Halloween 2024

I won't admit exactly how late we started shopping for costumes this year.

Okay, it was like 2 days before.  Ross -- and Creative Katie -- to the rescue!

First off, Daniel and Nicky went as Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury (via Super Smash Bros.):

Personally, I think Daniel totally rocks the blond wig.  He could easily pass for a surfer dude.

 

Action shot!  He fell over right after this shot, lol

Katie made Daniel's vest out of a polo shirt.  She wins all the costume mom brownie points this year.

The resident plague doctor had to perform minor surgery on her pumpkin before it was ready for display.

Katie went as a "punk plague doctor."  With bunny ears.  And platforms.  And love.

She hoped the bunny ears would keep small children from being too scared of her.

I don't know if it worked.

Jojo went as Joker from the game Persona, also via Super Smash Bros.

Katie painted his mask.  And loaned him the pistol from her Cosplay Stash.

Andy went as everyone's favorite hero, Link! (from Breath of the Wild -- anyone recognize the selfie pose?)

Ready for candy!

Miriam was working. :(  (Well, it was nice for her patients, sad that she missed out on the fun.)

 

And a closeup of Katie's pumpkin, just because it's so awesome:

(It's a character from the anime Over the Garden Wall.)

Happy Feast of All Hallows!

A Year In Review

I think 2020 is over... which would make a year-in-review appropriate, although I'm not 100% sure we're not just stuck in the vestibule of Hell from the Inferno.

 

At any rate, here is a summary of what we did last year (assuming it was actually a year ago).  Surprisingly I have remarkably few pictures.  I guess we weren't very busy for some weird reason.

January

The year began as usual, with the disembowling of the gingerbread monstrosity house.

this would be Day 2.

Random update

Wow.  You must all think we've died or something.  Well, we are all alive and... mostly well.  There are a few hoarse voices and runny noses around here, with the occasional fever thrown in for good measure, not to mention the stomach bug that wended its slow, painful way through the ranks last month.  But other than that we're all fine... here... now.... how are you?

So much Life has happened since my last post that there's nothing for it but to jump back in in the present, and hope I can get caught up later.  (yeah right)  I think my last official post (not including all the drafts languishing in limbo) was about Miriam's show -- well, we were recently in the throes of Tech Week yet again!  Miriam didn't perform this time -- we mutually decided that spending another quarter of the school year in rehearsals might not be best for the "school" part of home-schooling (let alone the "home" part).  Which is a pity, because they did Into the Woods (the good half) which would have been a great opportunity for Miriam.  So many good things to do, too little time to do them!  So even though she's not on stage, she still wanted to be a part of the production, so the director put her on one of the spotlights.  It's a pretty sweet gig -- she got to see the entire show six times for free. :)  I got to see two of the performances, one of each of the different casts -- the kids really did an amazing job.  They obviously had a lot of fun with their roles, and their comedic timing was perfect.  The costumes and sets were beautiful too -- the production was a real pleasure just to watch.

So the only downside to the gig was that the theater was in Woodbridge, which is 15 miles south, which means I had to drive 15 miles south on I-95 every day.  Twice.  (California readers, think the 5 -- there's just never NOT traffic.)  Thankfully the HOV lanes are pretty sweet -- I bought special snacks for the car just to bribe children to drive with me so we could qualify for the free pass.  And Mr. Pickles came home early the second week to help with the driving, so I no longer had to do all 60 of those miles myself.  Plus Miriam had a great time catching up with all her drama peeps as well as making new friends, so that makes it all worth it, since it's for someone who lights up our lives so much. (ba-dum chish)

After the last show was over, I gave Miriam the week off school.  She was very appreciative -- we stopped at the library and she stocked up on Dickens, so it's not like her week off was totally misspent. :)  Wow, she is so much more mature than I was at that age.

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Well, in between the 3 hours of driving I was doing a day, I managed to fit in lots of lesson planning for next school year.  Usually I start that kind of thing in March when it's cold and wet and I feel like this school year is a wash so I might as well start planning the next b/c all those pretty shiny curriculum catalogues have started arriving in the mail.  But this year either I felt more optimistic than usual and hadn't despaired yet, or else I was just too tired to think of yet another school year on top of this one.  (I think it was more of the latter.)  But now that the current school year is beginning to show signs of winding down, and I have hope that we won't all be stuck in the same grades next Christmas, I can think about the future.

This fall we will have 5 school-aged children.  I have no idea how exactly that's going to work.  Thankfully I'm getting used to the sight of the house always being barely one step above squalor.  What I would really love to have is an au pair -- someone to make sure that the household stuff keeps running: clothes get cleaned and put away, children get fed, diapers get changed, groceries get bought, and the floors get swept -- so I can help people with Algebra or phonics or listen to history narrations or keep distracted children on task or play with Play-Doh -- you know, the fun stuff.  Miriam is of an age where she could be super-helpful in this way, but she's always busy doing schoolwork!  I feel like one of my hands got cut off once she hit 8th grade -- I lost my extra grownup.  Thankfully Katie is starting to fill in the gaps more.  And all the children do have chores, which in theory is supposed to lighten the burden of housework for everyone, but so far my attempts to get them to do their chores without being nagged is a dismal failure.  I think we will be spending a good bit of the summer working on Good Habits.

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As I first began writing this I was sitting outside on our deck under the awning -- it was supposedly 90* out but didn't feel like it, thanks to a breeze and our jungle backyard.  A weird sound has been  coming from the trees -- a sound like an alien spaceship hovering just out of sight.  For the last couple weeks  we've been finding cicada carapaces all over the place.  (daaaaaa dum...)  I'm wondering if maybe this might not be the year to start planting all those vegetables we've been wanting....

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The other day Joseph decided to have a "backwards day."  He wore his shirt and pants backwards, and even buckled his belt behind his back.  (I suggested he might want to rethink that particular choice, to prevent possible bathroom complications.)  He also walked backwards whenever he thought of it.  That morning we had Children's Adoration Hour at our parish.  Yes, of course I let him wear his clothes backwards to the Adoration chapel.  #pickingmybattles #parentingperspective

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Happy Memorial Day!  I feel slightly guilty about how we spent our day.  This day was meant to honor the memory of those great people who offered their lives for our safety and freedoms.  I feel we should have gone to Mass, watched a parade, something.  Instead we cleaned the Space Shuttle and fixed a leaky pipe.  SO patriotic.

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This past weekend Mr. Pickles took Daniel on a road trip with him, to attend the ordination of an old college friend of ours to the permanent diaconate.  The ordination was on Friday evening, the big family party was on Saturday, and our deacon friend's first Mass was on Sunday.  We couldn't all go as a family -- traveling is so complicated now -- so just Mr. Pickles went.  Daniel was dragging his heels about the trip through all the preparations beforehand.  But afterwards he told Daddy that he was really happy he came on the trip.  When pressed for a reason why, he explained: "The pool.  And the trampoline."  Sacraments and father-son bonding be hanged!  The hotel pool and the backyard trampoline were really the best parts of the weekend.  And when you're a 6-year-old boy, really, why shouldn't they be?

And OF COURSE while Mr. Pickles was gone a faucet started leaking -- and not just any faucet: the cold water faucet leading to the washer.  I can do without many other faucets in the house, but the kitchen and the laundry machine ones are preeeeeeeetty essential.  So to keep the laundry room floor, and by extension the basement floor, from flooding, I MacGyvered a drainage system using a kitchen funnel, some string, and a bucket.  Worked pretty well, if I do say so myself.  I'm glad I caught the leak in the daytime -- that little drip produced 3 gallons overnight (I used it to flush the toilet a couple times -- go Frugal Queen!). 

So today as Mr. Pickles was preparing to fix it, I prepared for an afternoon without water by filling buckets and pitchers before he turned the water off.  Since plumbing is Mr. Pickles' personal bane, I just assumed something horrible and complicated was going to go wrong and prepared myself mentally to be without water until tomorrow when a plumber would come.

O me of little faith.

Turns out some part of the faucet was just loose, and Mr. Pickles cranked it back with a wrench.  Took all of about 15 seconds to fix.  I had been cranking the cold water back and forth, trying to adjust the temperature of the wash water in the machine manually (stupid "energy efficient" machines -- apparently they don't believe in actually using hot water to wash anything).  Unfortunately it looks like I'll have to be leave it be, and content myself with lukewarm washes.  Stoopid government stoopid regulations stoopid EPA razzerfrazzerrazzerfrazz.  You know, with all our light-speed advances in technology in the last 50 years, why is it that our household appliances are all getting worse???

/rant

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Well, there's a random sampling of some of what we've been up to in the last couple weeks!

FURTHER BULLETINS AS EVENTS WARRANT

Just jumping back in...

So.... can we pretend that I just sort of entered a time warp from the last post and have only just arrived in the present?

Wow.  So, summer.  Has it really been 3 months?  What have we been doing anyway?  Well... we're sort of doing year-round school, since we took so many "days off" during the school year because Mommy was worn out from moving and would rather play on the internet than work we were adjusting to life in the new house.  By now the girls are still doing Math and Geography and maybe a little history, but aside from Math it's all reading picture books so it's not WORK work.  And even getting them to do that much has been a struggle since everyone is on a Lego kick lately.

Exhibit A -- this is actually less messy than usual

Exhibit B

We recently rented The Lego Movie and I think that started the fad.  Daniel's favorite song for the last month has been -- what else? -- "Everything is awesome.... everything is cool when you're part of a team..." rinse, repeat.  That's all of the song that he knows.

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What else?  Jam.  Jam.  And more jam.  If I make two batches of apple butter, we will have enough jars of spreadin's to last us until the Apocalypse.  (We still have a few jars left over from LAST summer!  And it's still good!)

 
Current stock includes strawberry, blueberry, and peach.  Come November, I will be taking orders. :)

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Okay, weather!  I have to talk about the weather.  It's been unreal.  I've really, really been liking Virginia this year.  It's insane.  Usually this time of year I hate Virginia and everyone in it because I feel like I'm living in an oven.  But it's been lovely!!  We almost pulled out the down comforters the other night.  The only disadvantage I can see is that our pool membership went totally to waste this year -- the couple times I took the kids to the pool they were shivering after half an hour b/c they were so chilly. #firstworldproblems

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The Little Boys (Daniel and Andrew, to be distinguished from The Middles -- Katie, Joseph and Daniel -- and The Bookends -- Miriam and Andrew) have been extra cute lately.  Daniel has been saying the most hilarious things.  I really need to keep paper and a pencil in my pocket.  The other day when I was helping him get dressed, he put his face close to my head and breathed deeply.
Daniel: "Mmmm, Mommy, your hair smells weally GOOD."
me: "Really, what does it smell like?"
Daniel: *sniff*  "Fwuit snacks!"

And then another day as we were out shopping he informed me that when he grew up he wanted to be a "wock'n'woll bander."   A few weeks later he told me he wanted to be something else when he gwew up -- I think a wace car dwiver -- and when I reminded him that he had told me he wanted to be a rock'n'roll bander he snorted and said, "Psh, what's dat?  Dat's weiwd."

Andy has been trying reeeeeally hard to talk lately.  I will be SO happy when he can finally talk to his brothers and TELL them to knock it off instead of shrieking at them.  It got to the point the other day that I had to put him in his bed a few times to impress upon him the undesirability of such a noise in the house.  If that doesn't work I'm buying earplugs.

Of course, the way boys typically communicate, I don't know if they will actually be capable of speaking to each other in a rational conversation, instead of punching each other or knocking each other down, until they're in their late 20s.  Dave?  Joe?  Any insights?

Andy's favorite word is "dutch."  For the uninitiated in Andrewese, that means "wheeled vehicle."  It encompasses cars, trucks, buses, and trains.  He is also fascinated by electronic tools.  He will imitate anything that makes noise.

He especially loves our hand-held blender.  We're trying to get a video of him watching it -- he will work so hard to make a proper motor noise that his face turns red from the effort.

Andy is all about grouping similar items into one category, for simplicity.  In addition to the "truck" category mentioned, there is also "beboo" which refers to blueberries, grapes, raisins, and strawberries; and "appo" for apples, pears, peaches, and nectarines.  Another favorite is "O's" which refers to any cereal.  I will repeat the proper name to him whenever I give him something, and he will give me a look which couldn't say more plainly, "Yes, I know exactly what you are saying, but my way is much more efficient."

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So, speaking of food, Mr. Pickles and I are back on the Fat Flush Plan.  Our fridge is full of rabbit food.  We're in week 2 now, and we've both already lost a few pounds.   It's been very good curbing the thoughtless eating habits I'd gained over the past year -- plus it's also good having energy again.  As I get older I realize that I'm really going to have to keep my grain intake in check.  Mr. Pickles has been feeling better too -- something he was eating had been bothering him constantly -- we suspect dairy, even in the small amounts he was consuming. (and no, it's not a lactose intolerance -- it's more annoyingly subtle and mysterious)

It will be nice to fit back into all those clothes that are gathering dust in the bottom of my closet...

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So... that's a little gossip about us.  I recently discovered TWO unpublished drafts which I will get up post-haste.  Plus there are oodles of pictures from the summer.  Brace yourselves!

What We've Been Up To

...besides accidentally painting the carpet, that is.

What have we been up to?  Short answer: lots and lots!  Here's a sampling.

First up: packing.

boooooxeeeeeeessss...

 I think we've moved about a third of our belongings into storage (Mr. Math Whiz can correct me on that), to make it easier to spiff up the place.  After we removed all the bookcases and painted the living room, it became SO much lighter in there!  Having less stuff around to look at has made me feel more calm in some ways -- well, at least as calm as one can feel when, at any given moment, one room in the house looks like this:

proposed new subtitle for this blog: My Life in Boxes

But Getting Rid of Stuff feels so good that I have been ruthless in my decluttering.  It's been a positive lesson in detachment -- I'm realizing how little I really need to have a happy home life.  (hint: it's not the box of papers from college days)

you can kind of see the color difference here: new neutral paint on the near walls, older yellow in the back.  the new paint looks like french vanilla ice cream.

So I'm filled with all kinds of good resolutions for homemaking in the new house.  And of course, we ALL know that after we finally move (Lord knows when that will be), there are still going to be boxes full of Stuff that lie around indefinitely, until I "find" the time to unpack them.  I should schedule the house blessing for a month after the move-in date to give myself a deadline.

The kids are handling the rolling chaos remarkably well.  It helps that the weather has been extremely cooperative for the most part, so they are able to spend much time out of doors.  I think they're also responding positively to the lack of clutter -- when there's less stuff around, they can focus on just a couple favorite things, and the tendency (and ability) to leave a disastrous mess in their wake is lessened.  (They still make messes, they're just less... disastrous.)  After we had cleared out the living room and a good part of the basement toys, Katie still managed to create an amazing fort/secret hideout complete with drawbridge and pennants using a filing cabinet, the piano bench, a piece of cardboard, pipe cleaners, a bit of string, scotch tape (she has her own roll so she won't use up mine), and pencils.  Oh, and half a ream of construction paper (give or take).  That girl was born about a century too late -- she would have been a whiz at Making Do during the Great Depression.

after just the first coat of primer, the kitchen became so bright!

We've made quite a bit of progress -- I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  It's good to remember that this will all eventually end, because everything is still in limbo.  Not one room is actually finished.  Being the perfectionist I am, it's driving me CRAZY.  I have such lovely visions for what each room could be!  Instead, this is the closest I have to an "after" picture:

waiting to paint the bottom half until the new countertops come...

There are just so. many. little. things. that need to be done.  And a couple big things still.  But I'm not complaining!  No I'm not!  I have a house, and not a pile of matchsticks instead.  I am very grateful for that.

I am also very grateful for a hubby who always does wonderful Mother's Days. :)

baked french toast with chocolate melted in between layers...

...smothered in mashed strawberries and hand-whipped cream, served with mimosas.

Speaking of Mother's Day, I had a delightful one!  As you can see the breakfast was awesome.  Then after Mass, Joseph's Atrium teacher held an open house, so the students could show all their favorite works to their families.  Joseph's favorite was an awesome building set of Jerusalem, complete with labels for all the events of the Passion.  We had a good time looking at all the materials, and Joseph was very proud to show us around.

After that Mr. Pickles dropped Andy and me off at the National Gallery of Art, so I could visit the Pre-Raphaelites exhibit before it left.  It was amazing and beautiful.  I was surprised by how many other mothers chose to spend their afternoon there too.  I guess I'm not surprised that they wanted to spend their afternoon surrounded by beauty -- I'm just surprised they decided to bring their (small and unappreciative) children with them!

Then in the evening after I returned home we had some friends over for dinner, and Mr. Pickles grilled.  It was fabulous.  We had a great time.  Oh, and all the kids had made me cards and the girls sewed me little gifts -- it was just a beautiful, sweet day.

Oh, and speaking of strawberries, guess what time it is?

Jam-making time!!

Three batches of strawberry in the pantry already.  I hope it's not too prideful to say that this year my strawberry jam is AWE.SOME.  Like strawberry candy (and that's even with the low-sugar pectin!).  I finally figured how not to scorch strawberry jam -- a) turn down the heat to med-high (duh), and b) have your kitchen elves take turns stirring constantly, and by constantly, I mean constantly.  It's worth giving yourself carpal-tunnel from all the stirring -- the results are yummers.  I hope blueberries will be at the Farmer's Market soon, b/c we're already going through this stuff pretty quickly! 

I figured out that to have enough jam to last us the year and still be able to give some away at Christmas, I would need to make 65+ jars.  If I make a batch every weekend this summer that I can, taking time off for the homeschool conference and for moving, I should be able to get a good dozen in.  (One batch makes from about 6-7 jars for peach to 9-10 for blueberry.)  I can crank out a batch pretty quickly now, especially when I have little elves to help!

So that's some of the latest.  I have a couple more things to write about, but it's now pumpkin time for me.

And because no post is complete without a picture of the baby:

arrr, matey!  have ye any booty on which I can drool?

...um, how do you get this thing off?

Not Dead Yet.

And no, I haven't giving up blogging either.  My hard drive is almost full (mostly of pictures and movies!) so Mr. Pickles and I have had to figure out a solution.  We have an external hard drive now, he just has to teach me how to use it so I can transfer pictures from our cameras and then upload them to the blog.  I KNOW!  TWO whole steps!  My life is SO complicated.

But I have so many things I want to share with you all!  Here are a few (without pictures):

-We have a couple of wrens building a nest in our backyard.  In a trashbag.  That is full of leaves from LAST FALL.  See, you should NEVER throw anything away!  Now we will have our very own family of baby birds in our very own backyard soon because of our procrastination!

-Birthday Week is approaching!  It's non-stop party at die Gurke Haus!

-Speaking of Birthday Week, for Miriam's 10th birthday I'm taking her to the shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, Wis., and to visit her godmother who lives just a few minutes away from it.  Say a prayer for us -- we'll be praying for you!

-The weather here is CRAZY.  It was such a mild winter -- I think there were really only two days that could be considered semi-decent sledding weather (the kids came home covered in mud).  The spring has been amazing.  Yesterday and today it was in the 80's, which is just a little too extreme.  I find myself dreading summer however....

-We've gotten threatening letters from our neighborhood HOA about the scruffiness of our property.  We know it's scruffy.  We have kids!  Our front lawn has been a source of personal embarrassment for two years now.  So we've got Big Plans for re-landscaping our little postage stamp yard -- about to become half a postage stamp!  I also really, really want to make our back yard a true living space -- right now it's pretty junky (even not counting the broken gate lying on its side across the door frame -- I think we exist to make our neighbors feel better about themselves). 

-Mr. Pickles and I have been taking this Matrimonial Love Course.  It's a case study method, where you read a case, make note of the facts, discuss possible problems, and think of solutions together.  We did the one for parenting a couple years ago and it was very insightful -- the marriage course is proving to be as well.  It can get depressing reading about other couples' serious marital problems though!  However you DO get to solve their lives for them.  The bossy older sister in me finds that very satisfying.

-We're STILL working on our 2011 Christmas letter -- our printer died in the middle of printing them all out (the thing WAS about 10 years old -- a veritable fossil), so we had to get a new one.  It's very shiny and has a scanner.  I'm a little afraid of it.  But all the letters got printed, and then when we went to print out labels we learned that the computer had deleted our address book.  Grrrrrrrrr.  So now we just have to psyche ourselves up to hand-address them and just finish already. (#19 on the anti-procrastination list...)  But they are printed out!  And we have the stamps!  So we are determined to do it before the letter becomes obsolete! 

-Speaking of procrastinating, for Lent I've made an anti-procrastination list of Stuff To Do Already and am working my way through them.  I've crossed 11 1/2 things off my list so far.  Some alert readers may note that we are near to finishing the third week of Lent.  However, I would like to point out that these are things that I have been putting off for MONTHS, so 11 1/2 things in 3 weeks is pretty good!  Often my problem is that I don't have the time to do many of the things during the day (like all the things that involve sewing, and therefore require scissors and pins to be out in the open) until certain destructive small persons are contained.  Preferably, asleep.  But by that point I'M ready for bed too, and starting a project that has More Than One Step can be beyond my emotional strength.  It's been revealing how much of my resistance to completing these projects has been psychological -- when I can just psyche myself up to do a project, it really isn't that difficult and doesn't take that much time.  I just have to invest in it mentally.  For some reason that's been a real challenge.  It's been good for me to realize this about myself.  Something to bring to my spiritual adviser, when I get one (#20). 

-Also for Lent, I tried giving up wheat, in communion with Mr. Pickles.  But that's been a miserable failure.  I find that making pasta and sandwiches for lunch is just too convenient -- I haven't thought through what to replace them with instead that doesn't involve tripling our grocery budget.  Any suggestions?  (fyi the kids aren't going wheat-free so they're still sandwich-approved -- it's just me)

-We got our piano tuned yesterday.  Well, not exactly tuned.  We got a pitch raise, which means that the pitches had sunk so low that the tuner had to raise them all back into somewhat closer range to their true pitch.  And then in another month he's going to have to come back to do the fine tuning.  I knew it sounded bad, but I didn't know it was THAT BAD!  I feel like a failure of a piano owner!  It had only been 8 months since the last tuning, and the one before THAT was exactly 6 months, so it's not like we're neglecting the piano.  I have a sneaking suspicion it was the last tuner we had.  The piano honestly just never sounded in tune, even right after he tuned it.  And it started sounding TERRIBLE about 2 months after the tuning.  It sounds much better now, even though I can tell it's not perfect.  But at least we're not cringing every time Miriam practices!

There, proof we're not dead.  Life is going on -- the usual rounds of laundry, school, chaos-resistance, and days in the sunshine thrown in for good measure.

FURTHER BULLETINS AS EVENTS WARRANT

Quick Takes

I'm beginning to despair of ever getting this family log updated.  I have three-- no, four drafts in the queue, waiting for me to make the time to finish editing them.  (the curse of being a perfectionist!  every word must be carefully weighed!  is there a better way to say that?  must proofread!  too wordy -- delete delete!)  (this is why I was always a better research paper writer than essay test taker.)

But stuff has been going on, and I don't want to forget about them before I finally have a chance to write about them.  I also want to prove to you all that we're not dead.


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Mr. Pickles and I went to see Les Miserables at the Kennedy Center this week.  To a 1:30 show.  On a Wednesday.  All the weekends were booked solid by the time we started looking at tickets.  A dear friend in our baby sitting co-op bent over backwards to watch all our kids so we could go.  The last time we saw Les Miz was before we were married -- Mr. Pickles took me to see it in DC and I was so impressed that he was willing to spend so much money on me!  The show was great -- the singing was A-MAZ-ING -- the staging was fairly simple but interesting -- the final scene was heart-wrenching and inspiring... and the sound was L.O.U.D.  I think everyone was miked, and they had the speakers set to "bleeding ears."  It was like watching a movie at the loud theater, only louder.  Our ears were ringing afterwards.  But we had awesome seats!  Orchestra level at the Kennedy Center is the way to go.  That's a tip, kids; write it down.

It was fun getting all dressed up in the middle of the day.  But then we had to pick the kids up and bring them home and change out of our lovely raiment to feed them... back to the humdrum.  After Mr. Pickles makes his first million I'm going to get season tickets. :)  (Sigh, I miss student prices for Pittsburgh shows!)

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My second-worst fears as a housewife have been realized: it seems that Mr.Pickles has a sensitivity to wheat.  (The worst fear is that we'll have lice. Or bedbugs. They're equally terrifying.)  Whenever he eats white flour, it makes him feel ill.  It's such a staple in my meal planning that I've been hard pressed to find alternatives for him.  I have to say, though, that it hasn't been as involved as I thought it would.  He pretty much takes care of his own breakfast and lunch each day (yes, I know, I am a neglectful wife).  And for dinner I've been making things with the wheat component separate.  For example tonight we had chicken and broccoli in white sauce over pasta -- but for Mr. Pickles I made rice (it was supposed to be rice pasta but the grocery delivery man forgot a bag on the truck, thanks a lot, PeaPod).  Last night it was fried sausage & potatoes (no wheat at all), and the night before it was chili with cornbread on the side.  Tomorrow we'll have bean soup with rolls on the side.  The only meals I won't be able to make are things like pot pies, a couple casserole dishes with biscuit dough baked on top (unless I separate a serving of the filling before adding the dough, which I have also done), or baked pasta.  So it's not the end of my career of cooking with simplicity.  But man, that gluten free stuff is going to break the bank.

All is not lost, however -- it turns out that he is only really sensitive to white flour.  Whole wheat doesn't seem to bother him.  I'll need to try to experiment with that white-wheat flour to see if I can make bread that doesn't weigh as much as a brick.

Oh, and he might have a parasite.  Fun times!

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In other food and budget-breaking news, we're already spending more on groceries b/c we're trying to eat real food type things and avoid stuff like high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and nitrites.  It's not until you start reading labels that you realize how pervasive those things are.  Real food is hard to find, especially convenience foods.  However!  There is a good side -- we have found some really delicious things this way.  We found a brand of root beer that uses sugar instead of corn syrup, and oh, my, it's worth the $1 a bottle!  It tastes like real live actual Root Beer -- you know, like homemade soda made out of real sassafras and brewed in your best friend's basement, or something equally awesome.  And the only ice cream we've been able to find is, I think, Dreyers -- again, it tastes like Real Food.  This is the reason we try to make our own bread, and yogurt, and jam.  For one thing, you know exactly what you're putting into it.  And for another, once you've tasted homemade it's so hard to go back to store bought -- it just tastes fake after you've had the real thing.

The next step we're contemplating is getting a freezer chest so we can buy a half a hog, or a quarter of beef, or some other obscene amount of real meat from healthy animals that actually get to see the sun and walk on real ground and eat real food themselves.  There are several nearby organic farms out here -- a lot of our friends will split the costs for large amounts of meat, butter, eggs, and the like.  I'd even like to buy a share in a cow so we could get fresh milk, much to the horror of my mother.  But I've tasted some at friends' houses, and my oh my, it is SO good.  I'm just happy we're in a place now financially that we can consider all this.  Yes, it is harder trying to stick to a budget this way -- I have to sacrifice a lot of convenience foods and make more things from scratch to save money (although we can't seem to wean ourselves off of crackers for the kids -- there are some things I'm willing to let slide).  It takes time, but all in all the gain in health and flavor makes it worth it.  I think the smell of the house when I'm making bread is worth a million times the inconvenience!

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We've been shopping for new carpet for the basement.  I will be so happy when we get that living space back again.  I didn't realize just how much I had come to depend on it until I tried doing school all on one level.  It's so hard -- I can't do any reading with the girls unless at least one of the boys is asleep.  Otherwise the boys spend all their time running around and yelling at each other, because they don't have anything else to do (and it's fun).  They just get bored living in one room.  But when we were doing schoolwork in the basement, they had shelves of toys to keep them busy, and if one of the girls was getting distracted by them I could send her upstairs to the dining table for a few minutes to complete her assignment.  I'm hoping our days will run more smoothly when we have all our living spaces put back to rights.

Aside from providing a fully functional basement, the new carpet itself isn't too exciting -- it's pretty similar to what we had before.  What IS exciting is that we decided to go ahead and get new flooring in the dining room AND kitchen too!  I KNOW!  We are just crazy party animals here.  We had been talking about burni replacing the carpet in the dining room for several months now.  Who -- WHO! -- in their right mind puts beige carpet in a dining room??  (And who in their right mind lets their children -- especially babies in high chairs -- eat food in a dining room with beige carpet??)  So our carpet, formerly known as beige, was untouched by the steam cleaning I gave it... whenever ago it was that I cleaned it.  It had gotten to the point where I cringed every time one of the children lay down on it to play.  So, you get the picture -- it's time for it to go.  We are replacing the carpet and the kitchen sticky-onny tiles with wood, yay!  No, not the real kind -- the "composite material with a sticker," as the salesman calls laminate flooring.  But it should look pretty long enough for us to enjoy it and then move out and let the next owners deal with replacing it. :)  And look pretty it will!  I can't wait to have a floor that can (in theory) be cleaned after every meal.  At least, easily cleanable.  I have two sources of cheap labor now -- I think it's about time for Katie to be introduced to Mrs. Swiffer!

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Finally, costume season hath arrived!  The last couple days I've been sewing up a storm because, me being me, I waited until the last possible second to start working on the kids' costumes.  (Really.  I figured out -- subconsciously actually -- how much time I would need to sew the things I needed to sew, and started working on them when I knew I absolutely couldn't wait another minute or they wouldn't get done in time.)  Once again, I made the kids pick two-fers -- the costume they wanted had to work for both trick or treating and our homeschool group's  All Saints party.  Katie got around that by using last year's costume, with a couple amendments, to represent a new saint this year.  And Daniel is big enough that he could use Jojo's from last year.  But still, four children times two occasions means eight separate ensembles with accessories to think about, plan, and purchase!  Fortunately I still love all that stuff -- I just wish I had occasion to dress up too!  (Kids get all the fun. *pout*)  I'll save all the rest of the details for another post, when I have more pictures.

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So, you see?  Not dead.  Just handling life with lots of people, a few minor emergencies, and not quite enough energy to stay on top of everything!

Yet Another Desperate Attempt to Catch Up

Wow. I am just a pathetic blogger. Apologies to all you adoring fan(s). I finally cleaned off our camera after we ran out of memory (we had pictures going back to February!). Everyone is either gone or asleep, and I'm awake, so since the planets seem to be aligned I'm going to take advantage of this rare occurrence!

All hail, King Joseph!

So, obviously we're not dead yet. We've just been sucked into that swirling vortex known as The School Year. Wait, I thought homeschooling was supposed to be relaxed, flexible, customizable, and all those happy go-with-the-flow things?


must... keep... straight... face.... Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaaa!!!!! Who am I kidding? Any family that is certifiably insane enough to assume the full-time task of educating its youngest members is destined to be suck into the educational vortex for a couple months. School itself only takes up about 3 hours of every day -- even less, excluding breaks. But there are weekly library trips, field trips, CCD, co-op classes on Thursdays, art projects, science projects, plus all the usual homemaking stuff like cooking and dishes and laundry and housecleaning and phone calls and doctor appointments....


So, yeah, that's where I've been the last couple months. Not that I'm complaining. Life is very full right now -- in a good way.



(Speaking of pathetic -- our garden's yield this year. I'm finally coming to grips with the realization that I just do not have a green thumb.)

One thing I've learned in the last few months is that I need to take better care of myself. Why do we mothers think that by completely sacrificing ourselves, we're doing our families a favor? I'm not being a good mother when I stay up late at night, even if it's doing something important (and not just watching free movies on Netflix). ;) Our daughters are watching us, and learning what it means to be a woman through our example. I don't want to appear tired, frumpy, and run-down on all time. My family is not forcing me into slavery -- I'm doing it to myself. So I've taken Mr. Pickles up on his many offers to take time off. Often I go shopping (SOMEONE has to support this economy!), :) sometimes I'll just go to a bookstore or the library. Another mom and I have also worked out an arrangement where we trade off babysitting each week. I've had to use most of my days so far for medical appointments, but once I did get a haircut and go to the mall. I'm learning to squeeze in these little breaks that I now know are so important -- I'd lost sight of who I was outside of Homeschooling Homemaker. I'm much more at peace with my life and children, now that I know I don't have to surrender everything I am to them.

Another benefit is that the kids get more time with just Daddy. Daddy is fun. He takes them to parks and McDonalds and all those fun things that their mean mommy NEVER does. :)


Ah, playground static!



Why yes, I do have monkeys for children.

Sigh... the baby is getting so big...

A Week in the Life

So how was your week last week? Get lots of work done? Play with your pets? Meet anyone new? Good, good. Glad to hear it. Well, we had a busy week. Here are some pictures that Miriam drew of what we did. Can you guess?


If you said "spent three hours in the emergency room on a Saturday evening" you would be correct!!

She was running. It had rained. It was muddy. She slipped. A rock or stick or something jumped up and bit her in the leg. It was deep. She screamed a lot. We cleaned it out and called the pediatrician, who recommended bringing her to the emergency room to check it out. So we had to put all our other plans on hold (poor Mr. Pickles had to cancel his "pizza and a guy movie" guys' night). Fortunately it was slow at the emergency room, so we didn't have to wait long for any one period, just lots of little waiting periods.

The nurses were very nice.


They numbed her leg with a special cream (see the poultice on her leg, pictured above), then cleaned out the cut with a nifty syringe thingy:


Then the attending doctor stitched it up (4 stitches in the back of her thigh). Sorry I don't have any pictures of that. But you can view Miriam's rendition, also above.

Miriam was a little trooper through the whole thing. After the initial trauma of being injured was over, she was very stoic, if not downright curious, about the whole thing. After all, this was her first trip to the emergency room. She was mostly concerned about how much the needle would hurt when she was being stitched up. (It didn't -- she was numb.) And then afterwards, she took great delight in describing the whole ordeal to anyone who would listen.

She got the stitches taken out this past Friday and everything is healing up nicely. Now we're just waiting for the bill.

In other financial news this week, we had to take the car in to get the rear windshield wiper fixed, after it had been mauled by a neighborhood kid. While it was in the shop, the rear brake lights stopped working for some mysterious reason. A one-day fix turned into a multi-day carless streak. They finally gave us a loaner after we whined and pleaded and begged so that at least our family life could function (you remember we have only the one car). The loaner was a "mini-minivan." So, technically, it could seat 7 people. In theory. And assuming they were all the size of Katie. As it was, the 3 carseats were pretty packed in there. And we had no trunk space. So no major grocery shopping allowed.

We FINALLY got the van back, all fixed, huzzah huzzah, on Monday. Mr. Pickles had to take off of work early, before they closed (we just missed them by 20 minutes the previous Saturday, rizza frazza grrrrr), since I had to run an errand that evening.

Meanwhile, I was trying to plan how to attend this year's big homeschool conference that I'd been looking forward to since I missed LAST year's conference. When I got the news that our car was out of commission, I despaired. How was I going to attend the conference AND get Miriam to the doctor, with no car? Or even with one car? Well, Providence intervened in the form of my cousin Martin who flew in to man a booth at the conference. (Yay JP Catholic!) He had a rental car, so I carpooled in with him, and Mr. Pickles hauled all the kids to the doctor's. But since I couldn't stay all day, I had to scramble around and beg for an early ride home, but again I providentially bumped into a friend just as she was getting ready to leave. The next day I had free reign with the car, went to the conference, spent lots of money (of course!), and brought home some great books. Oh, did I mention that Mr. Pickles was sick this whole time? He very generously and self-sacrificingly made it possible for me to attend the conference even though he was feeling lousy. Isn't he great? I don't deserve him. He handles sickness much better than I do -- I get so whiny and pouty!

Anway, speaking of whining, where was I? Emergency room, car, stitches, conference, I guess that's it. Oh, in good news, Joseph is a healthy 15-month-old, and he didn't react from his MMR vaccine on Monday, plus I found a swimsuit that I actually sort of kind of like that even fits and stuff, although it makes me look like the Queen of Hearts. But back to our regularly scheduled whining: this Friday I'll be bringing Joseph back to the pediatric dentist to make sure he doesn't have nerve damage from when he cracked his tooth (I already blogged about that, didn't I?). I've also begun the mad scramble to get ready for vacation, which includes, but is not limited to, errand-running, extra shopping, finishing up 3 sewing projects, conquering mountains of laundry, vacuuming popcorn and granola off the dining room floor several times a week, catching mice in the kitchen, catching gerbils in the living room (Joseph has discovered how to open their cage), making to-do lists, making packing lists, making lists of lists, and in general feeding 4 hungry people at various times throughout the day.

So now you all know why I haven't blogged in a while.

And why I plan to spend two weeks on a beach in California drinking Bellinis every day.


Or mimosas.

I'm not picky.

Check out all his majesty!

What Mr. Pickles does when faced with leftover pancake batter.

Yes, he is indeed a man of many hidden talents.


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Alright, alright, I know I'm like 6 weeks behind in posting stuff -- the issue is that all of our recent pictures (except the above one) are on our old dinosaur of a computer downstairs. My using that computer for any length of time requires a very favorable alignment of the planets -- or at least the children. But the guilt factor is starting to weigh on me heavily, so I'll be catching up soon! :)

onyourmarkgetsetgo!

Okay, so the latest excuse for why I hadn't updated our blog for a while is that we've been too busy living to write about living -- what with squeezing out the last few drops of fun from our summer vacation and getting ready for the new school year as well as all the usual housekeeping routines, August was a pretty packed month. Fun, but packed! I had only just started ordering the girls' school books the week before school began. I've still got a couple more books in the queue. I've had everything pretty much planned for a while, just still need to do some tweaking. It's going to be an interesting month, figuring out how to juggle everything.

As for the fun things we've been doing, Mr. Pickles took several days off the last week of summer vacation so we could do fun family stuff together. And naturally we forgot to bring the camera to anything, so you'll all just have to read the old fashioned way and imagine pictures in your head. Shocking, I know!

One Saturday we woke up and discovered that we absolutely nothing whatsoever planned for that day at all. At first we didn't know what to do with ourselves, but then we decided to make it a Fun Family Day and went to a local farm park. I had never been there, although the rest of the Pickles went last year while I was at a homeschooling conference. Miriam remembered a lot from last time and was showing me around. There was a barn with goats, sheep, and a couple litters of baby pigs, and giant horses. In the fields were cows and some calves, more sheep and lots more goats (including a couple really cute goat kids), and in pens there were chickens, turkeys, ducks, and a peacock (which sadly was molting so it didn't have a very impressive tail). It was neat watching all the animals. There girls were also impressed by the old farm's outhouse. :) At the end of the afternoon you could try milking one of the dairy cows. Miriam actually wanted to try it this year, and was very proud of herself that she actually got a couple streams of milk in the bucket. The cows were extremely placid. Katie's favorite part of the day was riding on the toy tractors, though.

Another neat part of the day was that there was an equestrian show going on all day in one part of the park. Miriam and I were in heaven. We watched a lot of the dressage and show jumping and talked about which horses were best and which were prettiest. If I were independently wealthy I'd totally have a horse and compete in shows. Watching the show brought me back to the happiest summer of my life, when I took horseback riding lessons. I think I was 12. They really made a big impression on me, and left me with a life-long desire to work with horses again someday. I was tickled that Miriam liked watching the horses as much as I did.

The next week we made our annual pilgrimage to a local waterpark. We had a bit of a crisis when we first arrived -- since it was the last week the park was open, its hours were drastically reduced and didn't open until 3 hours after we arrived. At first the girls were heartbroken. But I had noticed on the map that there was a zoo nearby, so we decided to check it out. It turned out to be the most fun day ever! The zoo was a great little zoo. All the animals were really tame and friendly (well, maybe all except the alligator). They had a petting barn full of sheep, goats, and alpacas, with lots of little baby animals everywhere. You could purchase a bucket of feed to give to the animals around the park, as well as baby bottles of milk for the lambs. There were a couple spider monkeys, which were fun -- the girls enjoyed watching them using their tails to hang on to things, as well as seeing the baby hold tight to its mother. The reptile house had a lot of really cool, enormous snakes that I was very thankful were behind thick glass. There was even a little 20-minute safari ride where we got to meet an ostrich named Tweety, a watusi named Bubbles, a blue antelope named Thor, and sundry other animals from Africa. Tweety thought my shirt tasted interesting. This zoo was right in the middle of the suburbs -- can you imagine waking up each morning to see zebras, ostriches and antelope right behind your backyard?? How cool would that be?

After we had our fun at the zoo, we headed over to the water park. Miriam had just recently discovered that she could swim unassisted, plus one of her friends showed up while we were there, so she was in little mermaid heaven. The water at its deepest was 3 1/2 feet -- just up to Miriam's shoulders. She went on all the slides she could, and climbed on all the floating rafts, and jumped and splashed and had a gay ol' time. Katie, on the other hand, spent most of the time shivering. Poor kid -- I need to get her a wetsuit. She wasn't quite old enough yet to really enjoy the park -- she went on one slide and climbed on a plastic turtle and splashed a bit in the shallow parts. But once she got Mr. Pickles' undivided attention while I tried to keep up with Miriam, she had more fun "swimming" around (wearing a big life vest). Joseph had great fun splashing and trying to grab streams of water, and just looking around and listening to all the water. At the end of the day we were all thoroughly tired out. Katie fell asleep in the car on the way home, fell back asleep on a chair after we got home, slept through dinner, and didn't wake up when I deposited her in her bed. She woke up next morning amused to be still in her clothes.

So the day was a big success!

Later in the week we went to see an exhibit of Jim Henson's Muppets at one of the many pocket-sized museums in DC. It was a really neat exhibit with lots of interesting background history. The girls, not surprisingly, enjoyed the hands-on part where you could use felt pieces to make your own muppet faces, or perform your own puppet show which showed up on a TV screen. It was one of those fun touristy things that we only do once a year, since we live here, so why should we do touristy things? I hope to be able to take advantage of more museum exhibits like this and incorporate them into our school year. I love the flexibility of homeschooling!

The rest of our Last Vacation Week was spent around the house, relaxing and doing last-minute school planning and bickering and getting on each other's nerves -- so we were pretty much ready for school to start. :)

The rumors of our demise... etc. etc.

Only slightly exaggerated. I'll spare you all the gruesome details, so to sum up: Katie had a stomach bug, followed by a fever. Mr. Pickles had a severely sore throat that merited a trip to an emergency clinic -- but Codeine and antibiotics finally kicked in and allowed him to function again. Now I'm sick -- or maybe plain exhausted. All in all, it's been a long week.

Why, even Katie's bear was sick.

Miriam, miraculously, remained untouched (knock on wood!). Poor kid had to keep herself amused for several days while I tried to get our life back into some semblance of order. She spent lots of time coloring. A benefactor had just given us a stack of colored paper and some princess stencils, so she was pretty happy with those. This is one of my favorites from the week.

a representation of the fall & the promise of redemption. (I love God's frowny face!)

an activity I suggested: marker target practice (the green elastic thingy is about to knock over the black marker)

And THIS is what happens when Mom is left out of the fashion choices for the day. Note everyone's shoes.

Sigh, I WILL get better again, I know I will!

Lest you think I've been blowing you all off

This is just a sample of what my month has looked like. I've written down more since this picture was taken.

"Paul" means babysitting and school, using up the hours 8-3. So everything written on Paul days is done in the afternoon and/or evening.

Now you understand why this blog has been so low on my list of priorities. :)

(calendar, which I lurve, is from Flylady.net. The little squares on those church calendars just don't cut it anymore)