Help for Fr. Jenkins!

My cousin Paul is SOO funny.

In response to this,

he posted this.

REAL role models

So I have a Queen Amidala action figure that I think came from McDonald's, years ago. Miriam and Katie would enjoy playing with it for the princess value. But today when they had some friends over who had seen Ep. 1, a friend remarked that Padme became the mother of Luke and Leia. Miriam's face suddenly lit up and her voice expressed her admiration as she exclaimed,

"You mean she's a MOMMY?!?"

I guess "Princess" is okay, but "Mom" is the ultimate in coolness!

That totally made my day/month/year.

Joseph's new talent

Climbing!


...and getting stuck!



(remind you of anyone, Mom B?)

Frolicking amongst the bluebells

Well, we finally did what every other homeschooling family in the entire northern Virginia area does each April, and went to Bull Run (as in the Battle of) last week to see pwetty fuffs.

It's been raining off and on for WEEKS now, so the path was very muddy. Thankfully there were some boards laid across some of the worst paths. (This part was interesting holding a heavy toddler.)

The day was very gray, but I think it made the colors stand out all the more.

Finally after walking through more mud than I've seen since I was a kid playing in the mud pit in our backyard, we suddenly came up to a small river and were surrounded by...

Bluebells!! They were truly gorgeous. They completely transformed an ordinary, swampy Virginia hardwood forest into fairyland.

A very reluctant fairy.

The girls were in heaven with all the little bridges and streams we crossed! We must have stopped at every single rivulet to throw sticks in the water. That might explain why a 1.5 mile trail took us 3 hrs. to complete....

This is the time of year to appreciate trees in their bareness, before the glory of their summer foliage conceals them. Isn't that the coolest looking bumpy trunk above?

These amazing vines made me feel like I was in Fangorn when it was young. I have since learned that they are wild grapevines. I want to go back in the summer to see what they look like with leaves.

Like I said, the girls were in love with the river.

There were lots of other, um, fun logs and stumps to, um, play on too...

As well as evidence that horses had recently passed this way. There were also lots of doggie footprints in the mud -- many of which could be tracked down to the river and back in several places... :)

Oh, and there were bluebells.

And bluebells.

...and bluebells!



The small white ones are "Spring Beauties." Simple name for a cute li'l flower -- and very appropriate.

I envied the people who live right across the river from all this glory.

I came back with the kids later in the week. We invited some friends to come with us so we wouldn't be alone. It turns out almost EVERYONE we knew was already there! We spent a lot of time at the playground before we even started thinking about heading to the trail. :)

Of course, when we finally did, we had to stop at every puddle and pond and poke them with sticks "to check how deep the water is."

The place was transformed in the sunlight. Everything shone with a happy golden glow.

We didn't hike the whole path this time -- probably not even half of it. We came to one part that had a beach-ish area that the kids could climb down to (or in the case of Katie, slide down a muddy slope on your pants to). I should have taken more pictures -- there were kids EVERYWHERE in various stages of wetness. The boy on the left above was up to his waist at one point. I'm not as cool as his mom -- I made the girls only go as far as their boots would let them. (Their socks were still a sorry sight by the end though.) We spent a lot of time here playing in the stream, and actually turned to go back shortly after.

Katie actually walked all the way to end of this log and all the way back without falling -- pretty impressive for a 4-year-old, I thought! I see gold medals for gymnastics in her future... ;)

We had a great day. I'm so glad we went back. It was a great way to spend Easter week. In between rain storms, the weather has been so lovely that we've been spending every moment we can spare outside or at parks. We're getting behind in schoolwork again, but I think the Vitamin D phototherapy is just as important. I'VE been feeling happier lately, and that's all that matters, right? Cuz if Momma ain't happy, ain't NOBODY happy.

We're a Homeschool Family

Brilliant.

ugh.

The first day after a long weekend is always painful. With Mr. Pickles back at work (he took off Monday and worked from home yesterday) I lose my ally in the never-ending battle against the forces of chaos, destruction, and barbarism (also known as our sweet little gherkins). I also have to get up early again, which is never a good way to start the day. And aforementioned forces of chaos always demonstrate how much they're feeling the lack of Daddy by contriving to be as whiny, needy, obnoxious and nasty to each other as possible. This happens every single week -- you think I'd be prepared for it and at least fortify myself with a shot of whiskey or something when I first wake up. But no, that first "real" workday every week always hits me upside the head with bickering (theirs) and yelling (mine), with a side of whining (all of ours). Add to that an increased intake of sugar, grey grey skies with that depressing drippy rain, and a bad mommy who stayed up way past her bedtime, and you've got a recipe for a pretty miserable day.

But hot DAMN, I look good in my new jeans!

So, I'm dieting, cont'd.

I have to share this news with all .5 of you who are interested, before all the Easter feasting skews everything.

So, fat flushing. I haven't been very good about following a strict Fat Flush Plan, but I have incorporated some of the principles into my diet. Most mornings I'll have a cup of hot water with lemon and honey. I'll start each meal with fruit or salad to fill up a bit before the main course. I try to eat more protein and fewer breads (hard during Lent!!). And I go to bed a little hungry (this was more due to Lent than dieting). I've been curious about my progress, so at the kids' last pediatrician appointment I took the opportunity to weigh myself, since we don't actually own a bathroom scale. I set the block at what I guessed to be my weight, but had to keep moving it down. I just about fell over when I saw my actual current weight. I checked it again. A couple days later I even went to a department store and tried their scales. Yep, no doubting it. I've lost nearly 20 lbs.! I'm still not comfortable sharing numbers publicly*, but let's just say I haven't weighed this little since I was a teenager, and taking ballet lessons!! I went WAY below my goal weight, and this was all through those simple changes mentioned above!

I still can't get over it. I don't really feel like I've been trying too hard -- I haven't even been exercising! (unless you count vacuuming, carrying a baby around, and toting laundry baskets up and down stairs). It's just amazing what simple portion control is doing for me. That's always been my weakness, so the dieting things I've been doing are simply things I know I should be doing ANYWAY -- they're really not anything too hard for me to do with a little will power (and the added incentive of Lenten sacrifice!).

So I told a friend about my success, and she congratulated me, and then we both said in unison, "Time to go SHOPPING!" :) To celebrate I bought myself a new pair of jeans in a size I haven't worn in YEARS. And here's something else I wasn't expecting -- my shoe size actually shrank! This is a huge, huge deal for me, since now I'M NO LONGER A WIDE SIZE. Does anyone understand what a monumental piece of news this is?? All kinds of shoe opportunities open themselves up! I can actually buy more than one new pair of shoes a year! I don't have to restrict myself to specialty shoe stores! (I even got 2 new pairs from Payless today -- one of which was $4! FOUR bucks!! not $40 on clearance!)

So all in all I'm very pleased with the results of my modified Fat Flushing. I never really cared too much about weight and sizes before, but now that my shopping has suddenly become so much less frustrating, I've finally found my incentive to stay trim. :)

And besides, Mr. Pickles tells me I look good. Hm, I think I need to add certain other items to my shopping list....


*I'm tall. I weigh more than shorter people with the same BMI. At one of my dr. apptmts a few years ago, the nurse who was weighing me suddenly looked me up and down and said in surprise, "Wow, you carry your weight really well!" I just looked at her, shocked that she could be so...tactless, especially since I was proud of that number at that time, and tried to brush it off with, "Yeah, well, I'm tall." The odd thing was that she wasn't much shorter than I am. Doesn't she own a scale either? Hello, it's okay for a woman who's 5'10" to weigh a little over 150 -- that's well within the NORMAL range for BMI -- don't insult her by telling her that weighing that much she ought to look fatter! Sheesh. So... that's why I'm a little hesitant to share numbers.

Yep, she's related to our family all right

Certifiably insane.



(I'm sure she gets it from her father.)

Why I Don't Twitter

ht: Minnesota Mom

Alleluia!

Easter is here! We've been anticipating the Easter season for quite a while now -- mostly I think so certain people could have dessert and watch movies again. :)

As you know my personal preparation involved cleaning the house from top to bottom. To tell the truth I'm still not quite finished -- there are about 3 more tasks I have to complete before I'll feel done. The upstairs was too monumental a task to finish in one day so I had to break it up, which pushed the last day of spring cleaning onto Holy Saturday. But most of that day was spent preparing in all the usual methods for Easter Day.

We didn't get to dye eggs last year, for obvious reasons. :) It was great fun doing it again. Now I need to think of ways to make 15 hard-boiled eggs appetizing to the 7-and-under crowd, or I'm going to be eating lots of them myself. Mmm, lecithin and cholesterol!

I made Kulich again this year, which is Russian Easter bread. It's a lot like Pannatone (sp?) -- just a sweet bread baked in a big coffee can and drizzled with a glaze to look like an onion dome. :) We're not huge fans of golden raisins and candied fruit, so I left those out. I kept the rum though. :)

Here we are all prettied up for the Easter Vigil! We actually made it to all the Triduum liturgies this year. I wasn't sure we would -- Joseph is at an extremely difficult stage for bringing to church. He spends about 2 minutes in the pew, and the rest being carried back and forth in the back of the church. He also has no volume control -- and he's discovered the great echoes in our church. Have I mentioned that they're doing construction on the church too, so there's no place to take a shrieking baby except outside?

But we survived. The girls were angels. They had their books, and were busy looking at all the changes that had taken place in the church and asking questions about the covered statues and no candles and such. The lack of bells on Good Friday made an impression. The Easter Vigil was actually pretty easy -- the girls were both groggy, even though they had taken naps that afternoon. And Joseph slept through most of the Mass (the bells and organ woke him up during the Gloria though). Thank goodness he's still nursing -- best way to keep him quiet right now. :) There were several other families who braved the Vigil -- although by the end of Mass I noticed that about a third of the congregation was missing -- several families had to bail out halfway through. It's hard to get little kids all the way through, especially when they can't see what's going on. And there's always so much to see at the Easter Vigil.

I'm always moved by all the ritual of the Triduum. Our parish is extremely blessed to have people who understand the importance of good liturgy. The priests are so holy and reverent, and we have a top-notch choir director and pretty good choir. It really helps you get in the proper frame of mind when all the various components to the liturgy don't compete for attention but work together harmoniously and beautifully. We also had many people come into the church -- our parish is always blessed with an amazing number of RCIA candidates each year. I think there were 10 baptisms, and 3 pews' worth of confirmations, however many that is. :) It's so inspiring to see so many enter the church -- it fills me with hope that the world isn't totally lost yet. :)

So we got home verrrrrry late and bundled the kids into bed, then insured that the Easter Bunny would come, and bundled ourselves to bed. Easter morning began bright and early of course because we have children. THEY didn't care that the Easter Bunny had only been asleep for 5 hours. They were very excited about their baskets and hunting eggs that the Bunny had left around the living room. Joseph actually started off the hunt when he found a couple of them, not very well hidden on a chair. He just thought it was fun to shake them and make them rattle, until one accidentally opened and he learned it had FOOD inside. Oh, what joy is this?? A toy AND food in one?? Bliss!

Enjoying the fruits of victory.



An important first in any young person's life: Baby's First Peep


Then we got all jacked up on sugar and chocolate, an important part of this good-for-you breakfast.

I like Easter!!! Ba ha ha ha ha!!!

We spent the rest of the day doing just whatever we liked. I got to play the piano and catch up on Facebook, Mr. Pickles played some video games, Miriam played on the computer, the girls spent lots of time running around outside,

Joseph -- well, we still insisted on changing his diaper, but he had a good day for all that -- and we all ate copious amounts of candy. I wanted to have dinner early, but faithful to tradition I drastically underestimated the amount of time it would take the ham to cook (next year I'm putting it in the oven before breakfast) so we had to scramble to find something non-chocolate for lunch. I wish I had taken a picture of the dinner table too -- the ham was a thing of beauty. Or maybe it seemed so b/c we haven't eaten much meat in the last 6 weeks.

Anyway, we rounded off dinner with an appropriately liturgically-themed dessert which was a big hit (and fun to decorate).

Christus Resurrexit, Alleluia!

O God of God! O Light of Light!
Thou Prince of Peace, Thou King of kings,
To Thee, where angels know no night,
The song of praise forever rings:
To Him Who sits upon the throne,
The Lamb once slain for sinful men,
Be honor, might, all by Him won,
Glory and praise! Amen! Amen!

Deep in the prophets’ sacred page,
Grand in the poets’ wingèd word,
Slowly in type, from age to age,
Nations beheld their coming Lord;
Till through the deep Judean night
Rang out the song, “Good will to men!”
Hymned by the first born sons of light,
Re-echoed now, “Good will!” Amen.

That life of truth, those deeds of love,
That death of pain ’mid hate and scorn,
These all are past, and now above
He reigns our King, once crowned with thorn.
Lift up your heads, ye heav’nly gates,
So sang His hosts, unheard by men;
Lift up your heads, for you He waits,
We lift them up! Amen, Amen.

Nations afar, in ignorance deep,
Isles of the sea, where darkness lay,
These hear His voice, they wake from sleep,
And throng with joy the upward way.
They cry with us, “Send forth Thy light,
O Lamb, once slain for sinful men;
Burst Satan’s bonds, O God of might;
Set all men free!” Amen, Amen.

Sing to the Lord a glorious song,
Sing to His Name, His love forth tell;
Sing on, Heav’n’s hosts, His praise prolong;
Sing ye who now in earth do dwell,
Worthy the Lamb for sinners slain;
From angels, praise; and thanks from men;
Worthy the Lamb, enthroned to reign,
Glory and power! Amen, Amen!

-"O God of God" by John D. Julian

This is Our Passover Feast

when Christ, the true Lamb, is slain,
whose blood consecrates the homes of all believers.
(from the Exsultet)




art credit: Crucifixion by Carl Bloch from Restored Traditions

The StairMaster!

Here are some gratuitous baby videos of Joseph's latest talent -- climbing the stairs.






I just love all the giggling.

About the Boy

I feel like it's been a while since I've had a gratuitous baby post, so here you go.

Joseph is one now. Did you hear that? ONE. As in a YEAR. Whatever happened to my precious little newborn? Oh yeah, that's right. We keep feeding him (oh how we feed him!) so he keeps growing. He eats as much as I do at any given meal. Sometimes more. I'm still not sure where he fits it.

He especially likes s'mores.

Now that he is ONE, he's getting into stuff. Well, even more stuff than he used to.

Like his sister's quiet corner, where all the fun tapes and CD's are.

He also likes light switches. This particular one is a baby magnet.


He turned the furnace off a few weeks ago (there's a switch in the basement, next to where I do the laundry).

He's recently discovered the concept of putting things in things. We can tell when he's getting full at a meal, because he'll spend 5 minutes putting his food in and out of his bowl, instead of simply shoveling it in his mouth as fast as he can.

He also finally mastered the art of climbing the stairs.

Peekaboo! He's actually been technically able to do this for a couple months, but the first time he tried he fell backwards off the bottom step, and so was extremely cautious about ever going up. Recently he finally decided he was man enough to try again. One day I was in the kitchen and I heard him chortling with glee. I came running (any mother knows that's not a good sound to hear from your unsupervised toddler), to discover him already almost up to the landing, amazed and delighted in his good fortune that he actually got so high before we caught him!

Almost at the same time that he decided climbing stairs was fun, he figured out how to get back down. It seems like he's extremely calculating -- he never tries something until he's confident he can do it well. I'm hoping this reserve and caution carry on into his teen years. (But I'm not holding my breath.)

Isn't he yummy? We love our boy.

Meanwhile...

Here are a few random windows into our recent family life.

Continuing the great B. family tradition of reading at meals.

Teaching little brother a thing or two. (He likes books too! and not just for eating!)

The print is hard to read, but it says, "I get my good looks from my Dad." Is this shirt perfect for her or WHAT? (note The Boy weilding a stick in the background. This was taken shortly before he clonked himself on the head and collapsed in a puddle of tears.)

I saved the best for last:

She's got another hole!! This one has been loose for EVER -- it wasn't until I kicked her in the mouth (by accident! honest!) that it really loosened up. She finally got the courage to yank it out Saturday night. She looks so much older now with her holey mouth. It's too bad the other front tooth isn't quite as loose -- I just love little kids with both front teeth missing. I suppose I could kick her again... (kidding! kidding!) Sigh, further proof my widdle baby is gwowing up...

hillDown Day

It's day 3 of Spring Cleaning! Halfway done! I thought this week would be really long and hard, but I'm actually really enjoying it. It IS hard work and I end each day completely drained and ready to collapse into bed, but it's with the satisfaction of knowing how much we accomplished (since I'm making the girls help) in the day, and how good the house is looking. It's fun working with the girls, too -- I noticed that yesterday when we were all washing the windows together. This is part of what we accomplished yesterday:

Dusting, scrubbing, vacuuming, and general fluffing of the living room and dining room. While I had all the furniture in disarray to vacuum every square inch of the carpet, Miriam suggested (in between jumping from one item of furniture to another) moving the furniture around. We've never had this layout before, so I decided to try it. At first I hated it and planned to put everything back, but by the end of the day it had already grown on me. It takes me a while to adjust to change. :) There's not quite as much open area for the kids to run around in, but this layout does make it seem more cozy for some reason.

The girls loved it when the house was in total disarray. After we dragged all the dining room chairs into the kitchen and lined them up, the girls were pretending they were sitting in pews at Mass and getting ready to "receive Jesus". (although they kept breaking into hysterical giggling fits) I remember having fun with all the chairs lined up in the living room when Mom mopped the kitchen floor too. There's something magical about your ordinary everyday house being transformed into a different place.

Today I cleaned part of the basement. I didn't touch the utility room where our computer and laundry machines are -- I think that area would best be served with a shovel and/or a grenade. Mr. Pickles and I will need to take a whole weekend to sort and organize everything we've crammed in The Dungeon before I can fit a vacuum in there. How did we ever accumulate so much random crap? I don't even know what half of it is. But the living space is all pristine now, yay! I even organized the DVDs and vacuumed the hearth. Go me!

Spring Cleaning!

So this year I'm finally doing it. I think I've finally developed a list that a mom of multiple children can reasonably accomplish.

...with help, of course. :) The reasonableness of the list will be put to the test this week, though.

When I was first introduced to FlyLady, I broke the house down into 5 zones, focusing on one per week; the idea being that the whole house would be cleaned each month. (in theory) In anticipation of Easter, for my spring cleaning I'm doing the same thing, only it's one zone per day. Today was the kitchen, doing all those nasty things you tend to put off, like cleaning behind the refrigerator, washing the windows inside and out, scouring the oven, scrubbing the floor by hand, that sort of thing. Blech. You should just see the bucket of used rags. No, you shouldn't. I think I'm going to burn them all.

But I'm happy to say I'm pleased with the results.

Bing! Can't you just see it sparkle?

The fridge is so clean that I don't want to put anything back on it! I'm going to bask in its pristine glow for a few more hours before it gets all cluttered up again.

Thankfully Mr. Pickles was working from home today, so he was able to bear a major part of the care and feeding of the children, when they weren't helping me scrub, that is. We're taking the week off regular school to focus on home ec, so the rest of the time I let them play. They were playing so nicely together that I hated to tell Miriam to get out her spelling book. :)

I worked pretty solidly from after breakfast until before dinner. I have to say I'm totally exhausted. I'm not sure how many days of this I can do! I think the kitchen is the worst -- lots of up and down and hands-and-knees and scrubbing, scrubbing, scrubbing. It all just takes so long. Tomorrow is Zone 2: the living room and dining room. Hopefully dusting and vacuuming won't be as draining. I plan to enlist the girls once again to wash down the furniture. The tricky part will be keeping Joseph entertained while there are buckets of soapy water out. Thank God for naptimes!

Wish me luck!

Another Citizen Alert

There's an idiotic bill pending that will essentially shut down small farmers, farm stands, and farmers' markets in the name of "food safety". If you don't think it's a good idea for all food production to be under the jurisdiction of a White House-appointed food czar, check out this link.

I don't know what we'd do without our summer farmer's market!

It's all worth it

...for moments like this.