Easy to Please

Yesterday we rented Davy Crockett from the library. This morning Paul's favorite Spiderman underwear were clean. As he was getting dressed for the day, Paul could barely contain his delight. "Spiderman underwear and Davy Crockett!" Paul gasped out between giggles of delight. "This is the best day ever!"

Mission Accomplished

The new house has been emptied of all boxes this weekend as planned!! And I cleared out the patch on mint in the backyard and planted the early vegtables in my new kitchen garden. Here's some pictures of our new home.

7 Quick Takes Friday

********** 1 **********

The move is sloooooowly coming to an end. Why is it that the last six boxes take longer to put away than the preceding sixty? I refuse to let any boxes survive this weekend. Everything will have a home by Sunday, even if it is a temporary one.

********** 2 **********

I can't believe how much I love being three blocks from the best park in the world. Kids melting down? Let's go to the park. Mommy melting down? Let's go to the park. All perishable items in the house melting down because the refrigerator is broken? Let's go to the park.

********** 3 **********

Our frequent trips to the park and its fabulous playground equipment has produced some amazing results for Lucy. Despite her continuing physical therapy, she is still a little behind in her gross motor skills. Her major problem area the last few months has been going up and down stairs. She will sometimes walk upstairs slowly while holding on to someone's hand or a railing, but usually she still prefers crawling up. She will hardly ever walk down stairs. Things are changing, though.

Today I was at Home Depot by myself with the three kids. (It is Lent, you know.) I was looking at some door latches to keep Jane from falling out of the front screen door. After about a minute, I turn around and see Lucy, the girl with the well-known aversion to stairs, standing atop one of the huge rolling ladders they use to stock the very top shelves. While that particular moment was dominated more by fear than pride as I scaled the ladder - with Jane on my back - to somehow carry down Lucy without killing us all, I can now say it was truly a proud moment. Go, Lucy, go! Just save it for when your mom is actually watching.

********** 4 **********

Paul's Davy Crockett obsession continues, being further abetted by the loan of Uncle Josh's old coonskin cap and frontier man outfit from his childhood. The fact that almost no other children his age have ever heard of Davy Crockett does not deter Paul. While he runs around with the other small boys at the park, they may be playing Star Wars and making light saber sounds while Paul is singing the Davy Crockett song and fighting Indians. Really, it's all the same. Lots of wrestling, running, yelling, and taking down the bad guy.

********** 5 **********

The household continues to do well on Weight Watchers. My husband has lost 20 pounds since we started in mid-January, and I am back into my college jeans. Now if I can just start doing some pilates...

********** 6 **********

I am ready for spring. We had a week of 70 degree weather a few weeks back and it spoiled me. And with the new yard, we finally have room to plant a small kitchen garden. I don't know who is more excited - me or the kids. We bought seeds and some garden tools today. It felt strange to realize at the store that I did not own a hoe. After so many years of being a "human tiller," as my dad would refer to us kids working for hours in our huge family garden, it was a little surreal to be so excited about buying a hoe.

********** 7 **********

My Lent has not gone exactly how I planned, but has still been fruitful. I'm learning to simply to bear the crosses God gives me instead of clinging to the ones I chose. How's your Lent been?

I think I can, I think I can...

I think I can finish this move.

While my readers may not appreciate the sparse posting lately, I am actually extremely proud of myself. Not posting means I have NOT been procrastinating at all the cleaning and unpacking and organizing and more cleaning I have to do. However, I promise some pictures of the new digs soon!

Feeling like Monk

In the midst of utter chaos in the home, all I can do right now is be annoyed that on some of the bright red duct tape I used to mark all the boxes I wrote in all capitals while on others I wrote in lowercase. I actually spent five minutes debating whether to re-label everything in the same font. For those of you ready to drive me to the psych ward, I decided against it.

Quick Takes Friday

********** 1 **********

You may have noticed the lack of a number on my quick takes today. I am a busy woman today and cannot promise a full seven takes. You'll have to take what you can get today.

********** 2 **********

We get the keys to the new house tonight at 5:30! I am READY to get this move moving. The last two days I have hit the wall. It is time to go.

********* 3 **********

I had to go shopping for a cocktail dress by myself earlier this week. As a rule, I like shopping by myself. I am a pretty focused shopper and like to whip in and out of stores, which doesn't make for a great shopping companion. But when shopping for a special occasion dress, it is nice for a second opinion. On this excursion, I discovered a great way to get that second opinion on your own. I simply took a picture of myself with my cell phone in each dress. As I scrolled through the pictures, it was easy to see which dresses were flattering and which ones needed to go back on the rack.

********** 4 **********

Paul has a new love - Davy Crockett. We picked up a movie at our weekly library trip this week to help provide entertainment for the masses as I packed. I hit the jackpot with Davy. Of course, it wasn't much of a gamble. What young boy doesn't immediately love Davy Crockett?

This new love is sprouting some possible trouble spots, though. This morning, Paul told me he was a "white man." Then he corrected himself, "A good white man." Dear me. Race and American history talks at age four.

********** 5 **********

While Paul's love of Crockett is not a shock, Lucy's immediate love of the movie is a little more surprising. However, Lucy has developed a real love of the Mississippi River. So Davy Crockett and the Riverboat Pirates, located on the good ol' Mississippi, was a natural fit for Lucy.

How does a two-year old become obsessed with the Mississippi River? At Christmas the kids received a Veggie Tales dvd, Huckleberry Larry, which uses Mark Twain's story to teach about sins of omission. I'm not sure how much theology the kids have learned through this particular episode, but it definitely has created a deep love of the Mississippi in both of them. Every time we see a map the first question I get from Paul and Lucy: "Where's the Mississippi River?"

********** 6 **********

Okay, back to packing I must go. Next time I post it'll be from the new house! Let's hope my cable internet connection there is better than here.

The View From My Front Door

Rain, Rain Go Away

The weatherman is now calling for rain the day of the move. And the following four days. I hate the weatherman.

All Things NFP

Two interesting NFP-related posts I wanted to share.

1. Over at Justinespired, Justine shares about her brave friend, Kelly, who called El Rushbo, aka Rush Limbaugh, out on his praise of the Pill. She also shared about her experiences with NFP. Speaking truth to power! Read about it here.

2. At Faith and Family Live, Danielle Bean is hosting an open thread on NFP for women to share joys, struggles, questions, and resources.

Find Your Style

As I'm sorting through all the "stuff" in life and planning what we'll need and what we'll want in the new house, I couldn't resist this little picture quiz to determine your decorating style. Here's mine:

CLASSIC COUNTRY
You take the inspiration for your home from the surrounding countryside. And why not? The country cottage look has been, and continues to be, the epitome of what a family 'home' should stand for: warm, welcoming, cosy and comfortable. There's nothing at all pretentious about this style, just a love of the good, simple pleasures in life.

What's your style?

7 Quick Takes Friday

********** 1 **********

Congratulations to Jen at Conversion Diary, the host of 7 Quick Takes Friday, on her beautiful new baby girl! I'm so happy both mom and baby are doing well. A great picture of the gorgeous little "Joy" is here.

********** 2 **********

My twice-yearly headache arrives this weekend - Daylight Savings Time. What used to be a very minor inconvenience in which the only real concern was arriving too late or too early for Mass the next morning has turned into a full-fledged nightmare with the advent of parenthood. I am a serious sleep scheduler. So the prospect of moving all the children's nap and bedtime schedules by a whole hour just makes me want to break out in cold sweats. The kids don't seem to enjoy it either.

Just to give a quick example of the real magnitude of the problem, two years ago the fall time change resulted in a CT scan for my daughter, Lucy. In the few weeks following the time change we had one very, very sleepy little girl. For the first week I chalked it up to the sleep changes, but when she continued to nap anywhere and everywhere for the next few weeks, I got worried. Lucy has hydrocephalus with a special shunt in her brain to drain the excess spinal fluid. One of the main symptoms if her shunt would malfunction is excessive sleepiness. So off to the neurosurgeon for a visit and a CT scan. The shunt was fine. Thank you, Daylight Savings Time.

********** 3 **********

One week until the move. I am so ready. Packing is actually going fairly well, and overall I am maintaining a fairly decent level of emotional stability. The house is getting pretty gross, though. Why is it that once you know you're going to be leaving a house you suddenly think bathrooms are going to clean themselves and the floors with no longer need to be mopped.

********** 4 **********

How is your Lent going? So far my favorite Lenten practice this year is the Children's Stations of the Cross that the moms' group at my parish is doing. Most of our children are all very young, the 2-6 range, so taking them to the regular Stations just seems like a bad idea. Still, we wanted to start introducing this powerful prayer to our kids. So last year we informally started getting together every Friday to say them together.

This year we're a little more organized. I found some wonderful little children's Way of the Cross books on sale so each child can follow along in their own booklet. One of our great parish priest comes over afterwards and talks to the children a few moments about a Lenten topic. Also, one of the mom's organized a little craft project to do afterwards. I love being able to go to some kind of Lenten service at the church with the kids and this fits the bill perfectly.

********** 5 **********

I was a bit shocked this week to Senator Brownback putting his support behind Governor Kathleen Sebelius's nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services. While the governor is a fellow Kansan to Senator Brownback, she is also a radical pro-choice Catholic - so radical that her bishop has asked her to refrain from receiving communion. I am truly disappointed. I've been doing mental gymnastics trying to figure out a possible acceptable explanation for this pro-life Catholic putting his support behind this woman for a position that is extremely influential in life issues, but so far I haven't found a satisfactory answer. Hoping to bring home more bacon for your home state (where you are going to be running for governor next year) by voting for a fellow Kansan just isn't a good enough excuse for supporting this anti-life nominee.

********** 6 **********

For more on Governor Sebelius' truly heinous record on abortion and her "relationship" with the Catholic Church, I enjoyed this interview with her bishop, Archbishop Naumann. I especially like the Archbishop's line about the "safe, legal, and rare" abortion lingo : "It's never safe for the baby." We need more leaders like him in the Church.

(HT: And Sometimes Tea)

********** 7 **********

I must be off. It's time for our homeschooling preschool co-op. A couple of friends with preschools meet at my house every Friday morning. We have show-n-tell, science experiments, art projects, and snacks. I highly recommend something like this for moms getting dipping their toes into homeschooling. The fellowship and support is great for both kids and moms!

A Warning

Young men who cannot cook eggs without setting off the smoke alarm should not cook eggs at 4 a.m. Especially when there are young children sleeping in the house. Especially when one of those young children is not yet sleeping through the night.

Uncle Luke is a lucky, lucky man. None of the children were awakened by the alarm - which went off twice. And luckily I took two Tylenol P.M. last night so was unable to do anything beyond making my husband get up. Yes, Uncle Luke is lucky to be alive today.

At least someone is excited about packing...

Our move is now only 11 days away. I've finally decided I can no longer ignore this fact, and packing has commenced. Either the blog will suffer greatly from neglect because I am responsibly and calmly working through the packing with patience and perseverance... or I'll be blogging continually in a last ditch effort to escape the reality that I have a week and a half to pack the house, a husband who is going away on a Guy's Weekend in a few days, and instead of a moving company for help, I have three excited little kiddos just dying to "help." Oi!

On How A Mother Uses Her Liberal Arts Education

Questions issuing from the backseat from my four-year old during during a car ride:

Do worms eat insects?
Is the Mississippi River bigger than God?
Why do we all sin?
Are insects a worm's favorite food?
Is Jesus in my heart or in Heaven?
Why does the Mississippi River end at New Orleans?
Is the Hulk big and mighty?
Is God big and mighty?
Do worms have teeth?
Is the Hulk the same as God?
Why don't we ever get flat tires?
What's the simple machine you use to fix tires?
What's exactly is a pulley?
Does my heart beat really fast?

Theology, philosophy, physics, geography, life science, biology... I use it all every day.

A four-year liberal arts degree: $80,000
Years spent paying off college loans: A few.
Answering all your four-year old's question: Impossible...oh, I meant priceless!