Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Sometimes a blog post hits you at 5:30 in the morning, and the only thing you can do is drag yourself out of the comfy bed and go with it. Facebook gets a bad rap (or is it wrap?), and believe me as a mom of two teenagers, I know you have to be vigilant about it. I, however, am a facebook fan, if facebook were a page, I'd "like" it. I think there is nothing like it when it comes to keeping in touch, and aren't relationships what life is all about anyway?! Currently I have dozens of facebook friends in need of prayers. I'm doing my best to hold up my end of the bargain and keep them all in my prayers and close to my heart. There's my lifelong friend whose sister-in-law passed away suddenly. A college friend whose 12 year old son is recovering from what sounds like a bad accident. A local friend whose baby nephew is in the hospital in desperate need of prayers. An elementary school friend whose mother is fighting for her life. In most of these cases, I don't even know the whole story, but God does, and I can pray. Through facebook this morning, I found out that one of my father's old bosses just passed away. I'll always remember him as the man relatives made me invite to my parents' surprise 25th anniversary party. Without facebook, I wouldn't know a lot of these things (and the rest I probably wouldn't have found out about until way after the fact). Without knowing, I wouldn't be praying. Twitter is another one. I don't know much about twitter, I don't tweet, but Mike (who doesn't tweet either) just told me this story about a kidney transplant that will take place thanks to the wonders of social media. There is plenty of bad stuff out there, I know that, but I prefer to look at the social media glass as half full. I think when technology is used correctly it can help a lot of people, it can save lives, bring people together, encourage prayer, and maybe even bring people to God. Not bad for something that is free and easy.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Pretty Happy Funny Real
Pretty
Pretty faces and pretty costumes.
Happy
Our theatre won a trophy for their performance at the George Washington's Birthday Parade.
Funny
Real
Basketball was a real long time ago and finally here are some pictures!
To participate go here.
How about a daybook?
Last week I was on a roll with three posts, now I'm back to slacking again. That's the funny thing about blogs though, the less you post, the more you're actually living (maybe).
Outside My Window:
We have a huge pile of sand in our driveway. Jake and the neighbors have had a lot of fun with it.
I am Listening to:
Jake talk about the scripts he is writing for his A to Z Mysteries plays that "Jake Acts" will be performing.
I am Wearing:
A bathing suit and cover-up because we just got back from the beach.
I'm Reading:
Rejoice by Karen Kingsbury it is the 4th in a series of 5.
One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp
We're listening to:
Story of the World Volume 1 after about a four month hiatus. Oh the things we homeschoolers get away with!
I am Thinking:
About school plans for next year.
On my iPod:
About 95% of what I do online is on my ipod!
Towards a Real Education:
Jonathan finished his 9th grade English class this week!! Hooray! He has only one more chapter of Physical Science left. He's got quite a bit of Spanish and Geometry left but with two classes out of the way those will go a lot faster.
Madi is going to be a part of an American History and Literature co-op next year that I am thrilled about. She is just days away from finishing her science and then Career Education will go faster. She is on a major reading kick right now.
Jake is looking forward to American History next year too. He only has a few more weeks of math and spelling left for this year, and he's reading A to Z Mysteries like there's no tomorrow.
To Live the Liturgy...
Holy Thursday Mass tonight. Tomorrow is Good Friday and we will watch The Passion of the Christ which has been our tradition for quite a few years now. Madi is singing on Easter Sunday, and we will celebrate with lots of chocolate!!
I am Hoping and Praying:
For Jake as he prepares for his First Communion.
In the Yard:
We now have an above ground pool!!! (hence the sand) It is great!!
In the House:
I just got a teething toddler dropped off to me and he is sitting calmly on my lap as I type this.
From the Kitchen:
Chicken and Rice last night. Baked stuffed shrimp tonight. Clam Chowder tomorrow.
One of My Favorite Things:
Chocolate!!
A Few Plans for the Week:
I can only handle looking one day at a time at this point. The major business of the spring is upon us.
A picture thought:
Outside My Window:
We have a huge pile of sand in our driveway. Jake and the neighbors have had a lot of fun with it.
I am Listening to:
Jake talk about the scripts he is writing for his A to Z Mysteries plays that "Jake Acts" will be performing.
I am Wearing:
A bathing suit and cover-up because we just got back from the beach.
I'm Reading:
Rejoice by Karen Kingsbury it is the 4th in a series of 5.
One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp
We're listening to:
Story of the World Volume 1 after about a four month hiatus. Oh the things we homeschoolers get away with!
I am Thinking:
About school plans for next year.
On my iPod:
About 95% of what I do online is on my ipod!
Towards a Real Education:
Jonathan finished his 9th grade English class this week!! Hooray! He has only one more chapter of Physical Science left. He's got quite a bit of Spanish and Geometry left but with two classes out of the way those will go a lot faster.
Madi is going to be a part of an American History and Literature co-op next year that I am thrilled about. She is just days away from finishing her science and then Career Education will go faster. She is on a major reading kick right now.
Jake is looking forward to American History next year too. He only has a few more weeks of math and spelling left for this year, and he's reading A to Z Mysteries like there's no tomorrow.
To Live the Liturgy...
Holy Thursday Mass tonight. Tomorrow is Good Friday and we will watch The Passion of the Christ which has been our tradition for quite a few years now. Madi is singing on Easter Sunday, and we will celebrate with lots of chocolate!!
I am Hoping and Praying:
For Jake as he prepares for his First Communion.
In the Yard:
We now have an above ground pool!!! (hence the sand) It is great!!
In the House:
I just got a teething toddler dropped off to me and he is sitting calmly on my lap as I type this.
From the Kitchen:
Chicken and Rice last night. Baked stuffed shrimp tonight. Clam Chowder tomorrow.
One of My Favorite Things:
Chocolate!!
A Few Plans for the Week:
I can only handle looking one day at a time at this point. The major business of the spring is upon us.
A picture thought:
Friday, April 15, 2011
pretty, happy, funny, real
I saw this this morning on Kirsten's blog. To participate or see more you can go here.
PRETTY
Madi and the St Pat's choir paricipated in a music festival with lots of other children's choirs a few weeks ago, it was beautiful. Because I'm working on a pride issue, I won't even tell you who the only kid to have a solo was.
HAPPY
Jake and I got free tickets to the last Yankee spring training game of the season. I might add, the tickets were free, but the gas, parking, and multiple snacks...not so much!
FUNNY
I finally got someone to send me this pic from Phantom. I'm wayy behind on updating pics, but there will be more eventually.
REAL
From Relay for Life.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Good news!
Can you believe it... I'm posting two days in a row!! Since I just posted yesterday, could that really only have been yesterday (?), I had to give you the updates...
#1 Madi's thyroid is improving!!!! This make's me unbelievably happy and tremendously thankful!! It's not perfect yet, but better is good enough for today!!
#2 All three kids got great parts in Camp Rock!! Madi is Caitlyn which is who she wanted to be. Jonathan is Jason who is one of the "JoBros" (Jonas Brothers), and Jake is a Camp Rocker with lines, Camp Rocker 4 to be exact. They all had an extra rehearsal today. They are all very happy. Happy kids are a joy!
Back to Madi's thyroid, let me just say for the 100th time, our pediatrician is the greatest! She's not warm and fuzzy or anything, but she is brilliant and very knowledgeable about the common problems with western medicine. She's not your typical Dr. We've been driving the hour each way to see her for the last 11 years or so and it is totally worth it. Worth it because we only go down there twice a year anyway once for the boys well check in the fall (which actually ended up being January this year) and once in the spring for Madi's. A bonus is that in the last 11years the highway system has grown and improved, so it's not as far away as it used to be. Our doctor knows us, and we have some really good talks. I always feel good away our choices when we leave there. This brings me to a blog post I've been thinking about for a while. We are a very loyal family. This is a trait that in the past I've tended to frown upon. Not loyalty exactly but I used to think of it as lack of change or stagnation when people stuck to the the same thing all the time. For example Mike and I met at the UCONN CO-OP the campus bookstore when we were in college. We both worked there. There are people who to this day, 20 years later STILL work there! That to me seems like stagnation. Maybe, however, they are just loyal. We have lived in the same community for 12 years and have the same friends we've had since Jonathan was 3 and Madi was 1. We've added new friends of course, and an awful lot of our earliest friends have moved away (we are still friends with them though), but Jonathan has invited at least 5 of the same kids to every birthday party since his 4th. We have always homeschooled. When we find a curriculum or style we like, we generally stick to it. Things have evolved since they've gotten older, but our philosophies haven't changed. We've gone to the same dentist since we moved here, and love him. I've gone to the same dermatologist too, and love him even more. We've stayed very happily loyal to the same theatre directors since they started, four venues ago. We wouldn't dream of changing churches. We know a good thing when we see it. I used to think this kind of thing was for people who just didn't want to take the time to try something new. Now I know lack of change doesn't always mean laziness or stagnation. Maybe it means putting a lot of thought into making the right choices to begin with and continuing to be happy with them a decade later.
#1 Madi's thyroid is improving!!!! This make's me unbelievably happy and tremendously thankful!! It's not perfect yet, but better is good enough for today!!
#2 All three kids got great parts in Camp Rock!! Madi is Caitlyn which is who she wanted to be. Jonathan is Jason who is one of the "JoBros" (Jonas Brothers), and Jake is a Camp Rocker with lines, Camp Rocker 4 to be exact. They all had an extra rehearsal today. They are all very happy. Happy kids are a joy!
Back to Madi's thyroid, let me just say for the 100th time, our pediatrician is the greatest! She's not warm and fuzzy or anything, but she is brilliant and very knowledgeable about the common problems with western medicine. She's not your typical Dr. We've been driving the hour each way to see her for the last 11 years or so and it is totally worth it. Worth it because we only go down there twice a year anyway once for the boys well check in the fall (which actually ended up being January this year) and once in the spring for Madi's. A bonus is that in the last 11years the highway system has grown and improved, so it's not as far away as it used to be. Our doctor knows us, and we have some really good talks. I always feel good away our choices when we leave there. This brings me to a blog post I've been thinking about for a while. We are a very loyal family. This is a trait that in the past I've tended to frown upon. Not loyalty exactly but I used to think of it as lack of change or stagnation when people stuck to the the same thing all the time. For example Mike and I met at the UCONN CO-OP the campus bookstore when we were in college. We both worked there. There are people who to this day, 20 years later STILL work there! That to me seems like stagnation. Maybe, however, they are just loyal. We have lived in the same community for 12 years and have the same friends we've had since Jonathan was 3 and Madi was 1. We've added new friends of course, and an awful lot of our earliest friends have moved away (we are still friends with them though), but Jonathan has invited at least 5 of the same kids to every birthday party since his 4th. We have always homeschooled. When we find a curriculum or style we like, we generally stick to it. Things have evolved since they've gotten older, but our philosophies haven't changed. We've gone to the same dentist since we moved here, and love him. I've gone to the same dermatologist too, and love him even more. We've stayed very happily loyal to the same theatre directors since they started, four venues ago. We wouldn't dream of changing churches. We know a good thing when we see it. I used to think this kind of thing was for people who just didn't want to take the time to try something new. Now I know lack of change doesn't always mean laziness or stagnation. Maybe it means putting a lot of thought into making the right choices to begin with and continuing to be happy with them a decade later.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Considering a post
Just this morning I thought about how I hadn't blogged in a long time and then one of my last remaining readers told me that it was time to get bloggin', so here I am. As for what to say though I haven't got a clue. I have so many thoughts, but they are all a little too muddled to come out right. For one thing since most of my real life friends seem to be blogging far less frequently, I've taken to reading blogs written by actual writers like her and her. Since I am only a pretend writer my posts can't compete with theirs. Obviously I know this is not a competition, but still...
My most prominent thoughts right now revolve around how fast time is flying and therefore how much older the kids are getting everyday. We seem to be in a little bit of an in between stage currently and this is both good and bad. Good because they are old enough to take care of themselves and their responsibilities for the most part (well 2/3 of them are old enough), but they are still kids for a little while longer. They aren't taking the car or applying to college yet thankfully. The downside is that while they are making plans and lives for themselves outside of the family cocoon they are just as bad as I am about writing things down and far worse than I am about keeping track in their heads. This has lead to an excess of double booking recently. Madi cannot for example be home babysitting a one year old and participating in Living Stations of the Cross at church at the exact same time, not to mention her potential desire to have a friend or two sleep over that very night. Somehow I have to be the one to have this lightbulb moment at 6:30am. All of my years of multitasking seems to have rubbed off on the kids and most of the time it's not that pretty! I'm still trying to train myself to write down plans in my planner and the closest I've come so far is that I do now own a planner. Already we now have to attempt to be one of those families where everyone has a different ink color so we can display who needs to be where when. The funny thing is they all go to school in the same place...HOME and they all go to the same church (obviously) AND they are all involved in the same extracurricular activity...Theatre. The thing is though most of their schoolwork is individualized, they are all in different classes and activities at church that meet at different times, and while they are all in the same kids' class at theatre, Jonathan and Madi are in an additional class on Thursdays, and Jonathan is light man extroidinaire and is basically at the theatre any time the doors are open. I'm not sure how it happened but suddenly we went from being together almost 24 hours a day 7 days a week, to it being a rare treat. I'm not sure how families with separate agendas from a much earlier age function. I miss my kids!!
On Friday our family participated in Relay for Life. It was kind of a double event because we got a small contingent of our church's youth group to form a team as well as getting some of the theatre kids (including Madi) to perform. The preparations were a little stressful, but in the end it was a huge success. I'm pretty sure we'll do it again next year. It was extra fitting because it fell on the 3rd anniversary of Memere's death from cancer. We continued our celebrate Mem that day by going out to Red Lobster with Meme and Grampa Carlie, we were minus our overbooked 15 year old, but that's the way it goes sometimes. Incidently, my driven daughter walked 13 miles during Relay (a lot of them without shoes on). After that she joined another group of friends for some rousing games of musical chairs and red light green light. All this while most of the kids sat around our makeshift unallowed campfire and talked. This is the girl who supposedly has a sluggish thyroid! (We go for her 13 year old check up tomorrow where we will find out her latest bloodtest results, I am in no rush to start any treatment other than the natural Chinese tea we are currently doing because my gut tells me to treat the patient and the "patient" is not sick!)
Jake is all about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/ Willy Wonka right now. Because of this our front room is decorated with Hershey's Kisses...and can you believe I still haven't had as much as a smidge of chocolate in over a month?! No, I can't believe it either!
The kids are currently at theatre audtioning for Camp Rock as I write this. I really want them to get good parts. The boys have been singing their audition songs all day. Last show we had a little disappointment over parts because Madi actually got the part that Jake wanted (Chip). I was a proud mom though when Jake was really more concerned for Madi than he was for himself because he thought she should've gotten a bigger part. Madi wasn't even really upset though just confused. In the end it was a great show and when Hannah, one of Madi's BFFs, got sick on opening night and couldn't be Cogsworth and Jonathan the other Cogsworth had to stick with his first love "the lightboard" Madi had an opportunity to play that part with only a few hours notice. (It was the part she played 2 years ago.)
Someday, maybe even today, I'll catch up on pictures and other updates. Writing about auditions from the last show is showing me how little I seem to keep up with this thing these days. I guess what they say is true facebook may really have killed the blog.
My most prominent thoughts right now revolve around how fast time is flying and therefore how much older the kids are getting everyday. We seem to be in a little bit of an in between stage currently and this is both good and bad. Good because they are old enough to take care of themselves and their responsibilities for the most part (well 2/3 of them are old enough), but they are still kids for a little while longer. They aren't taking the car or applying to college yet thankfully. The downside is that while they are making plans and lives for themselves outside of the family cocoon they are just as bad as I am about writing things down and far worse than I am about keeping track in their heads. This has lead to an excess of double booking recently. Madi cannot for example be home babysitting a one year old and participating in Living Stations of the Cross at church at the exact same time, not to mention her potential desire to have a friend or two sleep over that very night. Somehow I have to be the one to have this lightbulb moment at 6:30am. All of my years of multitasking seems to have rubbed off on the kids and most of the time it's not that pretty! I'm still trying to train myself to write down plans in my planner and the closest I've come so far is that I do now own a planner. Already we now have to attempt to be one of those families where everyone has a different ink color so we can display who needs to be where when. The funny thing is they all go to school in the same place...HOME and they all go to the same church (obviously) AND they are all involved in the same extracurricular activity...Theatre. The thing is though most of their schoolwork is individualized, they are all in different classes and activities at church that meet at different times, and while they are all in the same kids' class at theatre, Jonathan and Madi are in an additional class on Thursdays, and Jonathan is light man extroidinaire and is basically at the theatre any time the doors are open. I'm not sure how it happened but suddenly we went from being together almost 24 hours a day 7 days a week, to it being a rare treat. I'm not sure how families with separate agendas from a much earlier age function. I miss my kids!!
On Friday our family participated in Relay for Life. It was kind of a double event because we got a small contingent of our church's youth group to form a team as well as getting some of the theatre kids (including Madi) to perform. The preparations were a little stressful, but in the end it was a huge success. I'm pretty sure we'll do it again next year. It was extra fitting because it fell on the 3rd anniversary of Memere's death from cancer. We continued our celebrate Mem that day by going out to Red Lobster with Meme and Grampa Carlie, we were minus our overbooked 15 year old, but that's the way it goes sometimes. Incidently, my driven daughter walked 13 miles during Relay (a lot of them without shoes on). After that she joined another group of friends for some rousing games of musical chairs and red light green light. All this while most of the kids sat around our makeshift unallowed campfire and talked. This is the girl who supposedly has a sluggish thyroid! (We go for her 13 year old check up tomorrow where we will find out her latest bloodtest results, I am in no rush to start any treatment other than the natural Chinese tea we are currently doing because my gut tells me to treat the patient and the "patient" is not sick!)
Jake is all about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/ Willy Wonka right now. Because of this our front room is decorated with Hershey's Kisses...and can you believe I still haven't had as much as a smidge of chocolate in over a month?! No, I can't believe it either!
The kids are currently at theatre audtioning for Camp Rock as I write this. I really want them to get good parts. The boys have been singing their audition songs all day. Last show we had a little disappointment over parts because Madi actually got the part that Jake wanted (Chip). I was a proud mom though when Jake was really more concerned for Madi than he was for himself because he thought she should've gotten a bigger part. Madi wasn't even really upset though just confused. In the end it was a great show and when Hannah, one of Madi's BFFs, got sick on opening night and couldn't be Cogsworth and Jonathan the other Cogsworth had to stick with his first love "the lightboard" Madi had an opportunity to play that part with only a few hours notice. (It was the part she played 2 years ago.)
Someday, maybe even today, I'll catch up on pictures and other updates. Writing about auditions from the last show is showing me how little I seem to keep up with this thing these days. I guess what they say is true facebook may really have killed the blog.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
More Chances
Aren't you so glad, you get to start fresh every morning? Every week? Every year? I know I am! I am doing remarkably well on the "no chocolate", but I'm not sure what happened to my 40 bag challenge (well, I'm pretty sure I got rid of the bulk of our junk before Lent started actually). As far as more prayer time goes, don't ask! I'm so glad I get to try again each day. The way I look at it is when you have a particularly bad day or week (or month or year), there's no where to go but up right? Not that I'm having a bad year or even a bad week, but the days just seem to fly by with not nearly enough time to do all that I could/ would/ should do! The Florida homeschooling law states that kids must "show progress commensurrate with their ability". I love this law. It applies really well to adults too. If I dusted a few surfaces today, that's progress right? So what if my house will never pass the white glove test, it's the effort that counts. This is what I know in my heart. It's not so much what I think in my head though. In my head I want the house to be spotless, the kids to be spotless, schoolwork to be all caught up, laundry to be all caught up, etc etc. Since we always wear clothes, I know that the laundry thing is a logisical impossibility, but still I dream. I think I need to lower my expectations. I was going to say that I am making progress in this area as illustrated by the fact that I've done almost nothing so far today. Then I remembered what I had actually done today, gotten up very early to say goodbye to Mike and Madi who are heading to the northeast for a few days. Madi has her big thirteenth birthday New York City event with Grandpa Sal tomorrow. Talked and cuddled with Jake, read some of my book, dozed a little, made a good breakfast for myself and the boys (bagels and bacon), took Jonathan to the theatre where he is hanging lights, did some laundry, cleaned up a little in Madi's room (including the dusting of a few surfaces that I mentioned earlier), went to the gym, and helped Jake write his first article for the locally run online magazine for kids by kids, all this I did before noon! This is my problem, in my mind it looks like I haven't done much today. Looking back at me from the computer screen, I guess my mind is wrong. I need to make progress on not needing to make progress. I think I'll take the rest of the day off!
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