Monday Afternoon

Well...it's 2:30 and there are no naps to be had here.
We had a good run last week with both the Youngers resting for at least 1.5 hours. 
Not so much this week. 
They're tired, though. 
There was soccer, t-ball, Children's Liturgy,, one of CJ's friend's sleeping over and the Neighborhood Beer Hunt on Saturday. 
Sunday followed with Jim working, a First Communion Retreat and softball. 
Yeah, we're tired.  But in a good way.

Caroline had a great experience at Mass on Saturday.  The Altar Servers didn't show up and she was recruited to help during Mass.  She was nervous, but did well.  The younger boys would yell, "Hi Caroline!!!"  periodically during Mass, usually accompanied by frantic waving.  She is psyched to serve again.  :)

The Youngers and I beat the rain this morning and went hiking up at Catoctin Mountain.    We did a very short and easy trail, only 1/2 mile and Benjamin was totally under his own power the whole time. 
Nate got to investigate some deer bones with a Ranger and held a deer skull that had been found.  After that he was looking for bones everywhere.  When he discovered they were at a premium, he switched to fishing.  Unfortunately there were as many fish to be found as deer bones.  We had fun, though.  :)

Friday Afternoon.

I love Friday afternoons.
School is over for the week and it feels like a weight is off. 
It's a welcome feeling - even if it only lasts for a few hours. 
The kids are being entertained by watching an episode of "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" on Netflix.  I should say that most of the kids are watching Netflix.  Since the older three are mesmerized, Benjamin has situated himself on the kitchen counter and is busily polishing off the goldfish crackers left behind, hoping his older siblings won't notice.  I'll pretend not to notice, either. 
Since Netflix is eating up the bandwidth, blogging is painfully slow.  After having a few exceptionally articulate friends guest post on a well known blog, I have been feeling woefully inadequate at expressing what goes on here in writing.  Sometimes it's pretty chaotic.  Sometimes it's not.  But it's nothing that doesn't go on in every other home that I know -  it can be challenging to write about ordinary things.  Stuff like scraping petrified cheese slices off the kitchen counter, redirecting a toddler climbing the pantry shelves for a shot at an unopened box of Cheerios, breaking up an argument for the umpteenth-million time and rescuing Storm Troopers from the Sarlach Pit that is the downstairs toilet.
 Regular stuff. 
But I'm realizing now things that are regular won't always be regular.  I hear it's a whole new world when everyone can wipe themselves. 

The school year is coming to a close in alarming fashion.  I am grateful at the teacher that Sam has this year.  I admit being less than thrilled getting a first year teacher and not having my request for his teacher honored.  I distinctly recall stomping and pouting.  However - Sam's Pre-K teacher told me to trust her and that she was putting Sam "exactly where he needs to be".  She was right.  Today was "Super Hero Day" in Sam's class.  Each child came up with a Super Hero with powers, a sidekick and a nemesis.  They wrote descriptions of their Heroes and drew pictures.  Today they got to go to school dressed as their hero and present to the class.  Sam was "Garbage Man".  His powers included invisibility and turning trash into treasure.  His sidekick, RattleMan, is a goat that eats what trash Garbage Man can't manage so it doesn't go in landfills.  Lyndrome is a nemesis that doesn't like having a clean Earth. 
We have gotten so much mileage out of this.  It has been great.  Sam gets to dress as Garbage Man again in a couple weeks and tell the school about him.  He is excited.  :) 
Nate is enjoying the two day/week pre-school.  He's getting a lot out of it.  I'm still leaning towards keeping him back a year.  He's ready socially, but with kindergarten being so darn difficult these days, I think it's  cruel to send a kid to school that can't already read.  Sam is now expected to write 6-7 sentences a night in his journal - on top of practicing math and sight words and 20 minutes of reading.  It's really a lot.  We don't push too hard and we do our best to keep things fun...but still.  Some days the homework goes back to school unfinished because it's just not worth it.  I have to remember that all children are not alike, but when I think back and realize that Caroline was reading "Amelia Bedilia" at three and a half, I have to admit - I'm nervous for Nate. 
We're doing a Kiddie Kollege at Caroline's school with the Youngers and it's fun.  The boys come home with a new book after each session and are doing more "pretend reading" - so it's working. 
There are advantages to attending schools with Title I funded programs - even though most people I talk to turn their noses up and can't understand why we would want to send our kids to a magnet "inner city" school (Really?!  Frederick?!  Inner city?!?).  There is a good amount of family involvement, the population is extremely diverse and people are genuinely searching for ways to improve their and their children's lives by advancing education.  There is more of an emphasis on life long learning.  It's a change to be out of our white washed world, but a welcome change.  The younger boys are starting to think of CJ's school as "theirs" and we're considering applying for school choice to enable all our kids to go there.  How nice would it be to have everyone in the same school?!?
Time will tell if that's the right choice...

My 20 minutes to ice my leg are over and it's time to make dinner.  Seeing the ortho on Tuesday because I think I ripped my plantar fascia stepping on that darned nail and the pain is getting too much to take in my lower leg.  Makes me even more grateful that my foot took the brunt of it instead of one of the kids - even though it sucks NOT to be able to run. I am jealous of every runner I see out.  I didn't realize what a part of my life running has become.  But it gives me an opportunity to focus on core - something that is sorely lacking after four abdominal surgeries. I'm learning more about clean eating and liking what I read.  We'll see how do-able it is with a child that eats things that are the color white.  I'm also getting out on a bike.  Someday this all will make me a better runner.  I am determined to turn this layoff into something good. 

  Though I *will* pour myself a small glass of wine while preparing dinner.  It's not drinking alone if the kids are around.  Right? 

Here is the Fantastic Foursome from this morning...

Happy Easter

I love Easter. 
Going to church, thinking about events of 2000 years ago, transitioning into spring, heck...I even like Lent!

We had a lovely day today.
However - I don't have the energy to blog about it right now...time to sleep...have to get work done so we can watch the marathon tomorrow.  ;)

7:53

It's 7:53 on a Sunday night and.  We.  Are.  Toast. 
Benjamin is busy getting a neb treatment while hacking up a lung after contracting the nice respiratory infection I had.  I haven't been able to talk since Thursday. 
Some people are happier about this than others. 
Yesterday CJ had soccer, Sam had T-ball, I had Children's Liturgy (and you thought it was hard to keep the kids engaged during a regular Mass?  Try Palm Sunday.  Oy vey.) and when we finished,  Uncle Patrick and Chrissy were waiting for us at the Village Tavern.  When we got home, we Skyped with Nina & Pops, got ready for Sunday and headed off to bed. 
We were up at 4 this morning to get everyone up and ready to go to Hershey for a 10k. 
SuperDad kudos to Jim for kid wrangling while Pat, Chrissy and I finished.  :) 
We were getting ready to go get our packets when this man ran up behind Caroline and picked her up in a bear hug. 
What a relief when it was Pops. 
He and Nina surprised us by driving down to Hershey! 

I finished last out of the Leahy group with a time of 57:28.  I'll gladly take that, seeing that I've been hobbled all week by shin splints (or sh*t splits, as Sam calls them) and haven't been able to breathe because of a chest cold.  I have work to do before the Boilermaker.  A 10k is difficult because you can't pace yourself like you do for a 1/2 marathon, but it's not an all out sprint like a 5k.  It's a sustained hard run.  Seeing that my stubby little legs can't carry me very fast, I'm going to stick to the longer distances.  Honestly - it's easier to go 10 miles than it is to go 6.  Who knew?
The kids were thrilled to hang out with various stuffed chocolate concoctions during the race.

And now it's time for bed.
G'Night.

One of THOSE Mothers.

The Youngers have colds and didn't nap.  Sam went home with another little boy in his class to play after school.  There is a bunch of stuff that needs to be done before tomorrow (cleaning the bathrooms, vacuuming and putting away laundry).  The day is beautiful and the kids should be outside playing. 
However.  We're inside watching "Frozen" (again). 
At least I can sit, ice my shin and hope the afternoon coffee kicks in soon. 

It has been a day. 
There have been glimpses of awesome in it, don't get me wrong.  We've cooked, read, played, eaten cookies and sang.  You haven't lived until you've heard Nate's version of "Let it Go".  Then
Nate locked Benjamin in the blue room because, "I'm done with Benjamin now.  He can go away."  At least he was happy about it. 

But it has been rough, too.
It has been one of those days when I'm about to lose my temper and have 62 other things that need to get done. The kids are nutty, I'm grumpy, the house is a mess and I am accomplishing nothing of when I set out to.
So I went to the only place in the house where I can be alone for 60 seconds while sitting down.  
And then I saw this:

 And then I smiled.  
 Because how can you NOT when there is a Sand Person, a Stormtrooper and R2D2 in a land speeder in your toilet?

Sometimes my life is unrecognizable.  
I like it that way.  

No Use

Well, no use listending to the Sox game tonight.
It's cool - I'm perfectly happy (for now, at least) to remember 2004, 2007 and last year.
Which is good - the way they're playing I"m going to have to do lots of remembering...

As "easy" of a day as yesterday was, today was difficult.
Capped off by having to explain to Caroline (again) that she was not invited to *any* of the weddings that Mama and Daddy are.
Insert crying hysterics *here*. 
Ugh.  
I understand.  I know how expensive it can be, that there are space limitations and that kids are a huge pain the butt at social functions.  I know it's not personal...it's hard to explain that to a little girl who wants nothing more than to get dressed up and see a wedding...

I'm icing my shin that has been decidedly unhappy with me since that roofing nail took up temporary residence in my right plantar fascia.  Even with new running shoes and less miles, it is still making its displeasure known.  To the point that I"m considering punting my May 1/2 marathon to allow me until July to get back to fighting form for hard core training with an autumn goal.
It's the smart thing to do.
Let me say that being smart sucks. 

I will attempt to get some pictures this week.
I know people aren't on the blog for the writing.  ;)

Nap Time

Naptime for Nate is a pipedream. 
My best hope these days is to get him to rest in his room for an hour while I run around like a mad woman and get stuff done. 
For some strange reason this morning, probably having nothing at all to do with the fact that there were only two children here this weekend, work went quickly.  Nate is chilling in CJ's room right now.
 Kitchen is clean, dinner is made, laundry is done & put away, bathrooms are tidy, floors are vacuumed...is this really my life?  Just doesn't feel right if it doesn't look like a bomb went off in the kitchen.  ;)
Days like this I can handle. 

*I won't point out that Ben got into the Band-Aid (the kid doesn't have enough coordination to use a fork, but he has no problem ripping open eight bandages and putting them all over his body),  climbed up on the counter and ate an avocado (skin and all), wrote all over the glass door or took only a short nap because Nate was screaming that he needed a butt wipe.*
It's still a good day. 

Winding Down

After the past 2 weeks of travel...we're cooked.
The kids are grumpy, tired and decidedly unwilling to sleep. 
Mommy and Daddy are tired, grumpy and praying for sleep. 

We're thankful for a quiet weekend. 
It was calm. 
We sat in the living room and watched a movie. 
We went to Mass and didn't feel like we had been on a three day bender when it was over. 
We sat and ate dinner.
Jim and I went out for dinner while the Bookend Kiddos hung with a sitter. 
It was weird. 
As frenetic, tiring, insane, nutty and chaotic as it can be...I really missed Nate and Sam... 

They had a great time in Toronto witnessing the Derek Jeter Farewell Tour. 
I think Nina & Pops will sleep very well. 

Long Time

Ummm...yeah.
March was a pretty bad blogging month. 
I have excuses - lots of them.  More than the Four I usually use. 

I'm learning that it's all about priorities. 
I'm learning where those priorities need to be.  

It's just figuring out where my energy is going to go and realizing that I will drop the ball. 


Pontificating done...now that the camera is found -
Here are some pictures from CJ's Science Fair. 
She is thrilled about her rotted teeth.