Rain, Day trip, lots of kiddos, and more

There are so many things in life I am thankful for. One is that my children are great friends and can entertain themselves for hours. It has been raining non stop for the past two days. Just a light drizzle. I could send them outside, but then that means I'd have to give baths again and I'm not in to that today ;-) Instead, they have been playing LEGO all day without many fights and not telling me once that they are bored. They even took a 20 min break to help me clean up around where Beka is crawling.

Yes, that's another bit of news. Beka began crawling last week. She hit 8 months this weekend, and is enjoying crawling, pulling herself up, and eating solids, while making fun messes. We aren't big in to purees, so she's eating everything we eat. YUM to salsa chicken the past two nights- black beans, corn, rice and chicken. She got her bottom two teeth about a month ago, so those have helped some, but she'd be fine if she didn't have them.

Last week was insane, but I think the kids loved it. Our dear friends who watched our kids while Beka was born and are her godparents, they had their baby. So of course, we watched their kids. Unfortunately, there was some small complications, making the baby have to stay much longer than planned, so we had their kids for 8 days, and then 2 afternoons until mom and baby were able to go home. It seems so quiet in our house now! And we all 9 survived.

Weekend before last, we drove two cars and took the 7 kiddos to Belgium to visit a Trappist Cistercian Monastery, Orval Abbey, with our Catholic homeschooling friends. Jon had a lot of fun telling our Abby "Hey Abby, guess where we are. At an Abbey!!" (Similar to how they use to tell their sister Mary "Merry Christmas" all the time.) WE left with some yummy monk cheese and Belgium beer.

 These are the ruins of the first buildings they had.

 Me and my snuggle bug sound asleep.

 Jon and all the kiddos minus the baby... and his beer.

 More of the Monastery. 

THankfully while there were so many kids here, the weather was beautiful and they spent many days outside, using their imagination like crazy. Here, the kids created a barefoot park. Each section had something different- rocks, mud, dirt, etc. During the time, Hannah also learned to ride without training wheels, and Zach lost another tooth (making it 5 now).

I wish I could say we were preparing for our coming school year. But alas, I sent our information in to the new program we're using and haven't heard back yet. I hope I do in the next few weeks, because I know it'll take a while to order our books, which has me freaked out a bit. We've still been doing lots of reading this summer and continuing to work on math. 

The only other thing in life right now consists of telling a lot of our friends goodbye as they are PCSing. Tonight I'm going to a farewell dinner for a very, very dear friend whom I met in TLF our first week here. Three years later, and she's leaving. We should technically be leaving as well, but have extended so have two more years. I'm thankful we have two more years, but incredibly sad to see so many of my very good friends leaving. This particular friend has been an amazing friend and example to me in so many ways. I'm so grateful she's been in my life these 3 years. 

Memorial Day Weekend

Wow, it's only been 21 days since my last post. I'm doing better! ;-)

This was a great Memorial Day weekend, and Jon wasn't even here! Jon left at 4am Friday to head on a men's retreat in France at an Abbey. The kids and I got to go to mass on Friday with our homeschool group, then one of our good friends and 2 of her kids came over for a while. The evening was laid back, but then I was awake until 1am and not sleeping so well with Jon gone.

On Sat., we were going to go on a culinary walk with our friend, but I was just too tired and exhausted. I sent the kids otu to play and tackled my kitchen. It took 2 hours, but it looks MUCH better. I have counters again! Again, a relaxing evening.

Sunday I actually got up at 6:30 and made it to church at 8:15, which is normal. The people who usually run setting up for mass were all out of town, so another gentleman and I were doing it. (I usually help, but am not in charge) We were really able to work together to make sure everythign was set up correctly, and it just felt good. I love being a doer (Martha much?). Mass went surprisingly well and even though the kids weren't perfect, I left not frustrated with them. SO we went to grab some breakfast. We saw our friend there, and she joined us for breakfast, which was nice having some adult conversation and getting to see her for a bit. CAme home and decided to clean up my room and put my new duvet cover on... the one I've had for about 8 months and haven't used yet ;-) It looks so pretty and fancy in our room!

Monday, I was determined to stop letting the fact that hubby wasn't here stop me from doing things. I"m very much a "Ehh, I'd rather do it with him" so not go type person. I know I can do things without him. We do the grocery store all the time without him. It's just the sight-seeing stuff. It's more fun with him. But alas, it was Memorial Day. I know there is an American Cemetery from WWII just an hour away (Plus the great French grocery store right down the road from it) so our plan of leaving at 10, turned to 11:15, took place to head there with me, the kids, and a picnic lunch. We got in the car and decided we were hungry already so started eating. When we got to St. Avold, France, i realized I saw no signs for the cemetery like I was expecting. Thank Jesus the French put maps on their streets everywhere, so I pulled over and was able to find it. Or so i thought... I found the GErman cemetery. Another map stop, and I finally found the American one. 10,000+ crosses and stars, making it the largest American cemetery in Europe. The kids kept themselves busy as kids do by counting all the stars. They were SOOO well behaved. We had a large conversation about where we were going, how to behave, etc. and they did great. This is the 3rd American cemetery we have visited (Normandy and Luxemburg being the other two) We then went to the grocery store and got our favorite, Speculous and Speculous cookies- YUM! and headed home.

Hubby came home about an hour and a half after kids were in bed. We spent a good 2 hours sitting on the couch talking about our weekends. He had an amazing and spiritually refreshing time at an Abbey in Font Gumbault with a bunch of monks. This has been a bi-annual trip with several men in the area for a few years, but this was the first Jon was able to make it. I can tell it was really good for him.

He has an amazing end to his story. One of those give-you-goosebumps type. So I decided I'd share. On their way back, they also stopped at an American cemetery. This was one from WWI- Aisne Marne American Cemetery. They had all of the Memorial Day festivities on Sunday. As they were talking to the curator, the cemetery was about to close and he asked the men (9 Catholic Knights of Columbus military men) if they'd like to help him take the two flags down. They said of course. Then the man said one of the flags had actually been retired, but they couldn't find it on Sunday, so they had used this one instead. Then he said "Hey, would you guys like this flag?"!?!? They of course said yes, so he took them in to the office and printed out a certificate, etc. The flag that flew over this important cemetery during the Memorial Day celebrations. As they talked on, he told them that the cemetery was on Knights of Columbus Road (Ok, that's not the name, but it was the French name for that, although I looked it up and it's not on google maps, so I don't know) ANyway, they were confused since KOC is an American group. Come to find out, the KOC had come in and helped rebuild the cities around the cemetery after WWI, so it was named in honor of the KOC. They are taking the flag back, getting a shadow box for it, and hope to hang it in the priest's office.  It was such a neat story!

Thank you Lord for all the men and women who have given their lives for our freedom.

6 month old, Florida, Homeschooling and More

It's only been 4 months since I posted. Life hasn't been busy in the least. ::Sarcasm:: Short overview:

Baby girl turned 6 months old yesterday! She's trying to sit up on her own and loves to stick her tongue out. Sometimes that will include raspberries. She is absolutely in love with her family- siblings and daddy especially- especially when he sings. He loves to sing to her while she's nursing, because she'll stop to look at him and smile, then go back to eating. The two of them will do this several times before he quits

.We spent an entire month in FL, mostly during March. I flew alone with the 4 kids in the SC, and then Jon flew in 2 weeks later. My brother was moving to Hawaii (Army) and it just so happened to be the same time we were going to be in town for my best friend's (of 22 years) wedding. It was wonderful to see him and his family before they left, and wonderful to be a part of my best friend's big day. It was also great to see the rest of my family, and for the kids to get to be back and Nana and Papa's after having lived there for a year, and not being back in 2.5 yrs.

Germany never snowed this year, other than a few flurries. It has been wonderful weather already, in the 60's and even a little 70's. We're loving it, with the kids going outside almost every day. We bought an awesome picnic table, and have been eating dinner outside about 4x a week or so. We've planted several window boxes of flowers and are enjoying doing yard work, going on long walks (We went on a 5+ mile family walk on Sunday!) and Jon's getting back in to biking.

Homeschooling is going well. We're trudging along, ready for the year to be over. I think we have about 6 weeks left, which isn't too bad considering we took time off around the baby's birth, and time off when in FL. We've been using Catholic Heritage Curriculum, but are now going to be using St. Thomas Aquinas next year. I've always wanted more of a unit study type program. I had been looking in to Five in a Row, and was going to keep using our same religion, handwriting, and math because I liked them. Then someone told me about St. Thomas, and they use FIAR, along with the same religion and HW, and will likely allow us to stick with the same math. The other benefit is that we'll have a person that helps us tailor things to our family. For example, they'll be able to help me with Hannah's advance reading. At 5, suppose to be entering K this coming fall, she is reading all the American Girl books in less than a day, Magic Treehouse, and so much more. Zach is also advancing really well with reading now, but his books tend to be more science based- any books about critters, volcanoes, fish, etc.

In not such great news, Jon is deploying in August for 6 months. We won't be moving back home this time for a multitude of reasons. However, Jon's sister will be coming to stay with us for 3 months it looks like, which will be an amazing blessing, and put both my mind, and Jon's at ease some. I think we're both nervous, not from a me-handling-kids standpoint, but because I've never lived alone for more than a week or two in my entire life, and diabetes can be scary for that. BUT... we'll do what we can, teach the kids well, and pray for the best. I'm not the first diabetic to be alone. Please keep our family in your prayers though as we prepare for him leaving. He will miss everyone's birthday except mine, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and our anniversary.

But because he's leaving, we're trying to make travel plans. Our top two trips at the moment are Legoland- two boys have been dying to go!- and Poland. I've been really wanting to do a pilgrimage there- see Warsaw, Krakow, etc (and stock up on more Polish Pottery!!) Maybe one or two other short trips in there as well. Plus I'll likely do some traveling with Jon's sister being here. Maybe we'll take the kids to Paris since he has no desire to go and the kids desperately want to see the Eiffel Tower! ;-)

One of Those (Good) Days

Have you ever had one of those days were at the end, you sighed and thought "Today was a good day!" That was today. Nothing too exciting, but all good. I spent the morning taking care of some business type work. Then the German Post arrived with a box of insulin pump supplies. It was a first getting a package through them, so it was slightly cool.

Then we began school at 11am. We always pray and then do the Pledge. My kids got a huge kick when we stood to do the Pledge and I said "In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." haha! Our first subject was Religion, where we were talking about the Beatitudes. ::Sigh:: the Beatitudes. Is it wrong of me to say I'm not a fan? Why? Because I have a hard time understanding them and get lost in the whole thing. So to then teach them to my three very  young children, ahh! Well, I'll just say religion was not very successful. They stopped listening about the 2nd Beatitude. I had a craft planned to help them get it more, but they had no care what so ever, so we moved on. I figured we can retry down the road.

Then we began handwriting. I clearly hadn't looked ahead in handwriting because normally it's just copywork, but Hannah brought hers to me and asked about it. OH FUN! HOMOPHONES! We had a lot of fun talking about this big word, and surprising daddy with our knowledge when he got home from work (Homophone- words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings). It was awesome seeing them come alive talking about it and engaging. Then Zach worked on math, where I showed him a neat addition trick with 9's. Hannah spent all of 2 minutes on her 2 pages of math. I tried to read the story of St. Peter to them today, but baby girl would have nothing to do with it. Then I also began looking through our syllabus and realized there are some things I should have been doing that I somehow have forgotten this year. Guess we'll be working on them the rest of the year. This reminds me of a story from last week. They were looking at a piece of art that had two scenes in one-Jesus preaching to the multitudes and Jesus calling Peter on to the water. My kids said "Yeah, there's two Jesus' to show that Jesus is everywhere." That had not been in our book or mentioned. I loved the way they saw the picture!

After school, we had lunch and I told the kids to get done quickly. The sun was shining beautifully, so even though it was like 37 degrees, we set out for a long walk. It was so wonderful. About an hour and a half later, we returned and headed to the grocery store. The grocery store consisted of me using my mommy talents to nurse Beka while walking, while having 2 children push the grocery cart. (Keep in mind, in Europe, grocery carts go every way, not just straight...) I asked for a special meat I wanted, to be surprised at how expensive it was. I ended this trip by attempting to buy two bottles of lieblich (Sweet) wine and kinder eggs for the kids (Do you know what they are? Awesome chocolate eggs with a toy inside- illegal in the US bc of the small toys and huge fines are possible if we get caught sending them! Insane right? Gotta love America...)

We came home, to have our landlord (lives across the street) open her window and tell us "No electric" Apparently it was out for the whole neighborhood. WE went in the house and had a few fun moments of doing things with flashlights and candles. Husband was headed to a meeting, so I loaded the kids up, and we went out to eat at our favorite little Pizzaria (Where hubby would be going anyway after his meeting). I was impressed with my children. They were soooo well behaved and I managed all 4 at a nice restaurant alone. The baby was making this German couple giggle, esp when she got hiccups. We came home to the electric being back on, and the kids being very disappointed. Maybe one night this week we'll have a pretend-the-electric-is-out night for them. ;-)

In other news, while i have free hands and arms, and I'm using the chance to make a blog post, yesterday was our 7th Anniversary. My husband, who does not believe in cards and flowers, surprised me with both. Seven (for our 7th year) Gerbera Daisies (my favorite flower). He's good! And the card... well, it said exactly what I needed to hear. We actually celebrated on Sat. with a sitter for the older three. We went to see "Saving Mr. Banks"- oh my! GREAT MOVIE. I told hubby we must buy it. Right up there with the Blindside for me. THen we went and ate dinner (8:30 reservations- we're becoming German!) at a castle, where he had lobster soup and deer steak, and I had DELICIOUS pumpkin soup and salmon. We then talked about every year we've been together and discussed some memory from each year, aside from kids' births and moving, since we've done a lot of those in 7 yrs (4 kids, 5 moves).

There were other small details about today that I wanted to put in this post, but I can't remember any of them. I have started a new chore system that I'm excited about and I think will work for us. I've really been struggling trying to keep up on the house and need some kind of way to keep them responsible for chores, but I needed a way to get chores that NEED to be done, done. Each kid has one laminated sheet with their name and 1 through 31 across the top. On the side is a list of all kinds of possible chores for them. The rule is they have to do 3 a day (Except today thanks to walk and lack of electricity), and they can earn an extra quarter if they do more than 3 in a day. We did this for one month and it worked wonderfully, but that was a one month chart. With this laminated, I can use dry erase each month. We're all pretty excited about it and I got them all to do some chores this morning before school. Unfortunately the dishes are still waiting for me at 9:15pm! Boo! So with that, and free arms... I have dishes to do and laundry to fold. Good night world!

Trenches of Motherhood

Have you ever looked around your house and said "How did it get THIS bad?" Wasn't it all cleaned up just a few days ago? And the laundry! I swear it was all folded AND put away last week, and now I have 15 loads piling up to fold. Oh, please don't look under the table, as there's enough food down there to feed a crawling toddler.

No? Well, go away then. :-P Because that's where I am today. So while three kids are outside playing, the baby who is tired from 2mo shots today is sleeping, I'm sitting here eating leftover mac and cheese and blogging. WHy? Well, because I can't clean and eat duh! However, I did load the dishes and sweep the kitchen before the mac n cheese. (Shh... it was only because I HAD to make some coffee, even though it was noon, and I was tired of stepping on the crumbs while doing the dishes...)

My husband made Beka's doc appointment for today, because well, we don't have touchtone dialing on our phone so I couldn't "push 1 for pediatrics" when I called. And he made it for before 8! Crazy man! At least he stayed home with the other 3 while I went with just her. I think that even though I hadn't had coffee, and only one eye was really open, I remember the important things the doctor said, that it's ok she hasn't pooped since last Friday since she's breastfed. Anyway, I thought that because I was up so early, I'd be able to come home and just get busy on housework. Ha, an hour after I got home, I woke up from a nice nap and NOW I can do some work.

Anyway, this is motherhood. I've come to that conclusion. My house is going to be a mess for years to come (And has been for years). And I just gotta suck it up and deal. I'll clean what i can while they're outside playing. Will I put their stuff away? Heck no. I'll likely sweep everythign in to a big pile, and when they come in, they'll have about 15 minutes to get their stuff and put it away. Or else...

But you know what? It's worth it. Why? Because the messes of toys and Popsicle sticks are because they have incredible imaginations. The crumbs and dishes are because I'm able to feed my children. And the laundry, I'm able to cloth my children, way more than I even need to be able to do. These are such blessings that the mess isn't a big deal when I focus on those things.