Marathons and Memories

I have been sorely neglecting my 'Mommy' blog as there are just not enough hours in the day. At times I think I should close this one and maintain my running one. But it just doesn't feel right, not yet.

For now, I will be content to update when I can and try to hit the major highpoints of our lives and our faith.

Boo is growing so quickly. His vocabulary increases with every passing day. These are the times when I wish I had a video camera so that I could capture these moments to be treasured. But how do you pick the moments? They are all so precious and so blessed, and I am not deserving of any of them. I will accept these daily gifts from God as long as He presents them.

Lem will be hitting double digits in a very short while. I can't believe my baby girl will be growing into a young woman so soon. She is so beautiful and precious, kind and righteous (in the good way.)

Bean and Foo had the pleasure of taking the SAT this past weekend. They were such troopers. I don't know that I could sit in a chair for four hours and wrack my brain for information. What was really funny was Bean's comment today. She said out of the blue, "Ya know mom, I don't really care what my scores are because there is no way that they can tell how smart I am from that test!" She is so right! I pray that the college that Bean wants to attend meets her and gets to know her. She will do just fine on the SAT, but I hope that the school that she chooses to attend accepts her because they believe in her as a person, not because of some numbers on a page.

Fish is busy being Fish. His insights on life always astound me. To have his wisdom...

I did finish my first marathon. It was a life-changing experience. The love and support that I received during my training, on race day, and the days following, were nothing short of amazing. I have a truly blessed life and I pray I don't forget to show how grateful I am to each person in my life.

My favorite time of the liturgical year is just around the corner. I will be posting some thoughts and ideas on Lent in the days to come.

Highlights of Advent and Christmas

Things I want to remember about this Advent and Christmas, in no certain order...

1. Foo arranging to decorate for Christmas as a surprise for us.
2. Boo's reaction to seeing the tree magically appear after his nap. Utter fear.
Then... TRREEEEEEEE.
3. Every night we had to say "good night treeeeee". All lights were trees. All
Christmas decorations were trees.
4. Boo picked up an ornament and thought it was a ball. Imagine the expression on
face when it failed to bounce...
5. Boo didn't touch the tree for the rest of the season. Wonder why?
6. Sleeping in late most every day for two weeks!
7. Having Mark home all the time, all season and beyond!
8. Lem making Christmas cookies all by herself, TWICE!
9. Seeing Fish get totally excited when he pulled Tannie (his yellow lab Webkinz) out of his stocking.
10. Watching Bean turn into a kid again upon opening her lime green digital camera.
11. Having the Alicia spend the night.
12. Spending countless hours with extended family and friends.
13. Watching said family spend countless hours playing guitar hero and rock band.
14. Hearing Deacon Joe's homily today.
15. Preparing for the marathon with friends.
16. Seeing Boo's expression when he woke from his nap to see that the tree had magically disappeared. He actually looked under the couch for it!

Happy Feast of Epiphany!

The last day of Christmas is here. As we celebrate the Feast of Epiphany, my family and I will reluctantly put away our decorations of the Christmas Season.

We are still listening to Christmas music, especially this new CD. It is a wonderful addition to our collection.

Funny thing about Christmas music. I am old school. I don't want to hear it during Advent. I look with great anticipation towards Christmas Eve Mass when I hear Silent Night for the first time. After all, Advent is a period of waiting and desiring to hear the music, yet "waiting" until Christmas Eve helps me to remember which season we are truly in. So many beautiful songs, so many beautiful emotions. Hearing them the day after Thanksgiving takes away from the sacredness of the moment for me.

My husband on the other hand, can't wait til the day after Thanksgiving! He loves hearing the Christmas music as soon as possible. The music fills his heart with such joy and watching him enjoy it so much is worth the sacrifice of hearing a few songs before Christmas Eve.

The poor children will never figure us out, however. If I am driving with the kids in the car, I quickly switch the CD and/or radio station from the Christmas music and tell the kids about how we should be waiting to hear this beautiful music until Jesus comes!

Then they ride with dad. He quickly changes the CD and/or radio station TO the Christmas Music and states, "IT'S CHRISTMAS! We are listening to Christmas music and nothing else!"

And they wonder why they are so confused! Crazy parents...

We have great fun with this little disagreement in our home. I am sure our children will always remember it. And then they will make their own traditions.





Speaking of traditions, today is the perfect day to bless your home. You can read about how to do this here.

It's 2008!

A Happy Belated New Year to you all! I have taken quite a break from my blogging on this blog for the last few months. My focus has been on my training for the Marathon which I will be participating in on January 13th. For those who don't know, you can read my running blog here.

I hope to get back to more regular and relevant posts here afterwards.

The last two weeks have been a wonderful vacation for us around the home-front. No work, no school, just relaxing, eating, more relaxing, and some organizing.

I have re-vamped some of our school subjects, leaning more towards Ambleside again. I always feel that we get so much more out of the literature choices we take from AO.

I'd really love to enroll Bean in the expository essay class with Bravewriter, but I can't justify the cost so soon after Christmas.

She and Foo are slated to take the SAT this month. Foo is doing it as part of the Duke's TIP program. I am very curious to see how he does.

Bean has her permit now and will begin driving lessons with her father any time now. Consider yourselves warned.

I pray I'll get some time to post some pictures and more about our goings on soon. Until then, I wish you all peace!

And Unto Us a Savior is Born!

Rejoice!



Merry Christmas! We will see you in 2008!

What a nice way to draw Advent to a close!

After Mass, we packed up the vehicles and headed out in search of Christmas lights to behold.

We found a few neighborhoods that truly embraced the Christmas spirit and many even had Nativity scenes!

Thanks to the Neen Family, we had hot cocoa, WITH marshmallows! The kids had a blast and I hope that this quickly planned outing becomes a new tradition.

Finally, the little bladders and hungry tummy won us over and we returned to the house for a few pictures, bathroom privileges, and some dinner.

Amazing that all the kids looked at the camera at the same time!



The Girls!



The Guys!



The Guys and the Dads


The folks responsible for all those kids!




And let's not forget Santa's cutest elf...

Fishism

I've been meaning to post the latest Fishism for a few weeks. Better late than never I suppose.

Aunt Marli experienced this one...

Fish: Aunt Marli, what's that place called that's not Heaven and not Hell? I think it starts with a "P"...

AM: Purgatory?

Fish: No, I think it's called the Pizza Parlor...

Never say never

I never thought that I would see myself doing this...

You know you are busy when

Your son asks if you have had a chance to talk with his father about the new computer he wants to buy, (for the 10th time) and you still haven't. The said son's response is, "Boy, Mom, it's easier to get a bill passed into a law than for you guys to get time to talk!"

November has flown by

I can't believe we are already nearing the end of another year. It seems we just began this one! November has gone by so quickly and I have been way late in posting. Honestly, I can't make too many excuses because we are busy living. At times I ask myself why I blog. It takes time away from the family. Time that I could be doing something else. I sometimes contemplate closing the blogs and I might someday, but for now, I will blog as I can. I know many of my fellow bloggers feel these same feelings.

The month started out with All Saint's Day. We had a wonderful time out in the country at a very generous homeschooling family's home. They opened up their home and their land to us urbanites as we celebrated the Feast of All Saints out in God's most wonderful creation, nature.

Karenism

Ok, you know it is going to be an interesting day when, upon applying your makeup, you suddenly realize that you just lined your eyes with red lip liner.

Does so much to wake up those tired eyes!

The lip liner now resides in the garbage can. I never used the thing anyway!

Latest Fishism

The other day as we were riding home from the doctor's office, Fish asked me how hot the sun was. I told him that I didn't know the exact temperature but that it was very hot.

He asked what would happen if we got close to it. I told him that we would get very hot and we could "melt". (I couldn't bring myself to tell him that we would die!)


He then asked me if it was hotter than "H". Assuming he was speaking of Hell, I was about to tell him no and explain that Hell was the hottest thing and perhaps even take the opportunity to give a quick catechism lesson on Hell and why we don't want to end up there.

Before I could, however, he added, "you know the H I am talking about?"

Me: "Yes, Fish."

Fish: "It's the one next to the 'C' "

Me: "What?!"

Fish: "The one in the tub!"

So much for me thinking I know what my son is talking about! I couldn't help but smile the rest of the way home! And I skipped the lesson on Hell...

What exactly do we do?

BOY, am I wiped out! Ran close to 10 miles today and then spent a few hours at the Children's Festival working at a table for Kid's Directory. They were kind enough to let me hand out cards about The Woodlands Learning Center to help us promote the PACE and Master the Code programs. For those of you who don't know what we do, we train the brain! We do not do any academic tutoring, but rather we provide a series of cognitive excercises which help to strengthen the weak learning skills which keep a student from being as successful as they could be.

PACE and Master the Code helps all students, young and old, those with diagnosed difficulties such as Dyslexia, ADD, Asberger's even Autism. However it also is very effective with those who do not have a diagnosis per se, yet seem to struggle, require additional tutoring on a consistent basis, fail grades, seem unmotivated, etc.

You can check out our company website for more information.

I am so thankful to have found PACE and Master the Code because it was able to help two of my own children that might have been life long strugglers, especially with reading. Being able to offer this to others blesses my family in many ways. My prayer is that we bless them just as much!

Tired

Fish has pneumonia. I wasn't expecting that one, but my poor little Fish is really sick. I don't think I've ever seen him feel so bad.

He is going to be fine, thanks to our wonderful medical miracle worker, but in the meantime, we are having him sleep right next to me. I am not sleeping well, so I awake exhausted. I'll be heading back to bed in a little bit for a quick, or maybe not so quick nap.

Did you ever wake up and think, boy I LOVE my bed? Well, I really do. I can't wait to see it again!

No prize for me

I received an email today from NaBloPoMo discussing how the creator will issue a prize at the end of the month. Hmph. I didn't know that! If I had realized that then I would NEVER have missed posting!

Ok... who am I kidding. I would still miss posting. The sad thing is that I posted a few posts to my running blog last night. I wanted to post here, but I had convinced myself that I already had and needed to wait until today to post so I wouldn't forget.

Guess what? I posted on Tuesday. Not yesterday. What has happened to my brain? Not enough doughnuts I say, not enough.

Speaking of doughnuts, how do we get to a point where we have two ways to spell it? I mean is it donuts or doughnuts? Did a doughnut shop owner decide it was cheaper to have a sign made with only 5 letters?

English is so goofy. We can read, or it was read. We can wind up the cord or we can listen to the wind howl. We can present a present to someone. But do we eat donuts or doughnuts? These are the questions that plague my mind at o'dark-thirty when I can't sleep. When I think about the post I am going to put on the blog tomorrow so I don't have two posts in one day. When I realize that the dork in me has no clue what I am doing from one moment to the next. And when I decide that I will post all of my failings in a public forum. Why not? No pride here! (yeah, right!)

On the more serious side, please keep our little Fish in your prayers today. We've been dealing with a high fever all night. He is wiped out and of course we worry with his inclination for seizures.

Adoration

I was able to take a few minutes in adoration today, and I am so glad I did. I have been able to do this the past 3 or 4 weeks on Tuesdays after my run. I go into the adoration chapel, sweaty, stinky, and dressed in running gear. Thankfully, there are not many others in the chapel at the time. They don't seem to mind my presence, but I try to sit far away so as not to offend them with my yucky self.

It occurred to me tonight that Christ doesn't care how I show up, just that I do. He knows the worst parts about me, why should I be hesitant to show up as I am at that moment. It would only be another excuse for me not to go.

I picked up a nice little book that delivers a pretty powerful message. The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence seems to be exactly what I need right now. I was first intrigued by Brother Lawrence a few years ago when Mamabear gave me a book mark with a quote from him on it. When I saw this book sitting on the shelf, I knew it was meant for me to read. I love the simplistic message that it has.

I truly crave adoration. I need that time to bring all of those concerns directly to His feet. I feel such a sense of peace when I am able to leave them with Him and return to my family.

I was feeling a bit discouraged today as I mulled over the many stories of sinful behavior that I am hearing about in my community. I actually started thinking about how nothing could ever change the state of the world. Then I remembered, God has already won this war.

During my reading at adoration, it was said that Brother Lawrence said that "he was not shocked at the misery and sin he had heard about every day but on the contrary, considering the malice of which the sinner is capable, he was surprised that there was not more of it. He prayed for the sinner but knowing God could right the matter whenever he wished, he did not allow himself to be too upset. " (pg 24)

This is exactly what I needed to hear from the Lord tonight. Thank you, Lord.

Breakfast!

Need I say more?

Busy, busy, busy

Time gets away from me so easily these days! Before I knew it I was back in bed after a day full of beautiful moments spent with my family and friends.

As a little girl, I yearned for a close family. A large family. A family that longed to be together.

I can honestly say that all of my dreams have come true at this point in my life. My husband and our children spend nearly every moment of the day together. We start each day with our morning meal and end each day with our evening meal, together. We even have the wonderful opportunity of having lunch together and many other moments during the day.

I have always longed for this, especially when Mark was working away from the house 6 - 7 days a week. Now, he is home. And I am so thankful. We are a team in every sense of the word. Watching our family work together, as so many others do, is such a wonderful thing. Is it perfect? Hardly. But it is ours. And it is a total expression of God's love. Complete with bumps in the road as we all grow closer in holiness on our path home to Our Father.

Doh!

Well, my streak was already broken! I totally missed posting yesterday, but I guess that means I can post today, twice, in lieu of yesterday? OK... I'm making up the rules as I go along, but that is ok.

I mentioned that my theme would be thankfulness. I thought this would be appropriate as we head into our "thankful" season. Thankful for food, for family, for our faith, friends, etc. I knew exactly what I wanted to post about first. My dogs. That's right. My dogs. Now, don't get me wrong, I am not putting my posts in any sort of order. They will come as the ideas hit me. So please don't think I am more thankful for one thing (like my dogs) than I am for something else ( say, my children). I am not.

I couldn't help but think about how very thankful I am for the dogs that have come into my life. Ever since I was a child, there has always been a special dog that I feel connected to in some way. I can't imagine my life without them in it. I don't understand how someone can not have a dog. It just doesn't fit into my paradigm. Sometimes, I have thought, "wouldn't it be nice to not have a dog!", but then I see those big beautiful eyes (they ALL have them) and I realize that I will probably ALWAYS have one. They just melt my heart.

They are first and foremost, unconditional in their love. They don't care if you've forgotten to feed them in the past, given up their walks for the last few weeks, only have a moment for a quick pat on the head. They take what they are offered and are so happy to have it! They cheer us up when we are down. Offer comfort when we grieve. Provide companionship when we are lonely. Protect us when we are afraid, and best of all, they clean up the kitchen floor after a messy toddler throws his food all over the place!

As I head out the door for my morning run, Hannah wimpers because I am not taking her with me. But as she ages, her ability to keep up with me for the mileage that I have to cover today diminishes. Maybe, just maybe, I'll have time to take her for a shorter run when I get back...

Day of All Saints

I thought I'd post a few pictures of the future saints I am trying to raise. Notice the very unsaintly mother still has piles of laundry to fold... (thank goodness her saintly mother in law came last night and took care of that!)