Happy Memorial Day!

I wish a Happy Memorial Day to everyone out there...especially to the veterans and soldiers currently serving in the armed forces, and also the police officers and firefighters. I think we are very blessed to live in this country, and our family is very grateful for the men and women who allow us to live freely.

Ready for the weekend!

The long weekend has officially arrived in our house! We are so looking forward to lots of fun plans this weekend! Today though, is just general relaxing and some household chores. JR has scouts, and when I pick him up there will be a movie and pizza this evening. My husband is at an impromptu retirement party this evening for one of the principals at his school. I will be sorting and folding laundry, and maybe even getting some dusting in if I'm really lucky. I've already planted in the flower bed today and picked the cat up from his overnight vet trip (he's fine). Tomorrow JR is playing in a baseball scrimmage organized by a friend's dad, and then our evening includes a farewell cookout for some very dear friends who are moving out of state. While I know that we will see them in a few short weeks as part of our summer vacation, I'm going to miss them so much. Sunday will be brunch with my mother's family, and then we are headed up to the lake again to spend the day with Dad. Monday morning will bring the local parade, and then another cook out with very dear friends. I'm so excited about having so much fun. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Winding down?

The school year is beginning to wind down around here. HT and my husband have five days left, JC and JR each have six. Although winding down is not exactly how anything feels...I'm incredibly wound up and wondering where the heck each day is going! The kids have several activities at school that are "presentations" and involve parental participation, and of course there are also graduations and other family commitments to attend, not to mention our baseball schedule. I'm thinking my husband and I better get a better texting plan because that seems to be the only way for us to communicate these days. Otherwise we are like two ships passing in the night. The good news is that it's been wonderful to see the progress the kids have made throughout the school year, and I think we are going to have a wonderful summer!

Bragging moment

I have to brag for a moment about my oldest...tonight was a moment that made me cry. My oldest child is a wonderfully sweet, sensitive boy (almost young man). He's a hard worker and tries hard to please people. He's a very creative child - an athlete he is not. But we are a big sports family. I've tried to explain to him that it's okay to do his own thing, and one by one, the sports have been eliminated from his activities. But baseball is the one he sticks with, and I've been so grateful for my wonderful husband coaching him this year after the absolutely miserable experience he had last year. Tonight, he had an AWESOME catch in the outfield. I think he was just as surprised as anyone that he caught the ball, and he practically danced all the way back to the dugout (it was even inning ending)! It brought tears to my eyes and our dear friend Jen said she had goose bumps all over it. She put it best, "Every child deserves to have a moment like that." I can't stop smiling as I think about it!

Mom, the taxi driver

Today was one of those days where very little got done at home. We were mostly on the road. All three kids had dental appointments, and they actually required two separate trips to the dentist, which is 30 minutes away. Because of JC's unbelievably poor dental hygiene, not only did I get to spend two hours driving to and from dental appointments, I got to spend 135 minutes of my day sitting in the waiting room. Why do we go to a dentist that is 30 minutes away? Personal referral, that's why. I truly believe the best way to find any new doctor is to ask around. We've been absolutely thrilled with this man and he's worth the drive...just not all in the same day!

A sign of things to come

Today my youngest is on an all day field trip. I have almost the entire school day to myself...and I'm not sure I like it. For the last 4-1/2 years, I've had at least part of the day by myself with my little guy. I enjoy my quiet time, but I'm sure going to miss his happy little face when he goes to first grade next year. He's ready though, and I'm proud that my kids are growing up to be such great kids!

It all works out

For weeks, we had been planning to get up Saturday and head to the lake to spend the weekend with my dad. Then on Wednesday, we learned that there were going to be make up ball games Saturday morning. We could still go, but it was going to move everything back a few hours. Everything works out though...just as it's supposed to. We received so much rain last week, especially overnight Friday, that even though it was a beautiful Saturday, there could be no games. We were back to our original plan! We arrived shortly after lunch, and just had an absolutely wonderful day there. My dad had found a garage sale where they were selling (among other things) bikes and scooters for very low prices. He already had a bike at the house for us to put together for JR and came home with two more very nice used bikes and a scooter...hours and hours of entertainment. I think the best moment was when HT saw the bike for him...the way his face lit up made my dad's whole weekend. Dad had also bought the kids a wagon to play with and they loved pulling each other around in that when they weren't riding bikes. Dad took JR fishing, and they loved having those moments together. We had a little cook out in the evening, and then Dad headed home so that we could have the place to ourselves. We'd have loved for him to stay, but he kept telling us there were things at home to be doing. I got very emotional after he left. It just seems to hard to imagine that one day he isn't going to be around for us to share these things with him. I know that's technically true of everyone and no one really knows what the next day brings, but knowing that time is limited with Dad makes it so, so special, and I'm so very grateful for the wonderful memories we make with him during our times up there!

Fine tuning our lesson

One thing I've been neurotic about is teaching my children not to answer the door unless I'm available. Obviously this isn't usually a problem, but I need to know that I can take a quick bath or shower and not have to worry about them opening the door to strangers. It's been a lesson I've really been working on with the youngest lately, but apparently it needs some fine tuning. This morning, I walked from our kitchen into our laundry room. I managed to inadvertently lock the kitchen door behind me. I knew that HT was sitting eating breakfast in the dining room, and began pounding on the door. No one came to my rescue. I finally walked out of the laundry room and around the house to look into a dining room window. HT was sitting there and happily waved at me as I peered in the window. I hollered for him to go open the kitchen door and he very happily got out of his chair. As he was opening the door, I asked him, "Didn't you hear me pounding on the door?" He shrugged and responded, "Yes, I did." Apparently he's decided to just ignore the sound of door knocking since he isn't supposed to answer it anyway!

Sunny day

It's finally a sunny day around here...although it didn't really start that way. There was dense fog this morning and our school was on a two hour delay. Normally I don't mind, but today was my errand running day. I'll still get it all done (I think), just going to move much faster! It's so nice to see the sun again. We haven't had a glimpse of it since Saturday. Not going to last long though. Overnight it is supposed to start raining again. I'm starting to feel like I'm in the northwest. The one time I visited up there I never, not once, saw sunshine for the entire five days I was there.

And needless to say, this rain has wreaked havoc with the baseball schedules. In the attempts to reschedule, the rainouts are wreaking havoc with our schedules. With three playing, we already had a pretty packed calendar and our family lives were tightly scheduled around the games. Now though, there are some conflicts and it's making me feel overwhelmed. I'm trying hard not to also feel resentful. We had plans with extended family members and I don't feel that they should have to give up the fun we planned just because we have a game rescheduled, and most of the fun is having the kids there. At the same time, because we are coaching two of the teams, I also feel we've made a commitment to the players and need to honor that. So we are working very hard, very, very hard, to try and work out good compromises to make as many people as happy as we can!

Sick little guy

My youngest is home with the stomach flu today. Yuck and yuck! Thank goodness the hot water is running again so I can clean away the germs! I hate having sick children, but I really have to say, they are good patients. Unfortunately, this means he's going to miss his ball game this evening (if the fields dry up enough) and I'm hoping it's short lived and he doesn't spread it around to his siblings...we have lots of fun plans for the weekend!

Feeling the heat

We are feeling the heat around here in many ways. First, I'm happy to report that we've had hot water flowing freely and correctly for about the last twelve hours. Thank goodness! I'm looking forward to a hot shower today!

Secondly, our schedule is making us feel the heat...pressure cooker to try and squeeze everything in. It isn't just the kids' schedules either. This time of year, with school winding down, my husband tends to have a few extra evening commitments as well. He just realized last night that he won't be able to attend the graduation at his school because of plans my best friend made with me back in February. Unfortunately, his reaction was one of not being pleased, and it really made me feel guilty. As a mom, I almost never put myself first, and that's fine. I honestly don't mind. However, the last time I had a girls outing was November, and my best friend has already purchased the tickets to this concert so there is no rescheduling. He apologized later for his reaction, but by then we both had hurt feelings. We are also trying to plan a quick trip to his parents because this year, for the first year in several, we are not taking our vacation with them. I had a time all picked out, then we received an invitation to a graduation party for some relatives in KY. They are only about an hour away, and I'd really, really like to go. We managed to figure out a way to do both, but then my wonderful husband realized he had a meeting that fell right in the middle of our rescheduled trip to his parents. Calendars are not his strong suit! And then we started talking about the rest of our summer, and it just feels so, so overwhelming. There are so many fun things we want to be able to do with the kids, and I'm just not sure how we are going to squeeze everything in without feeling more stressed out than during the school year!

Hot water, why hast thou forsaken us?

Yesterday, was a wonderfully productive unscheduled day. Our best friends called and asked us to come over, but we were on a cleaning mission! There were many, many outside bushes that needed to be trimmed, and I was specifically intent on getting our front porch into a nice area...not the "white trash" closet it had become. Honestly, it was out of control. We still had the sleds on it that we hadn't used since February, along with two large boxes of copy paper that had been delivered weeks ago. The worst though, was the sink that had been removed from the kitchen over six weeks ago. Honestly, it was embarrassing. Anyway, my goal for the day was not only to get things put away, but to do my spring cleaning on the porch (is vacuuming the screens spring cleaning or OCD? Just askin') and our ultimate goal is to make it a comfortable three season room where we can enjoy reading books, newspapers, etc. As my husband was carrying the paper boxes to the basement he discovered, as he put it, an "immediate emergency." (is there a type of emergency that isn't immediate?) It seems as though our hot water heater was leaking all over the basement floor. Fortunately it was just dripping, and all of the water was flowing toward the drain just as it should. We immediately turned off the hot water valve and my husband was off to Lowe's to buy a replacement. It will be installed sometime tomorrow. We are fortunate in that since it is only a slow leak, we technically still have hot water and were able to take record breaking fast showers. I will be so glad when all is running smoothly again!

World's worst tooth fairy

Our family is serviced by the world's worst tooth fairy. It's gotten so bad, that JC (the one who has lost the last several teeth) doesn't even bother to mention it anymore when the tooth fairy doesn't show up. This doesn't help as you can imagine (think squeaky wheel gets the attention). The last time JC lost a tooth, after FOUR consecutive nights of the tooth fairy being a no-show, we wrote a note stating, "Dear Tooth Fairy please remember," and taped it to her bedroom door. My husband thought it would be better to tape it to the outside of our front door, but as I explained to him privately later, if I don't see the note it doesn't do us much good. Apparently JC had the foresight to realize that she might be needing that note again. This week, after the first night of the tooth fairy being a no-show, JC located her note and retaped it to her bedroom door. Sadly, I am allergic to everything this time of year, and took a Benadryl before bed last night. Therefore, I didn't do my normal bedcheck and kisses before bed...I just tumbled right on in my bed for a blissful sleep. Of course when I went to wake her up, there was that note taped on the door. Too late! AGH! Fortunately, at this point, only a two night hiatus means very little to JC so if the tooth fairy can get her act together for this evening, JC is going to think she's ahead of schedule!

Rainy days

We have been getting a lot of rain here. Not enough that the region is worried about flooding, but enough that things are staying wet and it's a real pain! Our girls softball game was rained out last evening, and the games for the boys aren't looking very promising for this evening...in fact weather.com says that we have a 95% chance of rain today. We are enjoying family dinners together and reading together, and enjoying life. JR's baseball season is going well. This is such a much better experience than last year. He's an average player, which is perfectly fine, and the most important thing is that he's having FUN. That was a missing element in the experience last year. His team has some of the nicest boys you could ever want on the team, and it's going really well. I'm really happy for him.

School is beginning to wind down here. Less than four weeks to go. It almost doesn't seem possible to me. Didn't we just start a couple of months ago? Time is more than flying by...it's rocketing by!

Monday, Monday

I kind of feel like the song "Monday, Monday" today. As the song says, "Every other day of the week is fine." I think it's just the fact that after getting to sleep in for two days, it's hard to get up and at 'em this morning. And being Monday, it's overwhelming, the thought of making it to the next weekend. This week we have five baseball games, my wonderful husband has an awards ceremony at his school, I have to teach one evening, JR has a report that needs to be written, and we still have the normal daily lives to accomplish. There is also a rumor that the baseball league is going to reschedule Opening Day for this week, which means a 7 AM wake up for Saturday, and not being home from the ball park until 5 that evening. To be honest, I'm hoping for rain that day because it's such a draining day.

But our family did have a very nice weekend. We enjoyed spending yesterday with my parents, and even got to stop in and see my grandmother for about an hour. I felt very, very blessed yesterday, to have such a wonderful family!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful moms in the world! It was so cute to see my younger two kids so excited to give me the gifts they had made at school this week. I also saw that my oldest, whose class didn't make anything at school, wasn't remotely interested in the fact that it's Mother's Day. I don't fault him at all...I remember feeling pretty disinterested in Mother's Day through most of my teen years. It's just interesting (and a little depressing) to me to see the transition beginning in him. I'm feeling so incredibly blessed today...and many days!

First victory

The wonderful girls that I am coaching gave me a season opening victory last night. I have to say, I was truly impressed with each and every one of them. All of them had at least one hit and we even fielded the ball and got some outs! I was really pleased with how everyone performed...with the possible exception of myself. I had no idea that I could stress that much over seven and eight year-olds-playing softball! My wonderful husband kept telling me that things had obviously gone well, but I just couldn't see it myself. I felt totally unprepared, completely overwhelmed, and hopelessly disorganized. Supposedly, that's how all rookie coaches feel, but I just want to make sure the girls have a positive experience...to me that is the most important thing about playing the game at this level. Anyway, it was fun to get our first win, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season!

Alien space ship

JC has had an assignment for the past two weeks that involves charting the moon phases. This has been challenging for two reasons: a) we've had a lot of rain the last two weeks, and b) It is late April/early May, and the moon does not come out until after her bedtime. This has been frustrating for us as she is not a child that can just go to bed a little later and everything will be fine. Other parents of second graders, even in our own school district, have told us that their child had the assignment in November and December...you know, when the moon is out significantly earlier! Anyway, Monday evening HT accompanied his sister out to see if the moon could be seen. They came back in and I asked if the moon was spotted. HT matter-of-factly replied, "Nope, I only saw the alien space ship." "You saw an alien space ship?" I asked. He calmly stated he had seen the alien ship and went about his evening. I was amused! Shortly after, JC came to me and said that she was pretty sure that it was just an airplane but she didn't want to hurt her brother's feelings. Apparently, her feelings weren't quite so magnanimous last evening because I heard HT announce that he had again seen the alien ship, and JC was very quick (and loud) to inform him it wasn't true!

First Reds game

My husband has a tradition with each of our children. The summer that they are six, they may attend their first Reds game with him. It's always a big deal, but I think today is one of the biggest. For one thing, it's the youngest and we can't believe he's already six. Secondly, my husband had several personal days to use, so he is using one today and they are going to a daytime game. HT is very excited that he gets to miss school, which is something we almost never do "just because." However, even his teacher mentioned that him missing Kindergarten is no damage done. I can't believe I have the entire house to myself for the next 6-1/2 hours. It's kind of a scary feeling, knowing that this is how it will be every day next year when all are in school all day. Today, I'm just going to relax and move at my own pace, with no clock to worry about for many hours.

Rainy Sunday

Today the weather pretty much picked up where it left off yesterday. All rain, all day. I've pretty much slept the day away though. I awoke with a migraine this morning that I just couldn't shake. It was the first time I ever became physically ill from a migraine, and it was also the first time that one dose of the pain meds didn't help and I needed a second dose. On the upside, I'm feeling better now.

The kids had a nice morning at church. Both JR and JC had perfect attendance at Sunday School for the entire year (this morning was the last session). There was a drawing for a $25 prize for those who had perfect attendance and JC was very excited to be the winner. She has announced that will be putting her winnings in the bank for now. The annual church picnic was also held after Mass (with some slight modifications thanks to the weather) and it sounds as though everyone enjoyed visiting with others there as well. I, of course, was home asleep through it all trying to fight the migraine. This evening my wonderful husband has taken HT to a birthday party at a bowling alley. I'm sure they are having a great time.

This week coming up we should get our first round of ball games in. We even have Tuesday evening off...we can have another real sit down family dinner!

Rained out

Everything about Opening Day for ball games was rained out today. We were disappointed, but since it was to be an all day event, we also feel we were given the gift of time! We are working on cleaning the house and getting a jump on some of next week's responsibilities. We were also grateful for the timing of things. According to the news last night, it wasn't supposed to start raining until about 10:00 this morning. We all needed to line up and be ready at 9:30, and I had this terrible vision of that happening, and at 10:00 when the rains moved in we would have hundreds of soaked parentless children. I was actually relieved in that regard when I heard the thunder and pounding rain at 6:00 this morning, and it was still raining at 7:00 when the alarm went off. By 7:45 it was officially a no-go, and I even went back to bed for a little while. The kids slept until 9, and I know after the craziness of the week that they needed it. Tonight is dinner with some friends, and then tomorrow is church, the church picnic, and then HT gets to attend a birthday party for a friend. So we are enjoying a few unexpected quiet hours today!