Christmas 2018 in Photos

These two were shepherds in the live Nativity at a local church.  

On the right side of the pic, Logan is on the second step down, and Rory is on the third.  They were lovely, and it wasn't as cold as last year!

This is my FAVORITE Christmas picture from this year!  The matching pajamas were a splurge from BJ's, but I had to have them.

Trying our darnedest to use a selfie-stick.  We all snuggled up to watch It's a Wonderful Life!  They all liked it!

We switched back to an artificial tree this year after last year's tiny spiders incident.  We lost our angel tree topper too.  I found it cleaning up while packing up all the Christmas things, of course.

Opening stockings Christmas morning

Rory has her heart set on attending Franciscan University.  She got this sweatshirt for Christmas!

Relic got a new bed for Christmas and a toy box from Barkbox.  In this picture, he has given up on getting the treat out of his new cup toy.  :)

Marley got a marker maker set for Christmas.  She and Logan spent a couple days making markers, but since it's been stored, nothing much coming from it lately.

I'm not sure what this face is for.  Her Christmas bows are still adorable on a pouty face.

Kaelyn's Birthday

I know, I know, I'm so behind on the blog, again.  In an effort to catch up, let's start at Kaelyn's birthday.  

 Still doing streamers for birthdays.  Its tradition!

 She took pictures walking out too.

 She was a good sport wearing the hat but only for this picture.  Adam was doing a no-shave November, in case you were wondering.

This is the BEST.PHOTO.BOMB.EVER.

Happy birthday to my artsy, compassionate, caring, determined, persevering, hardworking, quick-thinking, loyal, kind, K'lyn.  

Happy 2018!

It's been a while.  I'm sorry about that.  Life got hard, and then I was trying to enjoy the holidays.  Getting back on track now.  I'll post some pics of happenings these past two months, but this post will be about 2018 and my word of the year.

My word for last year was SIMPLE.  Last year was anything but SIMPLE, so that sums up how that word went.  SIMPLE could mean a variety of things, but I was going for trying to keep things SIMPLE.  As usual, I made a mess of most things that should've been SIMPLE.  Lessons learned and moving on.

My friend, Courtney, is doing the same word as me.  She had already chosen her word, and I loved it, so we decided to do it together.  The word is SEEK, and in "SEEK ye first the Kingdom of GOD," and "SEEK His face."  At first this word doesn't seem so perilous as SIMPLE was.  Then I told my spiritual director the word.

He advised that SEEKing implies that I am searching for God, otherwise I would just be looking at Him.  *Note to self: Next year my word will be PRESENCE* ;) SEEKing can come in the form of looking for God in others that may not be pleasant or kind, looking for Him in the daily grind, in my kids, in doing His will.  This sounds more challenging than SIMPLE quite frankly.

I'm glad I have a friend to walk with on this road.  She's always an inspiration and someone who understands the struggles.  I'm looking forward to a great 2018, and I hope all of you are blessed abundantly!

Reliving my Youth

I never gave you all a picture of Rory's Halloween.  Here it is!

My oldest friend, Amanda, texted me one day that our one favorite singer was going to be in concert at the MGM at National Harbor.  She got us tickets and a hotel room at the MGM, so we wouldn't have to drive home afterward.  
In days leading up to the concert, she was concerned because apparently this singer was a liberal lefty, and we hoped she didn't decide to get political during the concert.  If she did, we said we would leave.
Well, everything went well getting there if you consider getting lost on the way and adding an hour to the trip as things going well.  We got there and grabbed dinner trying to figure out who was going to the concert and who wasn't.
Showtime came and we took our seats.

Amanda commented that "older" people's concerts involved sitting. :)  I likes it that way.
The concerted started harmless enough.  We went to buy merchandise because Amanda wanted a t-shirt.  Unfortunately, some of her merchandise was political.  We settled back into our seats, which now included some drunk guy next to me.  He smelled awful and kept burping and blowing it into my face.  He didn't do it on purpose, but he was leaning so far over on my arm rest that it went right into my face.  Then Tori started making political statements, and my friend called it enough.  We went up to our room and cross-stitched and knitted.  THIS IS 40!  
We made it home the next morning, but we were disappointed that we didn't get to hear any of the songs of our youth before she ruined the show.  It's unfortunate, and I felt bad when Amanda wouldn't take my money for the show because "it wasn't worth it."  It was nice catching up face to face though, and I'm glad we've been friends for 26 years now.  

Busy Bucy Days

We've been on a roll with activities and happenings.  I'm going to post pics and discuss.  :)

My dad turned 82 a couple weeks ago.  He's still going strong.  We got him St. Joseph work gloves.  Rory bought some for Kevin for father's day, and he really liked them, so it was an obvious choice.

This was our resident lion for a couple days.  She had to rewrite a fable and present it to her classmates and parents.  It was a fable festival at school.  She rewrote the lion and the oxen.  She did great!

We bought Mars tickets to Daniel Tiger at the local theater for her birthday.  Show day finally arrived.  Daddy had to arrive later cuz he had some shuttling of the other kids to do, and then I left early to grab dinner on the way home.  We all reconvened and had a great late dinner.  Marley liked the show.  

My parents had gotten a white pumpkin this year, but my dad didn't like the looks of it, so they gave it to us.  We couldn't wait to see if it was white or orange inside.  It was a thick-skinned pumpkin!  Kevin did the initial cutting, and Rory did the face.  Somehow I didn't take a pic of how it turned out.

Remember when I said nothing much was happening in the way of the kitchen?  Well, Logan made dinner last week, and we all ate it up!  He found a recipe for chicken tenders in one of the cookbooks and wanted broccoli for the side.  We found a boxed mac-n-cheese in the pantry and Logan finally got to try the beloved Red Lobster box biscuits.  He always sees them at BJs, but I refuse to buy bulk biscuits that we aren't sure we like.  Everyone but Marley liked them, not surprising.  We're preparing for a busy week in the kitchen.  We have to get back to eating healthier, especially for the kids.

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.