Mama-luia

~1~ I'm rather behind the eight ball on the first day of school blog post, seeing as though we've been at it for over a week, but oh my, what a week it was. On the night of Labour Day, my husband and I stayed up much later than we normally do getting our little homeschool nook in order. I wanted very much to have it look appealing to the boys because this is our first year formally homeschooling and I want to have them excited about it all. Anyway, we managed to create this little space: and I was quite pleased with it.  The boys each have their own IKEA-hack shelf with their daily read-alouds picked our for them, as well as a little calendar to learn more about the seasons and weather (mostly for Isaiah) and laminated prayer cards of the Morning Offering, the Act of Contrition and the Anima Christi. Oh, and the lunar cycle there for good measure. We love the moon a lot around here. Anyway, I went to bed that night thinking I'd sleep the sleep of ...

(So it appears my blog ate my homework. I thought I published a question-and-answer style recap of 2013 but it has disappeared. It probably wasn't hugely interesting so let's carry on.) Welcome to 2014,  which so far has brought us a wonderful visit from my parents,  a nifty week where I took all three kids to the library and the weekly early-years activity centre  (aren't I energetic? And field-trip-oriented?)  and a wee gathering at our home involving a mere 19 kids or so. And then... this. (Photo by Noah) A stomach bug which emerged on Sunday right after the guests left and knocked each one of us out one by one. (Minus the baby. Breast milk knocks her out, but in the good sleepy way.) (Noah on his name day, still sick but insisting we eat our dinner off china plates. He let go of his dream of tortiere and settled on pancakes with blueberries and whipped cream, and bacon too. Always bacon.) (We built a...

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...

What a week we've had! Sunday the 13th, I was just getting a few things organized for Mass, and Noah and I were playing some music on youtube; all was normal and well. He went very still for one moment and then promptly threw up. I was a little concerned, naturally, but because he was playing so well and acting otherwise normally, I didn't think too much of it. We went downstairs to eat our breakfast and he requested a drink of water. That came up right away, too. And so began a several-day long journey. Noah couldn't keep anything down and was so shockingly listless that by Tuesday morning, I insisted we go to the doctor. Patrick agreed. The doctor checked him out, told us to give him some Children's Advil and Children's Gravol (for his slight fever and nausea/vomiting) and come back two days later if he didn't improve. My poor heart worried and fretted as I sweated, mopped up vomit, held clammy hands that were noticeably and frighteningly less chubby,...

About two weeks ago, I was with Patrick as we were driving through downtown Halifax. We went past a rather posh store that often has really interesting window displays. I curiously looked, only to be disgusted with what I saw: Several undressed mannequins with brightly-coloured cutouts of hands taped to each breast, and the following words, written in large print -- "Have YOU felt your boobs lately?" Far less noticeable in the display were a few pink ribbons, signifying breast cancer awareness. Given that someone I love is currently battling breast cancer, I was so angered at the insensitivity of this display. While I think encouraging women to do breast self-exams is important, I was so disgusted with how they did it; it made something as devastating as breast cancer somehow sexy ?! Also, if you're a Facebook user, perhaps you remember about four or five months ago when women curiously had a single word, a colour, as their Facebook status. The colour, it turns o...

This week involved a few tears and many prayers as my dad underwent a 'standard procedure' to determine what, if anything, was wrong with his heart. Really, when it's your daddy, the words standard procedure mean nothing when you hear heart as well. Your mind races to different possibilities and you find yourself simultaneously panicked and trying to ignore your own thoughts as the Holy Spirit whispers over and over, "trust, trust." We are so grateful that all went smoothly and there is nothing serious to be concerned about. He is doing extremely well, and seemed so calm and completely himself when he came from the hospital on Tuesday. He smiled and watched in delight at his three grandkids playing in his yard, playing in the sandbox and pouring buckets of water everywhere. I saw a smile I have seen many times, but never knew exactly what it meant until not so long ago. When I sang a solo in my honour choir's Christmas concert -- in German -- Dad was t...