Memorial daybook

Outside My Window::

::dark. humid.

I am Listening to::

::11:00 news...weather.

I am wearing ::

::jammie tee shirt- Gotta eat, breath, sleep Irish dance

I am Thankful For::

::air conditioning!

I am Pondering::

::If I would've never married Dan, I would've never met his cousin. :)

I am Reading::

::Hmmm...got a lot of good reads from the homeschool conference. Haven't started them yet!

From the Kitchen::

::lots of dirty dishes. Need to get back in the saddle again.

I am Thinking::

::a lot about last Friday.

I am Creating::

::

On my iPod::

Towards a Real Education::

::scheduled an assessment for Rose. Have to gather her info from the year.

Towards Rhythm and Beauty::

::Falling into a bit of a rhythm of going about with Blaise and the kids. I'm not so afraid of it. I like going out in the evening with Blaise, or running a quick errand without him. He's started waking up at 6:30am. That means he takes about three naps a day. It's a very familiar rhythm. Having a baby. Lazily trying to wake up and do something in the morning when baby is content lying there talking to the kids (or the ceiling fan). Or just holding him all morning, then kicking it in high gear and working like mad when he takes his long nap. And begging the kids not to wake him up! Or just being lazy with him all morning, and afternoon, and slugging along not sure what I'm supposed to be doing that day, and when I settle on doing something, I can't because he's awake and if I put him down he'll cry. So I just hold him. And when he falls asleep, I wander around, not remembering it was that I had to do earlier when I couldn't because I was holding the baby! I know it sounds nuts, but that is our rhythm. Good days, bad days, really efficient, smooth, fulfilling days, really lazy, sluggish, can't-seem-to-get-one-thing-done days, happy days of getting just one thing done. We have them all.

To Live the Liturgy::

::a lovely may crowning after Mass today. A bit mixed up more than I would've liked, but I loved singing the Marian hymns, and praying a litany to the BVM!

::may crowning with pray and play last week was just lovely. We had 20+ kids in the front yard to pray the rosary and then crown our statue out front.

I am Hoping and Praying::

::for my sister and her family.

In the Garden::

::Lots of dry plants! Lots of weeds...almost too many. I pulled all the radishes and planted peppers and tomatoes. I weeded the herb garden a while ago and it's great. The front flowerbed is so lovely.

Around the House::

::well, lots of mess. One of those weeks. Half done laundry. Some garage sale stuff needing a home. Lots of dishes.

On Keeping Home::

::Ha! See above. i think I have my work cut out for me tomorrow. Oh, I guess I shouldn't beat myself up so much. The mess is because we spent the whole day Sat. cleaning out the garage. It looks soo great!

One of My Favorite Things::

::my sweet little blaisy.

Blaise this week::

::He chews, chews on those fingers. It's really cute to watch. Talking a lot more. He'll even kinda purse his lips to say 'ooo'.

A Few Plans for the Rest of the Week::

::Hmmm...half off thrift store finds tomorrow? Lots of housework. Blogging? Our LLL fundraiser. Corpus Christi procession. Lots.

A Picture Thought I'm sharing::

Can I just blog all afternoon????

I had rosary pray and play over my house this morning. Soooo nice. We sat in the shade of our big oak tree in the front yard, and prayed. We sang Immaculate Mary and Hail Holy Queen as we crowned the Blessed Mother statue in the front yard. It was so beautiful. I just love that group. I'm sure we were a great witness to the passing cars and neighbors!

Oh, so much going on. Life just keeps going! I feel like I haven't had a breather from DD's birthday, and that was two weeks ago! Birthdays, and the homeschool conference, and may crowning this Sunday. May is always busy.

Saturday was Sam's birthday. I was talking to Lorraine and I didn't know she called that day.

Lorraine: "Hi Sam! Happy Birthday!!"

Sam: "Happy.....birthday....thank.....you."

Lorraine: "How old are you???"

Sam: "seven."

I was at the homeschool conference all day Saturday. I didn't get home till a little after five. I thought we were going to dash out and go bowling, or golfing, or something. I was tired, emotional, and cranky (coffee withdrawal? or too much?) Anyway, Dan and I just couldn't get it together, so we just ate dinner and put the kids to bed.

Sunday was so much better. I woke up early, and we were early for Mass. I think that's a guaranteed way for me to have a great day. We went to the Lego store and Bass Pro Shops, both near Cincinnati. I had a good book from the conference, so I was good to go. Although I love long drives with Dan anyway. The kids liked the Lego store, and they each got to build their own little man to keep. It was hard tearing Sam away from the store when it was time to leave.

This is starting to sound like an unfeeling journal entry. I took a brief nap this afternoon, after beginning this, and now I don't want to complete it. I had all three of my kids birthdays pass, and I wanted to write about them. More about the conference and the book I read. More, always more to do, be it work or play, chores or fun. Life is so full right now. With summer coming up, I feel it's just going to be...more.

You mean I can actually blog tonight!?!?

I have an unfinished daybook on file, so I haven't ignored this completely.

Sitting here with my lovely Blaise on my lap. We'll see how long this lasts!

Whew! What a spring. It's flying.

I don't even know if I should catch up. Easter: Hmm...Mass was lovely. The kiddos looked great. I did NOT host Easter, although it crossed my mind. We went to Lorraine's for a bit, then over to Dan's folk's. A really busy day. Tiring. But beautiful.

OH, the great krust cook-off on Holy Saturday was the best! I did host that, kind of at the prompting of my two sisters. They came over with their kids. We started at about 9am. For some reason, I was amazingly prepared to start at that time. So my sister and brother came with their kids. We started the mixing, then the rolling, then the cutting, then the frying. Over and over again. When all was said and done, we did TEN batches of cookies, all by 2pm! We never did that many in that short of time. My nieces and nephew are really getting good at this! It was great fun.

Moving right along...

I took a week off after Easter. Ha! Just kidding. I was changing over Spring clothes and still trying to stay afloat from daily mother/wife things. Then we started planning for Dominic's 5th birthday party. We were having parties every year for Rose- even if it was just family (which is a lot). So we had to scale back and we're trying out having a party at 5 and 10. So this year was DD's turn.

Oh what it turned into. I guess I knew I had to start planning it right after Easter. I think it took us that week to figure out a theme.

GI DD's army party was born.

Long story short- it was a bit of work. Lots of creative fun. Lots of happy little boys. I guess it was hard having to do like all of our Spring cleaning in those weeks, and do things for the party.

Only downside was the weather. We had to have the party outside for the number of guests we had. We were going to postpone if it rained. They called for cloudy, but no rain. We saw a few raindrops. And was it ever cloudy. But the worst was the low fifties temperature....when it had been in the eighties several days previous!!! Urgh! We made a bonfire and wore jackets. The pictures show a lot.

Uniforms for GI's on the left, medics on the right (the girls were the medics/nurses)

The medic tent.

"Chin up! Chest out!"

Issuing uniforms.

For boot camp they had to army crawl...

roll down the hill....

and then climb,

over the wall...

to be issued their firearms (rubber band guns).

They practiced on the target (seen in the background of the rolling down the hill picture). Then they turned on each other! And had a blast. The nurses were getting kinda bored,

but after a while, the soldiers thought it great fun to be wounded and get carried to the tent.

After dinner, we had cake,

and presents

more than he's ever gotten in his life

He really enjoyed acting so goofy.

And finally, after going on a mission for enemy recognizance,

they were rewarded for their hard work.