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...

Now I know how to say "hippopotamus" in French

This must be Katie's long-lost twin. In France.

Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.

Don't you just want to eat her up?

Guess where I was this weekend

Hey, I can see my old house from here! Wait, what? You don't see it? Okay, I'll zoom in:

There it is, see it? Right there?

Okay, fine, so I went to go meet the latest family member and be present at his baptism. I went by myself. It was very weird being alone. Traveling was actually... pleasant! I couldn't stay for very long -- about 48 hours to be exact -- but that's enough time to have a good time with family and partake in some baby worshipping!

Hello, Damien Alexander!

Yes, teeth are overrated, especially when you're this cute!

Uncle Dave practicing for when it's his turn. :)

This cracked me up, because it brings back so many memories: how new parents bathe their new baby.


All fresh and fluffy! (and staring at Daddy)

Father and son. Joe is a good Daddy. (I wish I'd taken a picture of him playing WoW with Damien in his lap.)

I spent one night with Joe and Rie so I could get in some extra Damien time before the baptism. Since I was up and at 'em before 6 (technically I slept in!), I got to spend some special auntie time with Damien while the rest of the household slept some more.

Say hi to the internet!

Damien is just a cutie and a half. Lookie dat face! Chubber chubber!

I don't think he ever stopped moving while I was holding him. He's a boy, all right!



Newborn smiles are so precious.

After the last-second frenzy of getting ready and Joe's demonstration of his Pontiac's acceleratory powers, we arrived at the church, where Dad and Grandma together got the star all cuted up.


Grandma with the lucky grandchild who will get the most opportunities for spoiling.

The church was, appropriately, St. John the Baptist.

Welcome, newest Christian!


The godparents were our brother Dave, and Rie's sister Christine (you may remember that Miriam was flower girl at both weddings last summer). Fr. Patrick has been a family friend for ages -- we knew him when he was still frater Patrick, and we attended his ordination and first Masses. He also celebrated Joe and Rie's wedding (as well as Christine's), so it was very special for him to be able to perform the first baptism as well!

Although Damien was the newest Christian on the block, he wasn't the new kid any more -- his second cousin James now holds that title:

babies, babies everywhere!

Before:


After!
James was over 11 lbs. when he was born. Yes, Sara is a superwoman!

All the cousins! Martin, me, Dave, Timi (for whose wedding we came out back in June), and Joe with Damien.

Here's one for Nana. :)

Damien with his godmother, Aunt Tine. She was telling me how close she feels to him -- that when he was born (she was at the hospital, waiting), she felt that he might as well have been hers, she loved him so much. I realized I felt the same way -- when I was playing with him that morning, and snuggling with him while he slept on my shoulder, I felt all my mothering instincts focus on him as well. I never realized I could love another mother's child as if it were my own.

There's nothing like family in the whole wide world. And I'm happy to be back with mine, where I'm queen bee again, even if that involves filling soap dispensers, replacing toilet paper, turning off lights, cleaning off counters, and all those little things that tend to get forgotten when the details person is away. :)

Guess where we were last weekend

Wait, what? You don't see it? Okay, I'll zoom in:

(and that's about as close as we got)

The Big Apple! (People who actually know the city can tell me what part this is, since I haven't the faintest idea.) Miriam's reaction to this scene: "Wow, the buildings are so TALL!" DC doesn't have skyscrapers, since no building can be taller than the Capitol dome.

The Brooklyn bridge, from an extremely non-scenic, yet practical, point of view.

So the reason we were in Nyork Nyork was for the wedding of one of Mr. Pickles' former coworkers. It took place in a gorgeous little church.


The wedding itself was lovely -- the church's schola did the music, so there was chant and polyphany all over the place. The bride processed down the aisle to a chanted Introit that was exquisite. It was awesome -- I think it had to have been the most Catholic-sounding wedding I'd ever been to. :)

The reception was in the church hall, and very sweet and homey. We let Katie have the camera for a few minutes, and had it returned with lots of picture like this:


We actually had an adventure getting TO the wedding -- somewhere in New Jersey we got stuck in a HORRIBLE traffic jam, which we later learned was left over from an accident that had happened 6 hours earlier. We had planned on arriving a couple hours early so we could get together with Miriam's godmother for lunch, but as it was we only had 5 minutes to spare before the wedding started! Yeesh.

We're glad we took the trip -- the bride was radiant, the groom was bursting with pride, and everyone had a good time. Everything a good wedding should be. :)

And most importantly, the Pickles looked good. :)

New York city has always intimidated me -- just the sheer size of it. But I realized it's all neighborhoods -- when you're there you're not oppressed by the immensity of it, because you live and move within a smaller area. And each area has so much character, so much happening -- so much life. I can now understand why people choose to live there. It's a busy, exciting place, with something always going on. It's not for me -- I need more peace and open areas to thrive -- but now I get the attraction of living in the big city. I might even want to live there if I could participate in things like this. :)

The Rumors of Our Demise, etc. etc.

Hello all, yes yes I know we've been keeping all of you adoring fan(s) woefully unupdated (that's a word because I say so) (or should it be "downdated"?)... as I was saying, here is my completely original and novel, never-before-used excuse:

We've been busy.

I'm not entirely sure where the summer went, but I think most of it was spent either at the swimming pool


or reading books

or outside riding bikes with the neighborhood kids. So from a kid's point of view, a good summer!

We also made time for a few home projects.

The yellow dungeon is now Joseph's mint-green room. I haven't taken a complete "after" picture b/c there's still a huge mattress propped against the wall that we haven't found another space for yet. (Joseph doesn't mind -- he likes to hide behind it with Katie. Maybe we'll just leave it in there.)

Mid-way through August I realized that the kids needed more daily structure, so we went ahead and started school 2 weeks early this year. So far they're both really enjoying it -- just this morning (Labor Day), Katie asked if we could do school today. I'll save the details of what we're doing for a separate post.

It was a good summer, filled with lots of silliness.



Hope yours was the same!

Prayer for the Morning

Dear Father in Heaven, we thank You for this great gift You have given us. That which awakens us in the morning and sets our course for the day is a great mercy to the teeming masses of mothers and fathers who strive to serve You at home and at work. As it was first found by the heathen we see that You shower Your blessings upon all and are generous with Your gifts. As we drink we strive to remember Your generosity to us in our time of need, especially in the morning, and pray we may be generous with others as You have been generous to us.

Help us truly to give thanks for this great drink, and as we add our milk and sugar may we remember that You have brought a light to the darkness of this world and have brought us true sweetness in our Mother the Church. May we always remember Your goodness and mercy towards us, and that without You we have nothing—only the dark dishwater that is Lipton Tea. We ask this through Christ our Lord.


(image credit: Coffee Angel, painted using real coffee!)

(prayer credit: Mr. Pickles, after a night of little sleep) :)

Taste of Summer

This reminds me of the way our rabbits would eat carrot tops.

Artist at Work

Rules for Princesses

You know, in case you were wondering.

Jo vs. the Kitties

Jo-jo got lots and lots of lessons in being kind to animals during our vacation. He got to meet and play with (read: torment) lots of extremely patient and well-behaved kitties belonging to various family members (who I hope will still speak to us).

Here he is making friends with the friendliest of the lot, one belonging to my cousin Emily.


I suspect the cat had never met a small person before, and didn't know what to expect.

The other cat was wise, though, and kept out of sight, only viewing the small intruder through safety glass.
(Their names escape me now, but they were really cool African names. Sorry, only so much room in the gray matter!)


Then we visited my brother's place, and set him loose on their cats. They're the ones who just had the baby boy, so I told them this will be a good experience for their cats, to know what to expect. :) Isis was amazingly long-suffering.

Hm, what does this thing do?

Simply Fascinating!

Mmm-wah! I love kitties!

Hey, how come the kitty doesn't like my hugses?

Bastet wasn't having any. She spent our entire visit on top of the fridge. Most of the time she was actually squished under the cupboards.

Joseph pretty much left this kitty alone. (WHY would anyone put this at the end of a dark hallway? I'd give myself a heart attack every time I walked down it at night!)

Finally, this is my parents' cat, Mau.

Mau is actually Egyptian for "cat," in addition to being the sound she makes. Mau is a very polite, unobtrusive kitty. The last time we were here, she spend the entire time hiding in my parent's bedroom, and nearly starved herself rather than come out to the kitchen where all the PEOPLE were. This visit, however, she consented to acknowledge our existence, and even allowed us the privilege of offering her an occasional scritch. (I found her happy spot at the base of her tail.) She figured Joseph out pretty quick -- she learned that she could keep a couple steps ahead of him without too much effort, and so the two of them would slowly follow each other around in figure eights around the coffee table and entry way, Joseph chortling the whole time. I wish I'd thought to take a video! It was pretty funny to watch.

When Mau tired of leading Jo-jo on a merry dance, she would retreat to her safe place on my parents' bed, above -- she figured out that even if he walked all around the bed, he couldn't reach the middle of it. So she would plant herself right in the very middle of it and watch him from under one half-closed eye. Jo didn't like that too well. :)

He just loves animals -- our gerbils, relatives' cats, neighborhood dogs -- I'm hoping we'll be able to continue keeping pets throughout our kids' childhoods. NO dogs until the kids are able to help take care of it though -- I've got enough babies to watch over right now! :)