A Daybook... Sort of...

Heck, I've been trying to write a post for days now.  A couple times I wrote something but since I didn't publish it right away it became irrelevant.  Or, more likely, I sit down to write something and I'm just too. dang. tired. to care.  These days, once I get a shower and coffee, I've got sufficient energy and enthusiasm for the morning.  Once I've conquered lunch, I can usually manage to divide the kids' rest (my alone time) time between productivity and relaxation.  But by the time they get up, I'm a goner - apathetic, non-energetic, totally hanging on every tick of the minute hand until Russ gets home from work. Except today he isn't coming home from work... and thus begins my Sort of Daybook...

I am nervous about...

this weekend alone with the kiddos while Russ is away enjoying his once-a-year fun weekend with the guys.  Are you thinking it's a hunting or fishing or beer guzzling weekend?  Hardly :)  He's off singing barbershop quartet music.  (It's simultaneously dorky and endearing!)  This weekend is a just-for-fun friendly competition weekend, but he was deeply entrenched in the world of harmony last winter/spring when he was the tenor in a quartet that qualified for the Barbershop Harmony Society International Competition!  Here's a youtube link to the performance that qualified them...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3lTZupBINM

Once we found out we were expecting and realized neither of us wanted him to be gone so much, Russ bowed out and is back to being just a barbershopper-for-the-fun-of-it.  

I'm actually not even that nervous about going it alone this weekend.  I'm more nervous about having to jump back into the whole week-day thing come Monday morning without the usual weekend break from the kiddos that Russ gives me :)

I am thrilled about...

the arrival of my first nephew!  He was born this past Monday! I'll get to hold him for real at Christmas, but I've already been able to "meet" him via Facetime.  Awesome technology.  My sister and her husband are going to be wonderful parents, and I get to learn how to be an aunt!

I'm celebrating...
being in my third trimester!  I just realized it yesterday! Woohoo!  Isn't time strange though??  Some days, three months away seems like forever, and other days like it's just around the corner. 

I'm contemplating...
baby names.  Gotta start cracking down on this or the baby will be born and Russ and I will staring at each other with the deer-in-the-headlights look.  

Things I'm loving...

1) Sniffing our clothes.  I'm serious.  We recently had the gasket on our front loader replaced - this new one replaced the old one that had gone to a mildew-y place that even bleach at full strength couldn't touch.  I finally realized that even though soap and water are sloshing around in there practically 24/7, you can't expect that to keep the gasket clean.  (What??) So anyways... before the replacement we were getting technically clean, yet mildew-y smelling clothes, a scent not to be hidden by detergents and softeners. New gasket + the zealous commitment to tend to it after each and every load = laundry that smells uh-mazing.  And I can't stop burying my face in it and breathing deeply.

2) Having the automatic sliding van door repaired after almost two years of brokenness.  Love!

3) Fall.  Apples, pumpkins, baking, cool weather, fires in the fireplace, and my favorite autumn Yankee Candles - Spiced Pumpkin in the kitchen and Autumn Leaves in the living room.

4) Finally being pregnant enough to feel justified parking in the Expectant Mother Parking at the grocery store!!

At said grocery store, I am spending money on...

Sushi.  The kids and I housed 5 trays of tuna, salmon (cooked) and veggie rolls for lunch today.  (40 pieces for four kids and a mom??)  I'm soooo proud of my kids that they love it, but why does it have to be so dang expensive??? Remember in college when local dives would have 25 cent wing night??  Well, I need to find a 25 cent roll place if I want these kids to continue broadening their international palate.  Today was a treat b/c I buy more pre-made meals when Russ is away and I had a $4 off coupon :)

Here's a pic from my mobile phone of when we took a "field trip" to watch and learn
how they make our favorite rolls.   (from a couple months ago)

What I've been reading online...

The Secret to Writing a Great Blog Post  (sent to me by my mom, who is really someone who should be blogging.  hint, hint, mom!)

Sometimes I Feel Like Quitting   (a great homeschooling post by Sarah at Amongst Lovely Things)

Homeschooling, Learning Disabilities, and Trying Something New (from Katie at Blessed With Full Hands)

Evolution: a Catholic Perspective, by James Stenson

Real life book reading...

Reasons to Believe, by Scott Hahn
Seems like there should be something else, but I really don't have any other books going right now.

I want to start reading...
The space trilogy by C. S. Lewis.  A friend passed it my way, so now I just have to crack it open.

What's Got My Goat...

The radio station that started back to back, around the clock Christmas music THE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN.  Don't even get me started because it will get very ugly very quickly.

To combat this outrage, the kids and I are focusing our singing this month on the hymns we're most likely to hear at Mass on Thanksgiving.  So far we've tackled, Now Thank We All Our God, Come Ye Thankful People Come, and We Gather Together.  In case the organist doesn't decide to go with these obvious choices, we are also going to squeeze in How Great Thou Art and For the Beauty of the Earth.  What else could he possibly throw at us? What am I missing?  Last year I asked him ahead of time what he would be playing so that the kids could learn and participate - and darned if he didn't play any of the ones he mentioned on Thanksgiving Day.  I have no choice but to hound the entire hymnal into the kids' heads... 

Disclaimer: I am myself, without inspiration from the local radio station, starting to make some mental Advent preparations.  I have a few new books I'll be ordering for the kids as usual, and I'm thinking about a new Advent wreath.  

I've really-eally-eally wanted one of these for a few years now... The Way of Light Wreath to mark the time of Advent and Lent... but since we use our dining room table for everything I'm afraid it would get pushed aside and forgotten on the buffet or bookshelf.  (plus, I haven't even figured out how to actually "order" one on the joywares.com website.  Has anyone had any luck luck there?)

http://adventtolenttoascensionwreath.blogspot.com/

 :

From my Kitchen...

After the frenzy of the soup party, I only had a week to regain my composure in the kitchen before I started cooking up ridiculously enormous amounts of chili for my annual frozen meal exchange.  I wrote extensively about the frozen meal exchange last year - including some tips on how to host your own - so there's no need to rehash it here. 

This year, my contribution was Four-Bean Chili with Bulgur Wheat, tortilla chips, sour cream, and shredded cheese.  In return I've got six ready-to-defrost-and-eat meals from the other lovely moms who participated!  Let's see... tuna noodle casserole, sausage potato soup, chicken pot pie soup and rolls, sweet potato and black bean tacos w/ flour tortillas, sour cream, and guacamole, chicken curry with rice, sour cream casserole.  My freezer is happy!  

Also of note this year, was the fact that I had 28 children under the age of 10 in my home for an hour and a half.  I was prepared for it to be loud and a little crazy, and it was.  But these are good kids, and no one was disrespectful and no one got hurt and the house wasn't a mess at all.  And yet... I'm thinking of turning it into a moms only wine and cheese evening affair next year.  Imagine that! 



That's it.  I've got to quit and get to bed.  Morning comes not-so-softly when there's only one parent to rein in the energetic bunch!