Growing with my Girls

Christmas Eve 2011

2012-01-23T21:27:00.001-05:00

Some pretty pictures from Christmas Eve... the girls in their dresses after Mass

They each open one gift on Christmas Eve... it is always something like pajamas, slippers, a bathrobe...

This year they got pajamas. Notice how Cecilia's fell out of the box... we didn't notice what happened until later when we watched the video... take a look and make sure to focus on Cecilia! You can actually see it better directly on Youtube.

Here they are in their pajamas, after Cecilia found them...

The horse stable has a tag on it that says "a special delivery from your Great Papa." We bought it with money he sent and then decided to set it out as a surprise after the girls went to bed.

nativity crafts the girls made

not sure what happened to the kings there...

my late-night Santa's Little Helper

Assorted Thoughts on Motherhood, Large Families, and Culture

2012-01-19T20:43:00.000-05:00

***I began writing this before Christmas, in small bits here and there. It's a collection of thoughts on just one reason why we may not have as many large families as in days past, and how mothering is difficult, but we can do it with trust in God.***

The problem with mothering little ones in our culture is the lack of help we get: real, hands-on, present help.

I am going to try not to make this a complaining post. This is the way things are in our culture, and I know I've gone on and on before about how we are social creatures who do best when working and living in close communities in which we have the help, support, and examples of various extended family members and friends spanning the generations. In times past, and still today in other cultures, mothers learned to nurse their babies from their mothers and aunts, their older sisters... People shared the work so that new mothers could tend to their babies. Women all shared in the chores and child care, and children of all ages were present for other children to play with and learn from (rather than having just one or two siblings around at most and seeking entertainment from their parents). This is what is so appealing to me about having a large family: varied ages of children who can learn from each other, help each other, and entertain each other with various creative pursuits. What a joy for them to never be lonely!

But... having a large family, particularly in the early years when all the children are younger, is not easy in the way we live!

I need to clarify at this point that I am not referring to my own family as "big." Sure, we might be big compared to families with one child, but in my opinion, we're not "big" with three children.

But in the experience I am having now, where it is difficult based on the way we live to raise even three children, I know it must be harder still when there are four kids, or five, or more... at least until the oldest ones are ten or older, and maybe until the youngest is two. Having a large family is beautiful: think of the friendships formed between siblings, the parents who in their old age will never be completely alone, the loud family gatherings that will recur year after year on special occasions. But even though the rewards are great for having a large number of children, getting there in our culture is TOUGH! And it's a real shame... no, it's a tragedy, actually, that we are deterred from having large families. Most families stop with two children, spaced relatively closely, because they have little help and just want to get through those early years as quickly as they can and survive it. My mother, who had four of us, has been asked frequently by young mothers, "Wow, four children - how did you ever manage? I am pulling my hair out just with two!" Her answer was, "I just did... what other choice did I have?" And that's true - if you have children, you just do it - just manage life the best you can. And I imagine that is what has led to so many modern ideas: sleep-training babies to make them "independent" because it is hard to manage everything alone, playgroups and various scheduled activities so kids (and their parents!) won't be lonely, institutions for learning which separate the family unit for most of their waking hours... these things exist in part to fill our biological need for community, for contact with other humans, with help in raising our children. So when parents make decisions that go against what has become the cultural norm (biological mothering of infants, homeschooling, less structured children's activities so kids don't become over-scheduled), then we have even less help and more time in which we are caring for our children. Fortunately there are still support networks (La Leche League, homeschooling groups, friends with common family choices/family life)... but just like mothers of only one child who goes to "school" at the age of 2 months, mothers of many who homeschool face the same challenge: much of it is done alone, without the communal support for which we were designed. Parents have to find modified, almost contrived, communities, where we hire babysitters, mother's helpers, postpartum doulas, because we don't have a few grandmas and sisters and cousins around who just naturally fill in the spaces when another woman in the family has a new baby.

So is it any wonder many women say "enough is enough!" after merely one or two babies, being so glad to be out of the "baby years" and the responsibilities that come with that time? Is it any wonder there are less large families lately? What a shame! What a shame to miss out on the rewards of a large family to comfort you in your old age because getting through the early years with babies and toddlers was too much to continue to bear! But what else are we to do? What can we do, really? Just keep on keeping on, because there is no other choice, particularly for most families who cannot afford a postpartum doula or a nanny and don't have family living in the same town.

For some reason, I made up some imaginary scenario in my mind that I'd have more help this time around. Who was I kidding? I had the most help when Caroline was born and progressively less with each child (although I had several sweet friends bring meals this time, which was very much appreciated!). I guess I was being idealistic, but in reality, my own mother works as a preschool director, so she can't just come help any time. And my parents are our closest relatives geographically, but even that is over an hour away. We have no extended family living in our town. And my friends all have lots of small children themselves to teach and care for. So I guess it was just wishful thinking, because in reality moms could use more help once they have multiple children, particularly when homeschooling, but usually they get less with each baby... my children aren't gone every day by age five, and homeschooling them requires my daily involvement while also caring for the baby and managing basic daily functioning like feeding the kids lunch and keeping the dirty dishes under some level of control (thank God for my husband's willingness to take on most of the housework especially in the first 6-12 months with a baby!).

People may read this and think, "Well, you don't have to homeschool, and you don't have to hold your baby all the time." True, I don't have to. I could send Caroline to the nearby public school, enroll Cecilia in some kind of daily preschool, and let the baby cry it out. Maybe that would make life easier. But it would make our family less connected, so I'm not going to do it. I see what does make people resort to leaving babies to cry themselves to sleep: the lack of help, the isolation, the need to just go use the toilet for five minutes without a baby in one arm and kids arguing outside the door! But babies are life, and I am not going to teach my older children to respect life (innocent, helpless life!) by putting the baby aside because I'm too tired or overwhelmed. Society is not set up to help me in this style of living, but oh well. Still I must forge ahead, and if I don't have anybody else to help me feed the kids lunch, then I just have to do it with the one hand I have free while holding the nursing baby with the other.

So the first 12-18 months with a new baby is full of conflicting emotions. I love my babies, I love holding them, nursing them, watching them fall asleep and wake up, stroking their soft fuzzy hair on their perfectly rounded little heads, watching them learn about the world and master new tasks. But I feel the pull of societal expectations: to accomplish various other tasks throughout the day. Truthfully, homeschooling takes up the morning, with various diaper-changing intermissions and such. Then is rest/nap time after lunch. After that, I like the kids to get outside time, and while they are probably getting close, they aren't quite old enough to be sent to play outside alone, so I have to be out with them, preventing me from doing chores or dinner prep in the house. I bring them in before they've had enough outdoor time to prep dinner and then, dinner and bedtime stuff, and the day is over. I could do chores after they're in bed, but the baby... the baby sleeps on me throughout the evening, and only if I am sitting still. No, I can't lay her down; I can never lay sleeping babies down and have them stay asleep. I tried and tried (and cried and felt like a failure) with my first baby and decided it wasn't worth the stress, so I haven't tried as much with the next two. I'm much less stressed this way, but I'm limited in what I can feasibly accomplish. Some people may call this lazy, not putting the baby down and that it's my job to "train" her... or people will say "You just have to lay them down every time they fall asleep from the beginning to make them stay asleep on their own," but holding a sleeping baby is one of life's greatest joys and it would be such a shame to miss out on that! But while I know from two previous experiences that I won't ruin her by not trying to force her to sleep alone as a baby, I do feel that "lazy" word creeping in... that I could get more done, that I should do more housework, that people might think I don't deserve any help anyway because I'm lazy... but really, I think all moms need help and support, physically and emotionally, and we just don't get much in our isolated way of living. We resort to the internet for some of our support, but that can never replace real people in the flesh.

What prompted me to start writing this a month ago is this: my baby was not gaining adequate weight. I have nursed both other babies with no problems as to weight gain, and I have had training in breastfeeding support, so I should know what I'm doing. Apparently I really hadn't been feeding her enough. Apparently I needed to be more lazy, and sit down to encourage her to nurse more often. I brainstormed with a lactation consultant who was doing weight checks for Lucy, and after trying a few things, her weight gain has now been brought up to the very bottom of what ould be considered a "normal" range (update: weight gain is slower again after being checked today, but at least the pediatrician doesn't think there's a problem... she can hopefully glide right along that 3rd percentile curve... I'm still concerned being so close to falling off the bottom of the chart, so I'll remain vigilant about lots of nursing and taking herbs to boost milk supply). The lactation consultant told me not to feel like an idiot: I am just trying to take care of two older kids and homeschool one of them. That's time consuming. I have to complete 180 days of school, and so the pressure is there. But I have to make sure my baby is getting enough calories. We did more laid-back schooling during Advent with lots of read-alouds as our school time. Maybe it wouldn't count in a public school, but it's going to have to be "good enough," and I can confidently say that my daughter is well head of most of her public school peers. Plus, she is learning how to nurture a baby. And she is getting to be so good with Lucy! I imagine in large families there gets to be a tipping point where there are kids old enough to really be a big help: preteens and older who can really help with cooking, childcare, even helping younger ones with their schoolwork... but how to handle it until you get to that point?

So if somebody who knows her stuff regarding breastfeeding can still end up with her baby not gaining enough weight, then perhaps she has a lot on her plate. Either that, or she's just really bad at multitasking, although I did simultaneously nurse a baby and place an order at Chick-fil-A just last week. Even when she has an awesome husband who does nearly all of the housework. And since she's female, she feels a little guilty for not touching the broom more than three times since the baby's birth while trying to homeschool the six year old, even though clearly the baby's need for more calories trumps the sweeping. Oh, and there's a middle child in there too who needs her rear end wiped and to be attended to in other ways here and there... she doesn't ask for much, that sweet easygoing little one. It's just the little things that happen that can end up with the baby not nursing enough... me trying to eat a bowl of oatmeal, being called to the bathroom by the aforementioned child, deciding to rinse off the dishes so food won't be hardened to them later when I come back to actually wash them, checking weather and gathering coats to go outside and then realizing that it's really too cold out there for the poor baby anyway, but how else to get the kids some outside time? Oh, the day when I can turn them all loose outside alone and stay inside cleaning something instead of going out with them... then I might feel a bit more accomplished.

So, back to the thoughts on large families... how I'd love to have more children! But how I also dread the inability to do much around the house, the lack of help (on weekdays, that is... my husband is awesome when he's home, and he shouldn't have to do all the housework on his days off, the weekends!), the inability to drive five minutes without a crying baby from the back seat. The fact that my three or six year old complains of a hangnail and I'm appalled to see their super-long, curved-down toenails, evidence of the few months it's been since I got around to cutting them. Heck, I finally cut my own toenails the other day for the first time since, hmm, a few months? I think I have swept three times since Lucy's birth. So I can see why people sometimes feel a need to get past these years - but I am so thankful to the families out there who persevere despite the difficulties of raising many children with little help, the families who refuse to say, "Oh, we're done, thank goodness!" They are inspiring to me, and they show that there are things more important than just being comfortable and "done" with babyhood. What could be more beautiful than the creation of a new soul? As hard as it is, as much as our society isn't set up to encourage us (in fact, society goes against us - have you heard of doctors encouraging newly-postpartum women to get their tubes tied? Totally unethical to push that to somebody in a vulnerable time!)... continuing to raise babies leads us to a future without loneliness, but it is a sacrifice when caring for a helpless child constantly.

I just came across a post at Practicing Mammal the other day, one describing the reasons for the Church's teachings against contraception and regarding use of NFP. It is absolutely correct that the natural mothering of babies is a form of natural family planning, as it tends to give some length of natural child spacing. But reading it got me thinking, as I have been composing this post over several different days: is lack of help a serious or grave reason for avoiding pregnancy? Seeing as humans have not always lived in such isolation, we are social creatures, then I'd say perhaps it is a grave reason. But then again, time with an infant is fleeting. Those first 18 months are really the most intense for me, the months when I feel like I can't accomplish much else, but they do pass. However, repeating them for each child adds up... with three children, it will be a total of four and a half years of the most intense months. Add a fourth child and we get to six years, and so on. In those years, things like driving my kids an hour to a museum won't happen, because all my babies (so far) have hated the carseat. Not that my children need to go to museums and such to learn and have fun, but it's nice to do it sometimes. It seems like when we get to the point that we can actually have an enjoyable long car ride, then having a new baby feels like going back to square one. Again, modern living with cars as necessities since we are so far-flung from each other... a present day problem. A first-world problem, perhaps? Living in a third-world country, I assume one would be near relatives to help - but of course, they would have other problems to deal with. Another first world problem: the I HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF AND AM OVERWHELMED BY IT syndrome. This syndrome gets worse after December and makes me seriously consider implementing the Flanders family's "Imagination Christmas." [Sorry, can't seem to find a clip of that on Youtube for those of you who are unfamiliar with The Simpsons 15 years ago] But where does all the stuff come from? Why does every single person my child encounters - the neighbors, the dentist, the old lady at church - feel the need to give them stuff?? Now I'm just sounding ungrateful. But the management of clutter overwhelms me, personally. My three year old had 34 short sleeved shirts last summer - no kidding. We rotate toys, but that in and of itself requires management. And I will readily admit that I have willingly obtained far too many picture frames all by myself, making dusting a nightmare. I would love to simplify, and I often clean out and make donations, but when there's a baby, it doesn't happen. I think the reason this overwhelms me so is that as a homeschooler, there is a certain amount of stuff I need to already have in my home that others would never have, because it would be in their children's classrooms instead. So I'm already starting out with more necessary stuff in the first place. I can't imagine if I had a son where I'd store the boy clothes... no more room! We're going to try those "vacuum out the air" storage bags for clothes that supposedly make things 1/4th of their original size... sorry, just rambling here, but I will get to an actual point.

So perhaps human difficulties are inevitable, because persevering through struggles for God's glory only makes us stronger and gives purpose to life. Maybe the giving of ourselves to raise these helpless babies is part of our path to Heaven. Not maybe, but certainly. Life isn't about individual happiness, but about helping each other get to Heaven.

And we teach our older kids the valuable lesson that those who are helpless deserve compassion and help and love. My older children are seeing how I care for the baby around the clock, constantly, and they are internalizing this. If she starts to fuss and I'm not holding her, they immediately say, "Mommy, Lucy needs you!" And you know what? Even though I am holding her almost all the time, there has been no jealousy of the baby. There wasn't any with Caroline when Cecilia was the baby, either. Maybe it's just the spacing between them, but maybe it is also because their needs were met so continuously as infants and young toddlers that their cups were full. They are learning that living in a family is about putting the needs of others before yourself particularly when the one with the needs is helpless to help herself.

So, regardless of how difficult it is to continue having babies with very little help, or how our society views babies and large families... it is worth it, it will certainly pay off down the road, it will eventually get easier (not that raising all teenagers is going to be "easy," I am sure - but different from having helpless babies screaming as soon as they realize you are in the vicinity of The Evil and Dreaded Car Seat or who instantly start rolling towards the space you dared to leave when you moved away from their warm sleeping little selves, for instance).

Something that I need to always keep in mind is this poem, and I hope other mothers do, too, whether they have just one baby with no hopes of any more or if they are on their fifth baby while just in the middle of their childbearing years:

Mother, O' Mother, come shake out your cloth,

Empty the dustpan, poison the moth.

Hang out the washing, make up the bed,

Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,

Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo.

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due,

Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek - peekaboo.

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew,

And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo.

But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.

Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?

Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow,

But children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

~ Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

Our babies, no matter how many we have and how many years their baby-hoods span, are only this little once. Whether or not we have little outside help, over many babies and many years, one day we will be 70 year old grey haired ladies sitting in quiet cars, actually hearing no cries from the back seat as we drive to the gas station. That will be nice, but it will also be sad not having little ones to cuddle. So the best we can do is to enjoy it. Try to be as intensely wrapped up in the mothering of our babies as we can, even if that means that the dishes pile up, the too-big and too-small kids' clothing remains homeless in the middle of the guest room, and the schooling for the day was read-alouds, "science time (aka playing in the backyard)," and home ec (kids helping with diaper changes and making sandwiches for lunch). It will just have to be Good Enough. Babies can't wait, even if we live in a society set up against us in that way. We can't do all things, so we need to drop most of it when we don't have extra help around and just take care of the babies.

Because God doesn't give us more than we can handle. And sacrificial love for our babies is, I'm sure, pleasing to God.

A special thank you to mothers of bigger families who parent in the attachment style. It is inspiring to see you doing what you do and gives me hope. :)

**Update: Just came across this great and timely article: To the Mother Who Only Has One Child. Check it out; it's much less long-winded than me!

I also meant to mention in this post the idea another Catholic mom shared once many years ago... wouldn't it be great if there were an order of nuns who came to live with young families and helped them out? That would be perfect!

Advent 2011

2012-01-14T22:11:00.000-05:00

A few things we did this year during Advent... St. Lucy bread on the 13th! Chris made the recipe for us the night before so it'd be ready for breakfast. He's so good at keeping the extra stuff (and the regular stuff!) going while I'm mothering the bitty one. :) This day will be a fun one to celebrate in the future with our own Lucy!

The girls about to blow out candles on the wreath-shaped bread.

Our Christmas baking this year consisted of non-baked goodies that were easy to assemble: M&M pretzel dots, Christmas bark, and caramel popcorn. No gingerbread men this year; maybe in 2012...

Cecilia and Caroline helped with the "baking." We always enjoy being able to put work into homemade treats to give as gifts.

The girls frosted a gingerbread house kit for the O Antiphon that begins with "ruler of the house of Israel," like last year. This kit was particularly helpful in that the house came pre-assembled!

Cecilia adds an ornament to the Jesse Tree. We enjoyed doing the Holy Heroes Advent Adventure and following Jesus's family tree.

And now that it's Chris's birthday, January 14, maybe I'll actually get around to putting away the Jesse Tree, along with the Christmas cards and other random decor that's out and about our house!

St. Nicholas Day 2011

2012-01-13T22:33:00.000-05:00

Yes, it happened over a month ago, but I am finally recording it here... new baby laziness syndrome going on here. ;) I want to try to catch up a bit....

So, St. Nicholas Day was on December 6th. The girls set their shoes out the night before, and in the morning they were found filled with goodies!

This year, the shoes contained walnuts, holy cards (St. Andrew is visible - his feast day typically falls right at the beginning of Advent), and St. Nicholas chocolate coins to represent the story of Nicholas tossing gold coins into the home of poor family.

Cecilia was excited about the chocolate! St. Nicholas also left two new books for Advent, plus a box of candy cane Joe Joe's, which are apparently a much-coveted product at Trader Joe's as soon as they hit the shelves each year... my mom and I were buying them and another customer said, "Oh, you'd better get another box of those - they're so good and will be eaten quickly, and when you come back in a week, Trader Joe's will be sold out already!" This man and his son were each carrying a box or two of the cookies. My mom said that they must be good since she just saw a lady with four boxes in the next aisle. The man said, "That's my wife."

I just bought one box. Probably a good thing since the 2/5 of pregnancy weight I had lost hasn't budged any further (and in fact got worse over Christmas with all the yummy eating).

We have had a fancier breakfast on this day in the past few tears to set it apart as special. Well, I wasn't up to preparing the candy cane shaped sweet bread this year, so my incredible husband did it!! Caroline was really excited, since she remembers this bread from years past and enjoyed having it as our little family tradition.

enjoying her St. Nicholas breakfast!

Oh, and this was the evening before... we had our St. Nicholas pork and apples dinner, again in part thanks to my hubby, who cooked the meat so I wouldn't spatter grease on the little slingling.

During the day, Caroline did some St. Nicholas copywork, we read St. Nicholas books and sang songs about him, and the girls made this fun set of paper figures that I printed from St. Nicholas Center.

In the afternoon, we were invited by my sweet friend to come over to make St. Nicholas cookies! Making cookies has been fun for us in the past years, but all that dough-rolling and icing-piping didn't sound very easy for me to manage with a baby. So what a treat for them to have all the dough made and everything ready at their house! The girls and I still got to help without the stress I would have faced trying to do it on my own. And yes, my husband probably would have taken on the cookies too, but this way he didn't have to, and we got to still take part in the cookie tradition.

Yum!! I just love this recipe!

and so does Cecilia, apparently!

St. Nicholas, pray for us!

Thanksgiving in Pictures

2011-12-18T21:58:00.001-05:00

We spent Thanksgiving in Atlanta at my parents' house. Initially, I had said that they could come to my house and bring food since I had a newborn. But we decided to go there, where the food would be already and my mom could do all the cooking in her own kitchen. I am finally getting around to posting photos... such is life with a little baby!

The girls all wore their Thanksgiving clothes... Lucy has a "baby's first Thanksgiving" bib that the older two also wore.

And Lucy needs a bib, because she drools like crazy!

Cecilia wore her turkey shirt that Gramma bought for Caroline three years ago, and this year Gran happened to find a cute fall pumpkin shirt for Caroline. They wore fall colored corduroys... I made Cecilia's myself several years ago for Caroline. They love when they can dress up for special days!

Here are the appetizers... we had an egg casserole and cinnamon rolls for breakfast, heavy snacks midday, and then our Thanksgiving meal around 4:30.

Lucy's clothes were very fall-looking as well...

Babies all love my dad, for some unknown reason...

On her second bib of the day...

I may be biased, but I think my babies are beautiful. I love their little perfectly round heads, chubby cheeks, and lack of necks!

smiling at Grampa again

This was Lucy's first time to meet Uncle Stephen (above) and Uncle Tim

The table all set for the big meal...

The lovely centerpiece before Stephen dismantled part of it so we'd have room on the table for all the food... and all the people. I love how we all pile in around the table for big meals. There's always room for one more!

Dinner included turkey, stuffing (both in the bird and in a separate casserole dish) with apples and cranberries, gravy, mashed potatoes, corn bread dressing (one of my favorites!), rolls, olives (but of course!), creamed spinach, and roasted sweet potatoes with pecans and a bourbon glaze... unfortunately, Dutch, Stephen's dog, found this last dish, which had been placed out of the way on a lower level of a side table. We suddenly heard him lapping something: the bourbon glaze from the bowl! Dutch, being an expensive sort of dog what with his allergies and surgeries, would of course eat the most expensive dish we had... my dad ate some more of it, but nobody else wanted to risk the dog drool. Too bad, because it was a yummy dish!

Uncle Stephen multi-tasking. Chris actually posted a photo of the food on the table to Facebook, and Stephen was in the background Somebody noticed his pajama pants and commented that it looks like we got dressed up for the occasion, ha ha. Stephen was the only one going super-casual for the day... the rest of us wore regular clothes!

Caroline was initially upset that Dutch would be there. She's a bit afraid of him. He loves people, and if you run from him, of course he thinks you're playing.

But she had a great time playing with him in the yard! We were so proud of how she opened up and started to like Dutch!

This one's my favorite

Stephen looks on to make sure they are nice to his dog ;)

No, I have no idea what that hanging blue orb is... all I know is that when you look out of the sunroom window at night, it's there, glowing...

Any time Dutch's leash was underneath him, Caroline would ask Cecilia to crawl under and get it... no longer afraid of Dutch, but still afraid of getting licked!

Chris was right out there helping to rile the dog up, growling at him to make him bark... he needs a dog of his own! If Stephen goes back overseas for a year, maybe we should take him. We're the only ones he hasn't lived with yet... we'd have to teach him not to chase chickens!

Maybe Stephen got that "babies like me" gene from his father? Look again, this one's not mine... yes, there are two baby girls in the family now! This is Chloe, my niece... my brother Mike's second child. They came to visit the day after Thanksgiving and get family pictures made of all of us together.

Aunt Crystal reading about Lyle the Crocodile to Cecilia... this book is still at my parents' house and was one we all liked as kids. I love the name of the little girl in the book: Clover Sue Hipple.

Snacks again before having another big meal with Mike and Crystal... instead of turkey, we had lamb chops this time.

Mike and Tim make an appearance...

And this was the best picture I could get of Julianne, Mike's other daughter... she is a busy little 19 month old!

Cecilia got Uncle Mike to read Lovable Lyle to her, too!

Gramma gets to hold both of her grandbabies, the fourth and fifth of the bunch!

Can you tell which one is mine?

random shot from the day before... the girls drawing

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Lucy 2 months

2011-12-06T21:58:00.004-05:00

some assorted pictures of Lucy from mid-November on...

above, sitting in bouncy seat in kitchen

propped up on boppy pillow

so strong! and she doesn't do "tummy time" either, other than occasional times like this on the boppy pillow

Cecilia loving on her baby sister

and wiping off her drool. this is the droolingest baby I've ever had.

beautiful eyes... hands in motion...

first semi-attempts of batting at an object

Caroline handed Lucy a hairbrush, which she held for a couple minutes, so I replaced it with this softer baby toy who we call "Purple Keptin." She held it for awhile, bit she didn't seem to really notice that she had possession of it. She is not quite ready for baby toys, but she smiles like a loon at this stuffed turkey (or is it a peacock? I can't find an image of it online) for a few minutes at a time here and there.

Hoping to put up Thanksgiving photos at some point...

By the third baby...

2011-12-06T21:41:00.004-05:00

...everything starts to wear out. This is my sling. My padded ring sling, used from Caroline's infancy, tore a few weeks ago when I was tugging on the fabric to put Lucy in it. And I had just mended some very small tears around the padded part. Thankfully I had the Maya Wrap as backup when this huge tear appeared. But the Maya has lots more fabric and no padding, which I find more difficult to use for little babies... but thankfully, my friend Beth has a Nojo sling, also padded, which she's letting me borrow temporarily so I can decide if I need to ask for another padded sling for Christmas!

And this is a tear in our sheet (next to a ridiculously adorable baby). Again, I tugged on the fabric (to make it nice and smooth), and it tore. Good thing we have four more sets of sheets!

And speaking of the bed and wearing out its ten year old linens, remember how I kinda ruined our comforter by giving birth on it? My mom insisted on buying us a new one to replace the old one she'd thrown in the garbage:

How does it look?

And a view in natural light...

More Scare Tactics Regarding Co-Sleeping

2011-11-17T22:13:00.003-05:00

So about a year ago, it was these terrible PSA billboards to scare mothers out of sleeping with their babies in Milwaukee:

There's a new ad out on billboards in the same area now, and it's done with just about as poor taste as the previous one:

Really, really morbid, and really inappropriate. The first one in particular is just sick... but they've only toned it down slightly with the current ads. The reason babies in certain areas of Milwaukee die while sleeping with parents is not because of the co-sleeping... it is because their parents are under the influence of drugs and alcohol, they smoke, they were sleeping on a couch, or they were co-sleeping while formula-feeding, meaning they'd lost the hormonal level of awareness of their babies' presence while sleeping which breastfeeding gives.

It maddens me that people may see these ads and, not knowing any better, be worried about my baby... "Oh, that Erin who sleeps with her baby, she's taking horrible risks!" I, and all other co-sleeping moms I know, do not have any of these risk factors, and we bedshare intentionally, in an effort to actually improve our babies' chances of survival, as well as for bonding and biological well-being (oh, and because we're lazy... snicker).

This article is well worth the read. It refutes the ad nicely. And, based on the numbers of SIDS deaths in cribs that is quoted in the article, should there be ads depicting cribs in separate bedrooms as gas chambers or something? Certainly there'd be outrage over that!

For info on sleeping with your baby - a biological norm - I recommend these books:

Sleeping with your Baby

Three in a Bed

The Family Bed

Nighttime Parenting

And for a humorous, sarcastic take on the butcher knife ad, see this.

The Feast of St. Martin of Tours

2011-11-15T21:27:00.004-05:00

We did a little something for the feast of St. Martin last Friday... in addition to reading about him and singing the St. Martin song, we made these delicious horseshoe cookies just like last year. No lantern-making this year, although we did pull out last year's lanterns and light them on the dinner table, along with a St. Martin candle. Here's Caroline running the food processor to grind up the almonds...

...and measuring out one cup. Have I mentioned how much I love this food processor? Whole almonds to ground almonds in under 30 seconds!

Caroline shaped them into horseshoes... St. Martin was a soldier, and in the most famous story about him, he was riding his horse when he met a poor beggar suffering from the cold.

After the cookies had baked, we rolled them in powdered sugar. So buttery, so yummy... delicious with a cup of tea or coffee!

Pretty Baby Pics

2011-11-12T13:25:00.004-05:00

A bunch of Lucy photos for those who like to ooh and aah over baby pictures... this one is when she was almost six weeks old, wearing a cute little dress and matching sweater that my mom got for her.

Here I am holding Lucy... this was the weekend that the older girls went to spend a few days with Chris's parents. We'd gone out for a dinner date to Mellow Mushroom and then to a talk with dessert and coffee at our church... which is why I'm actually wearing makeup and have my hair done, ha ha. That's only been happening on days when I leave the house, and the makeup's been forgotten a few times. I've got to get a haircut... if I don't have a chance to do my hair, it is out of control. The lady who cut it before Lucy was born did not listen to what I said about layers not working with my hair!

Lucy at six weeks old

Wow, makeup in this photo too! Must have been a Sunday and I'd been to church. I love how babies look wearing gowns... like little legless things, hee hee.

Lucy in the sling, probably looking at a ceiling fan

Lucy with her adoring fans (not ceiling fans this time)

so sweet...

Tim, is this an early Bob face, possibly??

Lucy is eight weeks old here. In trying to decide who she resembles, I look at these and think she looks like me in my baby pictures, and a bit like my brother Mike's baby pictures...

Leaning forward on her own here... she has a strong neck. Tummy time - who needs it? ;)

looking a lot like me and Mike's baby pictures here

eight weeks old, showing off her cloth diaper. my only baby still able to fit in newborn-sized diaper covers at close to two months old.

how to manage taking your older children outside on a chilly, windy day while keeping the baby warm (until she resists being in the sling while awake and wants to nurse, which was managed in the sling while she was still wearing her coat...) - and the mug is how I stay warm, by drinking tea!

Two months old today! Still wondering what color her hair will be... it's not fallen out completely yet like the older girls' hair did when they were babies. Her eyes are still blue but have lightened up... thinking maybe they'll stay that way.

All Hallows Eve, All Saints, and All Souls!

2011-11-06T21:33:00.004-05:00

Saint Clare of Assisi and Saint Elizabeth of Hungary

The girls dressed in their saint costumes on All Hallow's Eve (the evening of All Saints Day, or Hallowe'en). They were so excited about their homemade costumes! I was glad, because with a newborn, I didn't have the time to get too elaborate. The only time-intensive part was pinning and hemming their veil/mantle pieces - whatever they're called.

Cecilia chose one of her patron saints, Clare. Here's how we made her costume: First, she wore brown sweatpants underneath. If it had been colder, she would have also worn a long sleeved shirt underneath. For the tunic part, we used one of Daddy's brown t-shirts turned inside-out to hide the logo writing on it. Then we took an extra piece of clothesline rope and tied some knots into it and made a belt - I looked at photos of some Poor Clare sisters and this is how their belts looked. Then we hung a simple wooden bead rosary over her belt. The white part - I believe this piece of the habit is called a guimpe - is just a size 4 turtleneck. A plain white t-shirt works as well and is not so tight. The arms of the turtleneck are just tied around the back of her head. Then I hemmed a black piece of fabric... it was 3/4 of a yard, I think. I safety pinned it to the turtleneck in two places. I also had to pin the back of the brown shirt because the neck was sliding off one of her shoulders.

We made the monstrance very cheaply and easily. See the tutorial for step-by-step instructions. Saint Clare took the Blessed Sacrament up to a window of the convent when the city was being attacked, and the enemy turned and fled when they saw it.

To make Caroline's costume, we began with a hand-me-down dress from our neighbors... it looks to be handmade, and we decided the green velvety material made it look like a dress for royalty. Then I hemmed a white piece of fabric, one yard. It was held in place by the crown, which I cut out of cardstock. Caroline decorated it with craft sequins.

The finishing touch to the costume: a basket with a piece of bread (yes, it's real, from the loaf of Irish brown bread we'd baked earlier!) and some fake roses. Elizabeth of Hungary was taking bread to the poor, of which her husband didn't approve - it was not the kind of hing royalty should have to do, he thought. So when he pulled her veil back (where she was concealing the bread), he only found roses.

On All Saints Day, we did some fun yet schoolish activities... here the girls are playing Saint Memory using the cards that can be downloaded for free here.

Caroline told me everything she could remember about St. Elizabeth of ?Hungary, and then she illustrated her narration. Cecilia did the same. We're going to make a family All Saints book and add their saint each year.

Cecilia illustrates her saint.

Next, we made soul cakes. They were the original "treat" that was given to people coming door-to-door. Catholics in England used to knock at neighbors' doors and ask for a "soul cake" in return for offering prayers for the dead of the family. There are various ideas of how these soul cakes were made... not sure if there was a particular original recipe. I think this really illustrates how Hallowe'en is truly a Christian holiday and doesn't have to be a gory secularized day!

Cecilia wearing a dress-up dress, as usual, while making the soul cakes...

They each got to sample one before leaving for Mass, and then they shared more with friends at the park, where we went for lunch and to play after Mass and before ballet class!

Then we met with the same friends and another homeschooling family from our church on Friday for our first All Saints Party!

Here are the snacks... my friend Beth pulled all of these ideas for food together. Many of the ideas were found here at Catholic Icing... Bugles for St. Gabriel's trumpet, Goldfish crackers for St. Peter (and any of the apostles who were fisherman), pretzel sticks for St. Bernadette's firewood...

Here's the pumpkin cupcakes I made for the cupcake walk... I topped each one with a printed holy card on a toothpick. I got the here from That Resource Site.

The kids played Saint Bingo... here's St. Nicholas!

The older kids helped the younger ones, and everyone got to pick out prizes.

We did the cake walk out on the driveway since the weather was so nice. We played a Catholic children's CD and when the music stopped, I called out a saint. Whoever was on that saint went to choose a cupcake.

She ate more than just the frosting, I promise. ;)

Last, we did St. Isadore the Farmer's Pumpkin Race. The kids rolled pumpkins across the yard as fast as they could!

St. Clare, who looked more like St. Francis at this point since she'd removed her headpiece, ecided kicking the pumpkin was easier than rolling it with her hands... she decided to pick it up and carry it the rest of the way back to the driveway!

Blessed Kateri and Mary, Queen of All Saints, take their turns!

We used holy cards and religious medals for prizes, along with candy corn and candy pumpkins and gummi "snakes." Click the photo to see it larger and read the labels.

Here are all the saints who dressed up! We had fun and hope to make this an annual tradition!

All Saints Props - Making a Monstrance

2011-11-06T20:07:00.000-05:00

Cecilia chose to dress up as St. Clare for All Saints Day, so I came up with this idea to make a monstrance. At first I thought I'd just make a one-dimensional one, but then I thought it'd be fun to have one that could stand up by itself. So here's what we did:

I stapled two paper plates together and left part of it open. I slipped the opening over a toilet paper tube and secured it with masking tape. Then I taped the other end of the tube to the bottom of a styrofoam bowl.

We covered the whole thing with aluminum foil. Then we cut a circle out of white cardstock and Cecilia drew a cross on it to make a host.

Last, she stuck sequins on it. An easy 3-D monstrance!

Go Read This

2011-11-05T22:46:00.003-04:00

What I'm Never Going to Tell You

Good for all parents to read, homeschooling or not, Catholic or not, with full-grown children or not. Reminds us that while we have a responsibility to guide our children and teach them right from wrong, they do have free will and their poor choices are not necessarily a result of our parenting (and it may even be prideful for us to think so), and that God's grace plays a huge role... God is not done working on any of us yet!

Assorted Learning

2011-10-29T21:55:00.005-04:00

Here are some of the things we've been doing school-wise in the last six weeks... in somewhat random order!

First, we've been learning that newborns like to be with Mommy, and they sleep and nurse all day. They have short periods of "quiet alert" time in which they will pose for pictures with big sisters! The baby IS the lesson!

The girls made guardian angels with markers and glitter... these are from the Seton Art 1 book. Caroline copied the Guardian Angel Prayer for copywork... this was done around the feast of the Guardian Angels in early October. We also read the book My Guardian Dear.

The feast day of the Triumph of the Cross was just a few days after Lucy was born. I read the above book to the girls, and Caroline illustrated part of the story.

Chris took the bigger girls to the Booth Western Art Museum on free museum day last month. I stayed home and cuddled the baby!

Cecilia sorted some fall pictures and completed patterns with them.

Caroline worked on a "Things I See in Church" lapbook. At some point, I'd like to arrange a tour of our church... maybe our deacon would be able to show the kids various items in the church and explain what they are. Might be a good thing to do in preparation for First Holy Communion next year!

In math, we learned what a right angle is and that "rect" means "right" in German, which is how a rectangle gets its name. We also learned that a square is a special kind of rectangle that has all sides equal. Caroline found examples in magazines and catalogs and glued them on this paper.

We did a craft to go along with the song "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands," which we've been singing some in Circle Time... trying to find some preschoolish ways to involve the three year old! We made suncatchers...

...as well as permanent crafts on paper to be filed away and kept.

The whole world craft idea came from this post on Catholic Icing.

We made fall-scented playdough... lots of cinnamon and cloves went into this, and it makes the room smell great - nice, since I doubt I'll get a chance to take out fall-scented candles this year...

First Smiles!

2011-10-22T21:50:00.003-04:00

Lucy's Baptism

2011-10-05T20:58:00.004-04:00

Lucy was baptized last Sunday, October 2, which in years when it does not fall on a Sunday is the Feast of the Guardian Angels... it just happened that this date worked best. Truly her guardian angel has been watching over our baby girl! It was also Respect Life Sunday, which falls on the first Sunday of every October. Attending the baptism were both sets of grandparents and my brother Mike and his wife Crystal and their daughter Julianne (and their second daughter Chloe was there in utero, to be born the very next day!).

Caroline narrated her version of the day to me, and I will share her retelling of the events below:

When we went to church, Gran and Grandad were already there, and we weren’t expecting Aunt Crystal to come because baby Chloe was going to be born sometime that week, the next week after that Sunday. And Aunt Crystal did come, and there were some pews reserved because Lucy was getting baptized only that Sunday – there wasn’t another baby being baptized that Sunday, and there were two pews reserved just in case lots of family members came, and Uncle Mike and Aunt Crystal and Julianne and Mommy and Daddy and Lucy was sitting on the pew in front, and Gramma and Grampa and Gran and Grandad and me and Cecilia were sitting on the one behind the one that Mommy and Daddy were sitting on.

When Lucy was going to get baptized when we went up to the front, I got to hold the candle until Deacon Stu was going to light it, and Cecilia held the towel. And Uncle Mike took a video of Lucy being baptized, and Gran and Grandad took some pictures. And Gramma and Grampa took some pictures. And she was asleep when she got baptized, and she woke up for like two seconds or one minute after she got baptized.

Caroline's story to be continued further below... Deacon Stu performed the baptism, as he did for Cecilia too. He is anointing her with the chrism oil above. I love that smell... four days later and I can still smell it on Lucy's head, just barely...

The girls were excited to be able to watch up close!

My mom gave Lucy this baptismal bonnet... it is a handkerchief with ribbons on it and is intended to be carried just as a handkerchief on her wedding day! I sealed it in a baggie and hope maybe it will retain the chrism smell over the years...

Our family in front of the altar after Mass

My parents - Lucy's godparents

everybody all together!

with Chris's parents

Some photos taken by my mom in the narthex after Mass... I wanted a few showing the baptismal dress. This is the same dress that my mother and I were both baptized in, as well as all three of our girls now. My mom thinks her grandmother must have handmade it!! In one of the pictures above, you can see that the back of it has to be fastened with a gold pin... apparently this is what used to be common for closing baby's dresses...

In this one you can see the white garment they placed on Lucy right after the baptism. They didn't do this for Caroline or Cecilia's baptisms for some reason...

You can click on the photo to see the detail of the dress... it is beautiful!

When we got home, I hung the dress and bonnet along with a blanket we'd wrapped around Lucy (it was an unusually cool morning - 40 degrees when we woke up!) so they would be out of the way of the food but still on display.

At home, we had a luncheon party to celebrate! I love celebrating the children's sacraments and like to make a big deal of it as a way to show them how important their faith milestones are... more important than a birthday, so it deserves a big celebration! I hope this makes an impression on the girls as they get older... and it is lots of fun, too - I can't wait to plan a First Communion party! :)

Caroline's narration of the day is continued below, in orange:

For the baptism party, we had some croissants with chicken salad on them, and we had some egg salad with bread, and we had a fruit salad, and Gramma made some pimento cheese. And Gramma got a baptism cake at Publix, and it was big! It was shaped like a cross and it had some pink flowers made of icing and some blue flowers made of icing and some yellow flowers made of icing, and it had some green leaves made of icing on it. And all around the edge, it had a pink line around it that kind of went like a swing: it went up and down and up and down, and on one arm of the cake it said, “God Bless” and on the other arm it said, “Lucy Marie,” and it said “God Bless Lucy Marie.” And she was almost three weeks old when she was baptized. And Mrs. Swinford came, and Aunt Mimi and Uncle Chet came.

I have gotten into the habit of displaying the girls' baptismal candles on baptism days. I need to get my own candle from my parents' house! On the china cabinet, you can see some holy cards displayed: St. Lucy, and not visible are some baptism cards.

Caroline and Cecilia helped me choose shells for this little craft... we will display these baptism scallop shells each baptism anniversary! The shell is a symbol of baptism: a small shell-shaped scoop is used to pour the holy water over the baby's head during the baptism. Each shell has the name and date of the baptism on it and it attached to white ribbon so that it can be hung around the baptismal candle.

caroline and Cecilia colored some baptism pictures and hung them up as decorations.

On the Menu:

Sweet Tea

Coffee Punch

Chicken Salad on Mini Croissants

Egg Salad Tea Sandwiches

Homemade Pimento Cheese Tea Sandwiches

Homemade Cheese Ball and Crackers

Artichoke Dip and Crackers

Assorted Cheese Cubes

Fruit Salad

Baptism Chocolates: Shells, Crosses, and Bibles

Vanilla Cake

Caroline cut out these water drops with the dove symbol in them to make party picks which we stuck in the cheese cubes. I found these online - if I remember where, I can come back and link to it!

I had fun making these chocolates using a mold and some candy melts from the craft store... note to anyone who hasn't made them before: stick them in the fridge to harden or they don't work!! I made white as the traditional baptism color along with dark chocolate for some variety!

Here's the cake - a beautiful cross cake from Publix! Thanks, Mom!

I also put these dove decorations on the floral centerpiece... our celebration was rich with the symbols of baptism: water, doves, shells, the color white... My mom picked the flowers up before coming, which was helpful because I'd planned to stop and get some on Sunday morning! My parents came up on Saturday afternoon to help get things ready (my dad first checked to make sure we got CBS so he could watch the Gators game, ha ha, which was not worth watching, it turns out! ;). My mom made the chicken salad, pimento cheese, and egg salad, and the next morning she and Chris's mom put the last things together in the kitchen so I wouldn't have to overdo it and could just hold and nurse my precious baby. :)

Cecilia and Caroline opened gifts for Lucy... this sheep was from my Aunt and Uncle, who drove over for the luncheon! We had a wonderful day welcoming Lucy to God's family! She celebrated by sleeping through it all on me and then partying a bit overnight... or maybe that was the extra caffeine I had in all that coffee punch! ;)

God Bless you, Lucy Marie!

Lucy Photos!

2011-10-05T20:41:00.003-04:00

Just some photos to share of beautiful baby Lucy in her first three weeks... I love newborn faces, and they don't look like this for very long!

Lucy's Birth

2011-09-18T23:00:00.004-04:00

Lucy Marie has a birth story that has no photos of labor, the birth, or immediately after the birth, unlike my first two babies. Each labor and birth has certainly been different. This one needs to be written before I forget the details since I don't have immediate photos! This birth is also the one for which I feel the most gratitude to God for a safe and smooth delivery. I'm so thankful for the loving support of my husband and for his quick thinking and calm demeanor - without him, I don't know that I could have done this on my own! I am very fortunate that all my labors have been uncomplicated thus far, but in this one, it was certainly an important factor since Lucy was inadvertently born here at home!

For those who know me well, you may have known that I did desire a homebirth, just to avoid hospital interventions and because my first two births went so smoothly. Cecilia was needlessly separated from me for a few hours after her birth, and I very much wanted to avoid that happening again! However, I would only consider a homebirth with a midwife I trusted, one who had lots of experience and who I had heard good things about from friends. Well, do you know what a homebirth midwife who fits that description costs? $3000! Insurance doesn't cover a cent of it since it is technically illegal to be a homebirth midwife in the state of Georgia. A hospital birth, on the other hand, costs $750 for labor and delivery on our insurance plan, and the hospital stay costs have come out around maybe $500 for the first two births. So, I resigned myself to a third hospital birth, reassured by Chris's reminders that my first two labors went smoothly and that we could likely avoid most interventions this time as well. I certainly would not plan to have an unattended homebirth... even with no complications during pregnancy, I wanted to have somebody there who'd had plenty of experience attending many births and who could help if any problems did arise. So I certainly did not intend for Lucy to be born with only my husband, my mother, and our older children in the house!

Labor began around 6:20 that morning with strong but very tolerable contractions about every ten minutes. I waited until just after 7:00 before calling my mom to tell her that it seemed like real labor, so she could come on up to be with the girls while labor got harder and then when we went to the hospital. Chris made our breakfast, and I ate a fried egg and some toast with strawberry jelly. I spilled some runny egg yolk on my placemat... just a random tidbit in the story. I found myself having to pause with the contractions through breakfast and put my head down and stop talking. The contractions began coming closer together at this time, too. After breakfast, I laid down for awhile to see if they would keep coming at the same rate... and they slowed down. They began coming every ten, sometimes every twelve minutes apart. So we decided at this point that we didn't need to take the girls to the neighbors' house and could wait for my mom to arrive.

Once my mom got here around 10:00, Chris encouraged me to get up since the contractions were not getting any closer together after an hour of laying still. They were getting harder to get through because they were long - a minute and a half and more - but still ten minutes apart. So I got up and walked to the living room with Chris's help. The contractions started coming much closer together... about every four to six minutes. However, they were shorter now... still intense, but lasting only 40 seconds to a minute each. After an hour of being up, I laid down again, thinking that if they kept coming then we'd be leaving for the hospital. But again, they slowed to coming every nine to ten minutes.. I only had seven contractions over the entire 11:00 hour. They were longer again, some around two minutes, and I was entering into the mindset of not being able to endure any more... they were extremely painful at this point and difficult to relax through. I wanted to go to the hospital, but Chris reminded me that the contractions were coming pretty far apart still and we didn't want to go too early. My water hadn't broken, and I needed to get back up so labor could progress and then we could go. My mind was confused... I had the head knowledge that when contractions are coming ten minutes apart, then it's too early... but then why was I feeling like giving up and that I couldn't do this any more (which is an emotional sign that you're getting toward the end)? I was really discouraged that the contractions were spaced out so far, because it seemed like a lot of pain for little progress (oh, but little did I know!). Chris had been wiping my forehead with a cool wet washcloth between contractions, as I was feeling very warm with some of them. I knew I should get up to help things along, but I was actually resting and dozing between contractions and was hesitant to move. Never did I express the desire to just stay home, which many women say when they are going through the hardest part of labor, shortly before the pushing stage of labor... but looking back, maybe this reluctance to move was a sign.

Our contraction log book... same notebook Chris used to record things during Cecilia's labor. He got it at a conference for work, and other than that, I think we've only used it for recording labor contractions!

Once I did get up shortly after noon, contractions began coming closer together again, and they were shorter again as well... most were now lasting around a minute each. They were getting to be around every five minutes apart. I was sitting up on the edge of the bed and leaning back on Chris, who was sitting behind me to support me as I tried to relax and melt back into his arms with each contraction... relaxing my body was very difficult at this point. Chris had gotten me some peanut butter crackers and was encouraging me to eat some and take sips of water... During Caroline's labor, I didn't want to eat hardly anything, and since it was a long labor, I didn't have much energy by the end and even blacked out briefly when I first stood up after her birth. We wanted to avoid that again! So I ate and sipped between contractions, and my mom was making macaroni and cheese for the girls. She was making enough for Chris and herself as well so he could eat something before we left for the hospital.

So, having been through Bradley Method childbirth classes before Caroline's birth (and having reviewed our books and materials over the past few weeks), we knew the things we should be looking for in deciding when to leave for the hospital. These classes are very thorough, lasting 12 weeks, and they are also referred to as "husband-coached childbirth," involving the husbands in aiding their wives through labor. We knew we were seeing some of the signs: the self-doubt I was expressing, for instance. However, another suggestion is to wait for 4-1-1: contractions every four minutes, lasting at least one minute each, and coming consistently for an hour. We'd almost met that before when they were coming about every five minutes, until I laid down and they spaced back out. In any event, I hoped that we were getting close!

Our childbirth books which we'd been reviewing over the past few weeks... such a good thing to have had this kind of information and a husband who was willing and able to be involved to this degree! Chris has been instrumental in each one of our babies' births.

After about 45 minutes, Chris reminded me to use the bathroom - one of the many jobs of the labor coach, as it is an important thing to do! And, as other moms who have done this before may be able to relate, the position when sitting on a toilet can help labor to progress since it helps to open up the pelvis.

Well, my pelvis had apparently already opened up... so that's why those last few contractions while sitting up in bed were being felt down through my outer thighs, I realize in retrospect (at the time, all I could say was, "These are weird, Chris, my legs are hurting and it doesn't feel right!"). After a few contractions while on the toilet, I broke down and said, "I'm so scared we're not going to make it to the hospital!" Chris says it was just about this time he was thinking we needed to leave. Our bag was already packed, of course (had been for two weeks!) and we just needed to put my wallet and phone in, along with the white noise machine (in an attempt to get some rest in the hospital - ha!). Since my water hadn't broken, I think we both thought I was still going through transition and had a bit more time. Often there is also a pause of many minutes between labor contractions and pushing contractions. But suddenly, I felt the urge to push and told Chris. He was saying for me to get up so we could leave, but I said I was going to give a small push (this may be too much information for some, but if you are a woman who has given birth, you probably remember that the urge to push in labor feels similar to pushing when using the toilet, and so my giving a small push was hoping to be able to get anything out before getting off the toilet!). With the small push I gave, I knew it was an actual pushing urge because I began to feel her head ready to emerge, and I said, "The baby's head is there, she's coming!!!" This was the point at which all fear left me and instinct totally kicked in... the baby was going to be born, and we just had to let her come!

The last two crackers in the package from which I was snacking just moments before the birth.

So Chris had me stand up and he could tell the baby's head was right there too... as I stood up, I remember grabbing and pulling up on the toilet paper roll and towel rod, both of which I pulled off the wall... I had actually done that to the towel rod a few times already by using it to support myself with my back pain during pregnancy! Chris said I had planted my feet and wasn't able to move, and apparently I cried out, "I can't walk!" Chris had gotten me up so the baby wouldn't be born in the toilet, but his next step was to get me into an actual pushing position so I wasn't just standing in the bathroom. As I took a couple steps into our bedroom, I felt the totally uncontrollable urge to push, and as I got down on my hands and knees, I could feel the baby's head crowning and the instant relief that came with it as I gave an effortless push. As I got down on the floor, I grabbed the comforter from the foot of our bed and pulled it down under my chest and between my legs so there was something other than the rug and hardwood floor... of course, Chris was behind me ready to catch the baby, but having the comforter there gave some padding in case it was needed (and ended up being great for me to sit back on after she was born).

Lucy's birthplace... right there in front of the vent, pretty much.

My mom heard that something was up by this point and came down the hall to see what was going on... she looked in and Chris called to her, "The baby's coming," and I added, "Call 911!" Her response as she rushed back down the hall was, "I told you not to wait too long!!!" Yes, wasn't that what everybody had been telling us, including ourselves? So I pushed Lucy's head out (she was facing my left leg, away from Chris, who was on the right side of me), and one more push after that and she was out - in an intact bag of waters, of course, since the water never broke. This is a relatively rare occurrence and surprised me: the water broke with Caroline while I was pushing (but I pushed for almost an hour and a half with her), and it broke early on with Cecilia, kickstarting my short period of active labor before pushing for about 20 minutes to get her out. This time, pushing lasted about two minutes! And I think I only pushed four times, one of which was a weak "practice" push.

Chris was holding Lucy still in the bag of waters, looking to see if there was a spot where it had begun to tear. He said it was like a balloon stretched around her, and the amniotic fluid was down in the bottom of it as he held her. My mom was in the doorway on the phone with 911, and after giving them our address, she asked, "Is she breathing?" I had felt such relief at pushing her out that I felt no worry, but then I started asking, "Is she okay???" I think Chris asked if he should be breaking the water, and my mom said, "Yes," and the next thing I knew, Chris was passing a sputtering baby under me and up onto my chest as I leaned back. She was making little coughing sounds as she took her first breaths... Chris had pulled the sac off and had tilted her upside down and tapped her back, and she began breathing. She was totally covered in vernix, which I began rubbing into her skin as I held her close to warm her. My mom brought a couple towels to drape over her to keep her warm and dry her on me. She was crying a bit, not loudly, but in a way that we knew her breathing was fine. At the moment I held her and heard the snuffling noises, I knew everything was okay. The paramedics arrived just a few minutes after she was born... two ambulances and five paramedics had come because they had all been just down the street eating at a local buffet restaurant! The apparently told the restaurant staff, "Don't worry, we'll come back and eat when we're done!"

Caroline and Cecilia had been eating lunch while all this happened, my mom later told me. She said they were wondering about what was going on, so she told them to just wait in the living room... then she had them go out on the porch and wait for the ambulance and wave when they saw it coming, which they enjoyed doing, apparently.

The cord had stopped pulsing, so one of the paramedics clamped it, and Chris cut it with a knife-like tool which they had. They helped dry her a bit more and then helped me stand up with Lucy and get onto a stretcher they had brought into the hallway. Another warning about semi-graphic childbirth details here... it sure feels weird to walk with an umbillical cord hanging out of you! I didn't look back at the comforter... all I'd seen was a spot of blood on the wall which must have been on Chris's hand or something. But my mom's later words to me as I talked on the phone to her from the hospital were, "Erin, that comforter is shot. I'm buying you a new one!"

I had the presence of mind to ask somebody to grab a hat for Lucy as we were headed down the hall. Chris found the Pooh Bear hat I described and we put it on her head to help keep her warm. Caroline and Cecilia had been down the hall the whole time, and I got to see them briefly and say that the baby just came so fast, and that we'd be going to the hospital so we could get checked out. The girls got a brief glimpse of their baby sister and said hi to her. After we left, my mom said Caroline got upset and was crying that the baby didn't wait until we went to the hospital... she likes things to happen in the way we are expecting them to happen. Cecilia, on the other hand, simply said, "But she just came too fast!"

Lucy gets checked out by the nurses and NICU staff right there next to me in the labor and delivery room.

So Lucy got to take her first car ride at about 15-ish minutes old in the back of an ambulance on my chest, covered up and making her first attempts at nursing. Chris grabbed our bag and last few things we needed and rode up front. The paramedics helped me keep blankets over Lucy... they'd swapped out the wet towels in our house for some blankets. They also put a huge piece of foil over the blankets to help insulate her. We even had the siren on and everything... Chris said at one point they hit 60 mph on our 40 mph main road to the hospital! There was no emergency, but I guess they just wanted to get us there quickly just in case (and because they wanted to go back to lunch, maybe? ;).

They took us in through the emergency entrance and up to maternity, where they'd been having a quiet day despite the fact that it was a Monday and there would be a full moon that night! We went straight down the hall into a labor and delivery room, where they could check us out. They checked Lucy's vitals while she was still on me... we'd done a good job keeping her warm because her temp was 97.5. I had been rubbing her feet under the blankets the whole ride to the hospital. She had looked a little purple at birth and had pinked up nicely on the ride, but she began looking a little purple again, and her oxygenation levels were slightly low, so they put her under a warmer in the room there with us and checked her out, gave her a brief breath of oxygen, and she was back on my chest after about ten or so minutes of them checking her out. All done in the room... the hospital has made some great changes to do as much as possible in the rooms and to keep mothers and babies together. I was very impressed with how they did this! They didn't even weigh her yet at this point... they said they could do it - in the room - whenever we were ready. Lucy was nursing again, so we waited until she had gotten a good long time on me before checking her weight and length: 7 lbs. 7.2 oz. and 20.5 inches long. By this time we had looked over her thoroughly and I was commenting on her hair - it appeared to be light brown with maybe a bit of red in it, lighter than our first two babies' hair had been at birth.

Beautiful baby Lucy Marie!

One of the OBs from my practice had come in by this time and was sitting around waiting for the placenta... he joked when he got in the room that he was worn out because he wasn't used to running, ha ha (he's great at making deadpan jokes... when a friend of mine gave birth, he said in a monotone voice as he placed her son in her arms, "Oh, look, it's a baby."). And here's a part that those who are squeamish about blood and birth details may want to skip, so you have been warned... The OB helped with the placenta delivery and then checked me... no tears at all! This is the first time, because I had torn somewhat badly with my first birth (they had said it was a first degree tear but borderline on being 2nd degree), and then it was repaired somewhat badly, and with the second birth we knew it would tear at least slightly in the area where it hadn't been totally repaired. But this time, nothing! Very brief pushing stage on hands and knees seems to be the way to go for me! Chris had said he didn't notice any tearing when she was born, and the doctor was able to confirm that. He said, "Only papercuts," meaning minor abrasions. I must say that this recovery has been so much easier, too. No swelling, only minor irritation rather than pain. Also, for what it's worth, there has been less bleeding this time around... I am now at almost a week since the birth. Of course the uterine contractions which work to shrink the uterus back to its normal size were painful, as they are supposed to be (lets you know they're working right!)... apparently they get a little stronger with each birth. But even those have subsided now. There is just an achy feeling, particularly after I have been laying down all night.

Big sisters meet Lucy for the first time

Another thing which I am sure eased our recovery was the fact that we had gotten sleep the night before! Chris and I went to bed around 11ish and slept until 6:15ish when labor began... with the past births, we'd not gotten much sleep at all, and it really wiped us out compared to this time. It was such a nice change to be in my postpartum room in the hospital a few hours after the birth, looking out the window at a gorgeous, clear blue sky... what a beautiful day to be born, and on the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary, from whom Lucy's middle name comes. She was actually born on her due date - imagine that!

Proud sister Caroline!

So, the changes being made in this hospital are great... along with the things I already mentioned, they were switching over to having mother-baby nurses, meaning one nurse for each pair rather than a separate nurse for the baby than the mother. This is brand-new, and so at one point I did have a separate baby nurse coming in every two hours all night to check Lucy's temperature and skin color... and the lab tech came in at 4am saying, "Good morning!" Morning??? Ha! But the nurses were cheerful and helpful, and overall we had a happy stay. But it's almost impossible to get any rest in a hospital, so we were hoping to check out after 24 hours.

Lucy was able to be checked by the pediatrician in the morning - Chris took her to the nursery where they like to do their checks. All looked great with her, and she said we could check out after 1:00 as long as Lucy urinated before then, which she did. The nurses clipped her umbillical stump a little shorter... it was kind of long and had a huge clamp because that's the kind the paramedics carry in the ambulance. So the nurse tied it off with string instead of putting on another clamp since we'd be going home soon.

the whole family!

My mom brought the older girls to visit us later in the afternoon. They stopped at Kroger and got balloons and a beautiful bouquet of flowers. They'd had fun letting Gramma do their hair with new hairbands, and Cecilia told me that Gramma put our comforter in the bathtub to soak... which didn't help, but oh, well! They brought Arby's for Chris, since he hadn't eaten much... although we did break out our snacks as soon as we were in the labor and delivery room getting checked: orange juice, granola bars, crackers (both peanut butter and cheese), and that yummy True North nut cluster trail mix stuff... one of the nurses seemed amused that we'd brought our own snacks! Having only delivered at night before (when no meals are served in the hospital!), we definitely had food ready in our bag! Anyway, my mom brought me an Arby's sandwich as well, even though I got dinner from the hospital food service. Giving birth takes a lot of energy, so I saved my Arby's sandwich for an evening snack, since dinner comes around 5:30 in the hospital. Chris rode back home with my mom to get his car, since he hadn't brought it!

The next day, Gramma and the girls came to visit again, and Grampa and Gran and Grandad came to visit us and meet Lucy too. I took a shower shortly before they came... I waited a long time this time, having read more on birth in recent years. Did you know that when the baby is placed on the mother's abdomen after birth, the amniotic fluid gets on the mother's skin, and the baby is more comfortable there with the familiar smell... and it helps also to postpone the bathing of the infant. So Lucy didn't have a bath in the hospital at all... in fact, we finally bathed her on Saturday here at home, when she was five days old.

Daddy and baby... how lucky he is to have four girls who love him! ;)

Looking back, I am so grateful for a smooth birth and that even though it didn't go according to plan, we are healthy and safe and happy, and we were able to have another natural birth, even if it was in a different way! Baby Lucy was born in an intact bag of waters for a reason, I think: it kept her safe and secure for her speedy arrival into the world, and it kept her umbillical cord where it needed to be. Chris and I had been praying for strength for a good labor and a happy delivery for Lucy, just as we did for our other children while pregnant with them.

I had been reading a book to the older girls during the pregnancy, and Cecilia in particular was fascinated with it. It is called Angel in the Waters and is a beautiful pro-life children's story which tells about the baby growing from the beginning as a teeny baby until the birth, and then beginning life on the outside of the womb. The baby's guardian angel is with him throughout the story, right from conception. The book keeps mentioning that the angel is there in the waters with the baby, and then when labor is occurring, the baby is sad because the waters all left. The baby finds that after being born, his angel is still there with him. I thought it was neat how Lucy kept the waters with her, cushioning her through the delivery, and her guardian angel was right there with her, watching over and protecting her!

I am so grateful for my wonderful husband who helped us through this amazingly - he kept his cool and acted in a way that was perfect, like he knew exactly what to do (and he did!). His calm confidence helped me tremendously. I'm so glad we had both been through intensive childbirth education and that Chris was so involved in it. We'd even learned about preparing for emergency childbirth, and while we'd put towels and blankets in the car "just in case," we hadn't anticipated this! And while I wouldn't recommend planning to do it this way, there is something so incredible about having the man you love single-handedly bringing your child from the womb to the world (well, okay, Lucy and I helped too ;). He brought her out, removed the sac, and helped her take her very first breath of air before placing her on my belly, wet and tiny and snuffling. So in this week after Lucy's birth, I'm just overcome with love for her Daddy each time I look at him and when I see him interacting with his third baby girl. I'm going to cry when he has to go back to work in the morning! Lucy will grow up knowing the story of her birth and be smitten with her Daddy! I think he's going to write his own version of the birth story as well - which is good since I am not always an expert at remembering details! We had a very restful week at home... well, Wednesday through Sunday on our own, getting used to life as a family of five with one being a tiny newborn. We took it easy and just enjoyed all being together, having lunch together on the patio and getting some time in this beautiful weather! Lucy Marie, you picked a great week to be born!

Look at that blue sky beyond our flowers in the hospital postpartum room!

our flowers back at home, gracing our table as a centerpiece for as long as they will last!

Giving my third baby a kiss on her tiny soft head

the girls picked this out for the mailbox!

Lucy with the man we love

Welcome, Lucy Marie! We love you, little miracle! What a precious gift from God!

She's Here!

2011-09-15T16:30:00.004-04:00

Lucy Marie arrived into this world on Monday, September 12, 2011, the feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary. She was born at home (!!!) and weighed in at 7 lbs 7.2 oz and measuring 20.5 inches long. Mom and baby are healthy and doing great, home from a hospital visit to get checked out and make sure everything was normal.

Birth story to follow soon!

Nature Club

2011-09-10T21:12:00.005-04:00

Our nature club met for the second time at the creek where we met before. The weather had cooled off a lot and we'd just had some heavy rain after about a month with zero rainfall, so we thought it would be interesting to observe the changes there... and this would be a good time to take advantage of the last chance to do a nature club outing before the baby is born. Any day now...

The kids spent some time observing the stream, but there were less minnows this time, and they were harder to catch. So we walked down the stream and spotted many interesting things:

(anyone know what this thing is??)

we're going to have to do some research to figure out what this flower is called

This was interesting... I had never seen these sweet gum balls on the ground when they were green. We assumed that the wind during the heavy rains caused several of them to fall from the trees before they would have otherwise come off on their own.

The kids took some time to consult their field guides and make some sketches.

trying to identify the beetle...

Caroline makes a rubbing of a fern

A tiger swallowtail butterfly floated by on a breeze.. it just so happens that it is our state butterfly. Caroline found it in the field guide and sketched/labeled it in her notebook.

Cecilia may be our family naturalist... she went slowly along the creek, stopping to pick up various seeds, rocks, a muscadine... and then she spent the longest time sketching in her notebook. She drew the beetle, and us walking along, and then later she sketched some pinestraw. I was thankful for her slower pace... it was all I could manage, ha ha!

Here's the whole nature club... just now noticing they are all a bunch of blondies except for one of mine!

They are excited about their club... Caroline came home and made some sort of sign-in sheets for each family in the club. Not sure how they work or what she plans to do with them... we may have to structure it so that we devote at least the first hour to nature observation and then give them a half hour or more (depending on our schedules) to just play and have their own "nature meetings," which I think is what Caroline made those sheets for...

This used to be our "nature shelf." It was too high up and narrow and just got cluttered with dirt, basically... so I turned it into Caroline's very own "chapter book shelf." After reading her a chapter book, I put it on this shelf, because she likes to reread them a lot. She also loves these old school readers... s we have some of those there as well.

With our nature study club, I figured it was time to make a better, more serious nature shelf... so I took this old flat basket and lined it with a red playsilk (I figure I can change the color based on the season... red for fall leaves in this case, even though it's not really fall here yet!)...

...and I put all our recent nature finds in it. It is on a lower shelf now, where Cecilia can see it well. I have other things they have found in the past... rocks, feathers, acorns, a bird's nest... and I need to figure out how to arrange them as well. Any ideas? If anyone else has a nature corner, I'd love to see photos of how you have it set up!

September Feast Days

2011-09-09T14:32:00.004-04:00

We have begun September by celebrating several feast days... figuring I'll get them in before I have a newborn and end up not celebrating anything until Christmas! ;-P

September 5th was the feast day of Blessed Mother Teresa. We took a whole day... on September 2nd - t learn about her. We read a few books from the library, one of which Caroline retold to me. Then we printed her narration of the story and she made a page for her liturgical year binder along with a coloring page from Fenestrae Fidei and some copywork she chose from the book... a quote from mother Teresa.

Caroline reading one of the books

We made banana bread with an Indian touch... chai banana bread, along with chai smooties. The smoothies were not my favorite... they also had banana in them. I love Oregon Chai mixed with milk, but it's pricy to keep buying it, so I haven't had any in a very long time!

We had our chai-themed snacks at teatime, where we read a couple Mother Teresa stories.

We also did some mapwork... we are plotting saint and historical figures/places on a world map and locating them on our globe. Mother Teresa was born in Macedonia, so we plotted that, and then we plotted Calcutta, where she did all her work as a nun. She began studying to become a nun in Ireland, actually... so we followed the route she took from Ireland to Calcutta. She actually sailed through the Mediterranean Sea and then the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean. It was interesting to follow the path she took!

On another day, we made this craft from the Seton Art 1 book. The dedication for the month of September is the Seven Sorrows of Mary. The girls colored an image of Mary and hearts containing each of the Seven Sorrows.

They also used our Seven Sorrows activity, which has photos from the Our Lady of La Leche shrine in St. Augustine... they have carvings of each of the sorrows, and I printed the photos and made matching labels. The girls match them up after putting them in order.

Here is Caroline with her finished project... we hung them on the china cabinet.

Then yesterday, we celebrated Mary's birthday. We did as we have for the past two years... made a blueberry cheesecake. We said our family decade of the rosary at the table after dinner, lighting a candle with each of the ten Hail Marys prayed.

Cecilia has recently begun leading a couple of Hail Marys each evening!

Then we sang Happy Birthday to Mary.. like we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus at Christmas - and then...

...the girls blew out the candles! This reminds me to add birthday candles to my grocery list for tomorrow... looks like Baby Lucy is going to let me have at least one more of my weekend trips to Wal-Mart and Kroger!

Daybook for September 5 ~ Waiting for Baby Edition

2011-09-05T22:36:00.002-04:00

Outside my window... dark and rainy. It has been raining all day long, which is great since it hasn't rained here in weeks... maybe a month! We spent a leisurely Labor Day at home, doing some light schooling, starting a big puzzle, Chris and Caroline played a 90 minute game of Scrabble while I took a nap... nice rainy day activities!

I am thinking... about the baby. The due date is next week... Sunday or Monday. I am ready. Emotionally, that is... there are still some things to do around here, but nothing major. I am at the point now where, although still enjoying her movements and subtle presence within me, I am visualizing holding her against my chest as a tiny, naked newborn. I don't remember having quite the same feeling with past pregnancies, the visualizing in my mind... waiting to enjoy her and spend lots of time relaxing with her. Maybe that's just a dream, ha ha, to get lots of time to just lay around in bed with my new baby, but I am certainly going to try to spend as much time as possible doing this, as long as I have other adult help in the home with me!

I am wondering... when labor will really begin. I have been having practice contractions off and on, hopefully doing some good prep work for me. I am also wondering how fast she will come and how stressful it will be to get the kids into other people's care before we rush off to the hospital. Our neighbors across the street said they would come over if we wake up in the middle of the night and need to go ASAP, before my mom can make the drive up here (a bit over an hour) to stay with the kids while we're gone. I called her today and reminded her to go ahead and start packing a bag!

I'm also wondering if I will be able to make it to our consignment sales this year... the three closest ones are all the same weekend - one week after the baby is due, of course! I have her set on clothing pretty much, but the older girls both need a few pairs of jeans. Even if I have to go to a sale with a one week old, I guess I can handle it just looking for a few pairs of pants and keeping my eyes open for playdresses for Caroline, something that is harder and harder to find as she gets older, but which she loves.

I am praying... for a peaceful, healthy, birth and as few interventions and interruptions as possible so that our baby can have a calm beginning to her life on the outside.

I am thankful... for each and every movement inside me. For an extremely helpful husband who will support me through the birth and take care of details at home in the newborn period: groceries, dishes, cooking, cleaning. He's awesome!

I am hearing... the sound of light rain outside, and the TV, which Chris just turned on... not sure what's on yet, though. Oh, it's The Karate Kid. Wow, that takes me back...

Learning at home... We have finished seven weeks of school now. I have been drafting some ideas for loose schooling plans once the baby is here... some reading and retelling of gentle nature stories, some lapbooking on Things We See at Mass, some picture study, liturgical year crafts, maybe some fine motor fun stuff like play-doh and such...

From the kitchen... some easier stuff for this week, mostly. We had chicken pot pie last night - yum!! Chris and Caroline made it together. On Thursday, hopefully, we'll make a blueberry cheesecake for Mary'd birthday! We had our small dinner group from church over on Saturday, and Chris grilled some pretty rockin' fajita meat!

I am reading... Bradley childbirth materials with Chris, as a refresher. Need to get off here and go read some in bed for a bit... Also have a Charlotte Mason Companion and Siblings without Rivalry lined up to read some hopefully during the postpartum period

To live the liturgical year... This month's dedication is the Seven Sorrows of Mary. We reviewed them with our photo cards which we took at the Our Lady of La Leche Shrine last year. Then we did a craft out of the Seton Art 1 book. Later this week, we hope to make a craft from the same book for the Triumph of the Cross. We'll also read about St. Peter Claver this Friday on his feast day and do some copywork and a coloring page of him. Today is the feast day for Blessed Mother Teresa, so last Friday, we used the day to read about her, locate her birthplace and follow her travels on a world map and a globe, do a craft and copywork about her, and bake a recipe with an Indian twist: chai banana bread, which we had for tea time along with banana chai smoothies.

One of my favorite things... babies!

I am creating... I think I have created most everything I need for this school year. I printed off some supplies for lapbooking yesterday, and I just need to create a few last Old Testament lessons. I also need to type up a few journal topics on a list for Caroline, and sew a decorative cuff on some pants for Cecilia so they'll be long enough for her this fall. I also created a preliminary birth announcement and have been working on a list for the baby's baptism celebration!

Around the house... cleaned out and organized my underwear drawer tonight - exciting stuff, huh? I've also been cleaning out some things and have a bag to donate. We have been keeping up on laundry... washed some nursing articles yesterday. Some things just won't happen before the birth... dusting, cleaning out the microwave, straightening the girls' closet, and cleaning the windows (which has been on the list since spring cleaning ha ha). That's okay. Our house is sanitary and not very cluttered, which are the most important things.

A few plans for the rest of the week... oh, gosh, if I wasn't in this baby-visualizing dreamland bliss, I'd be stressing right now... we have ballet lessons beginning tomorrow for Caroline. She is so excited! She'll be in class with two friends and hopefully will catch up to what the others know, as this will be her first year taking dance lessons. Then on Wednesday, our church's PSR classes begin in the evening... 6:30-7:45 every Wednesday evening. We also have an OB appointment Wednesday morning and OT at noon that same day. We'll be having all these things repeat every week or two (except OB appointments!) for awhile... yikes, it will be busy on top of having a new baby!

A picture thought I am sharing... none for now, going to get to bed!

Nesting, Nesting...

2011-09-01T22:21:00.000-04:00

Fresh, clean, newborn diapers on the line!

I love the look of all the itty bitty cloth diapers out in the sun... Caroline and Cecilia helped me hang them up one morning earlier this week. Good fine motor work, those clothespins.

I have been getting into serious nesting mode in the past couple weeks... baby Lucy's 0-3 month clothes had all been sorted and washed and put away a couple months ago, but we hadn't done much otherwise. So I pulled all the cloth diapers out from under the bathroom sink, where they'd been stored in the cabinet there... I washed them all to freshen them up, trying something new in the wash - Bac-Out. It is a stain and odor eliminator, all-natural, and recommended by some for keeping diapers fresh, They smelled much fresher when they came out of the wash, so here's hoping it works well! I did dry them all in the dryer - high heat also helps eliminate germs - and then put them out in the sun for good measure. It freshens them up some more and gives them a good airing, and the sun also kills icky things like yeast and helps to fade stains.

All ready to make baby Lucy have a fluffy bum!

Here's the pile of diapers after I pulled them out of the cabinet before washing... while I was under there, I noticed some junk that had accumulated under the sink. Things like partially-used soaps, old knick-knacks, a mostly-empty, crusty bottle of Softsoap that my mom bought for me ten years ago when I first moved into the duplex... stuff that needed to go. So I cleaned that out while i was in there, just because.

Chris climbed up into the attic with Caroline to retrieve the bouncy seat... it had been wrapped in a large kitchen garbage bag, so it was still in good shape. I removed the fabric and put it through the washing machine. Now to get new batteries, because it plays music but does not vibrate currently... if the vibrate function is broken, hmm, I don't know if we need to do anything about that, since I don't think my previous babies have cared one way or another... they just didn't like bouncy seats much either way. But it is a nice handy place to set the baby when I need my hands free. The baby swing is still in the attic... we never got it out for Cecilia, so I don't know if we will this time or not... guess we'll wait and see.

There are also packs of newborn and size 1 disposables here for the early weeks and going out anywhere. I love the Target diapers (both for price and function), but I have never tried them on a newborn. I also got the huge crate of wipes since we have none left from Cecilia. They don't sell newborn and size 1 diapers in "family packs," apparently... I think it is hilarious that Target use to call the cases of diapers "family packs." Like you buy a package of size 3 diapers for use by several members of your family.... I think they changed the name recently to something like super pack...

Here's my beginnings of packing for the hospital. Ugh, I hate going to the hospital while in transition... not too comfy, you know? Maybe we can make it a bit before this time... doubtful, given the super-speedy labor I had last time. So, I packed several snacks like peanut butter crackers and orange juice, and now I have clothing added to the bag for baby and me. I got a new nightgown that unbuttons partway down the front for lots of good skin-to-skin contact. Hoping that if this baby is unsettled as Cecilia was in the hospital, I will have it in my brain to remember to just try some relaxed "kangaroo care" with her. I have a list of other things to add to the bag when the time comes: toiletries, shower shoes, maybe makeup in case I want to put it on before coming home, maybe?... and this time, I am taking a white noise machine so that any nutjobs walking down the hall whistling "Hail to the Chief" at 6am will hopefully be drowned out by the white noise. The hospital is the worst place to get any rest! Our hospital is working towards a more mother and baby-friendly atmosphere... they are combining the nurses so that the same one who checks on the mom also checks on the baby, meaning only one person coming into the room at disturbing hours instead of two. Unfortunately, I think that is not slated to begin until October or November... but they are working towards several changes there, like less time in the nursery for the baby (not that I let them do the "mandatory" nursery stay of four hours anyway, but good to know change is coming).

Here are baby Lucy's clothes in her "dresser" in her "room." This means they are in some available drawers in a piece of furniture in the guest room. ;) The little outfit in the bottom right corner and the one that is diagonally to the left and above it are packed in the bag now, and she will wear one of them home. It is hard to decide what to bring baby home in with this heat! Newborns need warmth, but I don't want to overdo it, you know? I wonder i she'll even get a chance to wear any of those cute little gowns... it might be too warm. I love how newborns look in those, all slug-like! But not slimy like an actual slug, of course. ;)

Baby booties and a headband... two new things for Lucy, since much of her stuff is hand-me-down. The booties should fit her well in the cooler months ahead, which is the age when my other girls were barefoot all the time since it was summer! I guess I will need some 3-6 month size socks!

And just for fun, here's a picture of how huge I am now. ;) I am retaining more water than I have in the past since it is summer, but I doubt that accounts for the extra 15+ pounds I have gained. I am also hoping there's not a 14 pound baby in there... if it was twins, I think we'd have noticed by now, right?!? So, I am trying to stay cool but also enjoy the last of summer activities... I have taken the girls to the fountains several times, and I just wear as little as I can and stay in the shade or wade in the cool water! The swelling in my ankles began a week or so ago, not unusual, but I also have it in my hands. i will wake up at night with my right hand asleep, and throughout the day it will tingle after I have done something like washing dishes, writing, or gripping anything for more than a minute. I have almost dropped bottles of dish soap, shampoo, etc., since my fingers don't flex so well right now. One of the OBs said it's carpal tunnel and will go away... yeah, it sure feels like what i would think carpal tunnel would feel like (and here I am typing on a laptop...). So, energy level is lower now, having trouble getting comfortable at night, achy feet and ankles which make me give up on doing the dishes partway through (and maybe not being able to reach the sink past my belly has something to do with that as well!)... all telling me that we are in the home stretch now. Yet I am feeling the urge to nest... tonight I cleaned out the baby bathtub and cleared off the "nature shelf" which was basically covered in broken leaves and dirt at this point... I made it into a shelf for chapter books for Caroline.

Chris is nesting, too, because I asked him to install the carseat. Caroline has moved to the back bench of the van, and Lucy's seat is next to Cecilia's. They look so... big. They are identical seats with different fabric, but both rear-facing, so it looks weird to have both those seats taking up all that room in the middle of the van! Amazing that the same seat will work for a 6 pound newborn... Cecilia is a bit over 30 pounds now! Anyway, the fabric we got for Lucy's seat happens to be girly, because it was a discontinued print and therefore the cheapest of the My Ride 65 seats. Caroline wasn't even jealous this time about the fact that she's the only one without a girly seat cover, but Cecilia had to rub it in a bit that Lucy also gets two cup holders in her seat (like that will be useful to her any time soon, ha!) while Caroline just has one. But Caroline now has access to the actual van cup holders and the A/C control in the back!

So, I am also brushing up on my Bradley childbirth education stuff... Chris and I are reading through our workbook before bed, and I am going through Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way when I have time. I am hoping to be able to focus on relaxing a bit more this time, but when you wake up ready to go to the hospital and then the drive and getting checked in with all the annoyances like signing paperwork... not really conducive to relaxing! I honestly don't know which I prefer... long labor but able to relax since you don't have to rush to go anywhere right away, or fast labor where you feel really out of control! I think I liked the long one a bit more just because I didn;t like the out-of-control feelings, as brief as it was!

And, the last thing I need to be doing with this nesting urge... resting! I should be wrapping up any of the nesting stuff and putting my time toward resting. Meaning I really should be getting in bed by 11 or maybe earlier as we get toward the big day! It is so hard to do when last-minute preparations are swirling in my head (and in my to-do lists in my notebook!)... I am also wanting to plan out as much school stuff as I can so that I don't have as much of that to think about with a new baby. Most things on my lists have been completed now, though, so everything is really coming together now! There are some meals in my deep freeze, stocked up on some snacks, postpartum supplies, pretty much deciding on not even getting the co-sleeper back and setting it up (although it is an excellent place for middle-of-the-night diaper changes!)... Just need to make sure I can find my sling and wrap and wash them if needed...

The Queenship of Mary

2011-08-30T21:44:00.004-04:00

Last week, we celebrated the feast day of the Queenship of Mary on August 22. It followed the Assumption of Mary by a week. The girls made these footprint/handprint Mary pictures as an arts and crafts activity. I saw the idea here at Catholic Icing and thought it would be great for this feast day and had been saving the idea. After stamping their foot and handprints, the girls used markers to draw in the details once the paint was dry. Then they used some stick-on sequins to decorate their work further.

Here's Cecilia working on hers.

For those who might be curious as to why Catholics consider Mary to be "Queen," here's a basic explanation: it is not because we worship her as we worship Christ the King, but rather because in the time of King David, the queen was always the king's mother. Giving Mary the title of "Queen" shows our respect for her important role in bringing Christ into the world as his mother.

We made a queen's crown cake the day before the feast day. Daddy was going out of town the next morning, so we wanted him to have at least one piece of the cake that night before he left! I made some cut-out cookies and then the girls decorated them with some Trader Joe's gummies as jewels... these would make the sides of the crown.

Here it is, all assembled! I made a basic chocolate cake and covered it with a buttery white frosting... mmm. Then I attached each cookie to surround the cake to form the crown.

In addition to these activities, this month we have been learning the hymn Hail Holy Queen Enthroned Above. We also prayed the fifth Glorious Mystery at our family evening prayer time, which is the Coronation of Mary.

The cake was enjoyed by all!

The stuff nightmares are made of...

2011-08-30T21:41:00.001-04:00

Oh, well, the nice old man tried his best to draw a smiley face upon request...

Noah's Ark

2011-08-30T21:18:00.003-04:00

We are studying Old Testament stories this year, as well as doing My First Timeline, which gives a very basic introduction to several historical figures and where they fit chronologically into history. It happened to work out perfectly that Noah was our story both in the Old Testament and on the timeline during the same week! We spent some extra time on these activities relating to the story of Noah and the flood:

Noah's Ark Snack

one tortilla, cut in half

melted butter

cinnamon sugar

graham crackers, one whole and one cut in half diagonally

animal crackers

I spread the tortilla halves with butter and then sprinkled on a bot of cinnamon and sugar. Then I put them in the oven for a few minutes to get them a little toasted. Next, the kids placed the graham crackers on top of the "boat" and then arranged some animal crackers (my favorite ones from Trader Joe's!!) however they wanted in their arks.

They used a few bunny crackers as well...

Then they ate them up!

Yummy and simple!

We also made a mural of Noah's ark using this Jan Brett resource. First, we did a watercolor wash on the background and let it dry.

Here's how it looked after the girls colored all the animal pairs and taped them to the mural!

We also read several books about Noah's Ark over the course of a couple weeks.

Trip to Nashville

2011-08-21T15:16:00.006-04:00

We took a trip to Nashville abut a week ago to visit Chris's family and celebrate some birthdays. First we stopped at Shelby Park, where both Chris and his parents had played as children. There is a railroad bridge there that goes over the river, and the girls were excited to get to see a train cross it!

on the boat ramp by the river

We visited Great granny, and she got out some old costume jewelry for the girls to play with!

How fancy!

Great Granny with Cecilia

The next day, we got to go swimming in Great Granny's neighborhood pool! It was such a nice morning, and being in the pool felt great to this pregnant lady! ;)

Gran and Cecilia

Caroline and her cousin

Caroline swimming underwater... she has gotten pretty good at this!

three cousins about to jump in together while Great Granny watches

one... two...

...three!

The funny thing was how they never could get their timing quite right... at least, not while I was taking a photo! This time, the girls jumped in ahead of their cousin...

...and here, he jumped in before Caroline! They were basically yanking each other into the water, whoever happened to jump first...

Cecilia had decided she was done with the jumping for now... she was very brave to jump in holding only her cousin's and sister's hands. Lately she would only jump to an adult while holding their hands. I think she's forgotten that she would jump into the pool alone, no hand-holding, when she was 18 months old!

They almost jumped at the same instant this time!

Caroline jumping in on her own

In the afternoon, we got to see more family... Chris's Uncle and Aunt along with Papa and Margaret came over for birthday cake! Caroline and Cecilia got them to play My Little Ponies!

Everybody played outside awhile...

Here is one of their favorite things to do outside: ride in the wagon behind the lawnmower. They pretend the lawnmower is a horse and they are riding in a carriage. They each got a turn to drive, too!

And believe it or not, this is not our last mini-vacation before the baby is born in three weeks... we'll be in Atlanta for one night in a few days, and then, we are done for awhile!!!

Celebrating the Feast Day of St. Clare

2011-08-17T22:25:00.004-04:00

Last week, the day before St. Clare's feast day, we had some friends over to do a craft and play! St. Clare of Assisi is known for starting a group of nuns called the Poor Clares after the model of St. Francis of Assisi. The monstrance is one of the symbols associated with her, because she held up a monstrance containing Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, and enemies who were invading the town turned and fled. So, we had some coloring sheets of St. Clare along with a monstrance craft.

I found this craft here at Catholic Icing and bought the supplies, thinking it would be an easy one for Cecilia to do at some point, and then I had the idea to use it as a craft that is associated with St. Clare.

This was easy for the three year olds to do... they just glued a gold paper doily onto another paper and then glued a white circle of cardstock (for the Eucharist) in the middle. Then they used stick-on jewels that I found in the craft store dollar bins to decorate all around their monstrances however they wished. I made the stands for the monstrance by drawing them on gold cardstock, and then the kids cut them out and glued them on first, so the doily was on top.

After doing the craft, I turned on the St. Clare Glory Stories CD for them to listen to... although my kids ignored it since they've heard it enough that they go around reciting parts of it...

Caroline and her friends wanted to make a pattern with their jewels.

For a snack, I decided to make something Polish for the feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe, whose feast day was coming up that weekend. Part of the reason for wanting to do this is that I am a quarter Polish myself! These are yummy Polish cookies called Kiffel... mostly butter so of course they are yummy! They are also filled with ground walnuts, so there is some redeeming health value in them. ;) I only made a quarter of the recipe but could see making the whole batch for Christmas treat-baking!

The three year olds eating their snack outside... I just thought this was such a cute photo of them!

Here are my girls with their finished monstrances... I forgot to get a photo of everyone with their finished work! Cecilia wanted to cut hers out... probably trying to get the most mileage out of the forbidden scissors, which she hadn't used since the unfortunate alterations she made to some dress-up clothes...

St. Clare, pray for us!

Bowling!

2011-08-15T22:05:00.004-04:00

We went bowling about a week ago as a Sunday afternoon family fun outing... it has been so hot that this was perfect! The girls got free bowling passes from the local library's summer reading program, so we used them as a way to beat the heat!

Cecilia could actually lift the ball somehow!

This ramp is neat... little kids can use it to roll the ball down if they can't actually roll it well themselves. Not sure that it leaves much of a point to the game, but Cecilia enjoyed it!

Caroline could roll the ball somewhat, but it is still a long way to the pins!

And a few more of Cecilia lugging the ball around...

To Baby Lucy

2011-08-14T22:12:00.001-04:00

Sweet Baby Lucy,

I feel you moving inside me. You squirm and push, and I wonder... is that a foot? Is it your tiny rear end poking into my ribs? Or could it be your arm? Are you head down now? At 36 weeks, I am sure it is getting tighter in there, and you have less room to kick but plenty of room for squirming. I can see your movements... you are getting so big! One night last week, your daddy fell asleep to the feeling of your squirming against his arm.

How blessed I am to feel you moving! It is the most special feeling in the world of which I know. Of any feeling experienced, this one is the most amazing. And it is fleeting... one day soon, I will be empty inside and no longer feeling your movements. Then, I will be feeling and seeing them on the outside, also amazing to behold. But there is something very different and sacred about the feeling of movement from the inside: I'm the only person in the world who will ever feel your movements in this way. Think about how amazing that is! And each push, shift, twitch, and jab makes me smile contentedly at the reminder of your presence within me.

I know you have to come out. And of course, I am eager to hold you in my arms! Still, there will be a bit of sadness as I miss the feeling of life within me. Will I ever feel it again? No mother can ever be totally sure if she will get to experience the miracle of life in this way again... it is up to God. Being in this season of life, the child-bearing years, I want to savor and embrace these movements, knowing that they will be gone from me far too quickly.

Sweet baby, enjoy your time here inside me. Enjoy the undisturbed space, the safety and security of being in such a controlled environment. You have warmth, you have food, you have what you need to finish growing, all regulated in a controlled way. Do you feel the occasional tightening, readying you for birth? Do you sense that something is going to change soon? If you could rationalize, would you want to leave that safe space at all? I can assure you that although the world is not as peaceful on the outside, I will do what I can for you to make your transition here as smooth as possible. I will do my best to give you warmth, food, comfort, love. Life will be different once you are no longer within me, but not terribly so. I will give you my presence and physical contact as long as you need it, and, although you wouldn't believe it now, one day you won't feel the need to be touching me constantly. You will grow so quickly! I want to feel your presence against me and savor it rather than wish it away. These feelings of your movement from within are only the beginning, and that knowledge will make it beautiful for me to have you here in my arms rather than in my womb.

Is it silly for me to wish I could always feel a baby's presence, moving inside me? Maybe so. But it is a feeling that brings such joy and contentedness. What a privilege and a blessing to be able to take part in the miracle of life in this way!

First Grade So Far

2011-08-03T09:52:00.000-04:00

We have started off our school year well here and are now in the third week! We hope to finish the fourth week before taking a little vacation to Tennessee next week.

Here are some of the things we are doing this year... in random order...

Once a week, we are reading one of the fables in our Aesop's Fables book. I read it aloud, and then Caroline narrates, or retells, the story to me while I type it. Then I print it, and she puts it into her fables book and illustrates it.

Here are two she has done so far: The Young Crab and his Mother and The Dog, the Cock, and the Fox. If you click on it to see the larger image, you might be able to read it...

We are also doing the same thing with Old Testament stories. I am reading one per week from a Catholic children's Bible, and Caroline retells it as I write it in her book. Then she works on copywork: a verse from the Bible story that is important or sums up the story well. This is glued into her book and she adds an illustration. So there are three components here: her narration, the Bible verse, and the drawing.

Here is her first page, The Story of Creation.

This is her page on Adam and Eve in Paradise. Again, I think you may be able to read them if you click the pictures to see them larger. Caroline really goes into detail in her Bible story narrations! She has far less detail when retelling an event that happened to her or explaining something we did as a science project or a trip we took. She narrates stories very accurately.

Here is Caroline's science book... we have titled it Rivers, Lakes, and Oceans. We are studying bodies of water and water in general this year. We took a trip to a nearby lake and observed the plants and animals there, and then Caroline made a scrapbook-style page of our visit:

She narrated the trip to me as I typed, and it is pasted into the book at the top. Then she put the photos in and wrote notes about them and what we saw at the lake. We plan to choose one water area to make several trips to over the year so we can observe changes in wildlife and plants as the seasons change.

This is Caroline's Liturgical Year Notebook. I showed it before in the post about our plans for first grade. Under the "saints" tab, we have added some copywork from a story we read about St. Christopher. Caroline also colored a picture of him (from Fenestrae Fidei) and narrated the story to me as I typed (and it is almost a whole page single-spaced, so I didn't take a photo of it)... it is on the front of the page with the story quote. Every week or two, we will read a different story that corresponds with the liturgical year, and we will add copywork and projects to this notebook. This is an ongoing project that will cover a few years, most likely.

For math, we have been using Math U See and so far, Caroline really likes it, and she understands the concepts very well. We made a poster of "decimal street" to practice learning place value and regrouping.

This is our timeline... only one event card up there when I took this photo, but now we have four, including one before this one which shows the universe and earth being created billions of years ago. It is a long piece of yarn across the top of the wall in our schoolroom, and as w read about each event or person, we add the picture to the timeline. It is a very basic introduction to history and gives an overview of where to place certain events in time. We also read a good children's book or three about each event if we have them available through our library. I envision taking the cards down and mixing them up at some points throughout the year and having Caroline re-order them.

And back to the Liturgical Year Notebook... I said this was in random order... Caroline painted a St. Benedict's Cross after we read The Holy Twins in July (which is when his feast day falls). She also copied a quote from the story, and we made these into a page for her notebook.

Here's a look at some Circle Time stuff... Caroline puts the date on the magnetic calendar and any saint magnets for the day, then she writes the date on the whiteboard easel. She also writes the time of the day and counts coins and writes that on the board as well. On this day, she counted two amounts and wrote them both, and then I gave her the directions to circle the amount that was less and draw a box around the greater amount. Under that are a few letters for Cecilia to name. Then there is a word given, and Caroline reads it, decides what the vowel pattern is, and writes as many other words as she can in the same word family. I have also put sentences on the board for very basic editing practice... they are missing beginning capitalization, or capitalization of proper names of people, and they are missing ending punctuation. I have also done some where she circles the correct verb use in a particular sentence. Also in Circle Time, we sing a different hymn each month (August is Hail, Holy Queen) and read a couple of poems daily from A Child's Garden of Verses and The Child on his Knees.

And back to water, and science... we did a puddle experiment this week. We poured water out to make a puddle in the shade and a puddle in direct sunlight. Then Caroline traced around the puddles and we observed them every 5-10 minutes to see what happened. She is going to make a page in her book with pictures and her retelling of what we did and saw.

This is something we will do here and there throughout the year called the Nature Logbook... the page was created by our homeschooling neighbors. We looked up information on mallard ducks since we saw them at the lake, and we filled out a page. Our notebook has sections for insects, mammals, birds, plants, and...

chickens! Yes, technically they should go in the "bird" section, but I figured we'd have many chances to observe them and gather information about them... experiment on them and such (kidding! ;). We are currently tracking their daily egg-laying with a bar graph. That blank day was one where we forgot to record the number of eggs... luckily, we have not had any one-egg or no-egg days! They are not at top-laying capacity right now, but they are still producing pretty well for this heat wave, I think! We finished this graph today and so I need to print out a new one for the next few weeks!

And on to social studies...
In addition to the basic timeline, we are doing something called Family Geography. So far, we have filled out a family tree going back to Caroline's great-grandparents and glued it into her book. Then we plotted where each person was born on a map for her book...

...and we also put stickers on the wall map to show everyone's birthplace. Next, we will look at old family photos showing the areas in which people were born or lived later in life, and we'll learn more about those places... things like climate, land features, location. We'll also try to include some regional recipes and fun stuff like that!

That is basically what we are doing for first grade... we do one Bible story a week, one fable a week, one timeline event a week, one day of family geography, one day of water study (as well as nature study at water environments)... math is daily, and copywork from the Bible verses and liturgical year stories is almost daily. We also do five minutes of the St. Joseph's First Communion catechism daily and will add in seasonal and liturgical year crafts here and there. So far, so good! I am feeling good about getting several weeks knocked out before the baby is born!

Wordless Wednesday - Panting Chickens

2011-08-03T00:34:00.000-04:00

The Feast of St. Anne

2011-08-02T22:36:00.003-04:00

Caroline's "nameday" saint, St. Anne, mother of Mary, calls for a special celebration... we celebrated this way last year as well, so I think it is becoming a tradition! St. Anne is typically pictured wearing red and green, and her feast day falls in the summer, so we have watermelon-themed refreshments!

Caroline helped me roll the cookies in frosting to make the green rind. And, while I hate to admit it, fancy all-natural food coloring just kinda stinks. I actually had to add a little of the nasty fake red stuff to make the cookies turn slightly pinkish! Maybe because it was whole wheat flour, thus already brown... regardless, the raw dough looked like raw hamburger meat. Sorry if anyone was trying to eat while reading that just now...

Anyway, they tasted great! I can't find the link and am too lazy to get up and find the paper onto which I printed the recipe, but they had honey in them instead of sugar. We also had our watermelon "smoothies," as the girls call them, which is watermelon lemonade with mint... refreshing in this heat!

Caroline also got a new St. Anne holy card, as usual. Next year, I think she will get a St. Anne medal and a chain to wear it on... shh, don't tell her! ;)

Reasons I Love Homeschooling

2011-08-02T15:43:00.004-04:00

The Flowers

by Robert Louis Stevenson

All the names I know from nurse:

Gardener's garters, shepherd's purse,

Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock,

and the Lady Hollyhock.

Fairy places, fairy things,

Fairy woods where the wild bee wings,

Tiny trees for tiny dames -

These must all be fairy names!

Tiny woods below whose boughs

Tiny fairies weave a house;

Tiny tree-tops, rose or thyme,

Where the braver fairies climb!

Fair are grown-up people's trees,

But the fairest woods are these;

Where, if I were not so tall,

I should live for good and all.

Each month, we are reading a poem from A Child's Garden of Verses. We read it daily, and by the end of the month, Caroline has it memorized. The Flowers was July's poem. When Caroline and Cecilia were playing outside yesterday, they took out their little toy fairies and ponies. I overheard Caroline reciting the poem as they played with the toys in the garden. Forming a relationship with the poetry, living what she is learning as it is woven into daily life... this is a truly living education and one of the reasons to love learning at home!

Random Bits

2011-08-01T21:59:00.000-04:00

So I guess it is time to be really concerned about the educational institutions in this area when my six year old is correcting signs posted in public bathrooms: "Employee's must wash hands," one said. Caroline asked me, pointing to the apostrophe, "Why is that there? They don't need it there, because the employee isn't owning anything." I told her that I didn't understand it, but it seems that many people think words ending in vowels have to have apostrophes when you are talking about more than one of them. Growing up with a last name ending with the letter i made this very apparent to me... and now that my last name begins with s, it is just as bad, but in a different way. I am destined for last name errors forever, ha ha.

You know, when I go to the gym, I just swim laps in the pool. I don't "work out" on the machines. So maybe I am clueless on this, but it seems like there is certain music that does not really lend itself to being work-out music. A while back I heard "Hotel California" as I walked past the exercise machines and thought, "Hmm, that'd be interesting to run the treadmill to, I suppose..." Today, I heard "Rooster" by Alice in Chains... can anyone actually, physically manage to work out to that song? It'd be like working out to Smashing Pumpkins, or Nirvana... or something really slow and peaceful, like James Taylor. I don't think it would be physically possible! Maybe Richard Simmons can do a "Sweatin' to the Depressing Alternative Music" video and prove me wrong...

Caroline was playing with our painted saints and was making them study their specific fields... she had the priests studying "priestogy," the nuns studying "nunnogy," and the mothers studying "mommogy." "You know, it's like geography, Mommy!" she said.

So I am getting to that point in pregnancy where everybody feels the need to comment on my size... I get the, "When are you due?" and "Getting close, now, huh?" comments now. I like to watch the somewhat horrified expression on the asker's face when I respond with a smile and, "Six more weeks!" Apparently they don't think six weeks is "getting close" at all! And, well, neither do I, really... sure, it feels like I must have more than one baby in there, but anyone who comments with, "Are you sure you're not having twins?" is just rude. Haven't gotten that comment yet this time...

I notice the baby image on my pregnancy ticker is now head-down. I think this little one is, too... she had hiccups for the first time, and they were down pretty low. My others had hiccups non-stop. This one has had them twice that I have noticed. Maybe that's good? I don't know...

I am making fig-filled granola bars as I type... okay, I am not really that good at multi-tasking; I already made them and they are in the oven. Our fig tree is going nuts, so I took some figs to a friend (several friends now, actually!), and she came up with this recipe based on a fruit-filled granola bar recipe. Smells great, and I hope it turns out well for me!

Speaking of baking, I am having a slight bit of nesting instinct, wanting to bake more and such, but I am also physically not too comfortable with back pain and sore feet, especially by the end of the day. My mom was going to buy me some really nice, comfortable, cushioned shoes... she has a SAS store right down the street from her house and bought herself some before she did a bunch of walking on a recent trip to Italy. Well, we got there, and they were closed. Boo. Sore feet to continue for me. I wore her pair all day at a conference last weekend, and I could definitely tell the difference. Then again, buying shoes during pregnancy may ensure that they are too big postpartum... aren't you not supposed to do that, like you're not supposed to get eye exams during pregnancy???

Maybe I have mentioned this before... Cecilia has nicknamed the baby "lump baby." Yes, she has a real name.. well, uh, almost, that is...

Anyway, on the slight nesting... I have a few lists I really need to tackle, too. I have a "before baby comes" list, a homeschool to-do list, a pack for the hospital list (that one's still in my head and not on paper)... and then the around-the-house stuff I'd like to get done (or The List Formerly Known as Spring Cleaning... oops).

Random Bits

2011-07-14T11:48:00.000-04:00

Does anybody else thin the new Ford Flex cars look like hearses? No offense if you own one; they look spacious and comfy, and I have a thing for station wagon-style cars... but they look like space-age hearses to me.

I was shopping for a maternity sundress a few weeks ago and found a great one for a great deal using a Groupon from Old Navy... I wanted something to just wear casually in this heat as I go through the final trimester of pregnancy! So once I bought it, I realized I needed a bra that would work with it - strapless or thinner straps or something along those lines. Luckily, I was right next to a Kohl's. Actually, I thought I was around the corner from a Kohl's so I drove around the building in the same large parking lot to go in... but when I left, I somehow came out right next to Old Navy. Apparently they have two entrances, and I chose the less convenient one, ha ha! Anyway, if you have ever shopped in the underwear/bra department in Kohl's, you may have noticed its square footage is larger than my whole house. Endless rows of bras. If you are male and still reading this, please feel free to skip past if you have little interest in bra-shopping. ;) What I noticed as I walked up and down the aisles is that 90some% of the bras were padded... not just a little bit, but the padding that makes the cups stick way out, perfectly rounded, so as you have to be careful when walking down the aisles lest you get too close and knock them off the racks as they protrude into your path. Apparently I am in the minority here on not liking these kinds of bras... I guess I don't like that they are too thick, too bulky-feeling, too much fabric (meaning too hot). I typically want a bra that I don't notice I am wearing a few minutes after I put it on. And, thankfully, I finally came across something new: bandini bras. They were made by a brand called Barely There. Yes, that sounded right up my alley - I want a bra that is barely there. If I could go without all the time, I probably would, so this is the next best thing in my opinion. They are also made in easy sizes: small, medium, large. And they came in a set of two! The straps can be up over the shoulders or pulled down to make it a strapless bra. You can even have one strap up and one strap down, although I can't see much practicality in that. So, I just thought I would review this product here in case there are any other people out there who like this kind of bra!

Cecilia went swimming and talked about rinsing off the "cholrine." Hee hee. She doesn't say "scrunscreen" any more... I think that was last summer.

We were given a huge load of girls' clothes by a neighbor who has two nieces who have outgrown the clothing... and wow, is it a lot of stuff! After sorting through and putting aside the almost half of it that is too small or otherwise not usable, there is still enough to fill almost three large loads in the washing machine! I am washing it and then will need to sort through and put it into boxes by this winter, next summer, next winter, and next summer! Looks like I won't need to do any big consignment sale shopping this fall, which is good, seeing as I might not really feel up to it in the last weeks of pregnancy or with a newborn!

School is off to a good start here, and we'll do our second day tomorrow. Next week we will do three days between dentist appointments and La Leche League, and then the girls and I head to Atlanta for a Leader Development Seminar for LLL. They can hang out with my parents while I go to all the technical classes and learn what I can. So, another busy week next week, and then maybe - hopefully - things will start to slow down into a better routine... for a little while, anyway.

We are doing some of the Holy Heroes summer adventure stuff... it is like an at-home Vacation Bible School program. Caroline really enjoyed VBS with our parish a couple weeks ago.

I was noticing that there are tons of old photos on my phone that I hadn't moved to my computer... so, I finally moved some of them and thought I'd share some in an edition of Random Bits - Random Sightings:

First we have a photo from our downtown fountains, which I have mentioned before as being extremely cool for a relatively small town. I need to take my real camera there to get some actual good photos sometime... but this one gives an idea of how the three "rivers" work: there is a shallow pool at the top of the photo, and the water flows out of it (between Cecilia's legs in this photo!) and down toward the bottom of the picture into a shallower pool... and then there are fountains beyond that, which lead down to a huge fountain in the middle.

Here is what Cecilia does while Caroline is at her occupational therapy sessions... she really enjoys the time to just sit and draw, or read, or play with whatever else we bring in to the waiting room. I have found that the front room is almost always less crowded and more pleasant, with more appropriate conversations going on! I love to watch her draw, though... she likes to color in all the space. In fact, I was coloring something in to use for school, and she pointed out to me the pinprick-sized spots where I hadn't filled it in all the way! ;-P

So, I think this was at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis... maybe? Like I said, some of these photos were taken months ago. Anyway, I guess this means that children under age 9 can go in alone?

One of our chickens caught this in the backyard... it is the third snake they have caught this spring/summer. Yuck! They go crazy when one catches a snake, all chasing each other and trying to be the one who gets it! Anyone know what kind it is?

Okay, so I saw this in the cake decorating area in a store... multicultural fondant. Why would somebody decorate a cake like this???? As a side note, I think fondant tastes gross. I know you don't have to eat it, but why ruin a perfectly good opportunity for lots of yummy frosting by putting this stuff on instead?

Hmm, maybe it's cinnamon rolls, or it could be something totally different... say, human waste smells, seeing as this sign was posted inside the bathroom! What were they thinking?????

As another side note, every time I walk into the locker room and bathroom in the gym where I go to swim laps, I think, "Mmm, it smells like Big Red gum!" Then I immediately think, "It should not smell like something edible in a public bathroom..." I think it is the air freshener that has that cinnamon smell.

And speaking of bathrooms, last photo... don't remember which bathroom this was; I visit them all often these days. ;) Maybe it was Wal-Mart... but I just wondered, if soap is in the left side, what is that in the right side?

Caroline's First Day of First Grade!

2011-07-08T22:59:00.009-04:00

Yes, we have started school again! Caroline told me, "Mommy, I'm glad we're doing school again!" :)

We have begun school this early so we can get a head start before Baby 3 is born in September. It will be a slow start, as we have several things happening here and there, especially things like OB appointments for me, every two weeks now! So, we began our day with Circle Time - new and improved since Kindergarten. We will learn new monthly hymns and do various money counting/comparing/exchanging, review and learn more counting patterns, and do a bit of language arts work on the easel each day. We'll continue doing calendar and saints of the day, along with some songs and rhymes for Cecilia.

Here is the official first day of school photo... we were all wearing white shirts today, and you will soon find out why if you keep reading this post!

New colored pencils for the first day of school... I debated ordering some really nice ones online... it is easy to want to do that when you see or hear about really nice art materials online... but practicality needs to win out more often. I think I'd rather have babies than expensive school supplies. :) So I got a pack of 50 Crayola colored pencils at Wal-Mart... they all just barely fit in this jar (which formerly held Trader Joe's almond butter).

Here is something else I have added to Circle Time this year: the pledge. I found this poster in my old school stuff - who knows where I got it; I used to teach 3rd and 4th graders and would have insulted their intelligence by posting this in my classroom!

For Cecilia, I am also doing this activity to teach about Jesus as the Good Shepherd and how we are like His sheep. I got this here from Catholic Icing and printed it off and assembled it... we will go through the Bible story once a week and Cecilia can re-enact it herself as well.

I gave Caroline an elementary spelling inventory since I have never assessed her spelling before. I thought it would be helpful to have and do one maybe each year for comparison. It is really interesting to see how the spelling patterns evolve...

Here is our schedule for this year... still somewhat tentative, but I think I like it mostly the way it is. We will try it out this way for awhile and see how it goes! You can see it larger by clicking on it.

Here's an ongoing project... we will add to it over the years. It is a liturgical year binder with several tabs... we can put projects, copywork, coloring sheets, narrations of saint stories, etc. in here. I got the idea from Catholic Mosaic - we will be reading several of the books on their booklist this year, I hope.

Here are the shelves in the schoolroom... the top shelf holds some of the books we will be using. The shelves below are the "work activity" shelves. Last year, I put an assortment of activities for the girls to choose from as a transition between breakfast and beginning the school day. That didn't seem to work out so well over the long haul, so I am trying something new this time: work trays. There will be just one or two items on each tray, changed each day. This way, there is no confusion over what is to be done! Caroline will also have her journal on her work tray twice a week along with a monthly list of topics from which to write about. Cecilia's tray is still optional at this point... she can use it if she is feeling like being included in "school," or she can do her own thing... either way, this is how I get the dishes done after breakfast each morning! I am also going to get her doing more water play and "helping" wash the dishes with me this year, I think.

Here's our new file crate, with a hanging file for each week. I have filed the Old Testament copywork verses for each week in here, along with the First Timeline images for each week. I also have a file for each month, and there are liturgical year coloring sheets, projects, and copywork from saint books filed there. Looking back, I think it might be overkill this year to have a file for each week... I had a file for each letter last year, which worked well. As more work is added (and more kids are "enrolled" in Hycliff Academy!), this will probably be a good system... not sure yet if I will be keeping each year's crate and then pulling them out in future years or combining all the kids' stuff into one crate for each year...

Here are most of our books for frequent use: my planning binder and the liturgical year binder, Caroline's math workbook, The Earth, our children's Bible, the First Timeline book, the First Communion Catechism, and Angel Food for Boys and Girls Volume 1, to be used alongside the catechism using this handy chart from Wildflowers and Marbles.

I found this Old Testament timeline to go along with our Old Testament studies... we will read a story from the children's Bible each week, and then Caroline will retell it and illustrate it. I also found this laminated map in my old school posters... we will use it for our family geography studies in which we will learn about the places where Caroline's grandparents and great-grandparents were born and grew up... this will be part of our social studies curriculum, along with the timeline.

Here's Caroline writing in her journal... her first entry ever was on the topic of the first day of school.

Here's Caroline illustrating the cover of her Old Testament book... she chose to draw Noah's ark on the front since she is already familiar with that Old Testament story.

Here's the finished cover. I love these books... they are blank with about 20 pages in each, and you can get them lined or unlined and in various sizes. I got them from Emmanuel Books.

And the first day of school happily coincided with Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A! For those who might be unfamiliar, I like to call this "Dress like a cow, get free food day." If you go in a complete cow costume, you get your whole meal free... chicken, fries, drink, and if you are lucky enough to have a Dwarf House Chick-fil-A, then you can sit down on the wait side and get a free salad, too! So the girls and I had made headbands with ears and a bunch of spots the day before, and I made each of us a tail by braiding yarn together. We also made "Eat Mor Chikin" signs like the cows wear.

Cecilia the cow

Caroline the cow, with a small cow... I think that one is "Cowie"

And they got to say hi to the big cow!! He came by our table a couple times and batted at the girls' balloons, shook their "hooves," and cradled their stuffed cows like babies. Cecilia used to be unsure of the big cow... when she first met him, she was about one and was a little disturbed... the thing is BIG! Today, she decided on the way home that she wanted to pretend to be the big cow... so I told her, "The big cow doesn't ever talk, does he? All he does is wave." So Cecilia then acknowledged everything anyone said to her by simply waving, which Caroline thought was hilarious. It was a fun way to end our first day of school!

I guess this post covered a lot of our curriculum for the year as well... any other families want to share what you are using for homeschooling this year? I got a lot of our ideas here from Mater Amabilis - they have each year's curriculum listed on their website.

Independence Day 2011

2011-07-08T14:40:00.005-04:00

Hope everyone had a happy Independence Day!! We had a cookout with family... fun and low-key. The fireworks got rained out... well, they did get set off, but late, after Chris and Caroline had given up because it was after 9:30. Maybe next year...

Cecilia helped make some red, white, and blue fruit kabobs using strawberries, blueberries, and mini marshmallows.

concentration

determination

and...

...success!

Caroline helped make a few of them as well!

We had appetizers first, around 1:00, and then had our big meal mid-afternoon: burgers and hotdogs, potato salad, and the fruit kabobs. I made the cheese ball appetizer above... first time ever making one from scratch, and I don't think I will ever buy one again! It was so easy: 2 packages of cream cheese, a half cup of diced black olives (mixed together and formed into a ball), and then rolled in 1/3 cup diced walnuts mixed with a tablespoon of dried parsley. So easy and tastes great with Trader Joe's multigrain entertainment crackers (even better than with Triscuit-sttyle crackers, the traditional cheese ball cracker)!

My mom brought salsa and Trader Joe's red, white, and blue corn chips!

We mostly hung out in the sunroom... too hot outside! And Uncle Tim didn't set off any fireworks this year... well, maybe that is a good thing because it means we didn't lose any bowls this year. ;)

I finally used the red, white, and blue ribbon that I'd had in a drawer for a couple years! Both the girls got pigtails to go with their red-white, and blue shirts!

Cecilia was being goofy with Grampa...

Caroline wanted to pose for pictures with Gramma...

...and Grampa. They wore red and blue, and Tim wore white - how patriotic, and probably unplanned! ;) Chris wore his Old Navy American flag shirt (from the year 2000, it says on the front!), and I wore... a green sundress. Hey, I'm pregnant and it is hot! ;)

Liturgical Year Summer Desserts!

2011-07-07T14:02:00.005-04:00

We have enjoyed making some cool summer treats in celebration of the liturgical year! We celebrated Trinity Sunday with these trinity sundaes... neapolitan ice cream (three flavors in one ice cream!) along with three topping choices (shredded coconut, almonds, and chocolate chips).

We served them in these fun cone-shaped dishes that I have had for years.

This one isn't a dessert... honey cornmeal muffins for St. John the Baptist's feast day. John was described as eating honey and locusts, so we had these honey muffins with our dinner (which did not consist of locusts!). In the original recipe, sesame oil is called for, but I subbed coconut oil. I also used more whole wheat flour than was called for... and even Cecilia, who is not a big bread-eater, loved them! We had them alongside a vegetarian Friday evening dinner.

But speaking of the locusts, we did have grasshopper parfaits for dessert! Apparently, the term "grasshopper" when used in desserts means something that is green and minty. They used to sell grasshopper cookies, I seem to recall, although I cannot remember what they looked like now and haven't seen them in ages! These are made with mint-flavored chocolate pudding, Andes mint baking bits, and whipped cream that has been tinted green.

Caroline colored a John the Baptist coloring page.

See, it's green... see??? ;) It actually has some green tint to it, but it was very light and didn't show up in the photos...

Next up we had a key lime pie on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. We also had beer-battered fish for dinner, since the early apostles were referred to as "fishers of men." The key lime pie was specifically for Peter, the first Pope, to whom Jesus told he would give the keys of Heaven in the Gospel of Matthew.

It was the first time I have ever made key lime pie... and technically, they weren't even key limes, because I couldn't find any at the two grocery stores where we shop... but the idea is still there. I topped it with fresh whipped cream - mmmmm!

For the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we had Sacred Heart Sundaes: strawberry ice cream (scooped out in a heart shape), with peach slices to represent the flames, and chocolate chips and sunflower seeds to make the crown of thorns which encircles the heart. Here is an image of the Sacred Heart for those who may not be familiar.

...and you can see how hot it is during June in Georgia as the ice cream begins to melt instantly...

One quick photo before it all melts away!!!

Hope everyone is having a fun-filled summer! We are about to begin our school year again, but we will still have to take some time to enjoy more summer treats and water-related activities over the next couple months... still haven't made it to the lake once yet!

End of the Alphabet Path Party

2011-06-26T21:40:00.005-04:00

...to an Alphabet Path Party!

We finished up the Alphabet Path for Kindergarten in early May, and at the end of Z week, we had a party to celebrate and to remember our trip down the path! Caroline recited some of her poems she has memorized throughout the year, and we prepared some celebratory snacks!

The girls helped to dip pretzel rods into melted white chocolate chips and then sprinkle them in pastel colors to make fairy wands! We did this the day before the party.

Licking the bowl was apparently the best part!

They helped me make frosting for our alphabet cupcakes... they were really a pumpkin cake recipe from the King Arthur whole grain baking cookbook, and topped with a ginger cream cheese frosting, they were scrumptious!

Here's our table, all set for the party! We had a parade of saints, a parade of flower fairies, and a parade of alphabet cupcakes! The girls helped to tear streamers for us to hang in the doorway, and we had left the streamers on the chairs from one of our garden parties a few weeks back.

I made little party favor bags for the girls with some items I found at the craft store in the dollar bins! Technically, this was a birthday party, since the last story of the Alphabet Path is about the main character, Michael, taking a bouquet of flowers (which he collected as he met the flower fairies) to his mother for her birthday. The flower fairies have a parade with him back to his house to surprise his mother. So this was like a role-playing of her birthday party.

The fairy wands

The alphabet cupcakes were done in some pretty floral cupcake liners that I also found at the craft store! I frosted a letter on each cupcake in pink or green frosting. U and V shared a cupcake, as did X and Y, so a batch of 24 cupcakes was just perfect!

The first 13 letters fit on our cupcake stand, and the rest spilled off to the side in a parade of cupcakes!

The girls opened up their party favor bags first...

They found fairy notecards, fairy stamps, and wooden fairy figurines to color. As you can see, they dressed up in fancy dress-up clothes for the party!

They wanted to color the fairies right away! I had also included some stick-on jewels they used to decorate them. I finished setting up the snacks while they worked.

Here are some of the saints and fairies on parade... I made them face both directions so that everyone at the table could see some of them. I had been painting the saints all along throughout the year, and the fairies were made like this: I found the images online and pasted them into a document. Then I printed them in high quality on cardstock, cut them out, and attached them to toothpicks. I stuck each toothpick in half of a cork so they would stand up. i knew that all those corks I gathered from my parents' house would come in handy for something! ;)

an aerial view

Here is Caroline's wooden fairy figurine... the stick-on jewels made for a nice touch!

And then it was time to eat!!!

Yum! We also had apple juice mixed with a bit of Sierra Mist to make a "punch" and some red grapes.

Cecilia chooses a fairy wand

This was such a fun way to wrap up the year, and the Alphabet Path itself was a fun and gentle way to ease into homeschooling in this first year. I will be saving all these ideas so that Cecilia can walk the path when she is in Kindergarten, and again for baby #3! Caroline learned to work so well this first year, and her drawing and letter formation improved alongside her fine motor skills. And having taught herself to read right before we even started the Alphabet Path, I'd say she is well on her way to first grade!!

Z is for St. Zita and Zinnia Fairy!

2011-06-24T21:26:00.004-04:00

Z was our final week of the Alphabet Path - and I am finally getting around to posting photos, which means next, I will be able to post photos of our End of the Alphabet Path Party!!!

Above are out themes from the week, all of which went into the word box, as usual.

Our Y poems for the week from An Alphabet of Catholic Saints and God's Alphabet.

~Foods for Z Week~

We had zucchini and eggplant Casserole and baked ziti (which was really penne - shhh, don't tell!;)

~Circle Time~

Songs and Rhymes

Zippety-do-da

Mama's Taking us to the Zoo Tomorrow

We also read a lot of different alphabet books, and we read books about the zoo this week. We considered going to the zoo... but the zoos are all so far away, and it was so hot this week!

~Letter Formation~

Playdough Z

writing Z's in cornmeal

Cut and Paste Z Collage

We continued doing Punch Out the Letter each week, but I didn't get photos of most of the letters towards the end of the alphabet!

~Flower Fairy for Letter Z: Zinnia~

Caroline's Zinnia flower fairy page from the Flower Fairies coloring book

~Saint for Letter X: St. Zita~

our painted St. Zita

Caroline does her St. Zita copywork

Finished X copywork from An Alphabet of Catholic Saints and illustration

~Picture Study: Z is for Zigzag~

Caroline drew her own version of Yatsuhashi (The Bridge of Eight Parts) in Mikawa by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. The bridge is certainly an example of a zigzag!

~ABC Virtue of the Week: Zeal~

My drawing for zeal shows a boy reading the Bible and having other various Catholic resources next to him on the bench, and he is thinking about how this is preparing him for his First Holy Communion. I decided that zeal is a hard virtue to illustrate, particularly for a child! I could have drawn a missionary, but that would have been an adult... so this was the best i could come up with!

I was asked if I could make these drawing available, so I have uploaded them to Google Docs. I also discovered that the originals which I had been using (and had run out at letter O) have actually been updated, and P-T can be found here. My drawings, P-Z (excluding X), can be found here:

U is for Understanding

And more on zeal...

Caroline's copywork from God's Alphabet - the last poem in the book!

~Movement Activity~

Z is for zigzag!! I taped this pathway on the floor and the girls followed it by traveling in different ways and at different speeds.

Hope to post our end of the year party pictures soon! Also, we did make zucchini bread for our Z cooking project, and if I can find those photos I will add them later!

Happy Pentecost!

2011-06-13T21:45:00.006-04:00

AS we have done in years past, we hung up our doves above the dining room table. The dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, which came to the apostles at Pentecost!

The girls made a windsock this year... red is the liturgical color, so the body of windsock is red. The streamers are yellow with orange tips, symbolizing the tongues of fire which came to rest above the heads of the apostles and Mary. We used the flames shared at Shower of Roses - thanks, Jessica!

Caroline cut out the flames, which had the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit printed on them. Cecilia drew a picture on the windsock... you can sort of see that she drew Mary in blue and a huge dove (on top of Mary) in white.

Caroline also drew this picture. She and Cecilia were pretending to be the apostle John and Mary. They even cut out "tongues of fire" from orange paper and taped them to their foreheads! :)

~Breakfast~

Pentecost is also known as "Whitsunday," meaning "white Sunday." So I made a special white drink, homemade vanilla steamers... like Starbucks sells for a few bucks apiece, but easily made at home! I also considered making white hot chocolate... mmm, the Paula Dean recipe I found for that was made with four cups of heavy cream (as I expected it would be ;)!

The girls drank them out of our white china teacups!

~Dinner~

Our centerpieces: a red candle with yellow dove shapes on it (made from a beeswax candle kit), a few Holy Spirit holy cards, and our paschal candle, lit for the last day of the Easter Season! I suppose we will bring it back out to light when we celebrate Baby 3's baptism, since the paschal candle at church will be lit then in order to light the baptismal candles.

We set the table with our red tablecloth.

Our salad had bell pepper "tongues of fire" in it!

We also had a 12 fruit salad, to represent the 12 fruits of the Holy Spirit. I think there were actually only 10 or 11 fruits... shh, don't tell! ;)

Our doves, soaring above the celebration

I gave the girls tiny red pinwheels to blow... on Pentecost, there was a sound of a mighty rushing wind (which is the reason for the windsock as well).

Here are our cupcakes... we have done this for three years now, and I don't think Caroline would stand for anything different, as it has become a favorite tradition! I first saw this idea on By Sun and Candlelight... the 13 cupcakes represent Mary and the 12 apostles (Mary being the one with blue sprinkles!). The lit candles on each cupcake represent the tongues of fire above each one. They also remind us that Pentecost is a birthday - the birthday of the Church!

So, we sing "Happy Birthday" to the Church...

...and blow out the candles!

These were chocolate chip cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting... yum! They are a recipe in the Deceptively Delicious cookbook - made with pureed yellow squash and pumpkin! Cecilia actually eats most of the cupcake and not just the frosting off th top of these, ha ha!

We finished our Garden of the Good Shepherd Easter calendar! We passed on the Garden Party this week since we were already having our Pentecost celebration. The girls enjoyed the Easter season and will be sad to go back to Ordinary Time, but it will be a nice change for everyone!