Mama-luia

Outside my window... My "lawn" has become a jungle of weeds and the sky is rather overcast. The cool overcast morning makes me think of two of my favourite things -- autumn, and the East Coast. I always tell my Ontario friends and neighbours with a grin, "Oh I LOVE this weather! It's just like home!" when it's grey and drizzly. They think I'm nuts. But my hair has changed it's texture, moving away from the Atlantic Ocean and the resulting moisture in the air. I miss my East Coast hair. I am thinking... about this delicious blueberry muffin I am eating, which I made, thankyouverymuch, from blueberries I picked with my children. I felt like Little Sal's mom that day from my beloved Robert McCloskey book, and unlike Little Sal's mom, I didn't manage to lose any of them to bears! That blueberry-picking day will go down in history as "the day mommy actually planned and executed something something fun!" Indeed, Noah excitedly s...

It'a high time for another happy edition of What's New. Why? BECAUSE my kids are finally seeming to be healthy! For like, two whole weeks now. After about ten weeks or more of sickness, I can't tell you how grateful I am for this new change. There have been pockets of happiness and peace during this long, drawn-out ordeal, but don't let my cheerful blogging voice trick you into thinking I'm some highly competent nurse-maid. For instance, in a meeting about a month ago with my kids' principal -- no, they weren't in trouble, I had requested it to ask some questions about curriculum, et cetera -- I blurted out, "I hope you don't think I have Munchausen by proxy , given how much time they have missed. BELIEVE me, my strong preference is to have them all happily at school." She looked stunned that I would even suggest such a thing, and I realized I probably sounded Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. And so I came home and cried some angsty tears be...

It's time for another edition of What's New, starring, My Family! Elijah It was because of him that I decided to write this post... because... one week ago today, he took his first steps! After months of cruising around the furniture, and letting go for a step or two, he took off and walked across the living room into his father's arms. I was in the kitchen and heard SCREAMS coming from the adjoining living room, so I dashed over, thinking the older kids were bludgeoning each other, only to behold the last half of the blessed milestone. He was terrified by the excited screams from his siblings, though, so the whole event ended in tears. Thankfully, they were quickly soothed by me as I came to pick him up and congratulate him on his Very Big Boy feat. {Now is where I shed a wistful tear for the fleetingness of my baby's babyhood.} Elijah is such a social child! I thinks he finds his mornings while Anna is at school rather dull. Of course, I like to play w...

Our little (actually, not-so-little!) baby joined our family June 13th at 11 o'clock at night. After pleading with him on my blog of all places , he took the message to heart and decided to join us on the Feast of St. Anthony. After days and days of prodromal labor, I guess my body was well on the path to have him with relative ease. (Please note the word ' relative' .) It was a great labor because we left in good time for the hospital (big sigh of relief!) and the contractions were quite efficient so I made progress quickly... but not quickly enough to be scary, y'know? And just when my water broke, when things really picked up, my beautiful kind doula friend walked in the door. She was a God-send when it came time to push the little fellow out. Again, though, not a little fellow. A 10 lb. 2 oz., 23 inch long fellow. Whoa. Our biggest baby to date was Anna, at only 8 lb. 3oz. The difference of nearly two whole pounds explains a lot of why I was so ...

The last time I wrote a What's New post was almost two years ago (here are the other ones . Tempus fugit!). I love these funny little snippets of our life, and of course, so much changes from month to month, let alone from year to year!. Patrick Somehow I neglected to mention on the blog that he's finally finished his Master's degree! What a triumph and a relief this is for all of us! He had been working on this program since Noah was only six weeks old. When he signed up he didn't have work, so more schooling seemed not only more feasible but even potentially necessary to help him find employment. Of course, he did find work soon thereafter, and that work developed into several promotions, more demands being made on his time, not to mention the birth of two more children, as well as the gestation of another. Hence, it took almost seven years. But he did it! Celebrating in style at a local restaurant  In other news, he continues his work with LifeS...

It's been official for a month now. We've quit homeschooling and have enrolled both of our boys into school. It has been a decision brewing for some time now, and after exploring lots of 'band-aid' solutions -- hiring help with the housework, rejigging Patrick's work schedule to pitch in more, afternoons 'off' for mom, screen time, no screen time, co-ops both run by me and run by someone else -- it was obvious that it wasn't working. We are very blessed because our particular school is quite small, has exceptional teachers, and a distinctly Catholic identity. While it's not perfect, and I'm sure the ideological anti-school naysayers would be quick to point that out, neither was our homeschooling experience. In fact, it was far from perfect. I felt constantly overburdened and anxious, the kids were under-stimulated or at least under-structured; in short, it didn't work for us. But the good news is... They now bound out of bed excitedly...

January We began the month with our traditional house blessing on the feast of the Epiphany. It seemed bittersweet as we realized it would be the last time we would bless this particular house. (Do we lose the chalk every year? Patrick's using a coloured pencil instead). I set no  New Year's resolutions except to sell our house, and hopefully have a new baby. Big enough resolutions in and of themselves, when you think about it! February Anyone recognize what those little green stickers are? Here's a hint: Noah rifled through my nightstand, found these and did some artwork with his peculiar Catholic medium. Here's another hint: In February we found out we were expecting our third child. God be praised! Also, this fun day occurred. We came home from Kent Building Supplies where my Dad works (where I had gone to get discounted flooring to redo our laundry room) and Patrick raced to the van to help me get the kids out as soon ...

Anna Therese Marie Born October 26th, 2013 She is healthy, we are blessed, God is good.

A more PG foray into blogging. Every Friday I take Noah to a little preschool program in our community. He loves it, I mean loves it, and I enjoy being able to take him, while my generous mother stays home with Isaiah. It's something we both look forward to. Recently a public health nurse showed up on the scene. During the first hour, the moms sit out and drink coffee and gab. Occasionally a guest speaker comes and gives us some tips on parenting. I always would prefer my silence and/or gab-time, but I humor them by listening; I'm polite like that. Anyway the public health nurse came to tell us how to pack healthy lunches for our kids. I was mildly interested, looked at the Canada's Food Guide she passed around, and nodded vehemently as part of the pack, "hand-washing makes all the difference!" Then the nurse got off on a tangent about sex-ed. She gives the lectures at the local schools, and was regaling us with a 'hysterical' story of a child p...

Just in case you were wondering what I meant when I said things are 'a bit hectic' right now, I have some photographic evidence.  My kitchen floor.  Every pantry item, pot, pan and dish in boxes everywhere. Unless of course, said boxes were ransacked Isaiah. Patrick diligently painting the cabinets.  Who knew they'd need to be primed, then painted, and then given a second coat of paint? My kitchen counters.  One of the few things I am somewhat obsessed with is having them clear.  Clear work space, clear mental space. This seems to work with me. * This chaos has continued for five days and we're not quite done yet. Also, because the wet paint is a magnet to run-full-tilt-into-walls-type toddlers, as well as the boxes of dishes (including our irreplaceable china!), the kids and I have been out of the house a lot. A lot . (Which maybe sounds fun, and can be at times, but it's hard to keep on to...

My true love gave himself. . . an arterial wound in the palm. (If you have a queasy stomach, carry on elsewhere in blogosphere, because there is about to be a lot of blogging about blood.) On the morning of the 26th, the day before our three guests were coming from Madonna House, we booked the day off from family functions and busy-ness to get down to brass tacks and get our home ready for guests. I went over to the shelf where I keep my cookbooks in search of a good dessert recipe using the things I had on hand (excellent things: eggs, chocolate, whipping cream, butter, sugar! I was thinking pudding, naturally). I pulled a cookbook down, and CRASH, the entire shelf fell off the wall. This is where I had been hanging my pots and pans, and (sigh) where I stored all my expensive gluten-free flours in glass containers! Being that we have learned to be paranoid about careful with broken glass, I had to contain the kids in the living room while Patrick courageously swept up th...