January Round-Up

- Making eggnog pound cake and eggnog muffins in an attempt to use up lots and lots of leftover eggnog.
- Alex brought home a C on his Social Studies test (first C I can remember him getting), and was quite upset about it.
- Julia had some sporatic attendance at school. Although she has been relatively healthy, she has lots and lots of sinus congestion. It takes the whole morning to get things moving and cleared out. She saw a new pediatrician who said she is not contagious. Nice thought, but everyone but Luke has the same sinus junk and cough, so if it's not contagious, how did we all get it at the same time??
- Cooper is still chewing - latest casualty is the Super Mario Brothers DS game.

December Round-Up

All in all, not a bad month:

- Julia returned to school on December 23, just in time for some holiday celebrations. She had a great day. She had been absent for just over two months.
- We took two trips to the Enchantment in the Park light display at Fair Park. The outdoor courtyard with the light display sychronized to music was my favorite part. I even found a new holiday song I LOVE - Snowflake.
- Lots and lots of gifts for the kids - highlight was Luke's new Nintendo DS. In his words, he got the grand prize.
- Tubing at Sunburst with my boys. It was packed, but we had a good time.
- A very white Christmas - I'm not sure what the stats say, but it seems like we're getting a lot of snow this season. It did make for an eventful drive to and from Matt's parents on the 26th.
- After waiting until nearly the last minute, we pulled off another year of cookie trays.
- Going with Erica, Luke and Alex to see "The Squeakquel" - after dinner at Noodles, we still had room for soda, popcorn and M'n'Ms at the movie. Yummy. The movie was good, but I did like the first one a little bit better.

The Easter/Christmas Mix-Up

We arrived for Christmas eve mass about 40 minutes before the services started and we sat closer to the front than we usually do. Those two changes set up a situation that was sweet, frustrating, cute and a bit heartbreaking all in one. Here's what happened - once we were seated and settled, I took Erica and Luke up to the Nativity scene so they could get a close look at Baby Jesus. Then, we settled back into our pew. The kids looked at books for a little while (we usually don't bring books to church, but we knew there would be extra time to fill). After she was done with the books, she started studying the pictures on the wall of the Stations of the Cross. That led to many, many questions - "Why is Jesus on the cross? Who put Jesus there? Do you see how sad his mommy is? How did they get Jesus down? Why did the soldiers think Jesus was a bad guy? Why did they take his clothes? Why did they make him carry the heavy cross?" Once she understood that Jesus died on the cross, she was heartbroken. She started crying and saying, "I miss Jesus." By this time, Mass has started, but she wasn't finished figuring things out. We kept telling her that she needed to be quiet, but she said, "I have lots of questions!" Finally Luke said, "Erica, Jesus died for our sins, but he rose again. I will show you in my Bible when we get home." She finally settled down, but she wanted to see the Bible story for herself as soon as we got home. So, that's how Erica learned about the Easter miracle...on Christmas eve. On a side note, when we went to Sunday mass, she was still studying the art on the walls, and Father Rick asked what she was looking at. She told him, "Pictures of Jesus." He explained that there were fourteen pictures, with seven on each side. She spent a good part of mass confirming his count.

Wardrobe Management

I have spent the last three days doing laundry. But, it's really more than just doing laundry - it's more wardrobe management. Sorting, washing, folding, hanging and putting away clothes for six people is a huge job. On top of that, I have a complete system for processing hand-me-downs and advance-purchase clothes. The system is pretty straighforward for the boys - Alex outgrows his clothes, they go into storage tubs in the basement,they come out when they fit Luke. The system for girls is a little more complicated, but in a good way. We are lucky to get lots and lots of hand-me-downs. Sources include: the Hoxworth girls, the McLaughlin girls, and now the Christiansen girls. Some of the hand-me-downs fit Julia, some fit Erica, and some are in-between. By the time all of the clothes get to Erica, she has about three complete wardrobes, complete with shoes and accessories. A perfect situation for my little style diva.