Invasion of the Stomach Bug

The stomach bug continues to spread in our house:(

In the middle of the night, Kate threw up 3 times.  One of the times involved changing my bed sheets and both of our pajamas.  Not much fum...and not much sleep.

All of the hulabaloo woke up half of the house, too.  It took Luke a while to go back to sleep.  He is still having tummy troubles....so he hasn't been in school all week.  His tummy seemed better until after lunch....I will save you from the details, but it's clear he still isn't 100%!

He was so tired today, too.  He got out of bed after 7 and promptly fell back asleep on the couch!

Poor little guy is just not himself!

Hopefully, we can all get healthy by the weekend.  My in-law's are all battling the stomach bug, too.  We are supposed to celebrate Kate's birthday on Sunday, but it might have to be postponed.  

On the bright side, since Kate took a terrific nap and Luke watched Wreck it, Ralph with Andrew, I got all of our wrapping finished!  I just need to add some ribbon and bows to a few things but everything else is done!  

Two weeks until Christmas, and the word of the week is simplify, simplify, simplify.  (And that's not really such a bad thing!)

Happy hump day!

Monday Again

Here we are at Monday again!

This weekend went by extra fast!  Here are a few of the highlights.....

*Jay continued painting the kitchen.  Only the upper cabinet doors need 2 coats of finish paint. Maybe it really will be done by Christmas:)

*The back splash I ordered came in several days earlier than I expected...and I like it!  Hooray!

*Ellie's basketball team lost a game in overtime on Saturday afternoon.  Ellie was on the floor several times scrambling for the basketball.  Sarah was proud:)

*My mother-in-law's garden club put on a fundraising tea.  Sarah, Ellie and I arrived late because of the basketball game.  It was really nice...we got to hear some wonderful singers belting out some Christmas tunes, the food was great and they were selling some beautiful  ornaments and decorated greens.

*Luke threw up Saturday night: (  I got very little sleep that night because everytime he made a noise or moved I jumped up to grab the bucket 'just in case'.  He was fine yesterday, and ate everything all day while having a ball with a bag of nerf guns that Jay left out on the counter after Friday's youth group meeting!

*I attended my parents' Christmas brunch for their business Sunday morning.  It was really good and I got to go to a restaurant I had never tried before.....and talk to grown-ups!  We also do a yankee swap.  I ended up with a cute snowman mug, an assortment of specialty hot cocoa, and a super soft snowman blanket.  Sarah grabbed the blanket as soon as I walked in the door and claimed it for their own:)

*We watched the Patriot's game which ended with an amazing last minute win (YAY!) and a season ending injury for Gronk.(BOO!)

*I made ribs and we brought them to my mom's to share dinner with my parents and help them decorate their (2nd) tree.

*Luke is still not 100%  and now I'm not feeling so well either:(  Hopefully, a little rest is all I need!  There's too much to do to be sick this time of year!

*Kate is regressing back to an extra clingy stage.  I love the way she says,"go on your lap", but she just wants to sit with me all.day.long!  I know someday I will miss this...but right now it's a little challenging!

Well....10 is a good number so I will end here!  Happy Monday!

It's FINALLY Friday!

Wow was this week tough!  I am soooo glad that it is Friday!(I thought it would never get here!  

1.  Crazy Day

Today started with a doctor's appointment for Peter with his developmental pediatrician.  I screwed up and went to the wrong location!  Thankfully, we ended up only being 12 minutes late and everyone accepted my apologies!  Then I took Peter to Shaws to pick up some sale items and some of his food.  I brought Peter home and picked up Luke, Kate and Ellie and headed to Stop and Shop to do the rest of the shopping.  Now I am tired:)....but we are only halfway through the day!

2.  Bumpy Night

Luke was restless until 12:30am and Kate was restless all night:(  I was up for good at 5:30 with two kids snuggled up against me.  I started to think about the to-do list and almost started to panic realized that Christmas is SO close!  I barely managed to not ruin the morning with my stress!(Of course, doctor appt.'s with Peter always make me feel extra stressed, too!)  But, I don't want to become so overwhelmed that Advent loses its peace because of a crazy, overwhelmed mama!

Here's why I'm a little stressed.....

3.  Kitchen Reno

We are still in the midst of our mini kitchen reno!  The bottom cabinets and island are finished, but the top cabinets still need the finish coats and the doors haven't even been primed.  I finally found a backsplash that I think will work(fingers crossed!) that should arrive at some point this week.  I'm just hoping it won't turn into a 'Humpty Dumpty Kitchen' that never gets put back together again.  

4.  Early Christmas Celebration

We are celebrating Christmas with my dad's side of the family on the Saturday before Christmas.  That means that there are only 2(!)Saturdays left to finish our projects.  Ellie has basketball games every Saturday, so that always breaks up the day.  When only one of us is home watching the little ones, it's tough to get much done.

Did I mention I'm hosting that day?  Yeah...I'm hosting.  Which I love to do....I just need to start figuring out what is really important to me to get done around the house because, realistically, the to-do list is a permanent fixture in my life!  Time to prioritize!

5.  Just Keep Crocheting...Just Keep Crocheting

My friend Carol helped me get started crocheting a blanket for my grandmother for Christmas.  My grandmother has terminal cancer.  This will be her last Christmas with us and I wanted to do something special.  She has always knitted or crocheted blankets, sweaters and hats for all of us.  Kate goes to sleep with one of her creations every night.  So, I wanted to make her something out of love(though not nearly as complicated!).  I'm 3/4 of the way done.....and I want to have it finished by next week!  I just don't get a ton of time to sit(by myself) and use both of my hands for something!  (Shocking isn't it!?!:)

6.  Baking

I do a lot of baking close to Christmas.  Usually by now I have perused my cookbooks and magazines and planned out what I want to bake/cook and when I will bake/cook it.  There's baking for the teachers, baking for the family, dessert for the family party, dessert for Christmas Eve, dessert for Christmas Day, sides for Christmas Day, food for New Year's Eve and desserts and food for New Year's Day.....and I haven't planned for any of it!

I realized this morning that two weeks from today is the last day of school before Christmas break for all the kids!  That means all the cookies for the teachers (and all of Peter's therapists) need to be made before then!

Yikes!!!  I need to get going!  I will be adding that to this weekend's to-do list...along with painting, a basketball game, a tea with the girls that my mother-in-law's garden club is putting on, a Christmas party with my co-workers, Breakfast with Saint Nick at Ellie and Luke's school.......It will be a full weekend for sure!

7.  Wrapping

I've done great on the shopping...but the wrapping is tough!  I actually like to wrap....it's just fitting in the time to do it!  If my little ones would cooperate at night, maybe I could get some done!  I might be trying to pawn off Kate for a morning on my sister-in-law or mother-in-law so I can get everything done!

And...Kate's nap is over so off I go!  I hope you have a wonderful weekend:)

A Little Nostalgia

Andrew and Jon always loved Legos!  (Mike not so much:)  Every Christmas for years there have been Legos on their Christmas lists.  Truth be told, Jon has not enjoyed getting older and, as of last year, added toys back on his Christmas list to make it more fun!(lol:)

As soon as Luke was big enough, Jon introduced him to Legos.  All of a sudden, giant bins of Legos that had been kept under beds and in the attic made a reappearance.  Honestly, Jon and Andrew had more fun with them and spent longer creating things than Luke did at first.  Now, Luke is just as hooked as his brothers.:)

  

We still get the Lego catalog mailed to us  in late October every year.  This year, I kept going back and forth about getting them one of the Advent calendar Lego sets.  I knew Luke would enjoy it....Jon and Andrew, too.  I thought it would be a fun way to add a little extra nostalgia to the holiday for the teenagers.  Time is passing quickly, and it will be all too soon when our older kids are no longer living under our roof.  It makes creating special little moments even more important! 

So...of course I ordered it:)

They were all excited about it when I brought it out.  Luke had a hard time understanding that you can only open one flap per day at first which resulted in a few tears.......

But now, only 5 days into Advent, he is a pro.  Each day, Luke, Jon and Andrew take a turn opening a flap.  The older boys help Luke put together his little Lego.....and Luke gets to play with Andrew and Jon's find once they put them together.  (They were even nice enough to let Luke go first:)

They are all having fun with it!

That makes me happy:)

Hope is Good

At the very end of our long Thanksgiving weekend, we entered into a new realm of parenting.....supporting a teenager with a broken heart.

It was unexpected....and has made for several emotionally draining days.  Jay and I both hurt seeing him hurt so much.  We are grieving for his lost relationship right along side of him.  We are both trying to be available to him...to comfort, to talk, to pray for wisdom so that we can offer some words of advice and encouragement.

It's.so.not.easy!  This is just another instance where I wish that 'magic mommy kisses' could just take everything away!

Just when we thought life was zigging...it zagged; and it isn't easy to adjust to sometimes.

As parents, we try to help our children make the best decisions they can.  Encouraging Andrew to go to the local university to save A LOT of money per year isn't working out for him.  He hates it and isn't finding a niche.  I feel awful...and now we are backpedaling and reapplying to schools for next year.

At the same time, Jon is applying to school and I'm afraid of making wrong decisions for him.  Big decisions=big worries.....and despite prayer, I'm not feeling very confident about any direction!  Like Jay texted me yesterday, sometimes we just feel rudderless.

Ultimately, Andrew and Jon have to make their own decisions.  Some won't work and some will need to be re-routed.  I just wish we could make it easier...and pain free for them!

I know and trust that God has a plan for them.  We just need to pray that He reveals the next step clearly for both of them....

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord,

plans for welfare and not for evil,

to give you a future and a hope.

Hope is good.......

Family Photo Shoots!

Christmas card picture attempts can get a little hairy....especially with the amount of people we have in a picture.  You need to go in to the "shoot" with a game plan:  namely, sit everyone down as quickly as possible and shoot as many pictures as you can before someone starts crying and hopefully most kids are looking at the camera and, in the best case scenario, actually smiling!

It doesn't always work out that way.  In fact, some of the last several years I have opted to simply use the photo cards with multiple picture spots and just fill them in with good pictures taken over the course of the year.

I tried this year(twice actually)...I really wanted a group shot!  It was just not meant to be!

Andrew and Luke not looking at the camera and Mike's hand looks oddly placed!

Andrew looks annoyed and ditto on Mike's hand!

Andrew looks really annoyed with eyes closed!

Ditto on Andrew, Kate is crying, Ellie isn't looking at the camera!

Then we gave up.....

......and tried again with 2 couches.

Peter looks ridiculous...and seriously, could Andrew just smile!

Ditto Peter and Andrew!

I was going to use this one except it didn't fit on the card!  UGH!!!  So much for the 2 couch idea!

This one, when enlarged, was out of focus:(...plus, Sarah is making a ridiculous smile and Ellie is man handling Luke.

Slightly out of focus and Kate was obviously done....

.....as is evident by her disappearance!

So, after all that, I spent an hour going through our pics trying to get combos so that 8 kids fit into 5 slots!  But it is done!  I will share the results when they come in the mail:)

Next year, I'm just taking 3 mini group shots at the get-go!

Filled to the Brim!

Wow!  What a weekend!

Of course, it was an extended weekend....and ours was filled to the tippity top with food, family, excitement and shopping!

Thanksgiving went great....other than morning Mass.  Peter was awful because he was so excited about going to my aunt's house and getting special cupcakes.  Kate was extra wiggly, loud and cranky....which is always so much fun:/

Pondering the situation in the "cry room" with Kate, while trying to avoid getting overly frustrated and putting a damper on the day(!), I had the thought that our family is just "messy".  While other kids are content to rest their heads on mom or dad's shoulder through Mass, our kids are not.  It's just hard that we have 3 wiggly ones....Luke isn't great although usually he isn't too bad either!  Peter is just Peter....and even after 12 years he is still hard in church.

God knows what our kids are like...so our job is to remain patient and work on encouraging better behavior in our little ones.  So.not.easy!

Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt's house went great.  Because my grandmother has terminal cancer, almost everyone in the family was there.  My grandmother had a good day and she looked wonderful!  That was such an answer to prayer.  She sat in the living room and was treated like a queen:)  Everyone took turns sitting in the seats around her spending time in conversation.  She even had an appetite!  She amazed all of us by polishing off a whole plate of food and desserts!  It was a gift for all of us!

Later in the day, Jay went by his parent's house with everyone except Kate, (who was napping), and Peter(who was overstimulated and needed a break.)  We finished the day at my parent's house flipping through sales fliers and eating leftover turkey....and a lasagna I made for Andrew.  (Something for him to be thankful for since he does not like poultry unless it is in the form of a nugget!)

Friday was another whirlwind day!  Jay took the youth group shopping for a family in need at 5am.  I left at 7:30...thanks to Mike babysitting until Jay got home at 9:)....to go Black Friday shopping with my mom and sister.  While I was gone for 11 blissful hours of shopping sans children, Jay spent the afternoon making hundreds of perogies with our kids, his mom, and his sister and her two kids.  By the time I got home close to 8pm, everyone was tired!  (I actually would have been gone a little longer, but Kate never got a nap and was melting down!)

Shopping was very productive for me and for helping my mom get everyone on her list covered.  Between Black Friday and previous online shopping, I am one present and a few scratch tickets shy of being completely done Christmas shopping!  It's always my goal to be done shopping before Advent.....so I'm happy with where I'm at!:)

I will save the second half of our weekend update for another post!  Stay tuned for tales of Christmas trees, failed Christmas card picture attempts, adventures with siblings, and other random happenings!

Happy Monday!