Fun Facts

I made bread for the first time on Ash Wednesday. Real bread. Like, I had to knead it by hand for 8 minutes. It was an incredible process. The whole house smelled good. The children waited by the oven for the last 3 minutes and were so eager to taste it! There was something really fulfilling about sitting at the table with all four of them, watching them enjoy something that I had made with my own hands...that wasn't macaroni and cheese.

Buzz received this sticker book for Christmas from his Godparents. They know him too well. It is a Lego sticker book. He eats with this book, sleeps with this book and cries when it is time for school because he doesn't want to leave this book. The other children are helping him memorize the names of each and every Lego guy...there are well over 200!

 Yes, that is a diaper. A clean one. But still, a diaper. Boo will do anything for a laugh. And I mean ANYTHING.

This really happens. Matt cannot get down on the floor with the children without getting sat on, bounced on, and wrestled.

This really happens too. This is to show you (and me) how patient Bean truly is. All she wanted to do was read a book. Nate wants attention and a playmate. I love the last-ditch effort of his feet in this video. Brothers are something special.

Happy Thoughts

When I was in high school, I had a friend who always seemed to be a little too happy. She never stopped smiling. Even when it seemed the world around her was falling apart (which it frequently does when you are in high school) she always had something positive to say. She was so enjoyable to be around, and drew people to her with her sweetness. I asked her one day why nothing depressed her. She showed me a worn-out notebook. A Happy Thoughts Book, she called it. It listed everything in the entire world that she was grateful for. At age 16, she had over 735 Happy Thoughts. She added more every night before she fell asleep. She said to me, "When you are grateful for the things you have, you don't really have time to be sad about the things you don't have." I remember being in awe. I had no inner surge of, "Wow! She's right!" But, being a teen, I wanted to be just like her. So I went home and started my own Happy Thoughts Book.

I chuckle to myself now about the things I wrote back then. I think I was grasping at straws. It was a good place to start. I needed a little jump start. I needed to remember that there is A Reason for everything. That there was Someone to be grateful to...even if it was gratitude for red popsicles and fresh-cut grass (Numbers 2 and 6 on my list, respectively). Fast forward 12 years.

The "winter blah" has hit home. I believe, where we live, it is called Seasonal Depression...a real diagnosis. Without realizing, I let myself fall pretty far. So... I talked to a priest. Talked to my husband. Talked to my mother. Talked to a friend. The message was the same: Remember to be grateful.

 Monday morning is the best day to start with an attitude of gratitude. No particular order...just trying to get started.

#1. This man, showing God's love to me here on earth.
 (Grilling in freezing temperatures because his gestating wife had a craving.) 



#2. This relationship

#3. These Babies



#4. This relationship


#5. The 32 single socks in my laundry room that I just cannot manage to find pairs for...because the children helped me sort the socks
#6. A warm house on a snowy day
#7. Faith
#8.Family
#9.Friends
#10. The kids wanting to help me with the chores

Happy Saint Valentine's Day!



The Love Multiplies.

When we had one child, we were on a power play.
With two children, we played man-to-man defense.
With three, we switched to zone defense...and the kids had a power play.
Four, we were double-teamed.
 I don't think there is a term for 5 on 2.

We pulled in the driveway. The snow started falling hard. It was getting cold. The children were spent, as we were just getting home from the circus we call grocery shopping. I was trying to unlock the front door, with Nate on one hip and Tom on the other. Sarah and Joseph were fighting over who would get to be the line leader and enter the house first. The door opens, and we all trip up the step into the house. Sarah looks at Joseph and says, "Mommy is so strong. She can carry three babies at once!"

That's right, Bean. The new baby counts too.