Halloween

Joseph was an angel.

Maria made her own jellyfish costume with a clear umbrella from Target and some curling ribbon.  She loved twirling the umbrella to make the tentacles swirl.  Cecilia wanted to be a ghost, and since all we could find was a Nike brand shirt, we made her a racing ghost.  Her double zero race number says "Just bOO it! Ft. Leavenworth Trick-or-Treat Marathon 2009".  Charles chose a Darth Vader outfit which I agreed to before I remembered my "no being a bad guy or dressin in black in the dark" rules.  His birthday lightsaber completed his ensemble.  Anthony chose to be a centurian.  He made his own shield but we bought the costume.  And Thomas has been begging to learn to sew, so he and I made his knight costume together.  I think he learned some good lessons and he seemed pleased with the finished product.  James' Elmo costume was a hand-me-down: 

Flashback Friday--Fall Break

Yes, friends, some of these pictures are as old as last Tuesday, when we went to Science City.  Maria and Cecilia and their friend are showing off one of the optical illusions at the Mr. E. Hotel, and Charles led the excavations into shredded rubber at the Dinosaur Dig.

I believe that Thomas is playing some kind of theremin where the tree is the vertical antenna(?).  Joseph loved watching the golf balls being shot through the air and trying to swing his club at them at the mini putt putt golf course.  We all enjoyed watching him from a distance.  Fortunately, the 12 kids in our group (2 families) excitedly shoved so many golf balls into the chute leading to the pneumatic tube that it jammed, freeing our attention for other exhibits.

Gratuitous cute baby shot.  We don't see this happy face often enough.

October--Time

"We live and we die by time. And we must not commit the sin of losing our track on time."

  --Chuck Noland in Castaway

The echoes of this line have haunted me from time to time, but I could never quite remember quite what it said, just the feeling of urgency.  Many, many days, it is how I feel.  Time slips past, and I'm suddenly surprised by an hour which requires me to school people or scoot them out the door for a carpool ready to leave or start dinner so we can eat before 7.  I live in the contant state of feeling unhappily behind-hand.  So, this month I have put my spare moments (between spelling words mostly) toward how to organize my time more efficiently.

First I mapped out my daily schedule with Bill.  Here it is:

6:50--Rise/dress/make bed

7     --coffee

8     --teach Cecilia 8:45 bath J& J

9     --Teach Charles

10   --teach Maria

10:30--BREAK (start dinner)

11     --poetry/table work, T,A, M, C & C

noon or 12:30--LUNCH  (work on dinner or do chore)

1       --Naps for J&J, some days others/me--email

2      --Finish T&A, sometimes M

pre 4--Get ready for eve activities

                  Little kids awake

6ish  --cook dinner

7      --eat

8     --kids upstairs, read books, clean-up

9     --big kids to bed, grade?

10-11--bed

When I first saw it on paper, I wanted to cry.  Where is my free time?  Where is the time I thought I would find for housekeeping or checking up on the kids' chores?  What about exercise and when will I take Joseph outside so he can remember what the sun looks like?  I feel like time marches on, and a whole battalion of heavy-booted minutes do it right over me.  

Bill's solution for me it that I get up earlier, but I know myself.  My internal clock is set to sleep from 11 pm or later until the coffee grinder goes off at 6:50 am.  A shower or a stiff legged run and an exhausted feeling for the rest of the morning are just not enough to tempt me from bed.  My biggest issue has been what how to get more out of the time I have while staying withing the comfortable sleep parameters of my day.  Communication and the calendar have been my solution.

I think I've mentioned that I love the clock because our schedule is ordered to the hours of the day.  More than the clock though, I am dependent on my calendar.  It sits in my office, which is in a centrally located room of the house. 

Bill and I usually spend and frustrated Saturday morning trying to drink our coffee while we plan the menu for the week.  Then he makes a grocery list and, collecting a few stray children on the way, he goes shopping.  We've decided that our Saturday morning pow-wow needs to happen before the kids get up and we need to communicare about the menu, driving/afternoon plans, and exercise for the week.  Ironically, this is something I am completely willing to get up early to do.  We daily re-check the calendar and communicate about decisions made and changes. 

Our first week we missed the alarm, so the meeting was later than we wanted, but it was effective.  In the large boxes for each day on the side of my calendar I wrote the menu (in pencil), my workouts and when they would happen (in blue), and one major chore I would like to accomplish each day (in red).  The menu is very flexible as to which day meals actually fall on.  Chores are fairly flexible; some days I do two, some days one or fewer. But the chore is standard from week to week, ie Monday will always be laundry catch-up day.  Workouts are the least flexible, and therefore the best planned.    And we remembered that I will get up at 6 or earlier to swim, so that is coming into heavy rotation on my workout schedule.  We're only one week in, but I've had more free time--completely unexpectedly--and I think we're moving in the right direction.

The biggest change has come with the computer.  The 1pm email has become read-only and oriented towards things like soccer game cancellations.  At 1:30 I've started reading aloud to the older kids.  Most days, I'm just not online, and when I am, it's in the evening when Bill is doing homework.  Since email is my favorite medium for communicating with the friends we've moved away from, it's been hard to give it up.  (You will notice that the phone doesn't even show up on my schedule.)  However, for this season of my life, I think this is the best I can do. 

One last thought on time:  I did institute one time saving device with the kids.  Any time someone wants me to find a "lost" school book, they pay me a quarter.  The quarters go in a jar that also holds a beautifully cut, red, laminated monkey--a remnant from the boy's preschool days and a reminder that there are some things that are just a darn waste of time.  I've made about 2 bucks and I've saved oodles of time already!

Grandma

Today the kids are asking...again!...what's for dinner.  We spent the morning making tortillas so you'd think it would stick, but no. 

"Albondigas," I sighed.
"What is it?" asked Charles and "Do I like it?" asked Cecilia.
"It's Mexican meatball soup and yes, you like it.  It's your favorite." That's my standard answer to "do I like it" but today I could see they were on to me.  I put on my how-can-you-not believe-me voice. "Of course you'll like it.  It's Grandma's recipe."
Big eyes and sighs of "oooohhhhhh" followed by "What else does Grandma make?  Does she have a recipe for beef? When can we have it?"

It just so happens that most of our meals this week are from my mom, and I had to laugh when I just now realized that almost all of our favoritest meals are from her: spaghetti sauce, tostadas, albondigas, chorizzo, beef over rice, taquitos, up eggs....

My kids will never think I am a great cook.  It will always be Grandma who gets the credit, which is as it should be. 

Is it time for dinner yet? 

Flashback Friday--Are you ready?

It's almost Halloween!

Goings On--Our Weekend

Saturday:  Since Bill had a 3 day weekend last weekend, we decided to take the kids to Manhattan (the Little Apple), KS to our favorite zoo.  It was smaller than I remembered, but that was a good thing since it was 20 degrees without accounting for the wind chill.  When we lived here 10 years ago, Bill and I donated a brick for the new Monkey House.  It says "Dear Mary, I yearn for you tragically" which is from Catch 22.  Not really sure why we picked that quote but we did take a minute to find the brick.

The kids loved the flamingos and were game to see the other animals for a while, but it was a push to get them to walk  in the enclosure with the emus and wallabies.  One benefit of a small zoo is that you are very close to everything and can really get a feel for how big different animals are.  The pacing snow leopards were even a little frightening.  The baby hid just below the glass and then pounced at Charles. The shivering kids begged to go after an hour and a half, so like good parents, we took them out to Target to warm up and shop for toys with Charles birthday money.  By the best of coincidences, the doctor I used to work for and his wife recognized us there, and we had a good chat while the kids waited fairly patiently.  The Youngs last saw us when the twins were a few months old, and Dr. Young joked that they've had to buy a bigger fridge to hold our family pictures!

Even though the day was cold, we had Baskin Robbins before we drove home. It was what Charles really wanted for his birthday but we couldn't make it happen that day.

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Sunday after Mass found me and 5 big kids at a "farm".  I'm not a huge fan of "agritainment", but Cecilia's Daisy troop participated in a science day and we all had fun checking out the rides and activities.  Everyone enjoyed trying to milk a cow:

And the pedal powered go-carts were a lot of fun. I warmed myself up by giving pushes to people who had trouble getting started.  Thankfully, it was less cold and windy than the day before.

Sunday afternoon:

This is a day I've been looking forward to for a long time.  Back when we lived in Hawaii we became very interested in the holy priest Bl. Damien of Moloka'i.  Bill and I were both able to visit Kalaupapa to see where he lived, worked and died among the people with leprosy.  And a priest who sometimes subbed at our chapel often included in his homily the story a women he knew well who credited Fr. Damien's intercession for her miraculous cure from an aggressive cancer.  On Oct. 11,  Pope Benedict XVI canonized Fr. Damien (Joseph) de Veuster, after whom our Joseph Damien is named.

To celebrate we wanted to first do something in the spirit of Fr. Damien, so we made origami leis as spirtual bouquets and we prayed for sick family and friends.  I plan to mail the leis this week. 

The menu for our little feast included Grilled Kahlua Chicken, Hawaiian Sweet Potatoes (Hawaiian flavor, not color which is purple!), coconut rice with pineapple, and for dessert Mango sorbet with chopped Macadamia nuts and Belgian chocolate on the side.  Our centerpiece featured holy cards of Fr. Damien which were a gift from my friend Jenn. 

I've already heard of more good ideas, so I'm excited to expand our celebration on Fr. Damien's feast day, May 10.  

ETA:  Here is a look at the peninsula of Kalaupapa on Molokai and the cliffs behind it which kept the people with leprosy from leaving:

Charles' Golden Birthday

For his special birthday dinner Charles chose:  Hotdogs

For Halloween this year Charles wants to be:  Darth Vader

For his birthday, Charles received a light saber that changes from green to red, a clone nerf dart gun, a Webkins lion, a camo Timex watch and money with which he bought himself a Webkins hippo and refills for his dart gun.

Charles favorite color is:  green

Charles still loves his fuzzy blanket that Grandma made him when he was a baby and sleeps with it every night.  He wanted to take it camping with him on his cub scout camp-out a few weeks ago.

Charles is an aggressive soccer player and keeps up with the kids on his team even though he is the youngest player.  The assistant soccer coach calls Charles "Charlie"!

Charles is excited to make his First Holy Communion next summer.

Charles turned 7 on October 7th.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLES!

Flashback Friday--Adoration

Oh, back before this little girlie was a twinkle, Jodie and her husband Dave brought 24-hour Adoration to Hawaii.  In fact, at that point my big boy Charles was still an enormous bump in my belly, but shortly after he arrived, I took the 4 o'clock hour all for my own....well, mine and 4 kids.  When we had it in the big chapel, I would drag along a pack 'n' play and after I plopped the baby in, the other little kids pranced up the center aisle, knelt in front of the Montrance and would say, "Hi, Jesus!"  In the small chapel , a baby gate contained everyone, and after their "Hi, Jesus!" they would play tag under the altar while I prayed.   Around that time, our priest shared a quote with me about the Holy Innocents playing with their crowns around the throne of God, all unaware of His glory.  It was a great consolation to me, and those blessed hours changed my faith.

Today, due to a perfect storm of scheduling, I had to take the seven dwarfs with me to my Adoration hour.  Jodie and Dave started Adoration here too, years ago, and I am so grateful.  It made me some kind of homesick to watch Joseph trying to crawl under the altar and the other kids lining up to say, "Hi, Jesus!" before they knelt to pray.  And then it got rowdy in there, too many people crammed into a tiny room and everyone talking or telling Him something or .... I don't even know, but He and I just watched and laughed. 

On the way home, I commented about how much livlier Adoration was this week than it has been the last few weeks when I've gone alone, and one of the kids said, "Yeah!  We were rocking with Jesus!"

Run for the Chimps--by Anthony

The last Saturday in September, Thomas, Maria, Dad and I ran a 1 mile race at the zoo with Thomas and Maria's running club. It was a figure-eight course which started near the flamingos and monkeys and went through an elephant sanctuary. What I like best about it is that I came in before anyone else in my family. Afterwards, we got nice snacks and we got to visit the zoo!