Be Still, My (Bleeding) Heart

So every year I promise myself that I'm going to take pictures of the Bleeding Heart in the spring, because its growth is so dramatic.  Finally, during our 5th spring here, I remembered to do it!

March 15, when I first noticed they were poking up:

one week later:

week 3:

week 4: kaboom!

(I also planted some phlox this day, to fill out what becomes an empty bed once the bleeding hearts are done)

Finally, week 5, the peak:

Like I said, dramatic.

Birthday Week 2019!

It's All Birthday, All the Time!!

Exhibit A:  Miriam's 17th on Tuesday (and Wednesday)

No, we can't believe she's 17 either.  It's just too weird.

Miriam had to go to class and work and choir practice on her actual birthday (welcome to the adult world!) so we celebrated as a family the next day.  She went skating with friends.  Mr. Pickles grilled.  Chocolate lava cakes were consumed.  She'll celebrate with some more friends later this weekend -- she and Katie are planning a Phantom of the Opera-themed party.  (It's awesome seeing Miriam get into all the musicals I loved when I was the same age!)

Exhibit B:  Jojo's 11th on Thursday

Jojo chose all his favorite foods for meals, got to play Wii (during Lent!!), and didn't have to do school.  So all in all a good day for him.  He'll have a birthday party with his friends, also this weekend.  (The fun just never stops!)

Exhibit C:  Mr. Pickles' something something-th on Friday (and Saturday)

Happy Birthday to meeeeee...

I won't post the embarrassingly silly picture of him blowing out his candles, in order to preserve the illusion of the dignity and widsom attendant upon his advanced years.




Aw, who am I kidding.

he was winding up for a huge sneeze, and then when I took this picture -- my camera is not a quiet one -- everyone broke down laughing

Since Mr. Pickles' birthday fell on a Friday in Lent, we extended his celebration to the next day as well so we could feast with a clear conscience.  Although for his birthday dinner he made grilled salmon, which really doesn't seem all that penitential. :)  He did take his birthday off work, which was celebratory in itself.  His birthday cake was the most amazingest thing -- it was gluten- and dairy-free chocolate cake made with coconut sugar and it was sooooo good.  The kids all pitched in to get him Mario Kart 8 and another set of Switch controllers, so it was really a gift for everyone.

Mr. Pickles took most of the week off work, which was nice for him and for us.  Also on Monday, the kids asked me how much school we were going to do that week, and I said "It's Birthday Week!  No school!"   And behold, the sound of a great multitude rejoicing.

Just a typical quiet evening in our house

So the boys have invented a new after-dinner game called "I'm Strong!"  See if you can figure out the rules.  (Make sure you turn your volume all the way up for the most accurate game experience.)

 

The game always involves several interludes similar to that at the end of the video.  No serious injuries, though... yet.

Also, the game requires that all the doors of the upstairs hallway be closed.  It gets preeeeetty warm up there after a while.  I should really capitalize on that -- we could save a fortune on heating costs.

and then there's this

Soooo...  our waterproofed basement isn't actually all that waterproof anymore.

Naturally the basement isn't graded so that spills will actually flow into the sump pumps.  So whenever it rains we get to stump downstairs a couple times a day and sweep the water towards the well.  We've also used the shop vac, but it's so dang noisy and sweeping works well enough.  I'm getting a little concerned about mold -- it doesn't smell musty yet, but if you pull back on those baseboards it is NOT pretty.

Thankfully the waterproofing is still under warranty, so the company that did everything will come and fix whatever the problem is.  However, because Virginia just experienced the wettest summer on record, we are not the only ones who are having water issues.  Which means we get to live with our own personal swamp for weeks.  Excellent.  (They're supposed to come next week to fix it.  THAT'S going to be a fun day.  Who doesn't love the sound of jack hammers in his house!)

I'm grateful for my house I'm grateful for my house I'm grateful for my house I'm grateful for my house

12 Days of Christmas

Happy Epiphany!  I love all the references to light in the liturgy today.  It also helps that today is the first sunny day we've had in ages.

So once again we honored the 12 Days of Christmas by planning on something fun and celebratory for each day.  Unfortunately our plans were slightly derailed by the now traditional Christmastime illness -- but I think we did enough to make the Christmas season feel fun and restful.

Day 1: Christmas!!

Christmas 2018

Guess who got a new camera!!!

Soot Sprite!

Just kidding.  He doesn't like the new camera.  It Makes Noise.

Katie at 14

Had some time in between turkey bastings to get this post up!

So my baby girl turned 14 two weeks ago.  Whenever I look at all our baby girl clothes stored away I get a little nostalgic, but really I'm enjoying this stage with two teenage girls in the house, too.  It's nicer now that Katie has passed the age of 13, and we'll just leave it at that. ;)

For her birthday she simply wanted to spend it in total leisure: staying in her jammies, playing video games, writing stories, chatting with friends, eating special birthday foods, and not having to go anywhere. 

She is a woman after my own heart!  Since as a homeschooling mom I have the power to determine when school breaks are, I have decreed that all birthdays are family holidays, which everyone appreciates.

One of the things I am appreciating most about Katie is that she loves baking, so she insisted on making her own birthday cake: cupcakes in cones.  She had a particular artistic vision for coloring and swirling the batter.  I was happy to leave that in her charge.

she was cold

We had to postpone her birthday party because of a virus that was taking its sweet time to make it through the family; but she's planning on having a spa night sleepover with friends.  I gave her a strict budget for supplies so we wouldn't go bankrupt over face masks and cuticle oil.  (It's actually been fun taking her and her best friend shopping for the supplies.)

Here is a good representation of Katie these days:

except usually she's in jammies.  (one of the very best things about homeschooling!)

She is never without her binder of stories and pictures.  I am going to start making her purchase her own paper.  She already went through 3/4 of the looseleaf I bought on sale in August for SCHOOL purposes.

And here, to shock everyone, is Katie-at-13 vs. Katie-at-14:

13-and-change

14.  aaaaaaaaaaaahhh!

So that's our Birthday Bear!  Still as creative and hilarious and sarcastic as ever, and we wuv her wots.

Our cat can Can-can, can yours?

oh joy! oh rapture!

MINE.

Apparently he really, really likes sequins.

(A friend's daughter borrowed my ancient and venerable can-can costume to wear last night.  All your hard work, Mom, is still being appreciated and put to good use!)

All Hallows Eve 2018

In the "leaving things to the last second" catergory:
a) we bought these pumpkins this morning:

note to self: buy more carving knives for next year

b) Andy was undecided about his costume until 3 pm:

I think it turned out well -- Katie helped him pick it out

isn't he adorable??  look at his widdle tail!

Ninja Jojo (that's just fun to say)

Daniel went as Link again

Toothless/Nicky wanted a sad face pumpkin

"Nicky, show your wings and go ROAR!"

also b) I used leftover fabric from the girls' capes and pinned it to Nicky's hoodie to make the wings.  I did exactly zero sewing of costumes this year.  (I used pinking shears to cut out the girls' capes -- no hemming!  Score!)

isn't Katie's Triforce pumpkin AWESOME?

you'll never guess which musical Miriam's into these days...

Someone tonight asked them if they were twins. 

"Kuuuuubooooo....."

(reference)

the post-op trade fest

Nicky ate most of a Hershey's bar and didn't like how his chocolatey hands felt so he decided to wipe them on the carpeted stairs.

Soot Sprite dressed up as a familiar for Halloween

When we got home from trick-or-treating he was sitting up in one of the bedroom windows, lit up from behind.  He looked exactly like a cat silhouette decoration.

ooooooooooo!

The only picture I didn't get but wish I had was a shot of our whole group.  We had 4 other families join us for pretty much our own Halloween parade.  After about one street we inevitably divided up into 3 separate groups, based upon walking speed.  Somehow I ended up with the boys, which was of course the fastest group.  For them candy collecting is serious business -- you don't waste time!  Of course all the teen girls lagged behind, since all they wanted to do was chat. 

Once the small fry were done they all went back to our house and dumped their candy on the floor to examine, trade, and devour.  That's another picture I should have got -- sundry super heroes and army men camped all over my living room, surrounded by a great sea of chocolate and lollipops.

We didn't seem to have as many trick-or-treaters come to our house this year (aside from the 20 or so who were part of our own group), so we have lots of leftover candy.  Oh, darn!  (I always make sure to get all my favorite kinds, just to prepare for this very eventuality.)  (Also, I'm so glad I recoverd from that food poisoning in time.)

Happy All Hallows Eve!

Andy is 6!

testing... testing... 1-2-3... does this thing still work?  excellent!

Andy had a big week last week.  We started off with the feast of one of his patrons, Pope Saint John Paul II -- the Great -- on Monday.  Feast days equal dessert days, and are therefore a Big Deal.  Katie, who is rapidly becoming The Resident Baker, whipped up a batch of snickerdoodles in honor of the occasion.

Then Thursday was his 6th birthday.  Unfortunately it was just another work day in some ways; Miriam had class, so we still had to haul ourselves out of bed early so Miriam could discuss bones with her advanced biology class for 2 hours.  (Her teacher, who is now a practicing physician, used to play rugby of all things.  So he had all kinds of stories about all the bones he broke when he was younger.  His poor mother.)  Actually, Andy didn't really mind -- while Miriam is looking at slides of cells or speaking Spanish we get to hang out in the nursery (classes are held in a very hospitable church's basement classrooms) and play with all the toys.  Since birthdays are automatic holidays in our house, I didn't bring any school to do.  So Andy and Dominic got to play with friends and eat snacks and cupcakes that we brought to share.  Not too bad a deal. 

After a lunch of crepes with strawberries and whipped cream another friend whose birthday was earlier in the week had a party at the park that afternoon, so we got to hang out with more friends and eat cake.  (October parties at the park are always a gamble -- thankfully the weather cooperated and it wasn't too cold or windy that day.)  (We also got a couple weird looks from the other moms there who were with their sweet little tiny tots, as our ginormous crew of 14 obviously school-aged children took over the playground.)  And THEN Daddy came home early and made pizza for dinner and we had MORE cupcakes for dessert.  Add to that that he got just what he wanted for his presents and he got to choose what video game everyone played that evening, you have one happy six year old.  When I asked him at the end of the day how his birthday went, he said, "AWEsome."  (Actually, it was more like "awethome" because of that adorable little lisp.)

Then on Saturday we had a little party for him with all the usual suspects (best friends, neighbors).  I wasn't involved in the planning of it, but apparently I ought to have been -- there were a couple details that weren't decided until the last second, and the activities were not very well regulated (at one point we had bored kids wandering around the house).  Well, lessoned learned: always double-check the plan.  At any rate, Andy was happy and loved being with his friends, so that's what really mattered.

he wanted chocolate cake with strawberry icing and sprinkles and a rainbow made out of jellybeans.  (that icing was AWESOME -- I was eating it straight out of the bowl)

the requisite Silly Picture

Andy's six-year-old brain has been doing all kinds of fun stuff.  He's starting to read random things on his own -- he's always sounding out words wherever we are (remind me never to take him into a public bathroom).  Meanwhile, we're on the letter "D" in his phonics book.  ...I think I need to pick up the pace a little.

He is also obsessed with swear words.  Not that he SAYS them, he just tells me often about the one or two times he heard someone say (a mild) one.  When he gets mad he says "STUPID!" which I guess is the six-year-old equivalent of a swear word.

He is also obsessed with weaponry of every kind.  Everything he plays with turns into a weapon eventually.  We have a lovely wooden educational set of letters of word boards -- all those little letters have been guns and bombs and bad guys for a long time -- I don't think they're ever actually used for their intended purpose.  So for his birthday he wanted a gun with a scope.  I REFUSED to buy the dart sniper rifle he saw in Walmart (really, Nerf???  I lived in DC in 2002!) but we found a cool Star Wars nerf dart blaster that makes laser sounds, and also has a scope.  And the darts glow in the dark.  So, yeah, way cooler and better than the future-terrorist-in-training toy.

We have fun speculating about what Andy will be when he grows up.  He definitely likes all his ducks in a row -- and if you gave him some toy ducks, that would be proved literally.  He understands the whole "place for everything and everything in its place" thing instrinsically, which is awesome.  It's always nice for a mother of a large family to have one ally in the battle against total chaos! 

We'll see what this year brings for Andy!