Water Ballet

Once again this summer...the one, the only...water ballet show!!






Now our summer is complete!
Loving our water ballerinas!

And meanwhile, in the baby pool...

Good St. Anne

Happy Feast Day, St. Anne!

According to Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne, (also Ann or Anna, from Hebrew Hannah, meaning "favor" or "grace") of David's house and line, was the mother of the Virgin Mary and grandmother of Jesus Christ. According to the apocryphal Gospel of James, Anne and her husband Joachim, after years of childlessness, were visited by an angel who told them that they would conceive a child. Anne promised to dedicate the child to God's service. More information about St. Anne is here and I was inspired by Elizabeth Foss' special devotion to St. Anne here.

This year St. Anne is special to me, too, because I realized that her feast day is on the same day that my own sweet grandmother died--July 26, 2002. It's hard to believe that eight years have already gone by since we lost my Grandmother. I still feel like I could pick up the phone and call her up, or that she's still there, down in Texas, ready to pull out something chocolate for us as we play cards around her kitchen table.

Five days after her death, my family held her funeral on a steamy day down by the Texas bayou. At almost the exact same time, my precious KLD was born miles away in Illinois, sweetly continuing the circle of life.

I pray that dear St. Anne, grandmother of Our Lord, can help to bless my own dear Grandmother and my KLD, who will turn eight on Saturday!

Lookin' Good

Today was a much-needed rainy day around here. Pouring, all day. We did nuthin', all day. I woke up early and snuck out to Mass all by myself (pure bliss of course), then came home thinking about how my back wasn't hurting--significant, since during the last few days it's been threatening to have another full-out explosion.

By the time I changed out of my Mass clothes, my back hurt something fierce. It's an old pregnancy injury--my sacroiliac joint, to be precise. And on a bad day, it makes childbirth look like nuthin'. Today was not quite that bad of a day.

After breakfast, KLD asked me if she could give me a handful of change for some crisp dollar bills. I said sure--but she should put the change into a ziplock bag for me to use in the car for coffee runs and so on. She did and happily traipsed upstairs with her shiny new dollar bills.

Then I decided I needed to run to Walgreen's for one of those menthol patches for my back. On the way there, I decided I needed coffee.

Okay, so picture me: Changed into raggy old yoga pants, an old t-shirt, and Birkenstocks, hobbling out of the rain into McDonald's with a baggie of change, counting out nickels and pennies for a cup of McCafe. When a stylish mom with a couple of toddlers failed to meet my eye at the checkout, I realized that I probably looked totally like a homeless woman! Ha!

I guess I can be thankful that my kids are still just a little too young to be totally embarrassed by me! And that I didn't actually see anyone I know! Or perhaps my pedicure (and the bit of makeup I put on before Mass) gave my true identity away as just a lame, slobby suburban Mommy. :)

Goodbye Old Friend

I'll miss you.




Yes, it's true. Of course, I've quit before--for pregnancies, for Lent--but this time, I MEAN IT. I hope!

This summer I've been drinking a lot of Diet Coke. Since I normally drink a lot of Diet Coke, let me assure you that this summer I've been drinking A. LOT. OF. DIET. COKE. As in, I don't really wanna talk about how much.

And you know what? I feel like crap. I feel like crap so much that I've been to the doctor. My head hurts, I'm exhausted, I'm crabby, my blood pressure is inching up again, my back hurts, blah blah blah...

Lately I've been doing a little experiment to go along with a no-carb diet I'm sorta into these days...I substitute iced coffee, iced tea, or (what a concept) water for my Diet Coke at different times of the day. I do use Splenda if I feel like it, but absolutely no aspartame. And guess what--Diet Coke is making me sick. Typically I'll have a giant iced coffee out the door in the morning, then water until I'm on my way home from the pool, then iced tea. I feel fine with all of that. Then I get home and if I grab a Diet Coke--caffeine or no, it doesn't matter--BAM! Headache and sleepy. I've tried this experiment enough days now, with enough variables, that I'm sure of what's going on.

So yesterday I Googled "Diet Coke is making me sick" and "Aspartame is making me sick." And..yep, it's true; the stuff is totally poisonous. Go ahead and Google it yourself--what are you waiting for, a link? :)

You'll find lots of nasty, serious stuff--including all my symptoms, of course--and apparently aspartame has also been linked to MS and lupus-like symptoms along with a litany of other unpleasant side effects. Diet Coke contains as much as 50aspartame, and the rest of its ingredient list--featuring such delicacies as phosphoric acid and that gross artificial coloring--isn't much better! My favorite thing about aspartame, though, is that it breaks down into formaldehyde. In fact, if you don't keep your soda chilled, it will do so before you even drink the stuff--formaldehyde on the rocks, anyone?

(Of course, the FDA is completely unhelpful on this one, as they're no doubt completely bribed by Monsanto, the company that manufactures aspartame. It's always those eeeevil corporations, darn them! And guess who was the CEO of Searle, the company that originally invented aspartame before being acquired by Monsanto...Donald Rumsfeld, of course! It always comes back to the eeeevil Republicans, I tell you!)

Ahem. So anyway, today was my Day 1 without Diet Coke. I'm far from alone in this addiction--while you're Googling, check out "Diet Coke Addiction." You'll find posts like "Day 347 without Diet Coke." (I promise I won't be posting about Diet Coke for that long!) I do believe this is a real, serious thing, and that someday my kids will view my soda habit the way I view my parents' former nicotine addiction. So please pray for me; I do need to be around for my kids and, I'm hoping, grandchildren. And no--I don't think the formaldehyde will be much help in preserving me for them.

And you know what? I feel much better today already!

Solving World Hunger

"If the best current knowledge were employed, enough food to feed the our billion people could be grown in the southern half of Sudan! It is only the Western bias, the idea spread throughout the world that one must eat white grain and drink soda pop to be "civilized," that is responsible for the suffering of the millions of starving people in the world. It is a myth that there is not enough to go around, that there is no way the Earth can support its exploding population. The truth is that most of the world's food resources are controlled by a handful of greedy men, who deny people the right to grow food for themselves but try to sell them Western-produced junk instead. [Some experts] estimate that if all the arable land on earth were used properly and sowed with foods for human consumption, the Earth could support 60 billion people--almost fifteen times our current population! But it is true that there is no way we can feed the world population on Whoppers and Cheez-Wiz, let along nourish it."

~ Paul Stitt Fighting the Food Giants via Nourishing Traditions

Whispers from God

"God calls us gradually, from one level to the next. He attracts us in some mysterious way. We become aware of it after it is done. But it is often very simple: our conscience is stirred, or becomes uncomfortable, with very specific points of departure which deceive us because they are too unassuming, too close at hand. We do not believe that faith is already there, that it is calling us, and that, as the Epistle to the Romans says, God 'stirs up our jealousy.' In a discrete way he proposes something better, a surpassing of ourselves, within our conscience. For Abraham--and Abraham did not know what it meant - : to have a son; for Saint Peter: to become a fisher of men. But God remains disconcerting, so discrete is he. He arouses us, stirs us up, but we are always free to prefer something else and not pay attention."

~ Fr. Bernard Bro, O.P.

Big Man on Campus

WWD has spent his mornings the past three weeks all the way downtown on campus at a program for gifted-and-talented sixth-graders-to-be. He's spent his mornings running all around the university campus, touring museums, taking classes in a variety of fields, getting snacks at the Union, and having fun with a few hundred kids from all over our part of the state. His core classes included "Architecture of the Ancient World," where they learned about ancient structures and built some models (see them in the pictures--his is Macchu Pichu, and he also built a Roman aqueduct); "Radio Drama," where they got on the air at the campus radio studio, and wrote and produced a radio play; and "The Human Body," which featured WWD's favorite day: Dissection! (A Chicken Wing...I said "Want to go to KFC for lunch?")

What a fantastic opportunity this has been! He had several friends attend, but mostly met new people, had a blast, and learned some really cool stuff. It has been a busy three weeks, and he's pretty worn out.

Next up: a week of Boy Scout camp! Go WWD!

Friday Quick Takes

Joining Jen at Conversion Diary for Quick Takes Friday. This week my Quick Takes have a bit of a twist.

I'm pretty much of a Geek Mom when it comes to kids' media. Although we almost never watch TV and don't have a gaming system, we do enjoy movies and PC games. My Seven Quick Takes post this week is a peek at some of our most favorite and recommended electronic stuff:


~ 1 ~

The Eyewitness DVDs.
These are so great; we watch them all the time in the car.




~ 2 ~
Chessmaster. Part of the reason we don't have a gaming system is that I think we can easily spend plenty of screen-time just on a PC. My 4 oldest kids will play Chessmaster all day and as far as they're concerned, it is a video game.





~ 3 ~
Rosetta Stone.

Ditto my comments for #2. We're just getting into French on this one, and MRD, in particular, loves it. This one also gets extra points in our house because you actually get to wear a headset and talk to the computer. :)






~ 4 ~

Schoolhouse Rock! Of course! These are the best. The kids like them as much as I do, and we rock out in the van to them all the time.




~ 5 ~

Zoombinis PC game.This logic game is so much fun for all ages. We have an old version which worked well on my old laptop, but now it seems to be also working on our newer computer. It looks like there are some version-compatibility issues, so buy it carefully. But do buy it--it's full of fun, mind-bending puzzles.


~ 6 ~
The I Spy games.Fun, fun, fun, especially for younger pre-readers.





~ 7 ~
I can't get enough of all the great Catholic DVDs from Ignatius Press.
We own a few of these, and our parish has an awesome library with many others. The kids love watching the lives of the Saints, and I think movies are such a powerful way to learn about history. WWD and I especially love Steve Ray's Footprints of God series. Check it out!



See what I mean? I'm quite a geek. (Shhhh--my kids haven't figured it out yet!) Got any good recommendations to share?

Swim Scenes

Want to come to a swim meet with us?

JPD's ready to go!

Look out, Michael Phelps...

"Mom, it's just cross-training for football and basketball, you know..."

"Pull-eeeeeze, can I get a bagel from the snack bar?"

Team cheer!

Go, JPD, go!

Can he sit still long enough to wait for his race?

JPD? JPD?

"Mom, MRD got a bagel, so I should have one too!"

UNO central, back at our tent...

A Very Old Favorite

After all these years of loving this passage, I have it just about memorized. I pray that it may inspire all my relationships!

"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

"All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no 'ordinary' people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations -- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit -- immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.

"This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously -- no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner -- no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment."

--C. S. Lewis, From The Weight of Glory.

A Day in Our Life

Every summer I always end up wishing we'd committed to fewer activities. I blather on about needing more downtime, less structure, time to relax. This year I think we've got it just right. Our days are going so smoothly, with lots of action and plenty of downtime.

Our schedule is smooth, sure--but so full I made a spreadsheet just to keep track of everything, and I find it helpful to make a daily to-do list at 15-minute increments so I don't lose track of anyone! Getting everyone where they need to be, with the right sports gear, is roughly equivalent to, like, planning and organizing a Space Shuttle launch. The only thing that makes it all possible is that everything we do is only about a mile away from everything else. This busy-ness has been great for everyone's organizational skills; each child has to think through what s/he will need for the next day (goggles, golf clubs in the car, etc.) and organize his/her own things at night before bedtime.

Still, I wish MPD didn't have to spend so much time in the van. He's happy as can be, though, and having a great time hanging out at the pool and the playground, watching DVDs as we drive back and forth to all the sports.

Join us for a sample day from this past week:

7a.m. Breakfast
7:30 Bill leaves to take WWD to Day Camp (more on that coming in another post)
8:30 KLD to tennis (Some days of the week we have golf instead of tennis)






8:45 MRD to swim team practice
9:30 Pick up KLD from tennis
9:45 JPD, KLD to swim team practice




10:00 MRD finishes dive class






10:30 MRD to tennis















10:45 KLD swim lesson


11:00 JPD, MPD swim lesson










11:30 Finish swim lessons
Picnic lunch @ tennis
12:00 MRD finishes tennis

12:30 Pick up WWD, downtown (MPD always fall asleep on the way home)










1:00 Home for more lunch, MPD's nap

Our afternoons are quiet; I make dinner (or collapse for a nap, depending on how late I stayed up the night before); the kids play, either on the computer, or read, or something else they dream up; or we do our homeschooling, which consists of either them working independently on their Singapore math books or us all working together on a literature/geography lesson. Some evenings we have more sports (WWD has basketball, MRD has gymnastics) and some evenings we go back to the pool, or go for a bike ride, or just fool around in the yard.

Also, so far this summer involves lots of ice cream and bubble gum. Sounds good, no?

Happy Independence Day!

Swim Buddies

Reason #4,726 why I love having a (kinda) big family: Parent/Tot swim lessons can become Sister/Tot!
MRD has been doing lessons with MPD this session, and it's been even better than I expected. At first I felt a bit guilty with this setup, of course, because I'm really just being a slacker and not wanting to change into my swimsuit and get wet when we have so much else going on before and after the lessons. (Also this way I get 25 free minutes at the pool while all 3 of my lesson-takers have their swim lessons at the same time!)
But it turns out that MPD does much better with Sis than Mom--he's braver when there's no Mommy to cling to. Plus she's far more fun than I am!

Happiness Is...

...going out to lunch with Grandma, and watching the diggers and cement mixers from your window seat in the restaurant.
Pure bliss, I tell you!

MPD: "Mommy, Me hat! Me coat!"
(Translation..."Mommy, when I get big I'm going to be a construction guy who wears a cool hard hat and a neon yellow vest!")
Oh yeah, baby! :)

Loving My Gymnasts

I've been meaning to post these sweet pictures of my darling gymnasts during their end-of-semester shows. MRD and KLD love love LOVE their gymnastics, and I am amazed at everything they can do! MPD is just amazing in his sweet little class too, of course!