Finally figuring out who I am :)

I'm back! (we're still potty training) I'm in my early 30's and am having an awakening.

Here's my entire life in a nutshell: I'm the 3rd of 4 children with amazing parents who are (drumroll please) STILL married! It was 35 years this last November - Go mom & dad! I moved a few times as a kid, but frankly, none of that matters because my first memories are in Jr. High somewhere. If we knew each other in the past and I don't recognize you, don't be offended. I seriously have the worst memory known to man. I'm sure we were close... I just don't remember. That's how this nutshell is so small. I can skip to now. :)

I am married to an amazing man that I am so proud of. He's here: http://www.sketchmonster.blogspot.com/

He gave me four amazing babies and he helps me in what is most important to me, my faith.

And now... the point! There are things that used to be important to me that are sitting in bins in the garage. We moved in August and I got to see them. Prior to that, they were sitting in bins somewhere else. Recently, I realized (this is where the awakening comes in) that I am more than wife, mother, teacher (I homeschool), chapperone, CFO, Nurse, etc... There's still a bit of ME somewhere in there and she wants to come out. So, I decided to decorate!

Decorating is going to be a drawn-out process since my free time is short spurts with long chunks of not-so-free time in between, but it's going to also be therapeutic... I'm figuring out what I like all over again. I still have my constants like my God and the faith he gives me (I LOVE being Catholic), my family, my scrapbooks and the art of creating them, but I also am allowing other 'likes' to resurface and it's wonderful!

We will begin in the kitchen. I hate the kitchen and I feel like I live there. With all of our allergies, cooking is a pain, and I didn't bring a lot to the table to begin with. So, to make it a more pleasant place, more me, I am bringing in CRAYOLA! I have a collection of Crayola crayons. I'll give you a total when I finally dig them up. For the box I actually opened and intend to use, I arranged my crayons in color order and I do not share this box with my children. I also have coloring books I do not share. No, this is not extreme. When I was younger, I used to hoard my coloring books and mark each page I colored with the date and time the page was finished. I'm not kidding about this. THAT was extreme.

I will showcase one fun Crayola item in my kitchen each month (and one tortoise, but that's another story), and decorate slowly with fun art by myself and the children. Here is my first piece. I hope you like it.

Stay tuned for instructions and more pics.

You just have to have patience...

My husband tells me this all the time. As a matter of fact, when I was trying to get back on to my blog to update it, I couldn't and when he showed me how to do it, he said, "You just have to have patience."

Patience, I have yet to master.

Our potty training started out really well. She was excited to sit on the potty and even smiled for the camera for me!




That was the first day.

The second day included many accident clean ups and lots of soggy undies added to our laundry.
The third day Bernadette slipped in her own urine in the entryway. That was the closest she got to peeing in the toilet. Today we took a quick trip to target to buy her new Dora underwear which ended with me running (seriously, I was running) to the bathroom with her in my arms. My hand on her bottom was slowly and warmly filling with...

So anyway, I'm praying for patience. I'm not giving up just yet, but I have accepted that I am not getting a fully potty-trained little girl for Mother's Day!

Potty Training Madness!

OK, Here goes! The potty training madness begins today. SO... if I don't answer your call or you are at my front door and I can't come to your knock this is why:

Bernadette - the sweet baby in my profile picture is now a week shy of being 26 months old. It is time for potty training. I dread potty training. It has been the nemesis to my good parenting (or attempt at such) for the last 3 children and now, I am going to conquer it.

I vow to be positive and not have any breakdowns. I will not yell or even get frustrated. I will walk around as if on a potty training cloud of bliss where everything goes right and there are no 'accidents.'

I will be consumed with the potty and all that it contains or should contain for the next few days... stay tuned to see if my motivation changes. ;)

ALLERGIES!!!

Allergies. They are downright awful! I have had a sinus headache for the past three days. It's all apparently due to the fact that hot weather makes grass allergies go crazy. BOO!

It turns out that when an allergic man marries an allergic woman, they make allergic children. So far, we're four of four. Our overdue allergy appointments happened this week, and they were eye-opening and frankly, not quite fun.

Monday, we tested #1 (7-year, son, Caleb) and #3 (3-year, daughter, Abigail). I had to restrain Caleb in order for the doc to do the scratch test. Turns out his allergies are moving away from food and towards airborne allergens. So, grasses, trees, molds, cats, dogs, etc. are all pretty high, while foods are lessoning. He is still allergic to nuts, eggs, oats, and a little bit to milk & soy. Abigail has a dust mite allergy.

Wednesday was #2 (5-year, son, Gideon) and #4 (16 month, daughter, Bernadette). Nobody was 'restrained,' but Gideon had a hard time sitting still because he was insanely itchy. Bernadette is allergic to dust mites and mold. Gideon on the other hand is allergic to: dust, nuts, wheat, oat, & rice.

I am at a loss for a variety of grains to feed my children. I was not made to be in the kitchen all day long, it is my least favorite room unless I am baking which is quite hard with all these allergies. We eat quinoa and love it. It is a grain, but also a complete protein, so that is a bonus. I was informed by my MIL that I can make my own corn tortillas so that I don't have to fill them with GMO crap, but that still feels daunting. I have to stay focused and keep them as allergy free as possible to preserve their lung health. We really want to get Caleb off of his asthma steroid at some point, and I don't know if that can happen even without allergies, so we keep trying and see what happens.

The next step, I guess, is to consider allergy therapy injections, but could you imagine the restraining I'd have to do then?! I can, and it's not pretty.

Well, I guess food is like decluttering. Baby steps. One small change at a time.

God help me help them!

Have a great day!

July's Summer Cleaning

So, I deleted my last post because it's being published! It's a book of stories for the homeschool heart.

Now for what I've been up to lately...

PURGING!

In case you don't know it, we have four children. They are 7, 5, 3, and 1. We all live in a two bedroom apartment. No garage, no storage unit, lots of stuff! David and I are quickly attaching to a monastery-like attitude of NO STUFF! So... we purge!

At first, the apartment just got messier and I was claustrophobic. At first, I was overwhelmed and a total grump! (just ask the kids) But, as Flylady says, 15 minutes a day of decluttering is a good starting point, and I can do anything for 15 minutes... even if I hate it!

David opened my eyes to something also. He said that a keepsake is pointless if it is just stored away somewhere... USE IT! He's absolutely right. I do not remember my great grandmother's handiwork on the doll she made me if it is stored away and I only see it every couple of years. So my goal, was to let go of things that were not really valuable, and to get OUT things that were.

So, here is a list of quirky things I had that I got rid of:

1. some kind of academic medal... no idea when it was from or what it was for
2. yearbooks. If I went to high school with you, do not be offended. We do not talk often, and if we do, I don't need a yearbook to K.I.T. (I saved Senior Year, but the rest is out)
3. Magenta sequined wrist and headbands from my days in YMCA Hip Hop... thank goodness the spandex unitard is already gone!
4. Retreat books. Journals I saved so I could go back and read how great other people thought I was... I was forever changed by the retreats I was involved in, and the youth ministry gave me a group of friends I will never loose (Thanks to Patrick Erskine & everyone else he suckered into helping him) :D BUT, I think I had a mini-forest of cut-down trees in all of those journals so they are gone!
5. brownie socks. (not the kind you eat, but the kind from scouts
6. Girl Scout sash - apparently I did not go far because I did not have much on it and I do not know what to do with it, so it is also gone.

and lastly...

7. Coloring books. Completed coloring books with dates (and sometimes times) on the pages I completed. This is not a joke, I hoarded my own coloring books. I did not share, I only colored the pages in order, I dated them when I finished. I never claimed to NOT be weird.

Of course, there are a billion other things we tossed, but those are the most fun :)

Some neat things I found:

$2 bills, a Michael Jordan Baseball Card, a needlepoint pillowcase my grandmother made, and cabbage patch dolls. The girls get to have the cabbage patch dolls, and the pillowcase is out to be used on my bed.

I can breathe easier in my apartment and I can keep up with 15 minutes a day! I think I will forever be trying to figure out how to KEEP my house uncluttered, but I am ok with baby steps and I am empowered to keep it up!

Our next project is to build a breakfast nook storage bench. Our kitchen is not a 90 degree angle, but like a 90 degree angle with the angle sliced off... I'll post pics later. We are going to build free-standing storage benches all around so that we can buy an oval kitchen table, put it in at an angle and save space! Let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions for this next fun project! After that, comes the apartment paint! :)

Thanks for listening to my rant, whomever you are, I hope you declutter 15 minutes a day as well and I hope you have peace in your home!

St. Martha, pray for us!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I can't believe it's been a full year since I've blogged. We had Bumblebear's birthday party and I've been busy as ever working to find what curriculum we will use for next year. The good news is that I have come across Catholic Heritage Curricula and I am amazed both by their products, and by the wealth of information that is available on their site! http://www.catholichomeschooling.com/catalog/index.html in case you are interested :)

Check it out and be sure to see the giveaway going on right now. It's wonderful!

Here's to another great year of more blogging, less facebooking and some wonderful memories with my babies!

SHE'S COMING SOON!

Half of today has gone by rather quickly (Thanks daylight savings!) and then there's tomorrow. After tomorrow, we have Bernadette! YAY!

So it's been an interesting journey to say the least. Probably the worst morning sickness of all the pregnancies to date and then I was blessed with an irritable uterus which means lots of contractions and bed rest. Actually, it HAS been a blessing because I am the kind of person who is busy all of the time and it has forced me to rest and be rested... things my soul is in desperate need of.

My children are all amazing and my favorite things in the world. David is outside playing with them right now while I am 'resting' and drinking water every time he gives me 'the look.' (He's amazing!) This means I get to eavesdrop on their playing and every few minutes, I get updates on what's going on from Caleb.

Just now, Caleb came in to show me the caterpillar they found (5 minutes ago, it was a slug and before that it was a Roley Poley.) When David found an earthworm in the dirt he told the kids and all three went running to him and screaming in excitement. Now they're 'collecting' every kind of critter they can! It's so funny to hear my little girl say, "aaaaawwwwwwwwww," when she's looking at a caterpillar like she were looking at a cute little baby. Gideon is still leery in the holding bugs department, but he's getting there.

Things I'm hearing now:
Caleb, "here little guy, have some grass."
Abigail, "are you hungry, little buddy, are you hungry"
(David & Gideon are practicing holding them safely) - I wonder who 'them' is.

OK, one more funny Abigail statement and then I will go: She was caught yelling at a bird flying by as she was protecting her roley poley, "Don't you took him, BIRD!"

So... I am full. I am full of baby and anticipation, I am full of joy and peace with my amazing husband and wonderful children - My three little balls of sunshine that give me reason and happiness each day. A little bundle of squirmies in my belly that I can't wait to meet and a man that I fall in love with more and more each day. I am full because I have an amazing group of friends (who shared pizza, ice cream & "Girls just want to have fun" with me last night :) and family looking out for me, and my God is awesome and gives me so much to look forward to in this world AND the next. I am full because of a faith that is not shallow, but full of learning and growing. There is nothing better than being Catholic. I will never understand or perfect it all, but I have a beautiful path in front of me that I can follow. I am full and blessed and I have so much to live for, thank you, Father!