No shame

Well, I'll start with some fun pictures from the last few days! Thursday evening was a symphony performance nearby. They offer free lawn seating at almost all these performances and have special activities for the kids too! This one was called the "Tickle Me Symphony" and we all enjoyed sharing the evening with some of our friends. We are much looking forward to our first homeschool group camping trip next weekend with several of them!

They made "tickle-me's" with feathers on a popsicle stick
Coloring them with a friend


Showing off their work


Trying out all sorts of instruments


Today was a birthday party at our nearby science museum suburban satellite
Ellie checks out a hissing cockroach


Mary Clare steers clear of the deadly scorpion and is yelling for Ellie to stand back!


Ellie watches the digging for dinosaur bones! She didn't want to join in until it was time to go back to the party room...of course.


MC digging


One of my other projects from this week...the fireplace. Still not sure how I like it but better than nothing!


Now for my shameless pictures! Here's what I've got ahead of me the next week, hopefully before we head out for camping next weekend I will have pictures of these areas transformed by the "cleaning fairy"!

A messy kitchen with a cooking hubby at 10pm! Can't wait for that Santa Cecilia chicken pasta dish...yum!


The living room transformed into a church while I was at the grocery store. Notice several days-worth of folded laundry needing to find it's home and the coffee table needing a few more coats of white paint.


The mess of an office where I currently reside and should be cleaning instead of blogging!


And a project I only halfway finished a few weeks ago. The floorboards, yuck!


Midnight update: Kitchen and living room are clean. Laundry is put away. The office and floorboards will wait until another day. Ready for a fun Sunday!

New Cathedral!

Decorating my soul

Now my challenge...

I've really been enjoying fixing up the house the past few months! It's fun to have an older house, a lot of old furniture, and the challenge of creating beauty with little cash to do it. It's such a rewarding feeling to make a room feel happy while not having spent a single penny on it! Of course some of these projects have cost a few dollars, a 97 cent can of spray paint or a $2 case of upholstery (man, I'm glad I have auto spell check) tacks. I sit in my house with my eyes scanning for what project I can start next, even at midnight!

But I know in my heart that the project I need to be working hardest on is "decorating" my soul. I've got to get to bed at night so I can get up in the morning with my alarm (my first week of alarm in oh, about 5 years! something about being a stay home mom and waking with an alarm just don't sit well! but much needed, yes). I've got to get up before the kids so I can spend some time decorating my soul in prayer with my sweet Jesus. I need to decorate it by spending that quality time at the breakfast table with the girls and rocking my precious baby for his first nap. I've got to decorate it by my commitment to homeschooling Mary Clare each day, helping her see the beauty of God's creation around her and the gift of her mind and intelligence. I need to decorate my soul through little acts of kindness and sacrifice throughout the day. I should decorate it by talking to the girls about God in those little moments where they find a caterpillar, fight with a friend, or pray the blessing at lunchtime.

Having a clean, orderly, and pleasant-in-appearance home will help my soul be lifted to God, no doubt. But I must be sure that it's being lifted to him more often than lifted to my own devices, my own imagination, my own pride at work well done. So let's see if I can decorate my soul today, along with my home, and help these precious little souls entrusted to me to have the most decorated souls of all...because that's my vocation after all.

Decorating

I'm on a decorating binge, so bear with me!

I forgot to put my darling painting partners on here yesterday. Aren't they cute?


Tonights project, another window "mistreatment"!
Cut off these


to make this the right length and so I don't have to see any of this window :) The glass in between the panes (whatever that's called, I can't remember at 1am) has lots of crusty stuff that doesn't come off even with a razor blade, so it's curtains for now! Now you ask, did you seam that with a sewing machine? And I'll answer...


No! I used a glue gun. I think I should name mine like The Nester. I do hope it's "my" glue gun now that I think about it. "Mine" is decked out with the name of a student in hubby's youth group way back when. Oops! Megan, are you reading this? Come get your glue gun! Or is this one yours, Beverly, for First Friday? Oh, I hope not! Well I used this glue gun ("Rosie?") to glue 2 straight lines for the curtain rod to go between, all done while talking to Veronica on the phone at 11pm!


And a project from Sunday, fixing my wall 'o pictures with new shots!


My last project of today...well, yesterday since it's technically tomorrow already :-/
A cheapo frame painted white


So I can add this lovely mini-Monet from our art curriculum


The clock was ticking away


But I still had this to do


Instead, I made myself some of this...then had to go fix a wet child and fold while munching. Now I've had my "me" time on the internet, my nightly relaxation


But now it's time to go join him...
(this is Stevie sleeping sweetly at naptime today)

Meme

Shannon tagged me for this meme. I'll try!

Rules of the meme:
1. Post these rules of the game first.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names. Then the tagger goes to the blogs of those who have been tagged & leaves a comment letting new players know they’ve been tagged. The tagger asks them to find the meme and instructions back at his/her blog.

What I was doing 10 years ago:
I was a sophomore in college, had probably just met Steven, and was about a month away from our first date!

Five things on my To Do List today:
Well, the day's about over so what did I do?
1. Woke up early to watch K's boys
2. Laundry (still a bit of folding to do!)
3. Some more home decorating activities
4. Take Mary Clare to ballet class
5. Wal-Mart

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. Pick out some really awesome charities to give to
2. Remodel my kitchen (well, Steven would probably want to buy a ranch...)
3. Adopt a bunch of kids
4. Hire a housekeeper
5. Go on some fun family vacations with all our extended family (a beautiful beach, Europe, Holy Land...)

Three of my bad habits:
1. Staying up too late!
2. Fast food
3. Putting off prayer

Five places I have lived:
1. TX suburbia in a beautiful modest home on a culdesac
2. TX suburbia one block away in a McMansion
3. A TX collegetown--dorm, Catholic community house, house of a beautiful family, and a few years later in a duplex as a married couple
4. 3 apartments in TX suburbia
5. my dream house here in TX suburbia, thanks to some dear friends who sold it to us :)

Five jobs I’ve had:
1. Babysitter
2. Daycare teacher
3. Public schoolteacher-Kindergarten
4. Catholic schoolteacher-1st Grade
5. Homemaker/Homeschooler!

I tag whoever hasn't done this yet and would like to :)

Furniture painted!

Well, almost. I ran out of white spray paint so the coffee table isn't finished yet. Here's what I did...

touched up this, which we had been using as a computer table


turned into a sofa table!



Old bookshelf from Nana sanded


and painted!



I'm worn out. I have paint all over me. I'm ready for bed.

Weekends with family

are such fun!

a great use for all those Easter eggs!


a lot of animals hatched from eggs that night!


To Grampatti's house we go!
The triplets watch the backyard action


An old family friend meets newest B family member!


Steven and Uncle Thomas are starting them early...baseball with the cousins!


the playing from my vantage point on the porch swing


ready for Sunday dinner with my parents over


the first S family grandsom with PaPa!


Stevie loves this dolly!


And hopefully later today I'll get up a new Mass Bloopers post. I think last night might have beat out Good Friday! Have a magnificent Monday all! I'm off to clean a bathroom and paint a bookshelf and coffee table...

My first window mistreatments

I've been anxious to try some of Nester's window mistreatment ideas. Here goes!

Schoolroom window


Playroom window


A single denim panel I bought awhile back, ripped in two, a la Nester


Cut off the curtain rod loops


Let Mary Clare dress as Mary with Aggie Jesus


Using upholstery tacks, tacked the "valance" to the wall


Made pleats along the way. Cute, huh?


Mary Clare by the window, attempting to change the calendar...it's still on February!


Looks like the playroom window already had some "mistreatments" ;) That wasn't going anywhere, so I worked around it


And here's the playroom window, not quite perfect, but hey it's a mistreatment after all!


Now how to mistreat the living room window and that horrible door window panel???


Some sheets and a bedskirt?

To be continued...

Garden update

Looking good!

I think we have radishes, carrots, corn, pumpkins, and tomatoes. We'll see how they do! We had a good rain today!

Week of Mercy

On the vigil of the Feast of the Divine Mercy...
~We remembered the loss of our dear Holy Father John Paul II on the eve of Mercy Sunday 3 years ago
~We welcomed our sweet Goddaughter into the Church!

On the Feast of the Divine Mercy...
~Our dear friends welcomed their 4th blessing into the world
~Other dear friends welcomed their daughter A into the Church!
~We spent the afternoon with wonderful Catholic homeschooling friends for a family BBQ, including the newly baptized!


And my dear friend K who is fighting cancer among other challenges, and could really use your prayers!


During this week of Mercy, and yesterday as we celebrated the official date of the passing of JPII into eternity on April 2, 2005...
~A Co-Cathedral was dedicated!
~Tricia is getting new lungs!
~God is working a financial miracle for Emily. We pray he will work a healing miracle for her as well!

Father of Mercies, may your mercies rain down on us and on all those in most need of our prayers. Lord Jesus Christ, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Pope John Paul II, the Great, pray for us!
St. Faustina, pray for us!

Night owl

I am.

Signed,
She-who-talks-to-friends-starting-at-11pm
She-who-puts-away-laundry-at-2am

Doesn't everyone

have Poison Control on speed-dial?

Signed,
Mother-of-she-who-thinks-gummy-vitamins-are-candy

A couple videos from today

Talking to Ellie, trying to get her to say some of her cute Ellie-ism words.

Please note that we do need some more lessons about Easter. Today she was complaining that all her candy was gone and she wanted to "go to Easter again!"

Stevie in the saucer, stickered by sisters!

Please vote

For this wonderful little video made by the children of some friends of ours. They're a beautiful Catholic homeschooling family with 9 children and are one of the top 10 finalists to win a $25,000 college scholarship!



Isn't it cute? Register and vote once a day from April 1-16th at:
http://www.upromise.com/tuitiontales

Thanks! They really deserve this!