Baby loves books

Ds#4 discovered that the baby is ready to be read to. I don't usually read to my babies the way people recommend -- I'm usually just walking around in a daze with spit-up all over me trying to decide if it's worth it to change my clothes for the 3rd time that day. When we were all laying around sick, though, it was really hard for Ds#4 to leave the baby alone -- so he was coming up with ideas to get to spend time with his brother. This one was a hit and the baby really liked it!

On The Mend

This has been an exhausting, concerning and expensive illness these last few weeks. We had Influenza A and a few kids had Strep Throat along with it. Dave and I being so sick and having all 5 kids down at the same time -- whew! Now that everyone is better I feel like I just ran a marathon -- exhausted but exhilerated that we're through the worst of this! I hear this has quite a long recovery, so we'll be easing into regular life.

First Giggle

As many of you know, we've had some horrible broncial & sinus infection this week. High fevers, a cough that rips out your throat. Dave feels like he has ribs broken from coughing and his chest being so tight. After his apendectomy 2 years ago we tease him about "crying like a little girl." He's been threatening to do that again after every sneeze & cough.

2 days ago the baby had his first fever 103.5F -- not a pretty thing. At 11:45pm I called the Dr. at home and woke him up to see what the dosage would be to get his fever down. (THAT'S a wonderful doctor!)

Yesterday, he'd felt so bad that he'd cry himself to sleep in my arms hour after hour. Then, after 20 hours of piggybacking ibuprophen & tylenol which kept the fever down, the baby's fever finally completely BROKE. We were all very happy about that. Apparently, the baby was the happiest because while his daddy was playing with him we heard his first giggle (without any hiccups). It was so cute and such a welcome sound after all that crying.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us. It's been so difficult for me running a fever myself and trying to take care of the 5 kids and Dave and myself. Dave's still in terrible shape, but the kids have all started responding to the medicine as of this morning. I'm hoping they're all on the upswing, now.

Memorize Presidents?

This is a great President's Day question asked on one of the message boards I'm on.

Do you have your kids memorize the presidents?

I don't. I want them VERY familiar with major events in US History & which president was in office at the time. We make a book of presidents by having them research each president and write a paragraph about each along with a coloring page on the facing page. I found whitehouse.gov very helpful for presidents' biographies and their coloring pages were GREAT! Each child does this over the course of a year or two as we cover American History for kids in grades 2-8.


My goal in doing this is that they'll find facets of different presidents to relate to and find some favorites. I think that will help them stick in their memory in a meaningful way more than if I had them just memorize them in order.


I think that if I really wanted them to memorize the presidents, I'd do it to music (the painless way to memorize most things for us) during their early years and then do the research in their mid to late elementary years.

P.S. As I was looking for a good example of a presidents song I'd let my kids listen to on youtube, they heard the songs, came rushing in from their school and asked if they could pleeeaaassseee learn one of the presidents' songs.

Quote of the Day

A discussion over a chili lunch with Ds#4 and I :
Ds#4

Mama, how long before the chili goes through so the baby can have some?

Mama

About 12 hours.

Ds#4

So the baby can have LEFT-OVERS!

Stations of the Cross Booklets

Stations of the Cross Booklets for Kids

• I really liked the pictures in this free online coloring book.
• I click the "Print" button in the PDF file.
• Then the "Properties" button within the print box.
• Then the "Finishing" tab.
• Half-way down the page on the left-hand side, I choose the "Pages per sheet" pull-down menu and select "4".
• Then I hit "OK"
• I chose to only print pages 1-16 since 17 is blank and it prints out pages we can cut, color & staple for a Stations of the Cross booklet the kids can take to Stations with them.

I'll follow the advice from the Remain in Me book I just got from CHC. It suggests having the kids put their own meditations on the page opposite the picture they colored for each station. I love the sisters that run those schools: Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. The kids call them "Mama's Nuns", because I pray for them and love them so much. They host a married women's Catholic retreat in Advent that is sooo wonderful!!

Quote of the Day

The kids have been on Martial Law for 2 weeks, now. Dd#2 is still under almost all restrictions for wasting time and not getting her school work done. As of today, she's been working hard, so we showed mercy and reset the clock -- she's no longer behind on her work. This is what she's learned :

The past really affects the present. And the present affects the future. And if you try and try and try you can dig yourself out if you keep trying. And it's not worth it to get behind on your work. But if you try and try and try you end up here - done with our work and a fresh new day!

Happy Baby

This is what has been taking up all my time. When I'm not feeding the baby, changing the baby, consoling the baby, or keeping the kids from waking up the baby, I'm trying to make him smile. When I'm not doing any of those things...I'm trying to keep the kids attention on their school and trying to stop them from making the baby smile. We're still waiting on the first giggle. Each time we think he's going to laugh, he gets the hiccups.

A blogger slow down

I've been getting a few comments about the fact that I'm not blogging as much. I'm typing one-handed at this moment.

So here's the highlights from this & last week:

• The kids are under Martial Law for not being diligent during school time (serious problem). It's much more work for me to have them on Martial Law - but it'll be worth it eventually.


• The baby's diapers have been changing and last week he went 6 days between poops. He doesn't appear uncomfortable with it - but it'd disconcerting.
  
• Nothing too exciting around here -- but I'm praying heartboken after reading this article about Romanian Orphans.
  
• We're studiing the time of the apostles this month and I found St. Peter with Omar Shariff at the video store - his acting was captivating. The dubbing was a litle distracting, but the kids didn't seem to notice at all.
  
• Another great Catholic kids book on the topic was The Man Who Never Died: The Life and Adventures of St. Peter, the First Pope

Humor

This quote for the day got me laughing out loud...

Knitting Plaid

This is my latest project (I love Lion Brand's website). Ever since I learned to knit last winter from this lady at KnittingHelp.com ...I've really enjoyed it. It's exciting to learn to do new things... She has free lessons on video on her website!!! I found her VERY helpful and easy to understand! I don't think my poncho (what's the specific difference between a poncho & a shawl, anyway?) will turn out quite like this one...but I'm going to try.

How can I keep from singing?

Reflection:

Along with slowing me down to point that I'm not moving...this baby has brought song back to my heart.

For the last 2 years or so I couldn't figure out why my kids walk around the house making constant noise. It took me several months of being annoyed to recognize that they're always singing. I knew some moms would find that a validating sign that life in our home is a happy one. It just really annoyed me that there's almost never any quiet. Even when I'm standing over them with a whip to make sure we're schooling in silence (writing project or something), they're tapping their pencils or break out in a whistle or some other noise. I wanted to squash the noise and make it all stop.

I realized today that I've been singing little songs to the baby constantly throughout the day. Is that why my kids walk around singing all the time? Did I sing to them as infants? I must have, because it seems the most natural thing to sing rather talk to this baby.

It does make me happier, to sing my frustration at the red-faced screaming child. It must be some form of grace that I'm not mentally aware of. The kids' noise still bothers me (plus I'm constantly yelling in a whisper "SHHHHH!!!! The BABY'S ASLEEP!!!"), but I understand how their hearts well up and overflow as music escapes from their mouths.

Quote of the Day

Mama

"What did Jesus mean when he told Simon Peter and his brother Andrew you will be fishers of men?"

Ds#4

"Jesus needed bread and fish to feed the thousands of people so he wanted Peter
and Andrew to get lots of fish to cook and give to the men."

Ultimately Stupendous United States flash cards (USUSfc)

THIS was a FANTASTIC FIND!!

This kid, Ryan, posted for FREE the United States flash cards he made. They are GREAT! They are INCREDIBLE! I thought I'd have to make my own to made cards that were simple enough for the kids to start learning and make another set of cards for when the kids were ready for more information.


These cards do all that in one set - FREE to print on your printer! The way the main picture in the cards is a blackline outline of the state, means that the kids just learning to identify the states can look at that, with a clue as one of the insets on the card. The flag and bird are the other insets on the map. As the kids progress, they can quiz themselves on capital, major cities and major geographic elements with all answers given on the back of the cards.


I'm printing them off today and I'll have the kids play:
Concentration
Go Fish
Drill each other
Rummy - with geographic regions
Coin Toss - They can lay them out and toss a penny and name the information on the card that the penny falls on
Sequence the cards - in order of adoption to the union, size, alphabetize by state name...


Because of this boy's effort and generosity, we can all share this great resource!

Quote of the Day

Mama

"What does it mean when Pilate says in the bible I wash my hands of him?"

Ds#4

"Well, he didn't want to get germs on the food that Jesus was giving at the Last Supper and make everyone sick, so he had to wash his hands."

Failure is...

Reflection :
Having this baby has made me hit a brick wall as far as how much I can get done. While it may look to everyone else like I'm accomplishing a fine amount, I feel like I'm failing. I am keeping my priorities in order. However, in order to do so, I'm giving up a substantial amount of things I need and want to do.

I talk to friends and strangers and feel compelled to divulge how much I'm failing. I walk around in a slight daze foggy from sleep deprivation trying desperately to keep up. Everyone wants to comfort me and tell me it's not that bad. The most comforting item I heard about it was

"this time won't last long."

OHHHHHH, that felt so good to hear!! I know it's true. I can see it's true as I get out all the baby's 3-6 month clothes because he's outgrown his first size. It still feels so good to hear! ...and yet...sad at the same time...

Reflection:

The word of the year - reflective. This pregnancy & baby has made me reflective. I have had to slow down so much that it's painful. This pain has borne the fruit of reflection. (I also got a baby out of it!!) I think you'll be seeing more of this word.

Quote of the Day

NONE of the kids did their schoolwork. I went from room to room with a screaming, fussy baby to find child after child NOT doing their school. By the time I got the other 3 kids re-started on school, I'd go to the first room to find the 1st kid NOT doing school. They didn't do their chores. They just got in trouble all day. I was a mess by the end of the day.

Dave

"How was your day?"

Jenn

"The house didn't catch on fire."

That was about as good as it got today.

Baptism Celebration

We had the baby baptised this weekend. It was exhausting to prepare for, but I'm pleased that we made the effort - everything was lovely! The readings this week and Fr. Tom's homily all seemed designed for our baby's baptism. God is sooo good!! It was just heavenly seeing all the faces of so many people who love us standing around the Baptismal Font. We made up Mass programs for those that may not be as familiar with the Mass - joining in prayer together. Friends and family came and we all feasted down in the church basement on a particularly cold January morning. We decorated for Scotland with red plaid (it's not our tartan, but just a red plaid that looked like the 'scotch tape' plaid - it was cheap and we made table runners out of it). We even found a fleece blanket to wrap the baby in and red plaid plates to accessorize the buffet table with. The other cake had a celtic cross and celtic lettering "God's grace upon" our baby. In the picture below, we added a crystal bowl of water to signify the waters of baptism. The table was below the crucifix behind the buffet tables. We laid out books about Scotland on each table (in case conversation was lagging), had bookmarks for friends & family to take home, scottish coloring pages & a bean-bag version of the Highland Games. Dave thought the truckload of decoarations we brought from home wasn't needed, but he was glad we weren't having it at our house. It's hard to "dress up" a basement, but we tried and were very happy with everything. Just as the angels in heaven were celebrating, so were we! What a WONDERFUL day!

Happy Husbands

The saying goes, "If Mama aint happy, aint nobody happy." That is VERY true in our house. However the same goes for Daddy. I had a mother who beat her husband up verbally at every opportunity. They are no longer married. It's just not worth it to me to have temper-tantrums - there are consequences. That thing about "the two shall become one" is soooooo true (whether we quite understand it or agree with it at times or not). So, if I hurt him, it ultimately hurts me.
Amy and I had a great conversation that she relates on her blog. While I fall far short of her goal (which I can tell you from experience that she accomplishes that goal!!), I try to be very fair when talking about my husband. My darling husband told me early in our marriage that he had a hard time finding good friends because so many men spoke so poorly of their women. He wasn't interested in being friends with a guy who had so little respect for his life's-partner. The truth is that Dave's better about it than I am. I do try very hard to be fair, but am so impressed by Amy that I have to take another look at my goals. I never wanted to put my husband down, but doesn't a great guy like Dave deserve a goal higher than a wife who tries to be "not awful."