A Few Quick Takes

If you're wondering how I'm doing these days, I can only say...

1 week until home ownership.
3 1/2 weeks until I leave my 20s behind.
8 weeks until baby's due date.
9 weeks until Christmas.

Need I say more?

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Yesterday Lucy graciously began sharing her fruit snacks with Paul after he had wolfed his down in 2.3 seconds. "Sharing makes mommy so happy," I told her. "It makes Jesus happy, too."

"Oh, I know, " Lucy said so sweetly. "Jesus is my favorite friend."

It's times like this that you feel like you're doing something right.

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Last weekend I experienced a true blessing thanks to my loving husband and the very sweet, generous Sisters of the Visitation at Monte Maria monastery. I actually went on retreat - completely alone - for 48 hours. It was the first time I was away from both husband and children since I was married. I felt it was time.

Blessed silence. Such peace and order. True rest and refreshment. Truly, the Lord provides.

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I haven't been in a Visitation monastery for several years. The last time I visited the Visitation, I was much younger, single, and discerning a vocation to the order. It was quite a different experience coming as a married, pregnant woman with a houseful of kids back at home. One difference I noticed really made me laugh: I eat amazingly fast now.

Seriously, I can't imagine what the sisters thought. I mean, I finished my meal before most of the sisters had finished buttering their rolls. Now I've never been a slow eater. You don't come from a large family of big talkers without learning to eat fast so you can jump into the conversation whenever there is an opening. However, the addition of several small children has clearly taken me to a whole new level of speed eating. I'm often so busy serving food, cutting up bites, pouring drinks, cleaning up messes, and making food helicopters that I simply inhale my food in the few seconds I have to spare in between requests. I never really noticed how bad it had become until my retreat, though. I guess I should work on slowing down during meals. Or start a second career winning those speeding eating contests.

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I have to get back to packing. I'll probably not be posting until after the move, but I promise to have pics of the kids in their Halloween outfits!

A Trip Down Memory Lane

We had to take an alternative route home from soccer practice today thanks to a train that parked itself in our normal path for an seemingly indeterminate period of time. As I was navigating the turns back to the main road, Paul suddenly spoke up from the backseat, "Hey, I know this way!"

"Really, hon?" I said rather absentmindedly.

"Yes. A long time ago when I was a little boy, remember when Grandma took me to soccer. Grandma took this road. She kept running around and around and around. Silly Grandma!" Paul gleefully related.

Then I remembered that a year ago my mom took the kids to soccer for me during one of her visit. And that her GPS malfunctioned on their way to soccer practice. I think that pretty much explains Paul's little trip down memory lane.

A Family of "P-E-O-P-L-E"

During a recent car ride, Lucy and Paul became embroiled in a heated, ontological debate. Lately, the kids are constantly asking me if we can "be a family of (insert animal of choice here)" and this particular morning as we drove to Home Depot, Lucy and Paul were arguing whether we were going to be a family of meerkats or a family of tuna. In an attempt to squash the growing meerkat vs. tuna fight, I declared that we were simply going to be a family of human beings.

After extensive explanations about human beings is another word for people and how one human being is a person and lots of human beings are people, etc., etc., the kids were adequately diverted from wanting to be meerkats or tuna. However, the fight had just begun.

Lucy: "I am people."

Paul: "No, you are a person."

Lucy: "No, I am Lucy. And Lucy is people."

Paul, a little louder: "NO! You are a person. One person, not people."

Lucy, getting a little red and much louder: "NO!! I am people!"

Paul: "Person!"

Lucy: "People!"

Repeat several times, each child becoming louder and more emphatic each time. Finally, Lucy decides she needs to spell it out for Paul, using the one word she can spell that to a recent introduction to Toy Story.

"People! T-O-Y! People!"

Paul begins giggling, I'm laughing hysterically, and Lucy believes she should be asked to join the local college debate team.

In Which Lucy Turns Three

The scene...


The cake...

The singing...

The showing off...
Despite a pretty bad cold and ear infection that led us to cancel her more elaborate party plans, Lucy still seemed to thoroughly enjoy her little family celebration. There were lots and lots of pink balloons, pink flowers, and party hats - as requested. There was a kitty-cat cake in white - as requested. And plenty of presents- as requested - including several new dress-up outfits from Grandma. While Lucy seems to like a billowing, green number that reminds me of Scarlett O'Hara's green velvet dress from Gone with the Wind, Paul uses his power of persuasion to push for the Indian princess outfit whenever possible. Obviously, it's more fun to play Indian games with a squaw around.

For My Texas Readers

This week's chapter in Paul's religion course is entitled, "Heaven is Our Home." As I was reading to Paul about how Heaven is the most wonderful place you can imagine, he immediately questions the truth of the text.

"Huh, I thought that was Texas."

After putting Paul's theology to rights by explaining to him that Texas is not Heaven, we continued with the lesson. After each lesson I have Paul do a brief narration and tell me as much as he can remember from the reading. I was prompting with some beginning questions and asked him the name of the most wonderful place ever.

My good little student responded correctly, "Heaven." After a pause, he added, "I really thought it was Texas."

45 Days Until...

this little beauty becomes Home Sweet Home for our family! We just went under contract this afternoon and are feeling excited and nervous and crazy all at the same time! The dream of owning a single family home is becoming a reality. Of course, it's not a "perfect" house - as the bathroom with the pink tub, blue toilet, and faux marble vanity clearly illustrates - but God willing, it'll be ours! Well, really it'll be the bank's for 30 more years, but heck, close enough. Click here for a few more pics of the soon-to-be Bremberg residence.

The Reason Behind Skyrocketing Healthcare Costs

Paul received his first bee sting during our recent trip home to visit my family in Ohio. While playing at the park, he was stung right behind the knee, definitely a poor spot. Given his dramatic nature, I initially felt Paul handled it with uncharacteristic calm.

Fast forward to an hour well past the bee sting. Paul approaches me, a wet cloth still tied around his knee, saying, "Mom, I think I need a wheelchair."

Maybe we could use a little healthcare rationing in our household.

My Personal Farmers' Market

The best thing about our new rental is the backyard. The owners were serious gardners who clearly liked having fresh produce on hand. Without any work on our part, the backyard provides us with asparagus, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, figs, concord grapes, apples, and enough mint to have mojitos and mint juleps daily - if I weren't pregnant. Add on the tomatoes, green beans, and peas I planted this summer, and we've enjoyed quite a backyard harvest. Here's a few pictures of our current produce thanks to Aunt Liza...

Concord Grapes: One whole side of the yard is lined by a fence smothered in grape vines. It's been a little tricky to figure out how to best use the grapes since the kids aren't very good at spitting out seeds. I did make a rather complicated, but surprisingly good grape pie.

Figs: Who would have guessed that the kids would like figs? Not me. Well, Paul and Jane do. Jane eats anything picked in the backyard, and we convinced Paul that the figs were full of "candy." Lucy still won't try one, even though her loving brother Paul begged her to just try "the candy" on numerous occasions. "Just a little lick, Lucy," he implores while holding out a half-eaten fig.


Tomatoes: I have roma, grape, and just ol' plain tomatoes. The grapes tomatoes are pure bliss. The harvest has been just right - not too much, not too little.

Redefining Success

As the reality of adding fourth child to the family mix has begun to hit me, I have started to experience the normal pre-baby panic. How am I going to juggle all these children and all of their needs all at the same time? As I was talking through my worry with my wonderful husband last night - he patiently endures this conversation on weekly basis for at least three months before the birth of each child - I reminded myself of the definition of success I set for myself after Jane was born: "It is a success if only one person is crying at any point during the day."

I pondered this standard and told my husband I thought I might need to raise the number to two once the new baby arrived.

He added, "Bonus points if you aren't one of those crying."

Clearly, the sky's the limit around here.

Swimming Au Naturale...Almost

Paul is usually very into "gear." Throughout the summer, getting him ready for the pool was a multi-step process involving life vests, swimmies for his arms, a multitude of different goggles, and often a boogie board or noodle. The question of the summer for Paul seemed to be, "How much swimming gear can I use at once?" The answer: "A lot."

So it has been an earthshaking turnaround the past few days when Paul has decided to forgo the equipment and learn to swim, in his words, "with nothing." He is doing very well and can now swim for a few feet. Actually, it is more like "not drowning" than swimming, but still a big step forward in weaning him from his dependence on pool gear.

Yesterday at the pool, I was congratulating him on swimming so well without anything on. Very pleased with himself, Paul responded, "I'm swimming with nothing on. Nothing." He paused, then added, "Except my trunks."

Good call, Paul. We all need a little pool gear.