Happy All Saints Day!

 We had school yesterday, but the kids didn't let that damper their excitement for candy.  They dressed up as saints for school, and I took no pictures of them.  :(  Rory was St. Jean de Brebeuf, who is the patron Saint of Canada.  She wore jeans and her Canada fleece jacket.  Logan was St. Andrew.  He sported a shirt that said, "World's Best Fisherman," with a fishing pole, and his Tennessee hat with some fishing hooks on it.  Marley was St. Cecilia.  We bought a costume from Lucy's a while ago for this purpose.  It was a greek goddess costume, but it worked.  We made a harp out of cardboard that Kevin spray painted gold.  They all turned out great!  I went as St. Martha wearing jeans, my hoodie sweat jacket, Kevin's making bacon apron, a feather duster, and a red bandana on my head.  The apron was very useful with the front pockets for holding things, and I used the apron to open the doors to bathrooms and such.  :)

Rory did her usual friend outing for Halloween trick-or-treating.  Kevin, the kids, and I went around our neighborhood.  Marley wanted nothing else than to hand out some candy, but no one ever comes to our house to trick-or-treat because we have no sidewalk and the street is dangerous with all the speeding dump trucks.  My mom said that they had 41 kids by 730p, so I told Marley we'd go there next year cuz I'm sure my mom would love to have Marley hand out candy instead of doing it herself!  :)

More pics to come!

October Daybook

Outside my window...
It's dark and mild.  We're still waiting for permanent fall weather.  :(

Giving thanks...
for routines and familiarities of the season.

In the schoolroom...
so far, so good.  Everyone is holding their own, and there is an independence to this year that hasn't been there before.

From the kitchen...
*sigh

I am creating...
a home, still, always.

I don't ever want to forget...
Rory and her monkey noises in the morning, Logan and I cheeking each other (when we rub our cheeks up and down against the other's), lifting up Marley to hold her (I don't know how much longer I'm going to be able to).

I am working on...
getting back to taking care of myself.  I need to get back to eating right and the gym.  

I am reading...
lots of different spiritual reading.  I'm focusing on St. Monica for the time being.

I am praying...
for family, forgiveness, change.

I am hearing...
"I want a dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown."  Amazon Prime!

Around the house...
vacuuming all the time.  We're about to start moving some things around to make the playroom Kevin's office instead.

One of my favorite things...
family movies.  

A few plans for next week...
It's our 2nd year Catholic wedding anniversary on Tuesday.  I don't know what we're doing yet.  Logan's getting more teeth pulled, and there's school.

Update:
I wrote this last Saturday and didn't post it.  Sorry!  Anniversary has been had and teeth are pulled.  I'll try to post some pics,  but my phone camera is on the blitz.  Ugh.


  

Teeth Fatima

Happy Our Lady of Fatima!  We celebrated yesterday at school with Mass and a family Rosary.  For Easter the kids received grottos in their baskets.  Rory did hers pretty quick by herself.  Marley and Logan just completed theirs last week because Logan's was Our Lady of Fatima.  Marley's Catholic T-Shirt Club was themed with Our Lady of Fatima too.  

I helped them both and was following the directions well, but I made mistakes.  I ended up having to look at Rory's, who did everything correctly without my help.  They all turned out great!

This is Rory's, Our Lady of Guadalupe.

 Marley and Logan working on theirs.

Logan's Our Lady of Fatima

Marley's Our Lady of Lourdes

Last Wednesday we had a new experience with Logan have teeth extracted.  Since we have new insurance, and I like the kids' new dentist, we decided to let her take his teeth out, without putting him to sleep.  Normally we would have put him to sleep because he needs four adult teeth out, but I trust this lady.  Marley went with me, and it wasn't that bad.  While she numbed him, I told him the story of his birth.  While the extraction was happening, I told about him as a baby.  

There was a moment when it was getting intense and the dentist started singing to him herself to help calm him.  She sang Tomorrow, Tomorrow.  There was a third tooth that was right next to one she was taking, and it was hanging on by a thread.  She was worried that he might accidentally swallow it when he was numb, so she took that one too, and didn't charge for it.  

When we put him to sleep last time to take out 5 baby teeth, it cost us over $1500 out of pocket.  These five teeth with this dentist will cost us a total if $44.  He's still healing and apparently the tooth fairy pays more for adult teeth.  That's what the dentist says and it has been proven true.  We put each tooth in a separate cup.  Here it was the next morning.

The fairy was male, hence the blue water.  Logan asked to keep the teeth, and he asked the fairy's name.  This one was Raffie.  One of this teeth's roots was dyed too.

Doesn't that look crazy?!

St. Nora of teeth, pray for us! (totally joking of course)

Latest and Greatest

It feels like we have been running nonstop this past month, and it doesn't look like we'll be getting a break any time soon.  We had a busy weekend, which I captured in pics.

It was crazy dress down day at school last Friday.  The kids all enjoy this, except for Rory.  She was too cool to dress down.  This is the only pic I got!  :(  I dressed crazy too, which wasn't hard to do.

Friday evening Logan, Marley, and I found ourselves in VA that evening, so we spent the night at my parent's house.  They got some excavating toys where they had to dig to uncover stones and shark teeth.  The other pic is Logan living the hard life of watching TV and eating cheeseballs in my mom's office.  

Saturday night was our church's fall festival.  We always have a good time even though it was pretty chilly.  

Kaelyn surprised us by coming home this weekend.  We spent some time with them on Sunday before she headed home.  This is Adam killing it on the hover board that he had just learned to ride.  Kaelyn tried too, but she didn't have much luck.

I don't know if you can see her bruise starting toward her sock or not.  She didn't try it again.

Instead she played a couple rounds of tug of war with Relic.  I think he won.  It was crazy busy, but we all enjoyed it and had a lot of fun.  

Mad Science

I don't know if Logan's going to have a project every week, but so far, he has.  This week was a marshmallow shooter/catapult.  There was PVC, glue, paint, and rubber bands involved.  Logan did most of the work himself.  When it was done, they had it at the kitchen table and I joked and stood at the door with my mouth open.  Since I was joking, I moved, but Mars did it instead.  They had used marbles and marshmallows to test it, but this was the first aiming try.  They got it right into Marley's mouth!  It was so crazy and we were all screaming and yelling, so I grabbed my phone and started videotaping.  Needless to say, we haven't been able to do it since. They spray painted the catapult gold and burgundy (GO REDSKINS!). I'll have a post a pic later cuz I don't have one of it painted.  Here'a a quick vid of an attempt.

Then he had homework to pick a project to do at home and take a video or pic of.  He didn't choose the easiest, but he chose a medium effort and did it all himself.  

On to other news, Rory's Algebra videos showed up today, so we should be getting better scores here real soon!  Thanks, Mommy!

Weekend Happenings

At the beginning of the school-year, the girls always try to cut their hair.  Rory didn't try this year, and Mars wasn't interested.  Then brushing her hair became the most unpleasant event ever because her hair was so tangly, and it hurt her to brush it.  I resolved to just put it up in braids every night, so we wouldn't have to brush it in the morning, but that was hard to keep up.  So this happened today.

Here's a before pic for you, so you can get the difference.

How different she looks!

The haircut lady would NOT stop cutting.  I was about to say something, but at that point, she had already cut so much off!

She likes it, so that's good.  I think she looks adorable with a bow.  In other news, she received her Saint box for the month.  That was exciting!  It was for Our Lady of Fatima, since it's the 100th year anniversary this year.

In other news, Relic got out of his crate this morning, while we were at the gym.  It wasn't a disaster, but it was enough that he's been upgraded to a bigger crate which is hopefully harder to break out of.

The stuffed animal on Kevin's desk is on it's second washing because Relic goes after it so much.  He ripped the stuffing out of the Yoda stuffed animal he had.  I'm sure this one would be no different if given the chance.  Otherwise, it's been a pretty calm weekend.  (NOT)

Full Swing Schooling

It hasn't taken long for us to get into a school routine.  We made our first trip to the library workroom, because they usually work better at the library.  There's no distractions of their toys in their rooms or the bathrooms.  Sometimes Rory can spend awhile saying she's going to the bathroom, but *shocker*, she really isn't.  
Daddy's back in the game of Science, just like when Rory was in 6th grade.  Logan is tasked with all these contraptions to make, and Kevin's having a good time of it.  They were all supposed to make a rubber band racer, and their book gave directions, but Kevin channeled his inner Tim the tool man Taylor and looked up a different design to make.  Logan won a $10 Chick-Fil-A gift card for best design.

We've thrown Rory to the math wolves this year A.K.A. Algebra.  I figured that I didn't know math that well, and I got by, so it should be no problem.  Well, we have had to purchase the DVD set that goes with the textbook because I have forgotten the simplest of fractions.  I had to text Rory's old tutor today with this problem:

Number 18 was the problem.  (get it?)  The tutor called to explain it to me over the phone.  Then we actually figured out #20 by ourselves!  We were pretty darn exciting, and that's how sad and pathetic we are at math.  Now you know.  Come on Christmas vacation!