Trick or Treat!

Go, MPD!

MPD was quietly--way too quietly--playing in the basement by himself one morning this week. When I went to check on him, look what I found!

He had carefully lined up all the matchbox cars in a line across the floor. He was so proud of his work! What a cutie boy!

Friday Quick Takes

~ 1 ~
Confession time: I am a Halloween Grinch. I just hate it. I didn't always hate it, but it wasn't always this much work. In fact, I don't have a lot of religious or philosophical complaints about this holiday, as many people do here and here. For the most part, to me Halloween is harmless fun, as long as little trick-or-treaters avoid getting run over or swallowing a razor blade hidden in a Hershey's bar. But I don't like, at all, dealing with costumes--I never have--and it seems so dumb to decorate the house just to un-decorate it again a few days later, when I'm pretty much perennially de-cluttering already. I also particularly loathe carving pumpkins--messy, boring, and stupid. (Kids, if you're reading this, I am SO sorry!) We don't do gory or gruesome or very scary costumes or decorations of any kind, either--there is so much gross stuff out there! And all that candy--yuck! I can't imagine letting my kids eat all that; they each get to fill a ziplock sandwich baggie with their favorites, and it usually lasts them at least until Christmas, and we give the rest away to candy tithing at our church. (They send it to Iraq and to college kids.) Mostly, Halloween just seems to be to be a kinda stupid waste of time--totally secular, nothing meaningful to celebrate, just plain consumerism in every sense of the word. Not to mention that I have so little self-control that I will totally pig out on candy myself--double yuck!

The one thing I do like about Halloween is the fall decorations that are cute and kind of folk-artsy. Those, I'm a sucker for. And of course I like taking pictures of my kids in their costumes. Stay tuned for that post tomorrow! :)

~ 2 ~
Our move is now less than three weeks away. I feel something akin to being at the end of labor--I know how it's going to end, but between now and then, it will be SO painful! I have been finding it almost impossible to get started packing, for various reasons (see #1, above, for one!), but the time for procrastination to stop is right now, this weekend. Really. Just after I finish this blog post.

~ 3 ~
I discovered a recipe using leftover soup or chili that I think is so cool! It's a cornbread version of chicken pot pie or shepherd's pie, from the Dairy Hollow House's soup cookbook. Why didn't I think of this by myself? Yummy!

~ 4 ~
MPD is now really for sure weaned. <> It's time, I know--as I've said before, I am not one to nurse a toddler and beyond...but my little sweetie boy is growing up. It's funny, too, because his personality seems a bit different now too. He's more independent and opinionated. Great, because we don't have enough independent and opinionated people in this family!

~ 5 ~
Yesterday WWD went to an open-house visit day for the middle school we're considering. He loved it. <> It's between this school, which is a very small, very Catholic, college-prep school for grades 6-12, and homeschooling. I have no idea which way we'll go--after all, last year at this time I never would have imagined that we wouldn't be homeschooling everyone right now! Thy Will Be Done!

~ 6 ~
This fall I have started a Little Flowers Club for the girls at school. It is a little bit like a Catholic version of Brownies, but there is no national organization--it's just a tiny little club, almost like a bible study group, with my 2 girls plus 10 friends from school. It's so great! Each month they study a virtue with a corresponding flower and female saint. Each girl has a sash on which to sew their badges, which are each flower petals, and by the end of the year the flower will be complete. So cute and so much fun! I am trying to keep this as simple simple simple as I possibly can--at my house, after school, once every other week for an hour and a half. We do art, crafts, games, reading, prayer, discussion, and, of course, snack. It gets quite crazy, really! It is a challenge to fit all the fun ideas for each virtue and flower into this small amount of time, but so far it is just right. Our little group is so blessed, and I am really loving getting to know all the girls at the school (most of them are signed up.)! It is certainly helping me get my homeschooling ya-yas out too!

~ 7 ~
The kids have a break for a 4-day weekend this weekend--hooray! I love when there's no school, almost more than they do. It is very rainy--supposed to clear up for trick-or-treat tomorrow--so we are having a cozy indoor weekend. Don't you just love trick-or-treat? I can't wait--NOT! And any minute now, I'm going to start packing...

Retro Thursday

Halloween 2002--KLD's first Halloween! Can you believe I actually made this little train for them? It was so funny--it certainly slowed them down for trick-or-treat because they had to stay together and walk slowly. Nowadays, the kids make their own costumes in our house--and dress up their little brother too!

Fall-ing

Still Waiting for My Ice Cream!

Thanks to Ang for forwarding this funny civics lesson!

From a third-grade teacher in the Nashville area...

The presidential election was heating up and some of the children showed an interest. I decided we would have an election for a class president. We would choose our nominees. They would make a campaign speech and the class would vote. To simplify the process, candidates were nominated by other class members. We discussed what kinds of characteristics these students should have.

We got many nominations and from those, Jamie and Olivia were picked to run for the top spot. The class had done a great job in their selections. Both candidates were good kids. I thought Jamie might have an advantage because he got lots of parental support. I had never seen Olivia's mother. The day arrived when they were to make their speeches.

Jamie went first. He had specific ideas about how to make our class a better place. He ended by promising to do his very best. Everyone applauded and he sat down.

Now it was Olivia's turn to speak. Her speech was concise. She said, "If you will vote for me, I will give you ice cream."

She sat down. The class went wild. "Yes! Yes! We want ice cream. "She surely would say more. She did not have to. A discussion followed:

How did she plan to pay for the ice cream? She wasn't sure.

Would her parents buy it or would the class pay for it. She didn't know.

The class really didn't care. All they were thinking about was ice cream.

Jamie was forgotten.

Olivia won by a landslide.

Sound familiar? :)

Sick Day

JPD had fever in the night last night--again--so he didn't go to preschool today. Actually, although it's hard to tell, since the pediatricians aren't running cultures, it seems that we have H1N1 going around here. One by one, the kids have been going down with the symptoms--which at least for us aren't such a big deal.

Anyway, so JPD was too sick for school today. But fortunately not too sick for this:



Or this:




Don't you feel sorry for my poor sick boy?! :)

Just What I Needed to Hear!

"Just as the keeper of the vineyard keeps his eye on the fig tree and eagerly looks for the first fruit buds, so God looks at every sinner and at each one of us.  He scrupulously keeps and eye out for what could touch our heart, and looks for the secret stirrings of repentance and conversion.  To that end he gives us time.  God knows that humans are by nature slow and even slothful, and that it takes a long time for us to become mature adults and finally to bear fruit.  It has not been given to humans to reach perfection overnight; our conversion requires much time.  Nor can we (for no apparent reason) suddenly take the wrong road.  Humans are simply that way and god completely understands this, for this is how he made us.  For this reason he waits very patiently and gives us time; he lets time do its work.

For that matter we know all too well that we can only make progress with the aid of time, by trial and error, three steps forward and two steps back.  We tend to make many resolutions which we quickly forget and which quickly go up in smoke.  Every time we begin anew and quietly take our time.  We need not be afraid if we misuse the time God the Father has so generously given us in his infinite mercy.

For all the time given us, every day and every hour, are a marvelous gift from God:  it is the time of his grace, whose intent is that we should go to him and let ourselves be seized and turned around by his abundant mercy like so many who have gone before us.

God keeps an eye on us sinners, not in order to let us die, but to give us time so that we may repent and find the abundant life.  Let us give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, and his love endures forever!"

~Fr. Andre Louf, O.C.S.O

Freezin' Season

THIS is what fall soccer in Wisconsin looks like!!

What a cold and rainy fall we have had this year--come to think of it, a really cool summer also.  They're predicting a warmer-than-average winter, but I'll believe that when I see it!

This weekend was the end of fall soccer.  Time for Halloween and getting ready for the holidays!  We are all ready for our weekend schedules to slow down a bit, so we can have time to work on moving and getting settled in the new house. 

Both KLD and JPD love soccer so much, and have had a great time playing this fall!  If it weren't for all my less-is-more rhetoric, along with what I just said in the last paragraph, I'd look at signing them up for indoor soccer over the next few months.  Perhaps in January...

Happy Birthday Bill!

Bill's 48th birthday was the last day of his two-week vacation--one week camping, one week painting the new house.  So he spent most of his birthday on a ladder, working on painting the garage.  We brought his cake over to him! 

The new house is looking great and we can't wait to move in!  A few weeks to go...

Less Is More, Part 2

Like I said, as the years go by and my mommy wisdom continues to grow, I'm finding that life is better around here with fewer kids' extracurricular activities.  If my experienced-mommy self could go back in time about a decade and give some advice to my rookie-mommy self, I would apply this same less-is-more advice to the acquisition of kids' STUFF. 

"Stop the madness!"  I would say to my old self, who was pretty mesmerized by all the cool educational toys, adorable kids' clothes and shoes, and endless parenting gear I encountered upon becoming a parent.  There were--and are--so many irresistible gadgets and gizmos!

There's a good reason why first-time mommies carry huge diaper bags with a couple of changes of baby clothing, several toys and board books, a clean mommy shirt, a dozen or so diapers, a pack or two of wipes, sample size diaper rash lotion, scented diaper disposal bags, and a pack of disposable bibs, whereas experienced moms (notice I did not say "old") carry a small handbag containing lip gloss, a cell phone, and a credit card. 

The new mommies--except for those of you much wiser than I was--haven't figured out that in a pinch, they can surely find a wrinkled-up diaper under a seat in the van, and McDonald's paper towels make adequate wipes (again, only in a pinch).  And with all that stuff, you spend more time organizing and reorganizing it than actually using or enjoying it.  (Or, if you're like me, the diaper bag just fills up and gets all junky, and the baby outgrows those outfits and diapers, so you...I shudder to admit this...just go buy a new diaper bag.)

I keep giving away more and more of our baby stuff.  At one point we had three or four strollers--well, actually we still have three, so maybe that's not such a good example.  :)  If we have another child, s/he might just live happily without a Boppy pillow, infant swing, or exersaucer (if I don't get pregnant pretty soon, they're outta here!).  In the new house, the poor babe might not even have a nursery of his/her own--I'll just stick her bed next to mine for, like, two years.

As for toys--just say NO, mom!  I wish there were toy libraries, so I could check them out and return them, like books.  When we moved here from the house with the bigger basement, we had so many toys that we literally could not unpack.  I can hardly give them away faster than new ones come in for birthdays and Christmases!  If I had it all to do over again, I'd go for three or four classic toys--right now I'm working on getting our stash down to Legos, a couple of other building sets, American Girl dolls, and a Thomas train set.  (Still lots of games and puzzles, though.)  I'm not there yet, but I am really trying to simplify our life as much as I can--fewer toys means fewer things to tidy up.  Also, it is absolutely true that the fewer toys we have, the more my sweeties enjoy playing with the toys that remain.

I like Flylady's definition of "STUFF"--Something That Undermines Family Fun.  So true...less is more!

Retro Thursday

My three "big kids," at the same spot where we hiked last week.  Only this was our first trip to Door County, in 2006 (seems like yesterday, of course!)...

 

P.S. I'm posting 'Retro Thursday' on Wednesday night; hope you don't mind! :)

M our Musical Maestro

MRD surprised us this year by wanting to take up a new instrument.  She's been learning piano for about 4 years--she really likes it and of course, after 4 years, she plays beautifully.  Band starts in 4th grade, and she was SO excited to have a chance to learn to play the clarinet.  (I've never even seen a clarinet up close, so I think it's pretty cool too.)

Here she is:

...now doing two instruments.  Perhaps we'll have a band geek in the family?!  Go MRD!!

Good thing nothing like this ever happens around here...

The vacation that almost wasn't (Part 1 of 4)

We loved our camping trip last fall so much that this year, we scheduled two whole weeks in the same spot.  These things seem like such a good idea in theory, right? :)  Well, when we decided to buy a new house on September 30 and move into it in early November, we decided that our many home improvement projects and moving plans meant that going away for two weeks in October wasn't such a good idea, so we shortened our reservation to just one week. 

Then last week, the forecast for Door County, WI (our vacation destination of choice) was for pouring down freezing rain, unseasonable cold temperatures, and high winds.  Not so good for tent camping!  We would have canceled the whole deal, but MPD and I had a non-refundable reservation for a little hotel room right at the entrance to the park (we're all for roughing it, but with a hot shower, you know).  So we bravely headed up anyway--not to mention that NO WAY did we want to give up this vacation that we've been looking forward to all year!

We decided that rain and cooking at camp were not too compatible, so we just brought one tent, our dining canopy, and sleeping bags.  Without all our camping stuff, we could all fit into the van, which was nice.  Usually we bring two cars--one for gear and one for people.  Since we're not cooking at camp, we've done all restaurants, all week.  :)  Good thing we didn't stay two weeks--seven people eating out for every meal is pretty pricey!!  Also, each child took a turn in the tent with Bill, instead of everyone camping.  This means--you guessed it--they all stayed at my tiny hotel room with me and MPD instead.  Quite cozy! 

Here we are at our quite-minimalist camp:

Here we are the first night at our favorite dinner spot--a traditional Door County fish boil, which we love.  The great lakes whitefish and red potatoes are boiled over a huge fire, then the cooks bring it into the dining room and serve it up with pools of melted butter, cole slaw, bread, and Door County cherry pie a la mode.  Yum!  The butter and the pie are the favorites for our group, no doubt.

 

Next stop, the breakfast restaurant we love best--a Swedish place that features real live goats nibbling on the roof.  Fun, and yum again...

   

Continued in Part 2...

Vacation Part 2

We were camping a week earlier than last year, and we noticed a huge difference in the fall color.  Even during our four days there, it was amazing how much the leaves changed color.  Here we are fooling around taking some pictures on a hilltop with a particularly beautiful vista...

After we took these pictures, none of which became the family photo of my dreams, we saw another family unload from their van for family pictures.  The dad immediately started setting up a tripod, and the four adorable clean-scrubbed kids in their color-coordinated outfits tumbled right into position in front of the camera, looking perfect.  Of course, we pointed this family out to the kids, as in, "Why can't you be more like them?" :)

What's the matter with us, anyway?  I'm just thankful to get a single picture of all five kids looking in the general direction of the camera once a year, for Christmas. :)

At the next scenic vista, a nice couple offered to photograph our whole family.  At least we're all looking at the camera!  I'm always startled when I see a picture of all of us together--so many of us!

Back at camp, MRD wasted no time getting rid of her shoes and socks.  Wading around in the lake, which was quite chilly, is her favorite thing.

Another big favorite for everyone (not so much mom & dad!) is throwing rocks into the water--both skipping stones and just plunking boulders. 

     

The oldest four kids and I had a blissful afternoon fooling around at the camp and the beach while Bill and MPD ran to the wood station for firewood.  Problem was, on their way back, the van got a flat tire.  Totally flat--no explanation.  Not exactly a hotbed of AAA activity out there in the wilderness, so it took a LONG time to get help.  As in, a long, HUNGRY time!  Also, since it was Monday night, Bill and William got behind schedule for watching the football game of the year--Brett Favre and the Vikings playing the Packers at Lambeau Field, of course!  They were further delayed by our quite-annoying home sale (that of course we are nevertheless thankful for), which required some last-minute back-and-forth faxing on Monday evening.  The only thing harder to find out there than AAA is an after-hours fax machine!  They caught the end of the game, and we weren't too crazy about its outcome anyway. :)

Continued in Part 3...

Vacation Part 3

The next day the monsoons moved in, so it was off to the Maritime Museum for an afternoon of fun.  Meanwhile, Bill went off to buy four new tires for the van--turns out they were so fried, we were lucky only one got flat.

Pictures from the museum, which we loved:  Watch out for a crazy ship driver, and KLD loved the lighthouse exhibit...

Sending Morse code messages from ship to shore...

Boarding the life boat...

Fall fun at a corn maze and farm stand on the way back to camp...

Continued in Part 4...