this beautiful curriculum and then offer it free of charge!)

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I am astounded at how much we are loving homeschooling.  It has been SUCH a good fit for us!  And I am astounded at the grace God has given me to stick with it and be consistent.  I am usually neither of those things (which was one of the reasons I was worried about me homeschooling anyone... I really stink at perseverance/fortitude and consistency...) alas, His grace ABOUNDS!

Anyway, that was our today... Tomorrow will be here soon, so I better get to bed!  Before I go though, I'll leave you with a couple pictures from dinnertime.  Never a dull moment 'round here, I tell you what!

Look at those GUNS!

And look at that pretty princess in her homemade tiara!

Pajama Day

Well, we kept things pretty doggone relaxed today!  We all four stayed in our jammies all day long!!

And the kids let Andy and I sleep until 10:00 this morning!  Couldn't TELL you the last time we've done that!  As I'd mentioned, they lost their video-watching privileges a few days ago, and I am shocked at how well/nicely they have entertained themselves in the morning before I get up (those two have never heard of sleeping in...)

I spent a decent chunk of (what was left of) the morning/early afternoon paying bills and updating our monthly budget.  You know, God is so cool the way He provides for things when you take a leap of faith in generosity.  It was pretty amazing to see how He took care of our Christmas budget... down to the dollar... I kid you not!

I spent the rest of the afternoon making  brown bag burritos for Andy to take for lunch each day.  I use brown rice and whole wheat tortillas now, and they usually make about 50, not 30 like the link says.  He only takes one a day for lunch (with fruit) so I only have to make these puppies every couple months.  And after eating them for lunch for years, he has yet to tire of them.  They really are very good.

I reserved some of the filling today to use for our dinner.  Our latest favorite dinner is Taco Salad bowls.  Are you aware how stinking SIMPLE it is to make taco salad bowls?!  We just spray our Corelle bowls with olive oil, scrunch a whole wheat burrito shell into them, spray the top of the burrito with olive oil, and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes.  There is seriously no funner (I realize that's not a word... although spell check isn't dinging me for it... hmmm..) way to eat burritos than in as a taco salad. Anyway, we used the brown bag burrito filling for our meat/protein then topped them with all kinds of goodies (lettuce, black beans, olives, tomatoes, onions, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, and this delicious dressing).  It's a super simple meal that comes together rather quickly!

And then we lit our Advent/Christmas candles for nearly the last time during our evening prayer time.  I'm not sure I'm ready for Christmas to be over yet!

After blowing the candles out (which according to Ira took 53 blows), Ruby said,  "I blew them out without dying and getting my hair on fire and getting myself on fire and burning."  Well done, child!

Here Fishy Fishy

Today we were FINALLY able to set our aquarium back up for the 2 goldfish we bought yesterday.  The kids had been asking every time we went to Wal-Mart this fall, but I tell you what, this homeschooling stuff keeps me BUSY.  So every time I had to say, "not right now."  Well, we're still on Christmas break so yesterday I finally got to say, "YES!"

Ruby's fish apparently has a bit of an identity crisis because he was originally a girl, with no name; then she was a boy, named George; then she was a girl named Goldilocks, and now, she's a girl named Marley.  We'll see how long that name sticks.  Ira has yet to name his.  That hasn't stopped him from trying to monetize it though... "Maybe if Ruby's fish is a girl and mine is a boy then they can have hundreds of babies and we can sell them!"  Entrepreneur that boy is!

Today was a nice day - aquarium, fish watching, coloring together with new colored pencils, and lots of imaginative play!  And a yummy dinner from a new recipe and scrubbing the floor Cinderella-style (seriously, although it's a pain, it is truly the best way to scrub a floor in my opinion) finished the evening out nicely.  Oh, and we hit 20 patrons for our Love Good Music campaign today (which was our goal)!!!  We are so excited to bring LGM back to our hometown for a concert this summer!!!!  Yes, yes, very good day indeed!!

Sick of Shopping?

We needed groceries today... in the worst way... the kind where you have no cheese and no bananas and no produce left.  Luckily, I was cognizant of that fact last night, so I made a meal plan and grocery list based off some awesome recipes I found on the Skinny Miss website.  My cousin had shared recipes from this website numerous times on Facebook, but I'd never really poked around on it much.  I am really excited to have found it because all the recipes I looked at were incredibly clean, healthy, well-balanced meals that also didn't cost an arm-and-a-leg to make.  I'll have to share what we think of the recipes.

So first thing this morning, we headed in to do our grocery shopping.  It was a relatively quick trip for us (only 4 stores, only gone from home for 4.5 hours.)  The kids were well behaved and helpful, and as usual, a riot.  (Ruby told the guy at the automotive desk that if the lift crashed down on them, they would get dead - which he found funny enough to go out and share with all the other techs working in the automotive bay.)  And then there's our buddy, Denise, at Aldi.  She always takes the time to talk to the kids.  And then she says to me, "You must drink a lot."  LOL.  I should laugh at that, right?

By the time we were almost home though, I was feeling worse than sick - like someone had stabbed me in the stomach.  Andy'd had the flu the Friday after Christmas, and I'm still not sure whether I have a light touch of that or whether I ate a bad banana (on the way home.)  The kids were dolls and took care of themselves when we got home.  Ira made he and Ruby scrambled eggs for lunch.  And he even came running with an emesis bag when he heard me get sick (we had some left from post-surgery in March that have come in handy...)  They would usually watch movies when I'm sick, but they lost that privilege the other day, so they read and played together quite peacefully until Andy got home.

Ira found a recipe in his Highlights Magazine (a Christmas gift from my parents) that he wanted to make for dinner, so he and Andy tackled it together.  It was delicious and very soothing to my unsettled stomach.  While Andy was finishing up dinner, I snuck out of our room to see what all the ruckus was.  Turns out boredom and a bunch of plastic shopping bags (why can I never remember my reusable ones at Walmart?) are highly entertaining.

Ira said to title this "Let it Snow!"

Then we got the treat of the year when Jimmy's new CD showed up in our email inbox to download as part of our Love Good Music patronage.  He is such a talented guy and a good friend!  We are so thrilled for him to be releasing this CD!  And... it's positively wonderful.  Pain, suffering, redemption, hope, joy... it's all in there, beautifully orchestrated.  For a very limited time, you can get $5 off of the $15 monthly patronage by signing up through our campaign here.  Obviously, I would highly recommend it!

Whew, two days in a row, surely I can't keep this up...

Uno... you know?

Rang in the New Year quietly at home... doing shots of cold medicine... The big party we were going to was cancelled due to the stomach flu.  Which was actually okay by me (except for I feel badly for the family with the stomach flu) as we're all fighting nasty colds/sinus things.  Andy went out last night and bought blue liquid Tylenol cold medicine.  It's good stuff and has made our heads feel incredibly less balloon-like.

Mass this morning started off the New Year in the best way.  Now we're just hanging around home playing games... Uno... Spot it!... Candy Land.  The game playing keeps the kids' latest hobby...bickering... somewhat at bay.  Thank heavens!

Blessed New Year from our family to yours!

Hmmm...

You know how during the day you think of about eleventy seven awesome blog posts that you're going to do as soon as you get the time, and then you finally get the time and sit down at the computer and start writing... and erasing.... and writing... and erasing... yeah - that's this post.  I think I've gone through 4 titles now.  And erased about 7 paragraphs (using the term paragraph very loosely.)  It's hard for me to jump in and just "start fresh."  I'm one of those people that likes to talk... a lot... and tell the antithesis of the "Reader's Digest Version."  I'm all about the back story.  So how b'zackly I'm going to just jump back into my half-a-year-neglected blog has me stumped.  I guess I'm just a little bummed that I didn't record all the day-to-day stuff that's happened these last 6 months - for my own sake.  And for the sake of boring you all to tears of course.  How 'bout I just start with today, and if something doesn't make sense, you just ask me for clarification.

Well, I guess to start with today, I have to tell you about yesterday.  It was our first day back homeschooling after a week long vacation to Galveston and the two weeks prior to that were fraught with a lack of normalcy because of Andy and I both having pneumonia (not at the same time thankfully, yeesh!)  So I was well aware that yesterday might be ahem difficult but WOW was it DIFFICULT!  I let Ira sleep in because he too (on our 2nd to last day of vacation) caught the upper-respiratory crud that Andy and I had.  He's getting over it thanks to our doctor calling in antibiotics for us, but yesterday was really the first day he felt better.  So we got started around 10 and let me just say, it was a battle all. day. long.  At one point Ira told me he wished I would "move to California and drown."  Touching, isn't it?  I tried to be patient, but you know what, I haven't been the most diligent in my prayer life lately and it shows in how my days go.  So we didn't get done with school until 5 o'clock.  GAH!!!!  And when I spend so much of the day "educating" Ira (be it behaviorally or academically) I feel like I don't get to be Ruby's mommy like I should be.  On top of all of that, it is near impossible to get anything done on a day like that, which just compounds the problem of feeling ineffective and worthless... California, here I come...  Dinner was late (Chana Masala -mmmm) but we were able to end our day with a decade of the rosary.

After the kids were in bed, Andy and I rolled newspapers (for our route of 800 that we throw once a month), talked, and watched our favorite show, Castle.  On top of feeling like a failure, I was also feeling particularly sad about our miscarriages.  I tell you, that is a deep heartache.  The kind that just takes your breath away at times.  It is so hard because in the end, when all the chips are down, it's completely out of our hands.  I can't try, pray, wish, or hope my way into more children for our family.  And I feel this acute emptiness in my life.  There's this gaping hole in my heart and I can't fill it.  It physically aches.  God can fill it.  I know that.  I know Christ didn't come to bring flowers and rainbows to sinners.  He came to die on the cross.  To show us how to live by dying to ourselves.  Suffering can be transformative if I offer it back to God.  I'm still working on that...

So yeah, to say I was dreading today would be an enormous understatement.  I had come up with a few different strategies to try to make today's school day go better. I got up right when my alarm rang at 6 o'clock.  "Serviam."  I started the day with a shower and more time than usual in prayer (no mass this morning, so I had some extra time.)  Ruby got up before Ira and she and I had about 15 minutes of snuggling, talking, and reading a book before she finally demanded "BREFEST"  It was just wonderful.  And you know what, the rest of the day went well too.  The kids and I were even able to go throw those 800 newspapers this afternoon so Andy didn't have to do it tonight.  Thanks God, I so needed a "today."

And I got this too:

And Ruby wore this to help Andy replace the brake pads on my car HA!!!  This is SO Ruby:

I'll leave you with Ira's narration for "Joseph in Potiphar's House"  it's a good'n:

"It was about the famous dream.  You probably know the story.  You know how Joseph's brothers sold him to a camel caravan?  The camel caravan sold him to Potiphar.  And Potiphar noticed that everything he told him to do, he could accomplish.  So he gave him charge of his whole household.  What an honor!  And Potiphar's wife was his friend, but after that, his enemy!  And she noticed that he wouldn't do wrong to please her.  And then she falsely told her husband lies about him.  And so Potiphar threw him into prison.  And then the king had a dream, well, two dreams actually.  And the dream was that there was seven fat cows eating by the river (probably the River Nile) and then seven thin cows came and ate up the fat.  And then he saw seven fat ears of corn, and seven thin and dry ones came up and ate the full beautiful ones.  And the meaning of this dream was that there would be seven years of plenty, then BLAM.  BLAM, BLAM, BLAM.  The food would be gone.  There would be a famine.  Yikes!  The Pharaoh made him in charge of storing up the food for the seven years of famine.  And people came from all over to get food, because the famine was all over the world.  Or at least that world."

You can't make that stuff up, folks!  And with that, I bid you "Goodnight!"

Back again

Not even going to apologize for the 6 months it's been.  It's my blog and I'm not very good at utilizing it.  Don't want to play "catch-up" too much because, well, six months is a long time, but you'd also be really out of the loop if I just started in on life at this moment.  So here are a few things that have happened since March:

- had a successful 2nd surgery with Dr. Hilgers.  That man is just amazing.  I love him and am so blessed to be his patient.  We were blessed to stay with a beautiful couple while in Omaha.  Our time with them was too short (just Monday evening and Wednesday evening really), but they took care of us like we were their own children and were such a blessing to us in our time of need.  God bless you, Howells!  My surgery was on Tuesday of Holy Week, was in the hospital until Wednesday, had an appointment on Thursday where I asked Dr. Hilgers if we could head home and he said "if you feel up to it!"  So we drove home and were able to spend the Triduum as a family.  Recovery was pretty doggone easy!

-decided to homeschool.  (Which was very much a God thing, btw.  More than anything, we felt God was calling us to pursue homeschooling this year.  We've never had a decision that we had so many good reasons "not to" but kept feeling pulled by God back to it.  Like "I know you don't want to do this and don't think you can, but I want you to."  Really, how do you say no to God?  I bet it never ends well when that happens...)

-got the go ahead to try to achieve pregnancy in June

-actually got pregnant our first cycle of trying!

-hosted an incredible concert with an amazing group of young Catholic artists from Nashville, TN.  Their talent was top-notch and their faith was just beautiful.  We were lucky enough to host them in our home that night and the next day for breakfast, Mass, and lunch.  Words cannot really describe how blessed we have been by these artists and their friendship.  Jimmy Mitchell, the head of Mysterium Records, is on a mission to take back culture through truth and beauty.  If you would like to find out more or help reclaim the soundtrack of American culture, visit Love Good Music.  If you become a patron (for just $10 a month!) you get a new CD from the best music across genres every month.  Seriously, that's a sweet deal.

-found out that we would again be sending a baby to the arms of Jesus.  Our hearts are broken.  We were surprised for it to happen again after all we'd been through.  It sort of seemed like we were starting over, being given a clean slate.  But I wondered as the pregnancy progressed and my nausea did not.  I tried to just offer my joys and sufferings to God throughout.  I was able to handle this pregnancy and miscarriage so much better mentally than any of the others.  I think a lot of that is the T3 that I'm on (do you know my average body temperature is actually 98.6 now?!)  It has truly changed my life for the better.  We're just resting in God's hands.  He loves us so much.

-We don't know why this miscarriage happened.  We don't know if it was the "sometimes, the first pregnancy after intervention unfortunately ends in miscarriage".  Or it there is something more going on.  We set up a phone consult with Dr. Hilgers last month. His next step would be to do genetic karyotyping on Andy and I.  Karyotyping is very expensive and is usually not covered by insurance.  With most doctors, karyotyping wouldn't tell you anything other than "yes/no - this is an issue" and "here's your % chance of successful pregnancy."  Dr. Hilgers apparently does have some (a?) treatment he can do to overcome this issue.  He is currently appealing to our insurance company to cover it.  (Which, don't even get me started on why it is my insurance company gets to determine what is best for my care, not my doctor.  GAHHHHH  THE SYSTEM IS SO BROOOOOOOKKKEEEEENNNN!!!)  We are still trying to discern what God wants us to do with that whole situation.  Prayers are appreciated.

-We started homeschooling on August 19th.  It's been great so far.  Obviously there are ups and downs, but we feel very good about our decision.

So yeah, that's the major "highlights" of the last 6 months.  I'll catch you up on each of us more in coming posts, but now you're more up to speed so when I talk about "homeschoooling this" and "Love Good Music that" you'll know what the heck I'm talking about.