Another wonderful weekend

We really had a fabulous weekend here. Friday evening we had a babysitter for the first time in months, and we joined five other couples at some friends' house to kick off the long weekend. Between the six couples there are 17 total children so we all needed an evening to ourselves! Saturday we went up to Dad's cottage and joined him there for the day. We had so much fun and created amazing memories. Dad took the kids fishing, and HT caught his first ever fish! He managed to reel it in less than five minutes after casting into the water, and then decided not to mess with success and called it a day. JR was able to catch four fish during the afternoon, and JC didn't catch anything but she still had a good time. We took a golf cart ride and also had some ice cream and grilled burgers before heading home in the evening. My dad loved every minute and so did we. Yesterday we all slept in and then spent the afternoon getting ready for my cousin's wedding. For the boys it was the first wedding they ever attended, and the fact that they got to share it with so many family members was awesome. The kids were very, very well behaved, and we were still home in time for my wonderful husband and I to have a date night with a movie we had rented. Today was just a day where we got a few things done around the house, but we did take the opportunity to go get some Dairy Queen...I love that place! The kids have seven days of school left, and we are all so ready for a laid back summer!

Lots of prayers

I've been doing a lot of praying lately...more than usual. Of course, there are prayers for our safety and health, those are daily prayers. We've been adding the prayers for those affected by so many natural disasters that have been occurring around our country and beyond. And lately, there have been additional prayers for others in our lives. Last Friday my husband had one of the most emotionally difficult days of his career. First thing in the morning he learned that one of his students who had been ill was in the hospital and not expected to make it through the weekend. Later in the day, he was informed that another student had lost her father the night before from bone cancer. And even later in the day, he was informed that one of his older students who is also a father, had lost his five-month-old daughter that day. Earlier this week, I learned that a schoolmate of mine, just a year older, had suffered a stroke and was in ICU. She passed away Tuesday night, leaving behind her husband and two beautiful young girls. All of these have also reminded me to offer prayers of thanks for the many blessings in our lives.

It's rare when you get to be certain you've made the right decision

Last night was one of those very rare experiences where you get to know that you've made exactly the correct decision. All three of our children had games scheduled for 6:30. HT and JR were both here in town, JC was supposed to be about 25 minutes away. Since Tuesday, forecasters had been calling for severe, very severe weather coming through last evening. In fact, it was the same system that had rolled through Oklahoma and Missouri the day before. Yesterday I continued watching the news and decided that I just wasn't going to take JC to her game. The storms were supposed to start hitting sometime between 6 & 7. I didn't want to be 25 minutes away from here when things started to get bad here, and I also didn't want HT to be out at his game alone. Yes, my husband and JR would be out at the park, but they were supposed to have a game of their own. This was just not okay with me...not at all. My sister was originally going to be down here to keep an eye on HT at his game, but I had told her not to come down. I didn't need the to be worrying about my sister being out and about on top of everything else. My decision involving JC boiled down to this...if my gut was wrong, the worst case scenario meant JC would miss a game. I could live with that. If my gut was right and I ignored it, JC and I could be away from home in a very serious storm, and HT could be terrified and alone. This was one of those rare times when I get to know with complete certainty that my decision was correct. Our family ventured to the ball park right about 6:00, and by 6:15 the warning alarms had sounded at the park. We were home by 6:25, and by 6:45 we were in the basement because of the tornado sirens. The kids did really well and we were very lucky. The worst part of the storm near us went about 2 miles south. It really picked up "steam" as it went east and in the eastern part of our area there was tennis ball and in some cases even softball size hail as well as some smaller tornadoes. We are so grateful that we were spared the worst of things, and I've said many prayers for the victims of the storms.

Bunting

Last night JC had a game. Because it was an away game and my wonderful husband had a meeting to attend, I went alone. Even though we knew it meant the boys would have to attend the meeting, it was still going to be the best way to get HT in bed at a reasonable bedtime (not on time, mind you, but earlier than when I got home). Our team looked really good throughout the course of the game, although JC was struggling at the plate. For a reason that neither her coaches nor I could determine she was literally jumping out of the batters' box with each pitch. She had struck out once doing this, although she did get a walk the second at bat. The third at bat her coach encouraged her to do whatever she felt she needed to do to stay in the box. JC decided this was her chance to show off her bunting skills. On two pitches she squared up to bunt, but ended up walking on four straight pitches. On the upside, she did stay in the box for the entire at bat! Her coaches were impressed (and a little amused!) that she was attempting to bunt and knew what she was doing!

Cruise mode

It's really hard not to just cruise into the end of school year, especially with the long weekend coming up. We know that HT is done with homework (his teacher sent home a letter explaining this) and we believe that JC and JR are finished as well. JC and HT both have spelling lists, but that is their best subject so that isn't really an issue. It feels so tempting to just kind of coast along the last few days, but it really isn't that simple. After all, there are still double digits remaining, and having been in the classroom so much the last couple of weeks, I know how difficult it is to teach students who are already in the coasting mindset.

I am also completely lacking motivation here at home. For one thing, allergy season has kicked in and I took Benadryl last night. Great for a good night sleep, but I still feel groggy even 12 hours later. For another thing, everything seems so overwhelming in the amount of things that need to be accomplished, and I don't know where to start. So instead I sit here, and start no where. And of course our weather around here doesn't help at all. HT got about three innings in last night before the black skies opened up. There were severe storms all around us, but everything was fine here in our little town. Today is still cloudy, and there is rain everyday in the seven day forecast. Gloom doesn't help the motivation at all!

Off work

I survived my two full weeks of working. As always, I'm grateful for the money, but my family also realized that we don't really want Mommy to have a full time job. The "sub gig" is a perfect solution for our family right now!

We've been experience daily rain around here, but thankfully nothing like the swath that came through Minnesota down into Missouri last night. Not sure how many games we are going to get in this week, but I'm getting uniforms cleaned and ready to go just in case. JR and JC did get to play a game each over the weekend.

The kids have (counting today) only 12 days of school left. Everyone is excited for the summer!

Got more than we asked for

As it turns out, we haven't had a game all week. Rumor is that the games are being played tonight, but we don't have any in our family (please don't misinterpret this as a relaxing evening at home). Since I'm working every day I've been trying to use our suddenly "free" evenings as an opportunity to catch up on the house work. I've been marginally successful, but I'm completely exhausted. I am also INCREDIBLY. SICK. OF. THIS. RAIN. I'm not a person who generally minds a few rainy days here and there, and in fact there are times I love them. However, we've had more than our fair share and then some. So I'll have to think carefully before hoping for a rain out again!

We got our wish!

Things worked out wonderfully yesterday. In fact,the games were actually canceled before lunch. We've just had too much rain here since Saturday, and the temps yesterday were in the 40's so it was also pretty darn chilly. We had a nice evening with a nice family dinner, and we got to read a chapter of the book we are reading as a family. And as a "bonus" JC's game for this evening was also canceled (the weather hasn't changed any today). My wonderful husband had a meeting, but we still had a nice chicken and baked potato dinner which everyone seemed to really enjoy. We still have lots of fun/busy activities for the rest of the week, but it's been nice to have a couple of evenings off!

Love the tradition of the dress

This weekend, our daughter's best friend (and the daughter of very dear friends) received her First Communion. It was very cute to watch her facial reaction to tasting the wine, and I don't think we'll have to worry about any underage drinking for awhile! The thing I loved is that she was wearing the dress that JC wore last year. JC is our only girl, and there are no first cousins (and my family isn't Catholic anyway) so I was so happy to be able to hand the dress on to someone who is so dear to our family. We had received the dress from another family in our Parish whose two daughters had worn it for their First Communion. While I know it's always nice to have a dress that has tradition within a family, I love the fact that this dress has been to four separate First Communions, all within the same church. It really meant a lot to me.

Hoping for rain

That's right, in spite of the ridiculous amount of rain we've had this spring, I'm actually hoping for rain this evening. Our boys both have games and our best friend's daughter also has a game. The husband/dad of our best friends can't be there tonight, and he coaches two of the teams. There is also a PTO mtg scheduled in the middle of all of it, and frankly, we just don't have enough adults to fill all of the needs for everything we need to attend. We have a sketchy plan that we can make work, but we decided to just hope for rain. It seemed the best plan overall!

P.S. JC also has a history project due tomorrow that she has neglected to complete. It would be nice to have the evening at home for that as well!

He learned more than one lesson

Earlier in the week I was looking through JR's dresser for a specific item of clothing I wanted him to wear. He is responsible for folding and putting away his own clothes from the laundry. What I found in his dresser was an absolute mess. I was really, really annoyed, especially by the dress pants that were crumbled into a pile in a corner of a drawer. I pulled them out and announced that I had taken the time to wash them in the laundry, and he could certainly take a few minutes to make sure they were folded and put away nicely. Since he hadn't done so, he could learn how to iron them. JR is an altar boy at the First Communion Mass tomorrow, and he is going to need those pants. I brought them down this evening and my husband showed him how to set up the ironing board and get the iron ready. Then when the iron had heated, I showed him how to iron his pants. He truly did a nice job. I was pleased that he is learning the ironing lesson already, and hopefully he'll also learn the lesson that it's easier to fold the clothes and put them away nicely the first time!

He takes after his mom...or is it his dad?

When I was a kid, I loved reading books to my class or putting on puppet shows for them. I was never afraid of being in front of the other kids or making presentations and that lasted through my college years. My kindergarten teacher so enjoyed the shows that I would put on that I got to go back every year and present to her class every year through my eighth grade year. HT got to experience a very similar event this past week. One of our best friends is his former preschool teacher (he attended the public preschool program at the elementary up the street). She got to hear him read at church about a month ago, and was very impressed at how well he read for his age and that he was so comfortable in front of everyone. She contacted his teacher and made arrangements for him to come and read to her class. According to the adults present, he did a great job! In fact, some of the kids complained that they couldn't see the pictures so he put the book on his lap facing them and read looking at the words upside down! At the end, he asked the class a couple of questions to make sure they had been paying attention (I can only imagine how that worked with 3 year olds)! I asked him who gave him that idea and he responded no one, that's just what you do when you read a book to a class. I told him that maybe he was destined to be a teacher some day...taking after his Dad!

Our week

Another week has come and gone! I worked every day and we had five ball games, a ball practice, a karate lesson, and a late night work session for my husband. In spite of that, we actually got to have a nice family dinner on Tuesday as that evening was completely clear on our calendar. JC and JR played their games in the rain today, and both lost. HT had a rough morning, and he and I left after JR's game was finished. Right now my wonderful husband is upstairs taking a nap, and all of the kids are completely lounging around watching TV. I don't mind today. First of all, it's raining, secondly everyone is exhausted, thirdly, they've had lot's time outdoors running around, and fourthly (is that a word?) I don't even allow them to turn the TV on very often, let alone spend an entire day in front of it. Tomorrow is the First Communion of JC's best friend (the daughter of some of our dear friends) and we get to partake in the celebration afterward. Another full week of work for me, but I suspect this could basically be the end. After all, there are only 17 days left!

Mother's Day

Today the sun was out and it was a beautiful day...just as Mother's Day should be! We spent the day at my parent's house along with my sister, both grandmothers and an aunt. I'm so blessed to have all of these wonderful women in my life. They've all taught me so many things over the course of my life, and I'm so glad my daughter, especially, gets to know all of them. Happy Mother's Day to all!

Opening Day

Yesterday, for the first time in years, our little league's opening day games and parade were held on schedule. It was a very long day, but we all had fun. Since so many of our friends agree to coach during the season, I was in charge of photographing many many different players throughout the parade, and then we had a full day of games. Immediately following the opening ceremonies, JC played a scrimmage against the parents of her team. We then went to a ragball game coached by our best friends, and because of dual coaching roles I had to step in and assist with coaching duties. Unfortunately, JR and HT played their games at the same time, and neither had a terribly successful day. JR's team lost by eight runs and he struck out several times, and HT's team also lost. He also struck out twice, and his devotion to the sport just isn't quite there right now. After those games, we attended a double header of another friend's games and then headed home to prepare for our "opening day party". It was very nice to have a mostly rain free day (we still needed the umbrellas briefly during the boys' games) and it's nice to have the season underway!

You'll never guess...

In a stunning new development, it's another rainy day here! I didn't get a chance to post yesterday, which was the first beautifully sunny day, in, well, I don't remember anymore how long it's been! I also worked all day yesterday, and we had two ball practices and two scout meetings as well. Sadly, dinner was a bowl of cereal when ever a person could squeeze it in. On the upside, I did manage to make sure that everyone DID squeeze in a bowl of cereal and no one went hungry!

I'm a little concerned about the next two weeks. I am scheduled to work. Every. Day. I don't think I would be so overwhelmed about it if it wasn't this time of year where all of our evenings are packed to the brim with ball games and end of year activities. Don't misunderstand, I know that there are millions of families who deal with this all the time...this is the only way they've functioned for years. However, one of my strengths is acknowledging my weaknesses, and stress management is definitely a weakness of mine. I want to enjoy time, not just wish it to be over so I can relax. Definitely something I have to work on. I did explain to the kids this morning that I'll be working the next two weeks and that we ALL have to make some extra efforts to keep things running smoothly around here.

My goal today is to get the next two weeks off to a good start with a clean house...so I guess I better get off the computer and get to it!

More of the same

It's raining today. I really don't mind rain, but this is really getting to be a little bit ridiculous. Last night it finally rained at the "right" time and ball practices were canceled. We all had dinner together as a family, and I love that! I love having the kids tell me about their days, and it's so cute when they start to quiz my husband and I about ours. We also played a game, and had time to read not one, but TWO chapters in our book. It really felt wonderful!

JR had an orthodontist appointment yesterday. I had to smile to myself because as we were leaving he commented to me, "I can't believe it's time to go again. It feels like I was just there. Time is flying by!" Oh, he has no idea! There are so many indications of how he's growing up and I'm so proud of him. He is also now using rubber bands for his teeth which is new for him. He's very excited about it, but also commented this morning that his teeth and jaw were hurting. Yep, that's what happens!

Officially underway

Ball season has officially begun in the house. JC had her first game last evening. It was pretty miserable as far as the weather, but we let the boys stay in the van and play their DS. It was fun to watch JC bat. She has such an incredibly small strike zone and was able to get two walks! The way things are done in this league is that everyone gets to bat but not necessarily play the field the entire game. JC played outfield the second half of the game. The girls brought home a 15-6 victory and she had a great time. Next weekend will be the parade and the boys will begin their seasons on Saturday as well. Of course, they are calling for rain, but what else is new?

Rain, rain, and more rain.

I had mentioned at the beginning of last week that it was supposed to rain all week. Of course I assumed that would mean that we were going to be "ball practice free" all week. How foolish I am! Two of the nights my child's team was the only team out there practicing, but they were indeed out there. We still had our ball commitments every evening. I was a little astounded (and a little annoyed) but I recognize that coaches are getting desperate at this point. Today JC is supposed to have her first game and JR is supposed to have practice this afternoon. I say "supposed" because of course it is going to rain again today (and tomorrow, and Tuesday)! So I guess we'll just see what the day and week bring.

I worked four out of the five days last week, and we are still attempting to adjust to life with both of us working. At least I wasn't trying to pack for a weekend away this time, but yesterday was spent running around doing an entire list of errands that I'd been putting off weeks. We spent literally the entire day accomplishing things, and we also saved a lot of gas by doing it in one day so I guess it all works out in the end. I'm not scheduled at all this week, and I'm so cautiously optimistic that I can find my house again!

Oh, and dad is continuing to rest and improve slightly at home. He still sounds so weak when I talk to him, but mom says that part of that is the timing of when I talk to him. We had hoped to get up there this weekend, but schedules got kind of flipped around, and Mom says that he isn't really up to it anyway, but we are hoping to get up next weekend!