It's been a while since I've posted anything - mainly because a blog post has taken a back seat to other priorities (including napping).
But, since baby is due in one week, I wanted to throw up a few things before another month goes by as we adjust to a new family life. :)
Ocean City Beach Vacation
It's become a family tradition that each year our family, Bill's family and my family all rent a house together for a week at the beach. It's a really nice time and everyone always enjoys it! It's such a blessing to be able to not have any awkward family divisions where both sides of our families can share in the joy of celebrating holidays and vacations together. I am very grateful to God for this!
Teresa loved the beach!
The grandparents - everyone huddled under the tent (except Mom! :P )
John-Paul flying a kite
Papa Bear with his arms loaded
Big family game of ga-ga
An attempt to play a beach game which we failed at
"Bow and worship me"
~Queen Teresa
Joseph taking this motorcycle ride pretty seriously... Wants to be just like Daddy!
Awkward picture with squirming toddler
Making a moat with Grandpa
Aunt Nina being a good sport and going on the kiddie ride with Joey
John-Paul traumatized after the helicopter ride
Bros
Kids with my parents
...Mom, I will have to steal a pic from you of you, dad and the kids because I didn't have one :(
John-Paul will do ANYTHING for a band-aid...and Mom-mom always falls for it!
Just before heading to Mass. As good as family pictures get at this point...
The beach was such a nice vacation. Here's some things I learned from vaca...
- Being thrown out of a routine is AWESOME
- Team-cooking and cleaning is MUCH more enjoyable
- The kids are beach bums
- I like staying OUT of the sun on the beach and would much rather sit under an umbrella...Bill and I have changed A LOT from 8 years ago when tanning and dark skin were a vain priority...haha
When Bill and I would purposely try to work on our dark sun tans and beach bodies... (No, I didn't edit this photo either)
- Vacation got me into a routine of a 2 hour long afternoon nap (which I'm still taking...)
- Staying up late and talking with our family was a lot of fun
- I brought a large bag of books with the intention of having a storytime while down there...and opened only one, once. Next year?...nah.
Baby-waiting
Welp, I'm a week away from my due date and no "nesting instinct" has kicked in this time around... You know, that incredible burst of energy that a woman's body naturally renders in preparation for the adjustment of the newborn? Nothing over here. I guess the 4th time around with 3 other little ones is where all my energy is going (and gone). I can't get through a day without becoming cranky and blah unless I have a little nap. I'm just counting on God's grace when baby #4 comes within the week!
- The kids are excited for our new addition to arrive (well, at least Joey and John-Paul are because they're old enough). We're pretty much all set and prepared! It's just a waiting game now! I'm ready for our baby to be out of my belly and in my arms...I keep waking up with a numb arm due to the fact I can only sleep on my side throughout the night.
- I'm not concerned about a routine after our little guy arrives. Our family's #1 priority will be to just love and embrace the new baby and to allow our family life and daily routine to adjust naturally around the new rhythm of our family life. I'm just going to stick with reading the best I can and focus on character building through our regular daily interactions. I'm not worrying about sticking with the more structured parts of our days that I'm used to doing with the kids, like Morning Time or formal "school" work. A routine family rhythm will smooth out in time and all will be well.
- I've been having different "mom-type" questions popping into my head (and well as doubts and discouragement - what mother doesn't, right?) so it was a fresh of breath air to have about a 2 hour phone conversation earlier this week with a veteran homeschooling mom of 9 children. Her and her family have a beautiful faith and being that her children are all older and most have graduated, it was helpful to seek the wisdom and listen to the experiences of a mother whose children have turned out lovely and beautiful. I love reading and striving to grow in the wisdom necessary for my vocation as a wife and mother; I also LOVE to ask questions and just listen to other moms talk about their experiences. So this was so helpful and inspiring and reassuring since I had doubts and questions about homeschooling our first boy with a newborn baby, Catholic family life, and raising our children Catholic and fostering that love of God in them. Thank you Stacy! I think it's necessary for every mom to have a sort of "mentor" in this regard! As St. Bernard said, "He who constitutes himself his own director, becomes the disciple of a fool."
"The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,
But a wise man is he who listens to counsel."
- Proverbs 12:15
- Building responsible independence in our children is important to Bill and I. We recently felt it was about time for Joseph to handle daily chores, being that he is now basically 5. Don't get me wrong - he is such a hard-worker as it is (he reminds us much of his patron saint, St. Joseph in this way! ...Funny how they say you don't pick the saint, but the saint always picks you). He already has a routine of waking up, making his bed, getting himself dressed and brushing his teeth. When I do laundry, I fold it and leave it on my bed and actually both Joseph and John-Paul put it away in their drawers (I help a little with John-Paul). They help their dad with yard work, assist in vacuuming when I vacuum once a week, pick up and neatly put away their toys at the end of the day, and other little things we might ask of them. But recently we added daily routine chores of having Joseph feed the cat in the morning and clear the dinner table after dinner. It takes a little more time to show him how to do it and where things go but he's doing great at it and from the advice of experienced moms, it's well worth it! It fosters a healthy sense of responsibility and maturity and makes family life run much more smoothly. We don't do allowances either because we believe that contributing to the chores of family life are a necessary duty in being a part of a family. We don't think one should get paid for what they ought to do. However, I'm sure there will be special little projects and chores that they'll get paid to do every now and then as opportunities come up...and when they get old enough, I've come across quite a few clever ways in which a 10 or 12 year old might earn his own money through various simple jobs in his neighborhood and community. Children are capable of more than we think but Bill and I also realize it's important to remember they're still children (not our slaves) and that we need to have age-appropriate and realistic expectations (i.e. not freak out when Joseph spills the milk as he pours it in his cereal...). We also know that they need plenty of time to just be children and play, play, play and receive tons of love, affection, and laughter!
- I continue to try to read a lot to the kids during the week (ok, weekends I kind of ease up and give myself a break...); at night I do a read aloud to the boys as they lay in their beds. We finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and watched the movie; then we breezed through Bears on Hemlock Mountain. For about a few weeks we've been reading a children's novel written on the life of Saint Padre Pio. It's called Saint Padre Pio: Rich in Love and it's a part of a series of books called "Encounter the Saints." It's nice because it captivates their attention and gives concrete, real-life examples from Padre Pio's life on how he loved the poor, forgave those who hurt them, embraced the suffering that came his way for the love of Jesus and souls, and basically lived out the Gospel. They hear about the beauty of the Mass and Blessed Mother and how central she was to Saint Pio's life. It gives real accounts of the miraculous healings God performed through him and also the reality of his struggles in his life, yet how he always turned to God in prayer. I pray and hope it plants seeds in thier little hearts and minds and inspires in them ways to live for God and pray to Him daily. Last night it generated a 25 minute Q&A session about God, sin, the devil and so on. Joseph will every now and then ask questions like that; he's more of a contemplative type than talkative type though lol. Other nights, they'll just want me to keep reading more. But I'm happy they haven't showed a sign of displeasure about the book - when we put them to bed, they'll often remember to ask me if I'm going to read to them. (But then again...maybe it's just because they want to avoid bedtime! ...In transitioning to chapter books, however, I've read that time and place are everything though!) Doing our read aloud chapter books at night though, 10-15 minutes, have been such a pleasurable experience thus far. It's been more of a sacrifice because I'm ready to fold at the end of the day, but it's proven well worth it. :)
That's that, I think I've talked enough...
Please keep me and the baby in your prayers over this next week or so - I will be going into labor any time now! God bless!
"Apart from Me, you can do nothing."
-John 15:5