Easter Preparation

After my midwife appt. on Thurs, I truly expected to spend Good Friday in the hospital meditating on the crucifixion. No such luck. However, our whole family participated in Holy Thursday and Good Friday services together which was a wonderful blessing. I was begged by Fr. Gary not to come to Easter Vigil if I think I may be in labor as he promised to run in the opposite direction at the first sign of my distress. Dr. Mike offered to help, unabashed that he holds a doctorate of military history and not an MD. In the end though, the midwife's help, if it was going to work, should have worked by now, and it hasn't. Bill is taking the 3 big kids to the Vigil with him, and I'm staying home with the little guys to rest and let Fr. Gary have a worry free evening.

Today I am deep in preparation for Easter morning.

Here's our to do list:

• Take out Easter baskets and plastic eggs for filling


• Boil more eggs for dying later today


• Supervise Anthony making banana bread for tomorrow's breakfast


• Send Bill to Easter Vigil rehearsal and the commissary


• Iron church clothes


• Remembering the unwritten regulation that chaplains' assistants only serve RED juice on Easter, apply Scotch Guard to church clothes


• Bless the downstairs Flylady style


• Find Divine Mercy novena meditations so we can start (only a day late)


• Shampoo livingroom carpet (this is the only carpet that escaped my extreme nesting which got the Spring Cleaning done last month)


• Teach the boys to play Speed Scrabble


• Set out Resurrection Story eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide


• Go swimming

Last Thorn

I was overwhelmed with good deed doers yestrday as everyone realized that we were down to the last thorn in our crown. With each child's diligence in acts of charity throughout Lent and James's helpful handfuls when no one was looking, we managed to empty the crown before Easter.

Bulb Garden

Yesterday we stopped for a moment to see the progress in our planter gardens. One garden has become a small pond full of rotten bulbs which will be good for dissecting later. (Note to self: before planting, check for drainage holes in planters.) In the other we could see a variety of shoots. The thicker shoots have been coming up slowly for weeks, the long ones showed up about a week ago, and the little grassy ones seem to have sprung up overnight. I kept notes of what we planted, but I can't identify any of them yet.

In the garden close by are the daffodils I dug from the ice last winter before we moved.

School Garden

Last fall, inspired by Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I fell in love with the idea of having a school vegetable garden. I have slowly been collecting resources and supplies and ideas. I've recruited Bill to build the gardens during maternity leave and my mom to help keep them running when she comes to visit. The kids were each allowed to choose what they wanted to grow--tomatoes, corn, carrots, strawberries, sunflowers, and bell peppers. We are going to start all but the strawberries from seed, and since we have about a month until the final frost for our area, we can start the seeds soon.

This morning as we were leaving for a homeschool conference meeting, my friend called to say that she couldn't do it today after all. Not one to waste 6 kids washed, dressed, shod, coated, and done with school by 9:30 am, I packed them into the van anyway, and we went to the craft store. There we bought little wood pots, paint, and birdfeeders (for the Virginia Bluebirds we've seen in our front yard). A quick trip to Borders added the newest version of Square Foot Gardening to our home library before we had an artsy afternoon painting the pots.

Peek-a-boo

This afternoon I "lost" James under my belly much to his delight. It's hard to see in this picture, but he fits perfectly under the baby...but for how long? I've been awake for 2 hours with early contractions, but now I'm getting sleepy, so I guess I'll go back to bed and see what comes of this.

I'm at 37 weeks and 5 days, but who's counting?

Edited to add: NOTHING happened. I was just really sleepy all day long.

Presidents' Day

On President's Day eve, Bill and I opened CAPITAL! Washington DC from A-Z by Laura Krauss Melmed to find some field trip inspiration. We've seen more than half of the places listed and only have a little over a year to see the rest before we move...a long, long way from here, I hope. Anyway, while all the the other guys were wandering around in the crush at Mt. Vernon, we enjoyed a private tour of the Kennedy Center.

A symphony, cool jazz, ballet,

An opera, or a children's play--

A feast for every taste and age

Awaits you here. Just pick a stage!

An update

Here's the latest going on at our house:

Starting last Thursday we took turns playing hot potato with a flu virus that included high fevers, body aches, stuffed noses, and TB sounding coughs. Everyone but Bill got it, and he looked a bit relieved when he headed back to work today. I thanked God about a billion times for letting us live in the age of Tylenol and Motrin and Kleenex.

Today I went to see the Midwife for my 36 week check up. Everything is progressing normally, and I'll see her again at 38 weeks and 5 days (Holy Thursday).