Zoo Week in Review

This past week was a busy one - but then most weeks are - this just had a different flavor of busyness.  There was a storm that blew through the city and dropped a little rain, leaving the air with a cooler feel and the skies darker.  Around here, things just felt stormy as well.

A few tidbits:
There is almost $4000 damage to our van from the recent hailstorm here, but everyone has their car in the shops already so we are waiting a week or two to send ours in.  At least it wasn't totaled.  Some of our friends found themselves car shopping once the insurance had a gander at their cars.  For now we are just a big gray golfball, hurling through the city.

We endured a fair bit of drama from Ben's school this week. It seems that my jokester son and a couple of his friends had tried to reach out and include a child they judged as lonely, which can aparently get a person in trouble for "Bullying".  The school conceded that it was probably more like "Pestering", which, knowing my son, is not so far out of his league.  To me, Bullying encompasses threats, fear, and physical harm.  Pestering, on the other hand has more to do with unwanted fart noises and other 13 year old boy jokes.  So after many hours of discussions, phone calls, written accounts, emails, and commiserating with other parents, the issue is declared DONE and we can all move on.  But it sure ate up a lot of my week.

My birthday was this week!  (I'm not 40 yet.  That's all I'll say!)  A few years ago I managed to finally give up my childish idea that my birthday should be a national holiday and just came to expect a normal day with a few nice surprises in it.  And so it was.  Mostly.  A friend brought me chocolate, my mother in law gave me a little money to spend on myself, and Paisley stopped by with a chai latte and flowers.  Jay took me to lunch and got me more flowers and a card.  (Lest you think that was all he did, he also schlepped all around my favorite mall with me last Saturday and got me a nice pair of shoes.)  So my day was going along swimmingly until I opened my email.

In my email was a notice from the older kids school (yes, the one I was already having issues with this week) informing the families that they had selected a new campus.  Yay for them, Boo for me.  This new campus is two and a half times further from us than the current one.  I already spend 2.5 hours per day just in getting my kids to and from schools and the thought of extending that...  Ugh.  How can I look at my younger children, learning about the world and developing their bodies and tell them that they have to spend 3-4 hours per day strapped down in the car?

For this and other reasons, this just would not be a feasible arrangement for us.  So I proceeded to freak out entirely. (Which involved crying for about 2 days.)

Since then I have calmed down quite a bit, and all is not settled with this move for this school.  There is still quite a bit of time before I will really need to panic (or otherwise figure out what to do) and I am resolved once again to let the future be the future.

In other news around here, Molly has added in several baby signs.  She signs: nurse, eat, drink, dog, thank you, cat, bird, more, shoes, and I think she has done all done and blanket at least a couple times too.  She has grasped this concept that she can communicate with us so readily that she wants to be able to tell us more.  She will fling her arms around trying to tell us something, but she can't figure out which sign to use.  Then there was grocery shopping. Because she can tell us what she wants now, she is more likely to get it, so she got so frustrated when we walked through an aisle with lots of cups and she couldn't understand why I wouldn't give her a drink when she signed it over and and over!

She also really likes baths and was on a mission to get one today.  She fell into the (empty) tub once, and then later managed to remove her diaper and try to climb into the toilet while Posy was in the bathroom curling her hair.

Molly also experienced her first oreo cookie today.  I hoped she would get all chocolated and gross, but she was a pretty dainty eater.  She first removed the top cookie, proving she is a genius, and licked at the filling a little.
 

She decided she didn't like that a whole lot, so she scraped that off the bottom cookie and just worked on eating that part.



Finally, she got to the cookie part.  She made a little slobbery mess with it, but not too bad.  I guess the real mess with have to wait for her First Birthday Cake.  (Two more weeks!)


In other news Max and Tessa got rave reviews at their teacher conferences, although Max's teacher said he has a hard time remembering not to sing all the time.

Jay hurt his back again, and has been hobbling around in pain all week.

And I managed to mess up the garage a little more in and effort to clean the garage.  Which I know sounds counter-intuitive, but is really progress.  I have to dig out all the clutter-infection to clean the wound so to speak.

And that, if you can believe it, is just a small sampling of what went on around here this week.

I can't make this stuff up.

This morning I got to sleep in. I got nearly 20 minutes of extra shut-eye and it is a good thing because I needed every single minute of it to get me through my morning.

Lily woke up around 6:45 and I changed her into a new bumGenius and put her jammies back on. A few moments later my 11 year old came up to me and pulled up his shirt, revealing a lovely speckled rash. Hmm... that is a trip to the doctor for sure. I already was keeping my six year old home, she needed a chance to sleep in because she had been up coughing much of the night.

I took some of the remaining kids to their respective schools and returned home in time to grab a slice of banana bread while I waited on hold for the doctor's office. When I finally got through, they gave me an appointment for both sickies, but I had to be there in 15 minutes. Only enough time to brush my teeth and grab kids and go. I should have changed Lily's diaper then, but it had only been a little over an hour at this point. Hindsight is 20/20.

I didn't bring my diaper bag, just my purse. My diaper bag was under a box (don't ask why) and with my hands full and running out the door... aren't those famous last words?

So we wait in the doctors office. And wait. There is some problem with my health insurance that takes a while to unravel, but eventually it is smoothed over. And as a pungent scent hits me I realize I am going to regret not having my diaper bag with me.

Normally I would have stashed a diaper, a wet bag, and some wipes in my car, But as luck would have it, I cleaned out my car yesterday and removed everything so that my son could vacuum it out.

My 11 year old is diagnosed with strep and the 6 year old is treated for asthma, which is a new thing in and of itself, and then the 6 year old realizes that this is a Very Special Day at school and she should not miss it. (She missed the last Very Special Day like this.) However she is still in her jammies, not in a school uniform. So I call my mother in law, who goes to my house and gets her uniform. I drop Tessa off at her class - in her red and white striped pants, orange baseball shirt and flip flops and leave to take the rest of the kids home. My MIL bring Tessa her uniform and shoes and Tessa gets to participate in her Very Special Day in spite of being a little tired.

I drop off prescriptions, only adding about 5 minutes to the total morning and head for home and a clean diaper, finally. Lily is changed and asleep in no time.

Then the phone rings. The shoes we left for Tessa to change into are too small. So I have to make yet one more trip to the school to bring Tessa her correct shoes. But Lily is finally asleep! Surely Tessa can live with the shoes she has (the school secretary says she is back in her flip flops since the other ones were so small) until Lily wakes up from her nap.

About 20 minutes later, Lily wakes up and we head out the door - again - to take Tessa her shoes. As I walk towards Tessa across the playground after lunchtime, I realize that I did not send Tessa with either a lunch or lunch money. I totally forgot since she wasn't going to go to school that day until we decided on it later. So I guess I owe the school the price of a lunch now.

And all of that was before noon.

I need a nap. Seriously.

Colorized

I learned how to colorize a photo! I had had the capabilities all along and didn't even know it. Here is my first shot:



Yes, I fully confess I upped the blue in her eyes. But the original color photo was taken under such yellow lighting (stained glass) that it really muted the blue in her eyes.

Some weeks are like that.

Sometimes it is a doozy of a day that can get you, sometimes it is a whole week. I have been extra busy mostly because of a week I had last week - it started of with a bang. Tessa came home from school with a fever the bloomed into full blown croup, and by the end of the day Max had it too.

On Wednesday the littles were still sick, nothing new there. But then James was hit by a car on his way to school! Talk about a heart stopping phone call. Thankfully, he was the one who called me - laying in the street, waiting for the paramedics, he called me. So I knew he couldn't have been too hurt. Still, I rushed over there and saw my poor baby in a lot of pain, being loaded into an ambulance. After a short stay in the ER, we discovered that he is very bruised and has a hairline fracture in a lumbar vertebra. There isn't a whole lot they could do for that, just tell him to get lots of rest and not jar his spine around.

Thursday began bright and beautiful with a visit from the vomit fairy. Three kids down with that one. It was a short virus though - only about ten hours. But still... little people who cannot understand that we puke in the toilet or a bowl can make a HECK of a mess.

It was interesting to discover that Max had some kind of vomit sensor for Lily. He would say, "Mom, Lily is going to throw up!" and 30 seconds later, I kid you not, Lily would fountain up her stomach contents. By the end of the day I learned to listen to him when he said that.

While it sounded like a horrible week, it was an easy week to focus on the good and to be thankful. James accident could have been so much worse in so many different ways. But he is fine (if sore) and the kids are all well again.

R.I.P. Ringlets

I cut Tessa's hair. It was so dry on the ends, it had to be done. But I hoped that cutting it would remove some weight and the curls would perk up more.

I was wrong.

She just has (lovely) deep waves. The ringlets are GONE.

Before:



After:



A Sad Goodbye:



She is still my vivacious beautiful Tessa, she just has a little less hair to show for it. But she loves her hair and it is much easier for her to deal with now.

Tooth Fairy Scam

Tessa lost her first tooth a couple days ago. She was so excited, she actually pulled it out herself! We got it all ready in an envelope and put it under her pillow, but a few minutes later she came to me and said, "I want to take it to school for show and tell before I give it to the tooth fairy." So I said okay, and told her to go put it in her backpack.

Then last night, she did put it under her pillow. I didn't remember it was there and apparently my husband didn't either, so when she woke up and checked, she was just destroyed. The tooth fairy hadn't come.

So Jay went and got a couple of dollars and went to go help her look for it and see if maybe the Tooth Fairy had just left the tooth, since it was her first tooth and all, she might want to keep it. He reached behind her bed and pulled out the $2 and said, "Oh, here it is!"

Tessa replied, "No, that is just the money I took out of my piggy bank."

So he had to leave her with the $2 and we have to try this ALL OVER AGAIN tonight. (Drat! Why do we never have any cash around here?)

That Tooth Fairy, she is a busy gal! Sometimes it can take a few days before she picks up your tooth!

Little stinker! She is going to get paid twice!

Field Trip

Today was a lovely day for a field trip. I dropped Max off with his Nina (Godmother) and Lily and I went to join Tessa's kindergarten class at the science center.

But a simple trip is never nearly as easy as it sounds. Halfway there I realized that I had no cash and was going to have to park downtown. I called Jay, the Human Map of Phoenix and asked him where the nearest bank was. Money, check. On to the parking garage.

We drive a large vehicle. A very large vehicle. We drive a Ford 15 passenger van (with the back bench taken out to make room for multitudes of stuff) and it is very tall. I am not sure how tall, but I know that I have squeezed into parking garages that said 6 feet 10 inches and have hit the bar in ones that say 6 feet 6 inches. I have been to the Science Center many, many times. They have a nice parking garage that the van fits in and, when you get your ticket validated at the science center, it only cost $1 to park. Not too bad! But today when I pulled in to park in that garage, the bar said 6 feet 6 inches. WHY ON EARTH would they lower the allowed car height? I know my van can fit in there, but now it won't fit under their stupid bar at the entrance.

This is the SECOND time this has happened to me this year. Just a few weeks ago I had to take Max to a specialist appointment at Phoenix Children's Hospital. I have parked in their garage a dozen times at least but they had changed their allowed height and put a bar in the entrance that measured 6 feet 6 inches. In fact, that is where I learned that I couldn't fit under it. Shh, don't tell. At Phoenix Children's Hospital though, there is NO OTHER PATIENT PARKING. None. Zip... well, except for handicapped. I looked and looked for a place to legally park and could not find anything that did not have either a handicapped sign or say "Reserved for Dr So-and-so". So I parked in Dr So-and-so's space and hoped that I didn't get towed. What is a girl to do when there is NO OTHER PARKING?

Anyway, back to today. I couldn't park in the Science center parking garage so I had to go across the street and park (for TEN dollars!) in the Civic Plaza garage. Whatever. We made it in on piece and got to take part in the field trip.

We used to be members of the Science Center, but now I remember why we are not any more. First they charge you either membership or entrance fee. No problem (except that it is super expensive!) but then they have taken up huge chunks of their floor and exhibit space for special features that you have to pay extra for. So even if you are a member you will have to fork over a whole 'nother wad of cash to get access to the few exhibits that have not already been there for more than ten years. To me it sounds like a bit of a r-i-p o-f-f. Take floor space away from the membership paying public and put it all towards events that their membership doesn't cover access to. I was actually thinking that we should renew our membership just the other day so that I could take Max there more often. We won't be doing that. They took away the little children's area to put in... you guessed it, a paid exhibit.

But the field trip itself was lovely. The kindergarteners had their sixth grade buddies with them (so Tessa really didn't spend much time with me, but she wanted me there anyway) and they got to see an Imax movie as well. I kind of got to watch it, I saw the parts that I could see when Lily wasn't grabbing the 3-D glasses off my face. Then we all went to the park for lunch. A bit of an adventure, but a lovely day nonetheless!

Smells like What?

This morning we picked up a few groceries from Trader Joes. On the way out I noticed the real evergreen wreaths by the door and said, "Mmm... lets smell the wreaths!"

I took a deep breath and they smelled so lovely and fresh and evergreen-y.

Tessa smelled them, wrinkled up her nose and said incredulously, "They smell like TREES!"

I'm not sure what she was expecting!

Christmas Greetings from the Groft Zoo! Things are crazy around here as always, but here is a brief update about what we have been up to.

Paisley – A senior at Bourgade this year, she is looking forward to turning 18 in March and moving out to begin living the college life. She is working two jobs right now as well as keeping her grades up. She directs two children’s choirs and is working at a skateboarding shop. In her free time she shops and hangs out with her friends.

James – 15 now and itching to be 16 and drive! He is active in the youth group and continues to make trips a few times a year to help build houses for the poor in Mexico. He plays bass, guitar, and piano as much as he can, and has been performing monthly at an Art Walk downtown.

Posy – Nearly a teenager! She will be 13 in February. Posy loves to help people, she is always at her Nana’s helping her out, and she is invaluable around here. She works very hard in school to keep up her grades. She loves to read and hang out with her friends. She is involved in two choirs, one with her Grandpa and one at our parish.

Ben – 10 years old and always has his nose in a book! He has a wonderful imagination and way with words. He is always a joy to be around. He started band in school this year and is playing the trombone.

Tessa – started Kindergarten this year! She is so grown up and is definitely all Girl! She loves to play dolls and house and has discovered arts & crafts. Her favorite activity right now is coloring. She loves to give her creations to anyone she cares for. She recently began violin lessons.

Max – turns 3 on Christmas Eve. He loves to talk, although his lisp makes him hard to understand sometimes. He is very loving and very much a little homebody. He also began violin lessons with Tessa. We were blessed to find a lovely teacher who is working patiently with both kids.

Lily – the newest Groftling. Lily is now 3 months old, she was born on September 14, delivered by her daddy because the midwife hadn’t yet arrived! Thankfully the midwife arrived only a few moments later. She is a beautiful baby who loves to be swaddled and snuggled. Her siblings all adore her.

Jay & Jenni – Jay is working hard testing tanks and every spare moment Is taken up by singing. He is putting together a CD and hopes to have it out early in 2008! Jenni stays home with the kids and tries to keep the peace and keep the house from being condemned. She sews, scrapbooks, and reads when she can but those times come seldom with a tiny baby in the house.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you! May you be blessed and safe in the coming months!

Amazing!

This past Sunday, while we were waiting for mass to begin, Max was watching the violinist warm up. So I let him go out into the aisle to watch her a little closer. She motioned to him to come and touch her violin.

He walked over, ever so tentatively, and touched it. Then she handed him the bow and showed him how to move it over the strings. While he did that she helped him play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". He was enchanted! Then she looked up to me and said, "I have started children as young as two and a half before."

Well, I thought, we can't just pass on an opportunity like this! This past summer I had started trying to find a Suzuki teacher for Max and Tessa but they were all too far away so I gave up. This nice lady may not be a Suzuki teacher, but I figured she had experience with very small children. So Jay and I talked and decided that we would do whatever it took to get the kids into lessons with her.

I called her last night. I am so amazed at how blessed we are.

• She will start them this Saturday.
• She will come to OUR HOUSE to teach them.

AND... (drumroll please) she is certified in the Suzuki method.

I am totally doing the happy dance!

Home Run!

Tessa's first year of t-ball was a big success. She started out the year not knowing anything about it at all. The first time she hit she immediately ran out after the ball along with the other team. And she asked me why some of the kids on her team (actually the other team) were wearing a different color. :)

But she enjoyed hanging out with her new friends and by the end of the season she was catching and fielding balls and knew which way to run when she hit it.

A Tessa Funny

Scene - Jay is fixing the downstairs toilet.

Tessa: Why did Jesus create Toilets?

Jay: Actually God gave us the brains to invent toilets, the kind of toilet we use was invented by a man named John Crapper.

Tessa: Did he know his name was a bad word?

A Blast from the Past

A friend bumped a post I had put up in October of 2002 on the NFP board. I wanted to save it here.

Here is my letter to Deacon Dr. Bob, an abreviated version of our story:

Dear Deacon Dr. Bob,

I hope this autumn is finding you well. The weeks have slipped past quickly since we met you at the St. Joseph Conference in Long Beach. It was such a privilege to hear you speak and to introduce you to our miracle baby. Enclosed is the picture we took with you and Tessa, and we wanted to tell you a little bit of our story and how we came to hear you in the first place.

First a little background about us: We are Jay and Jenni G. We got married right after high school – and after our first child was born – in 1990. Three more children followed about every two years and in 1994 I (Jenni) became Catholic after growing up in a Baptist home. After our fourth child, Jay had a vasectomy. We knew the Church taught against it, so we didn’t even consult with a priest, but we thought that we were justified because I have VERY bad morning sickness, requiring IV fluids for 3 months each time and leaving me pretty much incapacitated for the entire first half of the pregnancy. We feared for my health, and baby number 4 had been an NFP “oops” because we hadn’t been disciplined enough to follow the rules. We went on with our lives, very contented cafeteria Catholics.

Then in the summer of 1999, we decided to move from Phoenix, Arizona to Louisville, Kentucky. We had always talked about doing it and decided that now was the time. Jay has some family there, and we really felt “called” to make this move. Everyone thought we were crazy. We had 9, 7, 4, and 2 year old children and here we were selling our house, Jay was quitting his job and we were moving across the country because we FELT like it.

On October 8, 1999, we set out with our family and all our belongings with no idea of the journey God had in mind for us.

Once in Louisville, Jay got two jobs, we moved into a tiny little house, and I resumed our home schooling. Fall set in and the days were dark and chilly. Jay was working all day at one job and then again for about 6 hours in the middle of the night. He was exhausted and I was feeling isolated and depressed.

I met another home schooling mother who was a former Catholic and she asked me to come with her to her (huge) church’s Wednesday night program. They had classes for the kids and a worship service for the s. For me, it was a way to get out of the house and a comfort to be surrounded by the kind of songs and preaching I had been brought up with. I was so lonely; I desired to know Jesus better, to learn about the bible, and to grow in my faith. This seemed like a good way to do it. Slowly I began to doubt my faith as a Catholic. While I was still going to mass on Sundays with our family, my heart was no longer there. I had questions about my Catholic faith, but I didn’t seek out any answers, I just assumed they weren’t there.

My best friend in Phoenix called me one day and told me she had recently read a book, it was a novel, but it convicted her to start saying the Rosary daily. She asked me if I would commit to do it too. I told her that I was no longer sure if I believed in things like the rosary, that I really just wanted to stick to the Bible only. Poor Kathi was blown away, she knew I had been depressed, but had no idea what kind of effect it had had on my faith. She told me she would pray for me and urged me to order the books and tapes she had gotten for free from the Mary foundation.

It took me a while and a few more gentle urgings from her (and probably lots of prayer) but I eventually did order Pierced By a Sword, Conceived Without Sin, House of Gold, and all of the Mary foundation’s tapes.

Oh boy, I bet that UPS guy had never held in his hand such a life-changing package.

I sat down and read Pierced in less than two days. I think my poor kids had cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner those two days! The next morning I woke up at 5:30 am and said the first rosary I ever said by myself. It was like a whole bucket of grace was dumped right on my head that morning and I have never been quite the same.

Through the next days and weeks, Jay and I listened to the tapes, some alone and some together. I was very moved my Scott Hahn’s conversion story and began seeking answers to the questions that had nagged my mind, now knowing that I could confidently search.

One afternoon, Jay was at home and had all of our tax stuff spread out across the living room floor. As he was sorting it he was listening to “The Secret to Happy Families” with the headphones. About half way through he took off the headphones and asked me if I had listened to that tape. I told him I had not. He said, “You have to listen to this one, it is not what you think it is about!”

He came to me after finishing the tape and said words I never would have believed would have come from his mouth. “I want to have more babies with you.”

Believe me I listened to that tape as fast as I could. No one had ever told me that it was a normal thing to continue to want children. I thought I was selfish and immature because even with four, I loved the thought of a new baby. We also recognized right away the effects the vasectomy had had on our marriage and our relationship. It was so much easier to simply use one another when fertility was removed from our union. It only took us about two days to decide that we needed to go to confession, and that we wanted to pursue a Vasectomy Reversal.

Due to financial stress and unemployment we moved back to Phoenix in March of 2000. The financial and emotional toll of our trip to Louisville had been steep, but the blessings we received were even bigger.

In a tremendously grace filled trip to New Braunfels, Texas in August of 2000, Jay had his vasectomy reversed.

We spent the next ten months desperately praying to be blessed again, dreading the thought that because of what we had done we may never have another child. But in June of 2001, we conceived. We were being blessed again.

Like with all my other pregnancies, I got very sick. I was in the emergency room with severe dehydration by 7 weeks along. By 11 weeks, they had to give me a PICC line, since I was blowing out my IV too fast. I remained on IV fluids until 21 weeks, when I was slowly weaned off of them. It was very hard on our whole family, but this time the sacrifice seemed so worth it and bearable for the sake of our little blessing.

On March 20, 2002, Therese Marie was born at 4:44 am weighing 8lbs, 8oz. We call her Tessa. Her brothers and sisters are delighted with her. They have repeatedly thanked us for giving them a little sister, and Benjamin (5 years old) wishes he could marry her. She has truly shown us what a gift life is.

We thank you so much for your part in “The Secret To Happy Families.” That tape has truly changed our lives.

God Bless You,
Jay and Jenni
Jenni
Wife of Jay, mom to Paisley-12,
James-10, Posy-7, Ben-5,
and Tessa-3/20/02

Just a Normal Wednesday

Day three with no car. The only thing good about that is that DH took the need for Air Conditioning very seriously and got it right in to get fixed. But I am stuck still.

We got the security system last night and installed it. Ahhhh, I cannot tell you the relief. Now I just have to figure out how to use it.

Max is being really cute right now. He is pushing his step stool up to each light switch and turning them on and off. Then he turns it off and moves on to the next one. He won't let me change his diaper (not that I am trying very hard) because he doesn't want me to take his feet pajamas off. He cries and throws a fit every day when I take those off him to get him dressed.

Yesterday was Tessa's birthday, we gave her a princess bike and a princess helmet. I would have taken a nice picture of her yesterday but I never got around to brushing her hair.

I feel nauseated. It toned down quite a bit for a week or so but I am having a bit of a relapse. What really stinks is that my body can't tell when I just need to burp, it thinks I am going to throw up. So I get this HUGE wave of nausea that has me dizzy and sweating, when all I need to do it release a tiny little burp and then I am fine.

So today I will just sit tight here in the house, maybe I will feel good enough to tackle the laundry a bit, and the kitchen. And if we get the car back (Please, God!) then we will go to the church soup supper and I won't have to make dinner.

Away in a Groft House (Our Christmas Card to You)

Away in a Groft house the littles are in bed.
The family’s all home and the kitten’s been fed.
The older kids fight over internet time
But all must be turned off by the ten o’clock chime.

Jay loves to sing and can be seen on TV,
Cantoring masses for homebound to see.
Testing underground tanks, he works hard outside,
We think he’s the best dad to be found worldwide!

Jenni makes rosaries and sells them online
Check out her website when you have the time!
She drives back and forth, lots of time in the van,
But she’ll snuggle down with a book when she can.

Paisley’s a junior and now she can drive
We pray every day that she gets home alive.
She’s super involved both at church and at school
She directs a kids’ choir, they all think she’s a jewel!

James is a freshman and doing so well,
Always wants to arrive long before the first bell.
He works on his music most every day,
Piano bass and guitar he is learning to play.

Posy’s in sixth grade; she’s getting so tall,
Childcare and housework – she helps with it all!
She loves shopping and movies and fashion and crafts,
Her quick wit and smile always bring us all laughs.

Ben is in third and he’s always outside
He walks and he skates or goes for a bike ride.
He likes to play game boy but still loves to read,
His mind and his body are growing like weeds!

Tessa is four and she sings in the choir,
She loves to dress up in her princess attire.
She talks all the time or at least so it seems,
She fills up our days with her bright, warm sunbeams.

Max will turn two on this Christmas Eve
'tween tempers and climbing he may not see three.
His blue eyes, they twinkle, his pink cheeks, they shine,
Climbs in bed with a passy with nary a whine.

Our hope is that Christmas brings with it much cheer,
Our prayer is for good health and happiness next year.
Remember the season’s about Jesus’ birth,
And we are the reason he came down to earth.

More Tessa:

As we were walking through the craft area in walmart, Tessa looked at all the fake flowers. After a moment she took a quick step back and asked, "Mom, do any of these flowers have bees in them?"

Tessa's Aspirations

A conversation Jay had with Tessa:

Tessa: I wish I could just die.

Jay: Why, Tessa?

T: So I can go to heaven of course, don't you want to go to heaven?

J: Yes, I want to go to heaven, but I want to do what God had planned for me here first. Plus if you die you can't do things like grow up and be a mommy.

T: Yeah. I think I want to be an [ant].

J: You could be an aunt in a few years when paisley has kids, you will be their aunt.

T: No dad, I want to be an ant, a BUG.

Just Another Day in Paradise

Ben is reacting to Amoxicillin. The kids told me on the way to school that he was covered with a rash. So I took him in to the nurse who wasn’t there. I decided to take him home since he might be uncomfortable and I wanted to get some benadryl into him.

I got home, called the Dr office who told me NOT to give him the benadryl just yet, but to bring him in and let them check the rash. No point in putting him down as having a allergy if it is something else, right? Still, that makes for an 18 mile round trip (yes, I counted it out!) at $3.15 per gallon (in our gas guzzling, 11 mile-per-gallon van) for them to tell me what I already know: penicillin allergy. And poor Ben. He has to miss Buck-a-Jean-Day for this. (He doesn’t seem terribly distraught; he settled right down into watching Dragon Tales without a lick of complaint.)

Max, that precious, happy, jabbering, baby-signing toddler, is standing on my last nerve when it comes to night time and sleep. Last night he resumed his Head-Butt-of-Love routine, giving me a bloody lip in the middle of the night. I think he blasted Jay too, but I am not sure since I was trying REALLY hard to pretend to be asleep so Jay could deal with him for a bit. (Not that he ever shirks that duty, he shares it pretty equally. But hey, I was injured, right? Don’t I get to sit on the bench for a little while for an injury?) So I consider again the idea of sleep training. But to be honest with myself, I can’t give up the rocking and nursing to sleep. It is such a peaceful, cozy, cuddly time. Except when it’s not and Max decides that even though he is drop dead tired he will fend off sleep until either his last drop of energy is spent or mine is. Then it is not so fun.

Paisley has decided that barring any formal, planned family activity, she has no use for being home, except maybe to do her laundry and dump some papers on the table. Is it really in the Teenager’s Bill of Rights that they should be allowed to go out any time there is not special family time planned? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Some kind of limit needs to be set. Especially since the rides are still coming from us. Jay and I will have to discuss this one. I think we might have some time to sit down and do that in August. Maybe. In the mean time, surly, fit-throwing teenagers don’t get rides anywhere. At least not until their attitude changes and they do some chores. Lots of chores.

James was offended that he didn’t get TWO full days off of chores and school work for his birthday. When I informed him that he was luck he got ONE full day off he exclaimed that I just didn’t understand. You betcha I don’t. I don’t claim to understand any of this anymore. Was I really this difficult? (Oh yes and then some!) But he has cleaned up his attitude a bit since then. Removing all privileges does that to a kid. Then add in the carrot of getting to spend the day with Nana (who will probably buy you lunch) and it’s all good again.

Let’s see, who have I not updated on yet? Tessa and Posy! Tessa is so very FOUR and spends all her time playing doll house and begging me to play it with her. But when I play doll house with her it is really just me playing doll house for her entertainment. I have to do all the talking and figure out what the characters are doing. She just sets up the scenes and tells me when it is morning and night. I worry that I am misshaping her idea of play by my doing this, but what is a mom to do? Never play? There is just always some way to worry about them and some new way to wreck their lives and send them into permanent therapy later.

Posy is busy and getting more grown up every day. She is 11 now, and if I remember correctly it will be sometime this year that I will look at her and she will have changed from a little girl to a young lady overnight. For now, I just cherish these last few moments of being smarter than she is and of her being willing to play and do childlike things. The hourglass is running out on childhood for her.

Me, I have just been trying to get enough done around the house to justify sitting down to some scrapbooking or rosary making. neither has happened in forever. This past week has been a gathering up of all my homeschool books and getting ready to sell them. I have no idea where the funding for catholic school will come from for next year, but even if that doesn’t work out I don’t think I am going to homeschool any more. It just became too much for me and I wasn’t doing a good job. I am NOT of the mindset that poor homeschooling is better than public schools. Homeschooling was good for our family while it lasted and then it just wasn’t going to work any more. Selling the books is my way of letting go. Mostly I feel good about it but there is still that panicky feeling of burning that bridge behind me.

Poor, hard working Jay. Summer has set in here with our first official 100 degree day. Since he works outside the first couple of weeks are always the hardest for him. 100 degrees doesn't actually describe the conditions he works in, since the official temps are taken in the shade over grass. Jay actually works in the sun over concrete or asphalt. It is so much hotter for him. We have stocked up on Power Ade during that last sale but that is small comfort to him, I'm sure. But still he will suffer outside every single day so that our family can eat and live in comfort. Thank God for his sacrifice!

Gems from Tessa

The other day Tessa asked if God lives in our bodies or if we live in His. I told her that God doesn't have a body because He is a pure spirit. She answered that He must live in all of us then.

Yesterday Tessa was visiting at a friend's house. The mom asked her if she wanted to watch Toy Story. Tessa's reply was, "Um, that is kind of BOYISH."

January: The Month of Change

One year has passed since our fire, and what a year it has been. The last claim has been submitted and with the last check (Oh, when will it come?) we hope to put this chapter in our lives behind us. We lift up our eyes and look towards the future finally and not on what has happened in the past. We can take stock of where we are now and not where we were before the fire.

James is still dealing with some pretty severe depression. He is being treated for that. I have also had to reevaluate who I am and what direction I am going, and so have been in therapy myself.

We decided at the beginning of this month that Posy and Ben really did belong at their school. They started attending again in the fifth and second grades. They are very happy there and we think that our time of homeschooling is coming to a close. They are so happy to see their friends every day, and I am very relieved to have the complete burden of their education off my shoulders. Homeschooling has been a blessing for our family. But we always said we would do it only as long as it was the right choice for our family. It no longer is. So we move on.

Paisley is doing great! She has one of the leads in the school play, Bye Bye Birdie, this Spring. She is sharing the role of Kim with another girl. She has moved into another honors class and is getting fabulous grades.

Tessa and Max miss Posy and Ben during the day. But we have had some fun on our own. Tessa's favorite pasttime is to play dress up. Max's is to climb and dismantle anything in his path. He has learned a couple of baby signs now: More, please, eat, nurse... we are trying to teach him more, but he is pretty stubborn!