Bloggy Break

Just an FYI, in case you don't hear much from me.

My family and I are moving in 2 weeks to a home much closer to my husband's job.

This means more time for him to be with us since he won't have to spend 2 hours each work day driving back and forth to work.

This also means we will be even further out in the boonies.

AND I get to pack. Which I love so, so much. So much in fact that even though we are moving in just 2 weeks, I have not packed a thing.

Of course, if you ask my friend laurazim if we're moving she'll tell you that we're just doing the "un-move". The "un-move" is where you pack up all your stuff and throw out what you don't want. You do this to declutter and make it easier to clean your home. Once your home is clean and clutter free you unpack your stuff and get to enjoy a much happier place.

Except that I'm not telling her: We really are moving.

I still have to:

Pack
Cancel our phone/internet
Pack
Forward our mail
Pack
Set up new phone/internet
Pack
Change my address with the bank
Pack
Change my address with the utilities
Pack
Set up new utilities
oh, and Pack

It would be nice if there wasn't so much packing to do.

So, I may or may not be posting a bunch between now and the move.

Have no fear.....I'm sure I'll have plenty to say once the move has been completed.

~H

Modern "Art"

Found this on Fr. Longenecker's blog. Here's his take on it.

An article about a piece of "art" that is a bible with some pens next too it. A sign next to a container of pens says: “If you feel you have been excluded from the Bible, please write your way back into it.”

Blasphemy as I have never heard of before.

Please pray that this will end.

I can't even say anything else.

~H

Invention Lets Pregnant Women Hold Models of Their Unborn Babies - Science News | Science

This amazing article was shared with me via my friend laurazim on the "bookface". I had to share it here. Go read it. I'll wait.

Invention Lets Pregnant Women Hold Models of Their Unborn Babies - Science News Science & Technology Technology News - FOXNews.com

Did you click on the link in the article for the "Full Article"? No? Ok. Here it is. I'll wait again.

Did you check out the pictures? Well, if you missed them, here they are.

Ok, what do you think?

I think we *just might* put a small dent in abortion, God willing, if became standard procedure at your 8-12 week prenatal visit to get a model of your own baby to take home.

I'm just sayin'. Pass it on.

~H

Just what I wanted to hear.....

I have been out of commission for a few days....ok, maybe like a week or more.

I have managed to get mastitis, again. It is so bad that I actually asked my husband to stay home from work and help out with the kids......AND HE SAID YES. Really.

When he called his boss he told him why he was staying home. As in, "I really hate to call in because I LOVE MY JOB (he totally does), but the wife is really sick and needs my help." Blah, blah, blah from his boss (obviously I can't hear him). My husband says, "Well, she's sick. She has mastitis....where her breast is really red and tender and she has a fever and kind of feels like she has the flu." More from the boss that I can't hear. Then my husband says, laughing, "Yes, cows do get mastitis. People do too."

When he gets off the phone, he explains to me that his boss wasn't aware that people could get mastitis. He sends his condolences because he knows it seems to really be bad in the cows and can't imagine what it would be like for me.

Nice.

Even better is on day 2 of antibiotics for said "cow disease" My Lovey, who has had a fever for almost 4 days, is not getting any better. My boss calls to see how I'm doing with the "cow disease". I tell her OK and give her an update on Lovey. She says his behavior and symptoms sound like and ear infection.....fever, not wanting to lay down, not nursing well (probably how I got cow disease), overall crankiness, etc.

So I decide, "Hey, let's try and get him an appointment to see somebody." Yah. It's only 1pm on Friday afternoon. Should be plenty of openings.

Um, not so much.

First clinic I called didn't have anything available. But they could see us tomorrow. No thank you.

The next clinic had a *lovely* (because I've been told if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all) receptionist who said, "We've got two doctors in. Who does he normally see?" Nobody. Do you have an appointment or not? "Well, it has to go through his Primary." He doesn't have one. "Well, I could take a message and have the triage nurse call you back." Look lady, I just need to see someone who can prescribe antibiotics, m'kay????!!!!

Ok, I didn't say that last part, I just hung up.

We decided just to go to the Urgent Care/ER. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

What I found out during that visit was:

A) He's fine
B) I just lost $60 to find that out
C) Apparently, I'm an idiot, because he's going to die from a childhood illness if I continue to not vaccinate him

The doc says, "Why aren't you vaccinating?" We've chosen not to.

"You know that more kids die from childhood illness every year than from vaccinations?!"

You got evidence to prove that? No? Ok, well we have chosen not to vaccinate.

Reminds me of a friend of mine recently who learned at her daughter's 3 year check up that if another child at the playground bites her she'll probably die. (They've done limited vaccinations.)

Really.

There actually sent someone chasing after me when I got sick of them waiting to come back to my room with "Discharge Instructions".

Probably because I'm such an idiot.

Wish List

For family far away, or even close by friends or family, I am posting a wish list for the two upcoming birthdays....Lovey turns 1 next month and Flower will be 3.

I like to do Montessori Activities with them, especially Flower. Mostly, I go to the thrift or secondhand store and pick up things and make activities that are similar to the ones I see on different Montessori teacher websites. I have a lot of stuff that I've gotten from there. But still, there are some classic Montessori activities I'd like to have for them that I can't buy at a store around here and can only find online and I can't afford to buy on my own.

For example, I think Flower would love more sensorial activities. She loves to sort and stack things and especially touch them and organize them. I think she would love to have the Pink Tower and/or Brown Stairs. There are a couple of different stores you can get them at online, just click one of these colored links in this post. I know they may seem like just a bunch of blocks, but they are designed to help them with visual discrimination....which Flower has a high sensitivity to already. I think she'll love the "order" without chaos of playing with these two toys.

I also like the Movable Alphabet. I'd like to start her with the D'Nealian letters so that it's not hard for her to make the jump from recognizing and writing manuscript to cursive. Then there's the Number Rods. Again, visual discrimination but this time with a math approach.

For Lovey...I really like the Circle Sorter. It's the easiest puzzle to do because it doesn't matter what direction you turn the circle, it always will fit.

Love the Farm Puzzle for both of them. And this. And the Color Tablets. Flower would love to sort these out. For. Hours.

Both of the websites have the classic Montessori items like the Pink Tower, Brown Stairs, the Number Rods, and the Color Tablets. Those are the real hardships for me to get for them right now and would be my priorities based on what I am seeing as far as readiness to learn right now. Remember, I'm also getting them ready for eventual homeschooling. I'd love to be able to start them out with this stuff.

This is just a "wish list". Being that we have 5 children, we really already have most of your classic 3 and 1 year old boy/girl presents. We have dolls and dress-up stuff, cars and blocks. We have balls and stuffed animals, and toys that make noise (see previous post). We have movies, and books, and toys to ride on. We have so much "stuff", I'd just rather see something that is needed and will be fun for them and useful (even if we have more kids).

Flower does NOT need anymore clothes, no matter how cute they are. She has at least 20 dresses and lots of shirts and pants. I love garage sales. Lovey could get more shorts....but I can garage sale those too 'cause he's just going to get them messy. :)

I realize this is not a normal-type post. But it is important to get this stuff out there, and I know so of you family types are readying this.

We love you and miss you and hope to see you soon.

Mowing the Lawn

My husband and I "mow the lawn" occasionally at our house. In the event that we need to keep the subject matter PG, this is terminology we can use without the kids being any the wiser....or other peoples kids if in mixed company.

Not that we talk about mowing the lawn often or with people we don't or do know. We're not perverts. Just every now and then, especially with close friends (mostly my close friends and I talking alone) the subject comes up.

So at our house it's "mowing the lawn". If you're not following, I'm not talking about grass or any outdoor activity (although some people, somewhere, probably do consider this an outdoor activity). When I talk of the "fruits" of our gardening.....I don't mean flowers, even though we call one of our children Flower. I mean kids. You get it now.

Ok.

So, my husband and I decided to mow the lawn. The babies were asleep in our bed, and the big kid was downstairs playing video games. We settled on the babies room. It was empty and convenient.

We learned a few things:

1) We are not as young as we once were.
2) Carpet sucks.
3) We really like the cushioning of our bed.

We also learned why we hate toys that talk. Case in point.

My husband's mother bought this for our Flower for her first Christmas. We were going to throw it out, but we kept it around. She never played with it. It's been almost 3 years.

My Lovey really likes this toy. It says things like, "Green Hand." "Blue Ear." See the picture? You get it. It says it's body parts when you press them. When it's in the "music" mode it plays songs, etc.

When you press it's tummy it says, "Tummy".

So, we're mowing the lawn. On the HARD floor, which really hurts. Trying really hard to be real quiet. Out of nowhere, the little dog says, "Yellow Foot."

I laugh. My husband laughs. We continue.

No one touches the toy. A few minutes later......

Out. Of. Nowhere.

"You're my friend!"

Now let me tell you, I was almost in tears at this point, I was laughing so hard. I also noticed that my lower back was screaming at me to get up.

Still, must go on.

Out of nowhere, the lawn mower stops. I didn't even hear anything and I gave my husband what I'm sure was a "wtf are you doing???" kind of look when again an interruption occurred.

He says, "Yes?"

Wobbs says, "Are you guys in there?"

I think, "Here's your sign."

Hubby says, "Yes."

Wobbs - "Are you OK?"

No dude. We're not ok. Go away.

Hubby says, "Go watch a movie."

Wobbs - "Ok. Just checking on you."

Ugh.

I Did It

I joined Facebook.

I said I wouldn't, but now I have. It's all my husband's fault. And hers.

Must Watch Videos

A dear friend emailed this to me - with hopes I'd post it. But of course.....



Then I watched this and balled my eyes out. Get a Kleenex.

Simplify

Throw it all out.

Quick Takes, again

**I am not finding the time to update as I previously promised. So here is one post with all the updates I can muster. Once I'm back on track, hopefully I'll stay that way.**

~~1 ~~

Crash and Burn. Or Burn and Crash.

2 weekends ago, I succumbed to my 9 year old's incessant pleading and took the kids to the pool. It was a pretty hot day. I drenched my two fresh-off-the-boat-from-Ireland pale babies in sunscreen and slathered some on the Wobbs. I put some on my arms, to cover the tattoos, and on my face and neck. I couldn't really reach anywhere else and I wasn't too worried. I am half Puerto-Rican and have only gotten burned twice in my life.

Until that day.

The sun beat down on my back like a broiler melting cheese. I really didn't feel it until we got home and got in the shower. I had a huge, red spot the diameter of a frozen pizza blazing in the middle of my back.

Wobbs laughed. I cried.

To top off the day, I crashed. Literally. I fell over my own foot at a local restaurant and slammed the opposite knee into the ground. As I lay there feeling the pain of my patella shattering into pieces (okay, it didn't shatter, but it sure felt like it) people stepped over me and I heard one person ask if I was ok.

My husband heard someone say, "Who fell?" He looked over and realized it was his wife and came to help me up. I thought it was a little weird that no one else who saw me sprawled across the floor with my face wrenched up like I'd just shoved a lemon into my mouth tried to help.

I still, to the disappointed of my husband and my friends, have not gone in to see a doctor about it. What can I say? I'm stubborn. It hurts but the hassle of taking my kids with me for an appointment for me is just too much to bear right now.

~~2~~

My Lovey only poops once every week. Sometimes a little longer, sometimes a little less. After not having pooped for seven days, he decided to poop while we were at one of Wobbs baseball games.

I had just cleaned the extra changes of clothes out of the diaper bag, to make it lighter, so it was only fitting.

The poop crawled up his back to his shoulders. I had nothing to lay him on. It was a week's worth of poo.

I took a diaper and my teeny-tiny bag of baby wipes with me to the grass. I layed him in the grass and pulled off shoes, then socks, and then pants. I pulled his onsie up over his head. He didn't like the grass on his skin. I picked him up and put him on clean grass since the poo on his back was now on the grass.

I tried not to throw up. I held my breath.

I opened his diaper. I threw it over my shoulder.

I used every wipe I had getting the yellow toothpaste blended with sand mixture off his skin. I put a clean diaper on him and slid his pants back on. I turned around.

The smell of the diaper was so bad that kids were pointing and staring. A swarm of flies (ok, maybe just 3, but they were really big and it sounds better to say "swarm") was hovering over the open dirty diaper and onsie. I saw one of them land AND START LAYING EGGS!! OH NO!! Then another landed. Gross! I hate bugs! And the smell....AH!

I picked up the wipes with a clean wipe and tossed them on top of the diaper-fly-maggot egg-sandwich. The flies now descended upon the onsie so I grabbed the top of it and threw it on the wipes. I repeated to myself, "It's a ten cent onsie from a garage sale. Just throw it away," over and over.

I ran said poo-egg sandwich, complete with onsie, to the nearest trash can. I threw it all away. The trash can was right next to the bleachers. Fortunately, we were sitting in lawn chairs on the other side of the bleachers. Too bad for the spectators by the trash can, who gave me mean looks.

~~3~~

I have a knitting confession to make. If you try and quote me on this, I will deny it all the way home.

I actually like knitting dishcloths and knitting with dishcloth cotton.

It's cheap. You get the satisfaction of finishing something. Dishcloths are useful.

I'm not going to make a habit out of it. I just wanted someone to know that it's not that bad.

~~4~~

As payment for driving the Amish family back and forth to the hospital, I was given 15 lbs. of freshly picked strawberries. I did not ask for payment, nor was I going to say no to strawberries.

I cleaned them, which took forever. I sliced and froze, made jam, and froze whole. It took me 4 days.

By the end I was sick of the strawberries. My hands looked like I had been butchering meat all day. But now my freezer is full and I am happy.

~~5~~

My two babies had the yuckiest, goopiest eyes last week. It started with Lovey. His eyes were all runny and then little green strings started coming out of them. Two days later, Flower got the same thing. It looked like someone had beaten the crap out of them because their eyes were so swollen.

I treated with the best medicine I had, breastmilk. I squirted some in Lovey's eyes twice a day and used a dropper to put some in Flower's. My husband, on Lovey's day 4 and Flower's day 2, reminded me that it's 2009 and I can take the kids to the doctor.

Patience, I told him. Be patient. It won't last more than 5 days and they'll be better.

"Whatever," he said. "If you want them to be sick and go blind because you wouldn't take them in then fine."

Next day, Lovey day 5, Flower day 3: Lovey's eyes are clear. I still put milk in them, kind of like how you finish antibiotics even if you feel better. Flower's got worse before they got better but were clearing by her day 5.

So there. Breastmilk is liquid gold.

~~6~~

God's grace and love are wonderful things. This year, my husband and I made a commitment to God to give His Church a specified amount of money each week. Most of you call this tithing. We prayed about it and choose an amount that was more than we wouldn't miss but wouldn't put us into hardship with our mortgage. Incidentally, we canceled our digital cable to help us pay this amount.

I have been faithful to the amount we choose, even when it has been hard. Last week, I had to write a check for three times the amount we normally give since I had not been present at the last 2 weeks worth of Masses. So I put my big ol' check in the collection basket and prayed for God to do as He intends and bless the givings.

The next day when I went to get the mail there were 3 envelopes waiting for me from the IRS. One was address to me, one to my husband, and one to both of us. Naturally, I opened the one address to my husband first. :)

The IRS wishes to inform us that they believe we have miscalculated our refund.

*gasp*

They believe we qualify for Earned Income Credit.

They will be issuing us a check which we should receive in 2-4 weeks.

*Hurray!*

Are you kidding me??!! I open the other two letters. The one addressed to me is a copy of the one my husband got. The other, addressed to us both - is the CHECK!

Just how much we were short for bills this month.

God multiplies what you give Him. Believe it.

~~~~~

That's all for now. Kids up from naps. Must go.