Good Boy!

For once in his life, Jasper was actually helpful!

I needed to aerate the ground a little bit near where I plan to plant some veggies tomorrow, so I grabbed a shovel while I was outside with Jasper. To my amazement, Jasper made my chore at least ten times easier. I would just point the shovel at the spot I wanted dug up, and Jasper was more than willing to oblige. I felt like Timmy with Lassie!

Anything more refined, such as weeding - or any activity, really, that doesn't require the whole area to just be tossed joyfully in the air, would be out of his range. However, if you need some land dug up, this dog's for hire!

I am tired and weary and, dude, I just can't make myself care about it

Abbie and I had some issues when it was time to get dressed this morning. Today was the only day I have to go food shopping in preparation for Beth's First Communion, and we needed to get a move on.

The first pair of pants caused an outpouring of tears because, "the button was plumpy."
On shirt was rejected because it was "too sleevish, and too greenish."

This is what we finally settled on. Sometimes it's better to just count your blessings, and just be grateful to get the kid fully dressed.

You have got to be kidding me....

This is what I get with the fifth kid? When we are all exhausted and broken down from the other four? Lord, have mercy.



(In case you can't tell, what Lucy has done here is climbed up onto the sink, perched precariously on the edge, and ransacked the medicine cabinet in search on.... cough drops. I didn't even know there were cough drops in there, how did she???)

It is incredibly fun to have a nephew

Happy Birthday Gabe! Could this kid be any cuter???

New Template

I decided to change things around, just a little bit.

Chris isn't here, Lucy is sick and I've been stuck here on the couch (cuddling poor Lucy) all day, in case you're wondering why I've posted ten times more today than I have all year.

Abbie, inventor of the today's most creative, and bizarre, heresies

So this happened during Lent, but I am just now getting around to telling you. It's worth the wait.

Abbie was in the kitchen, eating her second breakfast. (Abbie and Lucy think they are hobbits.)

The day previous, we had discussed Good Friday - what happened to Jesus, and what we would be doing in church on that day. I guess she had enough time to marinate the knowledge because she suddenly turned to me and said, "People wonder why Jesus is on that cross."

I said, "Some people might."

"Yeah," she continued, "So they can just ask Jesus, 'Hey! Why are you up there on that cross?' And he tells them, 'Well, this is where I died, so now I'm stuck up here.' "

This morning....

Chris went to work.

Eight months ago, he was laid off after the company he worked for lost their financing.

Has it really been 8 months? Whoa.

Last September, I thought that when he found a new job we would have a big celebration: a fancy dinner, or at the very least popping open that one bottle of expensive wine we bought to see what all the hype is. The thing now, though, is that the road to this job has progressed much like a slug going across a sidewalk. You think it's moving along because you can see a trail of slime, but it's hard tell for sure. The company Chris is now working for has been in talks with him since the very beginning, eight months ago. At one point, it was looking almost certain that they would offer Chris something......in Maine. Which would have meant at least a year of living apart.

But now here we are, finally. He has a job! And we don't have to move! But the road here has been so long and stressful that we just don't have the energy to celebrate.

The fact remains, however, that we made it through. So although we feel a little battered and bruised, I still have to look out the window at all the budding flowers and those awesome trees and join them in a little prayer of thanks.

God is good. Not because He's brought us to an end of this particular trial, but because He brought us through it.

My soul, find peace in God alone,

for he gives me strength to endure.

It is he who is my God and my safeguard,

my stronghold: I shall never be shaken.

Prayer Request

During Abbie's brain-tumor ordeal, I really, truly felt that all the prayers said in our behalf were what kept us going. Well, now I am hoping to harness some of that same power for a lady I have known... forever? At least since I was pretty young. Her name is Patty and she is just one of those people who are super-cool: gorgeous, funny, warm-hearted and just plain interesting. And she's just received some very bad news. Here's the request that I have sent out through email and through one of my favorite blogs:

A longtime friend of my mom's, Patty G., has just been diagnosed with stage IV cancer in her lungs. It has spread to other parts of her body as well, but I'm not clear on the details.

Some years ago, Patty and her husband adopted a little boy who had come into their lives and was in need of stability and love. They were, I believe, already in their 60s at the time (or close to) but they fell in love with this little boy and couldn't turn their backs on him. The boy is now only 11, and Patty means the world to him. Please pray for healing, and that this family can be showered with grace. Thanks!

You know you're officially old when....

Getting carded just amuses you instead of making you angry.

Yeah, I still get carded from time to time, but it doesn't go to my head because I know full well that "young looking" does not equal "good looking." Heh.

So, Rach, the next time you harass me about dying the grey streak in my hair remember this. It's funny when I'm by myself, but to walk into a place with five kids, all calling me "Mommy" and have the people there think I might be under 21? Not so funny.

It's good to be two

Lucy just had her 2nd birthday. It was pretty low-key, mostly because we've learned from experience that action-packed days are not conducive to happy toddlers.

I've got to say, though, that I think Lucy's birthday was calibrated just right. I don't think she ever really got what this birthday thing was about (sometimes she'd jump and twirl and sing out, "It's my birthday!" and sometimes she would burst into tears if anyone mentioned the b-word and yell, "No birthday!") But she fully enjoyed all the attention and pampering lavished on her by her sisters, and just generally had a great day. What really made the day for her, though, was Dora.

Yeah, Dora the Explorer.

Let me first explain that this kid is obsessed with Dora. We've had some Dora-focused kids before (notably Claire, the sister Lucy seems to parallel the most) but Lucy takes it to a whole new level. She wakes up asking for Boots, she has watched our Dora Christmas Special DVD more times than any of us can stand: in short, the only 30 minutes that I can count on for peace with this kid is when Dora makes her morning appearance on the t.v. She could care less about almost every other show, but she really loves Dora.

So. We took the kids to a big park for the afternoon. It was a nice day, miraculously not too packed with kids, and we all had a good time. The last 20 minutes before we left were pure heaven for Lucy, though.

At first we didn't get what was going on. I didn't see it begin: what I know comes from Chris. He said that he couldn't tell what Lucy was saying, but he saw her babbling intently at some little girl, and then he heard her say, "Dora?"

And then he almost choked when he realized. This little girl was Hispanic. With dark brown hair. And big, shiny eyes. And a huge, bright smile. Wearing a solid pink shirt. And blue shorts.

The kid had no idea what Lucy was saying, but she seemed to get a kick out of this little baby who clearly thought the world of her. So she just smiled a big, cartoony smile as Lucy asked her, "Dora?" And the little girl said brightly, "Okay! Hi!" and then ran off.

Chris said that Lucy's face was just glowing. She took off after the little girl with all the speed she could muster, and for the remainder of our stay she was completely focused on this kid. The little girl was very sweet - she noticed that Lucy had taken a shine to her and so she would stop playing occasionally to peek out at Lucy, and giggle at her.

Lucy was truly in heaven. As far as she is concerned, Dora the Explorer materialized out of thin air specifically to play with her on her birthday. We couldn't have possibly planned anything more perfect. I came upon the scene in time to see Lucy chattering delightedly as the little girl stopped to tie her shoes. When Claire tried to join her little chat, she pushed her away and said, "My Dora!"* The anonymous little girl just laughed again and smiled at Lucy.

So, Happy Birthday Lucy! How lucky for us that it was so easy to make all your dreams come true!

(The picture at the top is my furtive attempt at getting a picture of the anonymous girl. She's the one on the swings in the pink shirt. It's not a clear shot, but it's the only one I took, seeing as it's kind of frowned upon to take pictures of random kids at the park. But I wanted to try, because this is one of those things that you just know will be a family legend. Chris has already sworn that he will most likely spend his deathbed moments remembering Lucy's face when the girl said, "Okay!")

*Yeah, okay, it doesn't say great things about Lucy that she reacted to meeting her hero by shoving everyone else away. I know, I know. We're working on toning down her, um, forceful personality. I promise.

Easter

I hope that everybody had a good Easter this year! We spent a great day hanging out with the Lobers, something we haven't done in almost forever, and of course ate lots and lots of sweets to make up for lost time.

Here are just a few pics. Katie claims that it was way too easy to find her basket this year. I hope she's ready, because the Easter Bunny takes challenges like that seriously. Very seriously.

Lucy on her birthday

Um, she doesn't exactly like posing for pictures, so this is the best I could do.

Say what?

I was mixing up dough in my stand mixer this morning when Abbie came into the kitchen and said, "It sounds like a bunch of girls being attacked by frogs in here."

Apocolypse???

We had a crazy hail storm this evening! It had been a gorgeous day: the girls spent most of the afternoon running around outside and enjoying the sunshine. Imagine our surprise when shortly after dinner the sun suddenly darkened and the sky quite literally opened up.

It sounded like we were being attacked by gumballs. I've never seen anything like it. One minute the weather was clear and the next minute we could barely see out the windows due to all the hail. We had to crate Jasper because I was afraid that he was going to crash out the window, he was that frantic.

So anyway, here are the pictures. Remember that for most of today it's been around 70 degrees! The storm lasted for maybe five minutes, and at the end of it our yard was white. I was about ready to break out the blessed candles! (3 Days of Darkness paranoia, anyone?)

Yeah for me!

A friend of mine just had a baby (and by just, I mean the baby was born in February and I just now remembered to take her a meal) so I decided to try out a neat little trick with cupcakes that another friend recently showed me, and take the family the results.

I took a cake decorating class last month and I really loved it. The problem is that practice makes perfect but there are only so many cakes one can make, especially when one has given up desserts for Lent. So my skills are not exactly at the pro-level, but I have to say that I'm proud of what I made today. Here it is, a cupcake bouquet:


My results did not look as good as my friends, but I think the family I gave them to liked it. Really, though, my main goal is mostly just to impress the girls and I think I've got that locked up.

I love my Mom! (Despite potential evidence to the contrary...)

I am, without (much) shame going to lay the blame on the five parasites...er, children, for whom I've shed every last remaining cell in my brain.

What happened? Well, in a nutshell, this: I met my mom, my aunt, and my Arizona cousin Katie in Gettysburg for the afternoon. Katie is a professed history geek and is spending a few days enjoying a stroll through the Civil War, and since she makes a wonderful (and cheap) tour guide, my mom and aunt and I met up with her to take advantage.

So I spent almost the entire day with my mom yesterday. It was a great day, it was great to see my cousin again, the museum in Gettysburg is way better than it was the last time I went, and I enjoyed spending time with my mom and my aunt. For the record, I knew without a doubt that my mom's birthday was coming up: I had prepared a cake for her, and I told all the girls to make her cards. I knew her birthday was the 16th, I knew it was right around St. Patrick's Day.........I just didn't realize that all these things had coalesced at that very moment.

Uh, in other words, I forgot that yesterday was my mom's birthday. You know, the woman who is responsible for my existence and all.

Yeah...

So, Happy Birthday Mom! I hope the cake still counts even though I made it thinking that I was - for once - ahead of the curve. I love you very much! And I hope nobody holds it against you that you have such a very stupid daughter.

A question for Cesar...

How is it that the dog who does this:

And this:

Can also sit in the kitchen for half an hour doing this:

Mr. Mom

I volunteered at the girls' school this afternoon, and when we returned home I could tell that something was up.

The hallway floor was covered in flecks of styrofoam.
The loaf of bread that had been uneaten when I left this afternoon was now just a chunk, laying half-flattened on the stovetop. I could see teeth marks all over the crust.
My bed was covered in both styrofoam flecks and bread crumbs. The kicker was when I saw that Lucy was wearing summer pajamas. As she tried to plunge a toilet.

Chris, it seemed, had quite a busy afternoon. I've had times like this myself, but even though I totally sympathized, it couldn't stop me from doing something unforgivable. As Chris began to explain the time line of destruction, I giggled. Then I gathered all my powers of control and listened compassionately.

Until I giggled again.

I couldn't help it! He described the mayhem :Lucy demanded snack after snack for the first 30 min, then she toppled off of the kitchen chair forcing Chris to lunge and save her. Then she had a horrific and messy dirty diaper. He needed a breather, so he let her take half a piece of bread into our bedroom (a big no-no for me ) only to discover after 20 min that she had helped herself to the entire loaf and shredded it all over our bedroom. She had also gone into our closet and found a picture frame wrapped in Styrofoam peanuts, which she happily tore into less manageable pieces and flung around. Chris' twenty minutes of peace came at a high price. So he spent the next twenty minutes vacuuming up, because - as he stated it, "Even I didn't feel right letting you come home to that." After calming Lucy down and getting her settled in front of our bedroom tv, he foolishly returned to his videogame in the basement. Naturally, Lucy then went into the kitchen, crawled up on the table and dumped a few cups of milk onto the floor (as well as herself.) How the plunger worked into any of this is anybody's guess.

I kissed Chris, gave him a hug, and agreed that he had a terrible afternoon, one that would have left me in tears.

And then I laughed and laughed.

Light of my eyes

Things have been kind of bumpy around here for a while. For a variety of reasons that I'm going to keep vague we have been very stressed, this week in particular. Sometimes, though, a little chink of light will cut through, and sometimes a little chink is all you need.

After school today, Claire sat in the kitchen and read Hop on Pop to me while I made dinner. On her own. I had to give her little prompts now and then, but that kid sat on her stool and read the entire thing out loud (and for a first "real" book, it's pretty darn long!) I was so proud of her I almost cried.

Claire has struggled more in learning to read than the older two girls did. She doesn't memorize well, so her sight words have been a chore and some days it seemed like letter sounds were never going to stick in that little brain. She was so determined, though. She set her shining blue eyes on this goal - wanting to be a big girl, wanting to read like her sisters, wanting to make us proud - and now here she is, a book propped on her lap and victory in her hands.

I love this kid! And I am so proud of her! Little Larry. That's what she'll always be to me. But just watch how she grows.

sorry for the long silence (again)

Life is good, life is good, life is good. But sometimes it's stressful, too.

I'll update more when my head stops spinning.