Time flies...

So, it's been a while.

Scott and I were on a trip. Overseas. First time ever for each of us, so it was pretty cool. We were gone for 2 weeks and at the end, I really was glad to be coming home. I truly could have kissed the border guard who said, "Welcome Home" when he was done checking us in. More on the trip later.

My wonderful Mother in law brought Curly Sue with her when she picked us up at the airport and I cried because I was so happy to see her.

I am amazed at how much bigger they all seemed when we saw them again. And I am consistently humbled by the fact that each time I look at Primo he seems more mature-looking. He's at the delightful age of almost 1o. Every once in a while, as I'm looking at him, I'll get a flash of what I think he'll look like at 18. Today, his jaw is wider, his forehead slightly more broad, and the little boy I knew is all but disappeared. He is a big kid now. *sigh*

I do promise to write about the trip later this week. ttfn...

What's YOUR kid doing at school?

Bub's filling out his 1-100 number chart like this:
...30, 31, xxxii, xxxiii, xxxiv, xxxv, xxxvi, 37, xxx8, xxx9, 40, ...

And writing the date like this: III/8/10

And doing addition like this: II + I = III

And asking his teacher: "When you said you told us that 50 times, were you speaking metaphorically?"

And when his gym teacher asked them to make letter shapes with their bodies, he made a GAMMA.

Oy...

Maybe instead of making him repeat Kindergarten we should have just put him in 3rd grade.

the winter of our discontent

In February, the kids had the fever with temp spikes up to 104. The weekend of Jan. 31/ Feb. 1, Bubba came down with it on Friday and the fever finally broke on Monday after the sore throat started. He was back to school Wednesday. The following Friday, Primo got the same bug as Bub, with the same symptoms and for the same duration. That weekend also saw Curly Sue come down with a low-grade temp (about 100), but she was done with it in 24 hours. That was the weekend of snowmageddon, which never really happened here. The following weekend saw Curly Sue awake at 5:00 screaming in pain. Ear Infection. The following Friday saw Curly Sue with a fever hitting a high of 104 up and down for 4 days. She was finally clear to go to school by Thursday of that week (incidentally, another snowstorm which canceled school).

Just as I am thinking we're all in the clear, no more fevers, the stomach viruses have begun. Bub vomiting last Tuesday (one episode, better by 2:00). Curly Sue got it on Thursday (same everything). Primo had a little tummy trouble Saturday morning, but was fine. Played the best basketball game of his life that morning. Today, Curly Sue got it again. She's still asleep on the couch and I am going to get up now and wash some sheets. I am going to open the windows again today since it will be almost 60 here.

Is it spring yet?!

Turn, turn, turn...

There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens. (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

There is a boy in my 7th grade CCD class, whom I will call T. (not his real initial). T. has a medical condition that causes him a great deal of suffering. I didn't know about it until 2 weeks ago. I mean, it's on my class list next to his name, but I have to confess that I hadn't paid too much attention to it since the beginning of the year and T. had never exhibited outward signs of his condition.

Last night, I got the chance to talk to T.'s mom. We'd distributed report cards in the last week of January and had parent-teacher conferences and she wasn't able to make it. (Her family's been having a tough time right now, so they can really use all of our prayers.) Here is part of our 20-minute conversation:

T's mom: A few weeks ago, I don't know what you were talking about, but T. came home and said something to me...
Me: Oh, gosh, it could have been anything...we've been talking about a lot of stuff in class lately that's got some of the kids talking in school outside of our class time...
TM: Yeah... I don't know what it was, but he came home and he said to me, "I know why God let me have [this medical condition]. It's so I can show other people who have it that you can have it and be ok. That's what God wants me to do, to show other people with [it] that I'm OK and they can be OK too."
Me: Oh, wow.
TM: So I don't know what you said...
Me: I don't know either, but it was the Holy Spirit. Praise God. That's just so beautiful. Praise God for that.

On further reflection, I know what we were talking about in class. A week or two before Christmas, we were talking about why God lets bad stuff happen. It's the eternal question, isn't it? Why did God let 9/11 happen? Why hurricanes and earthquakes? Why doesn't he just put his hand down and stop it?

I was frank: I don't have all of the answers. I know that we all have a great gift from God: free will, and God does not interfere with that. But, I firmly believe what I told them next: even though bad, terrible things happen, God works immense good out of the results of those bad things.

I told the kids that I have lost three babies, two to miscarriage and one to an ectopic pregnancy, where I had internal bleeding and had emergency surgery. And I don't know right now what good came from those miscarriages. I do know that if those babies had been born, I probably would not have my younger two kids right now. But I know that I have three children in heaven who pray for me and I know that God will bring much good out of that suffering my family endured.

And T. was listening. And the Spirit moved him, at the age of 13, to do some REALLY deep thinking.

It's not easy to tell with teens when they are listening to you. They act too cool for you and what you have to say. But I am starting to figure out that they are listening ALL THE TIME and that the Holy Spirit moves them when we least expect it.

But all things happen in His time, don't they?

What I have learned is that I have to be open, to witness, and to try not to get in the way of the Holy Spirit doing His thing.

Praise, to you, Lord. Thank you for letting me be T.'s teacher. Thank you for letting me be in their lives this year. And please keep me out of your way.

unscholarly book reviews

Because you never asked, I am going to rant about, erm, discuss some books.

This is precipitated by the fact that I just read one to my daughter.

We were given two books for children by this author. These are the only books by him that I have ever read, so what I am about to type may not be completely fair as I have not read a large sample of his work.

I have never liked children's literature that was cloying and sickly sweet-not even when I was a kid. I don't think it respects the mind or imagination of a child to spoon-feed them pabulum. Give me Roald Dahl and Shel Silverstein every time.

These books by Max Lucado are everything I don't like about children's stories.

Maybe it's because we talk about God at home and we've talked about what we think heaven is like. Maybe it's because I think my kids already know how much I love them and how much God loves them. They just rub me the wrong way. This crippled lamb story makes me want to vomit. And when I read the other one and it talks about the parent being in heaven to meet the child there, I think to myself, "Through God's infinite mercy, I will be there, but I am not absolutely sure I will be there. It's mine to lose." I don't want to start shoving questionable theology down my three year old's throat.

Speaking of questionable theology, I read and re-read this book recently. It's really a page-turner. It was recommended to me by a friend and I have passed it on to other people because I think, on the whole, it has a lot of good things to say to people who are suffering or who have suffered. I think that on the whole, the way it represents the Holy Trinity is very good.

But the author's treatment of organized religion gets my hackles up. In the book, he frequently asserts (from God's point of view) that organized religion is useless and set up by humans as a way to assert control over others. I'm not saying religion not used that way by some people, but I think that the Catholic Church is really where it's at, warts and all. Plus, it was founded by Jesus Christ HIMSELF. I would never pass this book on to, or recommend it to, someone whose relationship with the Church is on shaky ground.

So, there you have it. End of rant.

Thoughts on these books/authors? Is there something I'm missing?

It's true...

Ten years ago in March, Scott and I were married. We bought our house in Linden, NJ, even as I gave my husband 5 years to find a job in PA so I could move closer to my friends and family. I worked at a major university here in NJ as an admissions counselor and I traveled a little bit. We had a cat.

I had all kinds of plans for us. We would travel some. Maybe Italy, maybe drive across the country. We were young (24) and we had all kinds of time ahead of us to get around to the kids we wanted to have (2 or 3-it was up in the air).

On Mothers' Day, 2000, I found out I was pregnant. The baby would be born before our first anniversary.

I did not feel equipped for motherhood in any way. I was excited, but I was really scared. And I was not entirely comfortable with my plan changing. We wouldn't be jetting off to Europe anytime soon. We had decided before we got married that once we had kids I'd stay home and take care of them. I wasn't making really GREAT money in my job and by the time you factored in day care and both of our crazy schedules, well, it wasn't worth it.

Nine years ago today, I gave birth to a wonderful baby boy. The blog world knows him as Primo. We took a little while figuring each other out, but every year has gotten better and better.

So, what they say is really true. God's plan for you is really so much better than the plan you have in mind.

Happy 9th birthday to my firstborn, my smartypants, my right hand man. I love you so much. I cannot imagine my world-- THE world-- without you in it. You are my joy. The Lord has big plans for you, my friend. I am so blessed and so grateful that he gave you to us.

Luigi, Mario, and their pumpkin.

I hate Halloween

Well, hate is a strong word, but I really don't like it. I think I like it even less than that cat over there does. It's not much more to me than a whole big, huge pain in the rear end. Getting costumes together is stressful. Then the inevitable, "I changed my mind. I don't want to be that; I want to be this" the week before Halloween. I set a deadline for the kids to tell me what they want to be on Halloween and then that's IT. Bub tried pulling this last weekend. When I reminded him that it was past the mind-changing deadline and that he wasn't going to be a skeleton, but Mario like he had told me the week before, my six year old son declared that "Fine! I'll wear it, but this is going to be the WORST HALLOWEEN EVER!!!!" To which I replied if he would truly like it to be the WORST HALLOWEEN EVER, he should mention costumes to me one more time and then he wouldn't be allowed to trick or treat.

What bothers me even more than my children's temper tantrums is the decidedly more evil and downright disturbingly scary turn that Halloween decorations have taken in recent years. It's to the point where I avoid the Halloween Aisle at our local Tar-jay. I had to go into a Halloween store last weekend with Curly Sue (looking for Mario and Luigi costume stuff). I should have marched right back out, but I didn't. She's had 2 nightmares since last Saturday and she usually sleeps like a baby. I blame my lousy parenting and the zombies and horror music at the store.

I can't wait till it's over. What are you (or your kids) going to be?

Hello, blog, it's me, Amy.

Hey. Did you miss me?

I have had some things going on that I wish I could blog about, but since it involves one of my children and he has asked me to respect his privacy and not blog about it, I can't. But it's all good. No one is in the hospital or anything. Everyone is healthy and well. But the thing is that it is kind of taking up all of my time and mental energy. But whatever. This isn't his brain dump, it's mine and I just will have to talk about it endlessly with Scott instead of you.

So, here's some things that are happening that are not the 700 pound gorilla in my life right now. In no particular order:

1. My Curly Sue is sleeping under my desk at work right now. Poor kiddo has to get up with her brothers so we can get them to school on time. If left to her own devices she'd sleep until 9:00 instead of 6:45.

2. I am teaching 7th grade CCD on Wednesdays and I love it. That is why I got into this job in the first place. Nothing beats being in a classroom.

3. Going to see Bruce Springsteen at Giants Stadium tomorrow night. I'm really psyched. He's going to play all of the "Born to Run" album! And our tickets were only $33 each!

4. Went to the pumpkin patch with Bub's kindergarten class on Monday. What a bunch of fun that was! It was nice to spend some time with just Bub. I don't get to spend a lot of time with him when his siblings aren't around. He's a funny guy.

That's all I've got. Happy Wednesday!

Six is super!

Happy Birthday to my boy, Bubba! Bub turns six today and we are so blessed to have this boy with us.

Here is a Bub-crostic poem to describe my middle child:

Bubbly
Uproarious
Beautiful
Buddy
Awesome

Bub likes: music; They might be Giants; Star Wars; video games; snuggling; hugging; his brother and sister, and of course, his mom and dad; he likes to play with his friends.

Bub dislikes: tomato sauce, lima beans.

Happy birthday to my funny, sunny, Bubba. I can't believe it's been 6 years since you were born. You are a delight and you warm my heart with your hugs and silly songs and stories. I am so glad that God sent you to us.

You say it's your birthday?

Well, it's her birthday too, yeah!

Happy birthday to my pink Princess, Curly Sue. She's three now, which means, in her own arbitrary terms, that she is now big. She wasn't big yesterday, but she is today. She starts school in about 3 weeks. She will also start dancing lessons. She will also continue to boss her big brothers around and generally try to run everyone's life. what else are little sisters for?

As my dad says, she's our little ray of sunshine. We love you, Curly Sue. Happy Birthday!

A Poem

"With sincere apologies to Elizabeth Barret Browning," by Amy Giglio

Moon Sand, how do I Hate thee?
Let me count the ways:
I hate thee with the depth and breadth of my soul.

I hate thy granules of superfine
Mold-able sand which
Permeate every crevice in my home.

I hate that thou dost not come with
thine own storage containers
(Dost not the Play Doh do as much?).

I hate that when my children blend thy colors
Thou turnest an ugly shade of puke.

I hate that mine offspring cannot keep from
Spilling thee all over mine carpet,
Grinding thee into oblivion until thou becomest one
With the fibers of mine wall to wall berber.

I hate that because of thee I have run mine Hoover
Repeatedly over the same places on my rug,
Desperate to extract thee
To no avail.

To those who might ponder bringing mine children
More Moon Sand into mine hearth and home,
I beg thee, please, leave it at the Toy R Us or the Target.
Offer them a gift of Play Doh instead, I pray, lest
We burn out the motor of mine despondent Wind Tunnel.

Else bring me a Dyson.

What are little girls made of?

Last night, as we tucked Curly Sue into bed, she pointed to a sign above her bed which reads:

What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice and everything nice!

After Scott read it to her, Curly Sue exclaimed, "I'm not made of that stuff! I am made of Kid!"
100% kid

Look at this boy.

His brother had just been pouring lemon juice into his mouth.

He loved every drop of it.

My favorite picture of Primo

This photo was taken at Christmas 2006; part of a Christmas card photo session.
He just looks like an angel. He was almost 6 years old.

Tough Crowd

Primo: Ow, I hurt my toe!

Me: Are you OK?

P: Yeah, but it hurts.

Curly Sue: Walk it off!

P: I think I have a little cut.

M: Is it bleeding?

CS: We'll cut it off and it will bleed faster!

FAIL

Bubba: "What!!! No Wii today? That's Fail, Mom!"

The Long Walk

In an effort to get my lazy butt off the couch, lose weight, make my kids burn off some energy before 8:00 PM become more physically active and therefore healthier, I have started walking the kids to school when it's not raining when we're not late when I'm not lazy every day.

Today we were running a little bit behind ("When I tell you to go upstairs, brush your teeth, and get dressed, I don't mean read a book and build with Legos first. No Wii today!") and had to sort of run/walk to make sure Primo got to school on time. This caused Bubba to get a stitch in his side and walk a little slower (Curly Sue was in the stroller). We were about one block from school, so I told Primo to run ahead a little bit so that the crossing guard could see him and start walking over to meet us. I slowed down to wait for Bub to catch up. This got me to thinking: We're almost there. Why not just let Primo go across alone with the crossing guard and then walk ahead to school by himself? He stopped at the corner fo two VERY busy streets in our neighborhood and I caught up to him (Bub still far behind) and said, "Why don't you just walk ahead by yourself? Give me a kiss." He gave me a nice kiss, I told him to have a nice day at school, and he walked next to the crossing guard the whole way. She had him turn to wave to me as they got a little further away and then as they got all the way across the busy intersection, she had him wave again and she walked him the rest of the way to the school building (about 250 feet) and across the driveway that the crazy drop-off parents use. I wanted to watch him the whole way, but a school bus blocked my view.

When Bub caught up to me, he asked, "Is Primo old enough to walk to school by himself?" "He's not old enough to walk the whole way yet (about half a mile on my pedometer), but he can walk this far," I said. "I'm watching him (cue the school bus). When I was in first grade I walked to school by myself every day."

And I did (I think maybe my mom walked me in first grade, I can't remember). School was only a few blocks away and I think we only had one car that my dad took to work. I walked in the rain, in the snow, in the freezing weather, in the hot weather--every day. I also remember from a young age walking to the playground near where I grew up (about half a mile away) and I think I was allowed to go there unaccompanied with my friends in like second grade.

So Bub, Curly Sue and I went home to bide away 15 minutes till we walked Bub to school. And it was a very good morning.

I have been away for a while and not as good as I ought to have been about posting the final Divine Mercy Novena post, and for that I am sorry. But this has been my distraction:
He made his First Holy Communion yesterday.

Well then what is it?

I am at work right now and, thanks be to God, I can bring the hooligans with me. Curly Sue was very quiet a minute ago and I went over to the other side of the room to see what she was up to. She was crouched next to a closet in the office and littered around her were small aluminum wrappers. Here is the exchange:

Me: You're over here eating chocolate!
CS: No I not.
Me: You're not? Then what are you doing?
CS: I eating Hershey Kisses.