This is a nine-month old blog post! I'm porting over social media posts to our family blog. If you're already "friends" with me on social media, you've probably seen all of this!

March 2024

What exactly did I expect leaving clean, warm laundry on the table on this chilly, rainy day?

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We enjoyed a couple of Pineville Porcupines games last summer and plan to attend more this summer. I love that it is so close to our home and we can decide just a few minutes ahead of time whether we want to attend . . . plenty of seating for a small crowd! It's just a fun, inexpensive family time . . . and we're not even a family who follows sports or ever watches it on TV!

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A moment when I could embrace that one day I will miss these days when I am late starting homeschool because I'm bustling about doing chores, and my boys decide to quietly play Uno in their messy room, and they're even including the littlest brother and teaching him patiently.

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So proud of David (6)! He caught a wee cold a week and a half ago and it was no big deal until he woke up Monday morning with it seeming much and suddenly worse. Pneumonia had started in his lungs and infections in both eyes, so now he is on a few prescription meds. The first night of having to take yucky-tasting liquid meds resulted in 45 minutes of him weeping, screaming in resistence, and vomiting from distress. By the end of Day 2, he was a total pro: I offered him one mini M&M for each tiny squirt he would accept in his mouth. At first the squirts were minuscule, like half of one mL. Once he got the hang of that, I offered him exponentially more M&Ms if he would swallow more in one swoop. Now he is taking 5 mLs all at once with no protest! All of this for seriously about 15 mini M&Ms per day, which is nothing to me, but feels like TREASURE to him.

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A boy’s best friend

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Be still my English-major heart! I’m teaching Grammar to Joseph (11) and he found a concept to be so interesting that he was exclaiming the way boys do, “Oh man! So cool! Wow, I can’t believe it!” Then he turned to his 8-year-old brother and explained the grammatical concept to him.

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Recent reorganization of the books has brought me joy! I love to present books in a way that invites the bookworms that are my children to read even more. (After taking these photos, I realized that there are six more bookshelves I forgot to document!)

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Twelve years into homeschooling: today the three little little boys were too full of joy, fun, noise, and rambunctiousness, plus another kid who shall remain nameless caused me much frustration. So I went up to our bedroom to be alone for five minutes, came down, served snacks, and took the boys outside for P.E.

We will go back in and try school again.

Baby steps for this mama.

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The fun this kid had running around a small farm tonight!

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Today, Thomas did all these assignments independently while I was gone for three hours!

I have been struggling mightily this school year, and even my book of lesson plans weekly is not working. For a couple of months, I have been using these simple Post-It Notes to indicate daily work to each student. For right now, this is my speed!

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The latest nightly read-aloud has the three boys pleading for multiple chapters nightly.

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Congratulations to Mary on a fabulous piano performance at Charlotte Piano Teachers Forum this year! She played Beethoven, Chopin, and Kodaly, earned the top score (100) among her Junior Studio in the first round, and earned a perfect Theory score.

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Happy 13th birthday to Margaret! Welcome to your teenage years!

Margaret has so many strengths and gifts ready to bloom into beautiful flowers. She has a sweet spirit that prefers gentle media that isn't harsh, and she's not a thrill seeker. Margaret's best day would be spent reading novels, cooking, sketching her artwork, singing, and sewing or knitting. Quiet over cacophony, and one-on-one friendships over groups are her speed. She also has a real knack for helping the injured and sick, and she's always been the first to volunteer to rush with a sibling to the ER or Urgent Care during emergencies. Margaret works three afternoons a week babysitting a one-year-old while managing her school load and pursuing classical/operatic singing.

Margaret has a bright future! We love you, honey!

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My desire is to be an Instagram, accomplished, filtered kind of mom, wife, and lady, but apparently God gave me the role of letting me provide solidarity for women who are average with foibles and failings and who are running like a hamster in a wheel, but trying our darndest!

In today's episode, on my daughter's 13th birthday, I was at the Dollar Tree at 8:30 a.m. buying wrapping paper for gifts. In my defense, that was not because I forgot, but I planned to go then as it was my first available moment.

And in other positive news, today on March 20th I took down our last outdoor Christmas lights! I even set them on the workbench (where they don't belong) in preparation for at some point getting out the ladder and ascending to the Christmas light storage near the garage ceiling. Baby steps!

Average and below-average ladies, unite!

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The days are long, but the years are short.

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That’s a wrap on another year of CCE Elementary! We love our 24-week enrichment program.

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Another fun year of Catholic Quiz Bowl! This year, four of our kids were old enough to participate. Joseph and Margaret’s middle school team made a good showing, and John and Mary’s high-school team won the whole event!

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When Dad Babysits

(I love this!)

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Palm Sunday . . . Two and a half hours of beautiful liturgy . . . Certainly a strain since almost all of it was spent standing!

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A gripping biography of a remarkable Redemptorist priest, made particularly interesting to me because most of his priesthood was spent in northern and central California where I grew up. Highly recommend.

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John is also performing in the junior company EWS production of Newsies! Looks to be a fun show in April! Tickets are available.

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Our wee Tilly loves us so much!

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On this Good Friday, we remember three years ago to the day when Thomas was discharged home from the hospital. We went in expecting five days inpatient, but emerged a much-changed family full of much-changed individuals 132 days later.

At discharge, it felt similar in time to this year because, in 2021, Thomas came home five days before Easter--his having missed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and six family birthdays at home. On this anniversary of his discharge, we are also in Holy Week, so it feels familiar to me.

Thomas has slowly but surely grown stronger under the care of a dozen specialist doctors and their dedicated care. He had to learn how to roll over again, to crawl, and to walk. Since then, he grew to run, ride his bike, climb trees, and just a couple of months ago he became strong enough to swing along the monkey bars!

I lived with a prepared hospital "go bag" for a long time, but Thomas has needed hospital-level support during illnesses less and less.

In his first 12 months home, he experienced: 5 inpatient stays and 2 ER-only visits.

In his second 12 months home: 3 inpatient stays and 2 ER-only visits.

In his third 12 months home: only 2 inpatient stays and 1 ER-only visit.

We are grateful for every day and know that nothing is promised to us with any of our children. My advice (to my fellow mamas in particular) is to hug all your children close and enjoy the Triduum together even if your domestic church celebrations need to be simple, store-bought, and in a home not as prissy perfect clean as social media influencers convince us is "real."

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