My last post described how I want to focus on the joy and blessing of motherhood, especially on Mother's Day. While I believe that with all of my heart, this post has a bit of a different tune. For while my children indeed do not grow halos for any holiday, there's definitely a deeper problem than just not being angelic. Before I was a parent, I thought I knew some things about raising children. You may wonder what made me so presumptuous, but with a lot of experience working with children and their fa...
Happy Mother's Day! I just enjoyed going to Mass with my husband, children, parents and brother, followed by a delicious brunch at Arnie's with more family. It was lovely. As I'm sure all mothers do, I look forward to Mother's Day. But as with a lot of holidays, I've noticed that my expectations can be unrealistic. I love holidays and traditions and celebrating life with family and friends. Those are some of my favorite times. But in a way, you can almost look forward to a holiday or celebration too mu...
We had a fantastic weekend, full of celebrating. Jason had his 40th birthday last Friday. His mom, Liz, visited us from Hawaii to be here for the occasion. On Friday, we dropped off the kids at a friend's and went to the Space Needle for lunch. It was such a glorious day! The only time I think I have ever been to the top of the Space Needle was when I was a child, so it was so much fun to see it now. We had the most perfect day for it. The food was delicious and we really enjoyed ourselves. Afterwards, ...
I took this shot yesterday and it is quickly becoming a favorite photo of mine. About seven years ago, we were living in Kent, I was teaching and Joshua was a one-year-old. I was really lonely. I was the only one of my friends to be a married mom, we had moved to an area where I didn't know anyone, we were further away from my family and I wasn't really connecting with any of my fellow teachers. The Pre-K program that I taught was very separate from the rest of the school, so I really didn't even see th...
I woke up this morning feeling so awful. Nausea and a headache - Are you kidding me? After yesterday which was a pretty awful day, this was very discouraging. I stumbled into the kitchen and sat down. The day ahead seemed unconquerable. ALL I wanted to do was crawl back into bed. I have been reading a book of devotions titled, "More Devotions for Homeschool Moms," by Jackie Wellwood. There is also a first book of devotions. These are the most down-to-earth, relatable, practical devotions I have ever r...
WARNING! THIS IS A PREGNANCY RANT. THIS POST IS NOT CUTE. IT IS NOT INSPIRING. THIS POST IS REAL. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR CUTE OR INSPIRING, LOOK ELSEWHERE OR COME BACK AT ANOTHER TIME. I checked out some books from the library, many of which have to do with pregnancy and childbirth. This may seem funny, as most of these books are written for first-time moms, which obviously I'm not. But even though I've done this three times before, I don't think I'll ever get this pregnancy thing down. Some women cla...
Going to Mass with small children can at times be more frustrating than any other task, causing you to have very unholy thoughts and wonder why you went in the first place. There have been Sundays when the hour goes by without my hearing a single word of what was said and I leave feeling frazzled, angry, resentful and incompetent as a mother. What is the point of this? I would ask. If I get absolutely nothing out of Mass and actually leave feeling worse, why do we go? Well, there are many great answers ...
Welcome to the new member of our family! Check it out - this thing is huge! Enjoying all that room :) Last night Jason got home from work, went and traded in our Honda Pilot and returned home with this! We took the children out on a joyride and to the Dick's drive-in. So fun! Now we will have no problem fitting four car seats, a dog, Adrienne when she comes to visit and all of our cargo. This is what all that couch productivity got us! Not too shabby. Because this vehicle represents ...
Veronica trying on my high heels, which my doctor has informed me should be off-limits for the remainder of the pregnancy in order to avoid back strain. She encouraged me to purchase some more supportive shoes. Doctor-prescribed shoe shopping? Well, okay! It's been a long week. I spent most of last weekend on the couch because I was feeling so light-headed, dizzy and nauseous. As I finally began feeling a bit more like myself on Sunday evening, I decided to do some much needed tidying up. Trying to get...
My past two posts have been addressing some of the concerns, questions and changes that have been taking place since finding out we are having another baby. The only concern that I have not answered is perhaps the biggest one; do I have what it takes to mother and homeschool four children? For that week of anxiety (and also joy, of course) after discovering I was pregnant, one of the most fearful thoughts was, "Can I do this?" There was a bit of a mental block in my mind about the forth child. The jump ...
