8:06

It's 8:06pm on a Sunday night and everyone is in bed.
I can't lie.
It's freaking glorious. 

Benjamin is still dealing with his cold and breathing issues, requiring a couple nebs a day.  He is at the point now where he can tell us when he needs meds and when he is having trouble breathing, so that is really helpful. 

 

What's not helpful is that because he doesn't feel good, he's a hot mess much of the time.
It's putting my behavior management skills to the test. 

We have entered the "I don't care where you sleep, as long as you sleep" phase.
Tonight he is on the floor of his room.  The other night when Jim was traveling, he was on the floor in my room.  
 With the cat, of course. 

As usual, it was an interesting week with Jim traveling. 
We all have been following closely the Papal Visit and enjoying seeing Pope Francis at places familiar to us. 
TBall has been going very well.  We were place with a great group of kids and parents. 
Sam has been hitting lefty since he is the oldest kid on the team.  He's doing well with it. Nate just loves playing.
 It's cool to see the kids start to figure out the game and have fun with it. 
I found a bunch of baseball cards from the 80s and each player gets two cards after practice for "homework".  They are to sit with their parents and look up the player that's on each card and talk about them.  I've had lots of positive feedback about this.  Then I realized that the cards are older than some of my player's parents.
Wow.  
Just wow. 

 After our time in the ER last week, I was grateful for only small glitches in the week. 
Like Benjamin "helping" put away groceries. 
He dropped a full gallon of milk that then exploded all over the kitchen. 
After the initial shock, I realized it was a win-win scenario.
The cat was able to drink her fill, which will help her put on some much needed weight.
Also - the floor, under the fridge and the cabinets haven't been so clean in a long time. 
It was either think like that or cry.
There's a lot of milk in a gallon.  

It was also Pajama Day at the kids' school. 
To celebrate, Imade Sam and CJ each a pair of new pajama pants. 
Neither one wore them to school.
Grrrrrrr.
I'll scale down the pattern a finish a pair for Ben this week.  I'll also try to take some scraps and embelish some shirts so the boys have a full set of jammies. 

Herkimer likes sewing, too. 
Welll....not so much help, but more rest on the pattern as I'm trying to cut.
 Super helpful. 

Good night. 
Time for bed!

Sunday Rest.

Since it was not a restful week, we tried very hard to make it a restful weekend.
After a day of blessed White Space yesterday spent joyfully tackling Halloween and Mass & TBall today, we're sitting as a family introducing the kids to Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Nate came downstairs yesterday wearing a fedora and using a jump rope as a whip declaring he was "Dr Jones". We had to go with it...because if we can encourage him to pull off Indiana Jones for Halloween, it will be an easy costume that we can have a lot of fun with as a family!

Caroline has decided she wants to be a lady from the 50s for Halloween.  Except for the shoes, we finished her costume yesterday.  We found a junior sized strapless dress with a black poofy skirt, a plain pink t-shirt and a kerchief at Goodwill.  We cut off the top of the dress, made it into a skirt, found some poodle appliques and TA-DA!  Instant young lady going to a sock hop!
Most importantly, Caroline loves it.
A WIN!

Benjamin said he wants to be a dinosaur for Halloween.  We were able to pick up a dino costume and some reptile feet slippers at a secondhand store.  Put those with some dinosaur jammies and Ben-Ben was happy as could be.  :)

Now all we have to figure out is how to clothe Sam, who, of course, wants to be a pilot...

We had a lovely adventure on Tuesday with friends hiking down to the Monocacy River.

Benjamin was coughing a little that day, but everyone had a cold, so I didn't think much of it.
Tuesday night, I was mostly hoping for a good night of sleep.

Until I was awoke by the cat meowing about 11:30. 
 I went in to check on the kids and noticed Nate snoring.
Then I remembered that Nate doesn't snore anymore...
So I checked on Ben and noticed the sounds were coming from him and that he was working very, very hard to breathe.
Knowing I would need back-up, I called my wonderful neighbor.  She arrived in just a couple minutes and Benjamin went right to her.  At this point, he was working so hard to breathe that he was getting frantic.  We gave him a neb, but it didn't help - so Celeste hunkered down with the other three Urchins and off Ben and I went to the ER.
After a racemic epi, another neb and some decadron, Benjamin was breathing much easier and we were allowed to head home after a few hours of observation.  .
Ben finished up his prednisone today, which is a good thing because it's exhausting trying to keep up with him.  He is bouncing off the walls. 
But he is off the wall and breathing well...so we'll take it.

Two Weeks In.

Well...two weeks in to September and we're still standing.
I'm reclining, actually...but it's Sunday night...and even God got a day of rest.

School is going well.  Better than we had hoped for, actually.
Nate is working on some homework with Jim and the Olders have the day off tomorrow for Rosh Hashanah (L'Shana Tovah!), so we're just releaxing.
Other than having Children's Liturgy and Caroline having to altar serve yesterday, it has been a weekend of blessed White Space.  We've been resting and playing and cleaning out the basement (it's going to be finished off - yay!) and not doing much of anything else.

Mass last night was a hoot.
I think that's the word I'm looking for.
Here we were thinking that all the work of taking the kids to daily Mass this summer had improved their behavior.

Not so much.
 In the course of an hour last night (names have been withheld to protect the involved)....
- Someone catapulted himself off the altar into the front row after leaving the Chapel to prepare for CLOW.
-Someone attempted to pick their mother's nose with a rat tail comb.
-Someone dug up their nose to the second knuckle, extracting a gem of at least 2 carat size and then pronounced, "Hey!  I got a bugger!"
- Someone tried to climb up their mother, lifting up her shirt in the back.  Way up.  We'll leave it at that.
-Someone decided they didn't want to sit with their own family anymore and, in the midst of the Consecration, walked across the front of the altar to sit with another family.  Then that certain someone behaved like a little angel.  Ugh.
-Someone had to be reminded to get their hands out of their pockets and it wasn't appropriate to play "Jingle Balls" in church.  To which that certain someone replied, "But I like to...

And then...after all that...those someones all pulled a nutty this morning because they wanted to GO BACK TO MASS AGAIN TODAY.
Which, I guess, means we're doing something right...but good heavens...after getting these kids through Mass, I feel like I'm coming off a three day bender.  At least a day of recovery is required.

That being said, we were able to purchase a CD about St Elizabeth Ann Seton from HolyHeroes.com.  I thought the CD was a bit cheesy at first, but the kids love it.
Like really, really love it and ask to listen to it every chance they get.
Turns out we live very close to the Shrine of Elizabeth Ann Seton and today is the 40th anniversary of her canonization.
Since Jim and I had already established that we couldn't handle another Mass this weekend, let alone one that was going to be nationally televised, we  took the kids up to the grounds to do some exploring.  The Sisters of Charity were very welcoming and directed us.  We were amazed at how much the kids knew by listening to the CD and the questions that they asked.  It was wonderful to see them get excited learning about their faith and putting pieces together about things they had learned.  We found the graves of Annina, Rebecca, Henrietta and Cecilia.  We were able to learn some of the history of the area from the nuns that led us around the grounds.
We're going to have to go back.

That being said...
Herkimer is adjusting quite nicely.
It seems like she has been her forever already.
She has had her kitty hysterectomy and has already gained a pound.
She sleeps with a different child every night.
She is very trusting and snuggly and starting to act like a kitten.
She even caught a fly and ate it last week.
That gave her ROCK STAR status with the boys.
Sam said that he was spoken to in school for not paying attention last week.  I asked him what he was thinking about, he told me, "Mom, I was just remembering that I had a kitty like Herkimer at home and that made me so happy that I couldn't do my work."
How can I respond to that other than with a huge hug???  

She likes to rest on the tub.  Problem being she blends in and when I go to put on my running shoes in the morning, I almost sit on her!

Sammy just loves Herkimer. 

The Youngers and I went to explore Harpers Ferry last week.
We had a rollicking snail hunt and are looking forward to when the water recedes so we can go again.  Hooray for afternoon Pre-K!  Leaves time for morning adventures.  :)

"I promise I won't get my school shoes wet, Mama."  Yeah.  Right. 

Looking down the Shenandoah towards the Potomac.  It was a gorgeous day. 

Benjamin got hold of my camera.  Not too bad of a picture for a 3 year old. 

Nate was having a grand time scaring the minnows with his shadow.

Showing off his treasures. 

 AND Nate did well with the first day of school.
He is enjoying it.
So far.

Ready to go.  He was very afraid of being the biggest kid in his class. 

See?  Sometimes they DO get along!!!

 

Herkimer Diamond

So the kids have been pining for a cat for the past three years.
Benjamin's birth sidetracked them a bit, but since he's old news now, in the past year they've re-focused on their lack of cat. 
While the four kids pound the tar out of each other playing legos or sitting next to each other or breathing the same air; somehow they contrived to have long, cogent discussions about the cat they were going to get someday.  This escalated recently to praying for the cat and even naming the cat. 
Yes - that's right.
The cat we didn't have was already named.
Just so you get an idea of where this story is going...
Nate had the idea of naming her (because it was a girl, obviously) "Jewel".  They took "Jewel" and ran with it, but nothing stuck.  Ruby, Eme (Emerald), Amy (Amethyst), Opal, Turquoise...none of them were right.   Then they got it.
Herkimer Diamond Watson. 
Oy-freaking-vey. 

They were scheming enough that we had set the cat-acquisition date to some time this winter.  Jim and I liked having cats, but weren't missing the litter, extra cleaning, cat food or money spent on vet bills.

When a scrawny white cat showed up under Jim's car last Tuesday morning, I didn't think much of it.   There are feral cats around here.  When the cat migrated two doors down and started playing with the kids, I started to take notice.  She followed them like a puppy and when the kids tried to pet her, this cat rolled over on her back, loving the attention. 
Hmmm....
....Can you see where this is going now?
Then the neighbor boy said to us, "Have you met the new cat? Her name is Diamond!!"

Seriously. 
I can't make this stuff up.

So...a vet visit, a litter box, a cat carrier and some kitten chow later....we are the proud owners of a darling  kitten.  She is about 9 months old and grossly underweight ( only 4.8 pounds).  She has a few broken teeth,  an abscess on her face and is too skinny to brush.  She is having her kitty hysterectomy and being chipped later this week. 
And she is all ours.

...Yep...you knew it was coming...

...Meet Herkimer Diamond Watson.

1st Day of School

Now that we're well into the second week of school, it's about time to blog about the first day.
Last week went well - better than I expected, actually. 
Everyone is adjusting - Sam is making friends and enjoying doing homework (!).  Caroline is in the routine and learning to fit her flute practice and forty minutes of homework in her day. 
We've been getting up on time, got to school on time, learned the drop off / pick up line routine and are getting in the rhythm of chores, activities and outings. 
Just in time to come up with a new routine when Nate's school and TBall begin next week.
Lest I become too comfortable and actually think I have things under control...
HA!
I have to be honest, though - at the end of last week I felt like I was coming off a 3 day bender.  Getting back in the groove is exhausting.  It's 8:39 and I can't imagine being any place other than in my bed.  Oy.

So here is the first day of 4th and 2nd grades.
Ben was wicked pissed when he realized he didn't get to go to school, too.
Nate, I think, was relieved he didn't have to go.  
We'll call it the first day of school for everyone because the odds of getting all of them in the same place, dressed and looking at the camera again on Nate's real first day are slim-to-none.