Museum of Science and History

Thank You

Thanks to all my sweet friends and blog readers who sent encouraging messages to me over the past few days.  I try not to whine too much on the blog, but I also think it's good to be honest about the struggles of family life so as to not paint a picture-perfect life here.  Living out our vocation to the married life isn't always flowery, especially in the thick of difficult circumstances and life changes.  But I know many of you have been through this all before and made it out on the other side.  You've moved cross-country and overseas, you've been through surgeries and job changes and illness and all the things we face in family life.  It's nice to know that others will encourage, support, and pray us through our difficulties, while recognizing that yeah, it's really no fun.  But we'll get through it!

God's grace is sufficient.  He is so generous.  He knows just how much I can handle and when I need a pick-me-up.  After typing that blog post, I woke up to a wonderful day on Thursday.  We went to the museum with three other homeschool families with very similar-aged children and had lunch at the park together.  Mary Clare willingly tried the ballet class that evening (with just a small bribe :), and wants to go back!  She's even more excited about it than Ellie.  On Friday we went to evening mass and First Friday Potluck dinner.  Saturday has been a day of cleaning and organizing, taking the kids to use some Target gift cards, and attending a baby shower.  I even got a new spray mop, how exciting!  My floors are clean for a few hours!

I know it will take some months before this city starts to feel like home.  But in the meantime we are making friends through our parish and our homeschool group, going on lots of fun family outings, and trying our hardest to make our home a happy place.  It's not easy though.  I'm not a home-body, and am the type of person who gets my energy and joy from being out and keeping busy.  Spending day after day at home with all the kids, homeschooling, and doing the regular homemaker duties gets very monotonous for me.  And the kids start to fight after so many days at home.  We're ready to start a few activities, make some friends and have some playdates and parties!  First on the agenda will be planning a house-blessing!

And to prove that this isn't the most miserable place on earth...just look at these photos from our drive to the museum!  Isn't it pretty? 

Holiday Celebrations in Houston

Memories of our holiday weekend,

celebrating Christmas, New Years, and Mary Clare's Birthday with family.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and the kids were immediately ready to open presents!

They each got their first Nutcracker to start a collection like NeNe's

Opening stocking gifts

Not sure what this was, but they look happy :)

Thomas got a rolling suitcase like the big kids.  He loves pulling suitcases around!

Mary Clare has an odd attachment to a lamp that my parents got her several years ago.  The lamp fell apart, and she used aluminum foil to put it back together.  It's really a fire hazard and we've ordered her not to use it, but she insists it stay unplugged on her nightstand.  NeNe came to the rescue with a new one!

One thing Ellie really wanted for Christmas was a gumball machine, and thanks a tip from a friend, my mom found one at Kohl's!  A real one that takes coins!

Here is the beloved wooden sword that has already been broken.  And disappeared.

Took some photos after Sunday Mass downtown.
Oh, I miss my Latin Mass!

SJ and the sword again.

And here's the birthday girl riding by!

Cupcakes with cousins

Cake with cousins

A new monkey bar enthusiast.  He can't make it very far yet.

Presents with cousins

More Playmobil!

And we capped off that evening with a Nativity Play.
Ellie was Mary, SJ was the Angel Gabriel, and MC was the backstage manager.

This is the rehearsal because my phone ran out of battery before the performance.

Love this one of MC trying to be a camel or sheep or something,
and Thomas about to knock over the new flat screen!  Ellie laughing.

Rehearsal done.  Maybe I'll get the video from Aunt Jill.

I also failed to get photos of the wonderful gifts from Grampatti and BopBop!  GP is always good at finding just what we really need.  We had a fabulous visit and look forward to the next holiday we can spend with our families.  We really have been blessed to spend so many years in the same city.  And now we're glad that 4 hours isn't too far to drive for special celebrations like this.

{pretty, funny, happy, real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Every Thursday, at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

{pretty} 

 A friend of my parents made this for them for Christmas.  Isn't it beautiful?

{funny}

Here's Steven Joseph playing with his toy gun outside by my parents' trash cans!  Behind him are Mary Clare's old rainbow shoes that have finally been retired.  She stepped into a muddy pond to try to retrieve Timber who couldn't get himself out of the water (Which was back in November, I still need to write an update about +Timber+.  He'll have a post soon).  

I'm always surprised by how naturally attracted SJ is to weapons.  He wanted pretty much all weapons for Christmas...guns, slingshot, bow & arrow, sword.  And he has broken most of them already, including a wooden one we bought on our trip this past weekend thinking it would be indestructible.  Not quite!  Yesterday he brought me a tiny firefighter figure and told me he wanted a "toy one of these."  I thought he meant a toy fire hose, but looked closer to find he meant a toy chainsaw!

{happy}

Last Friday, Steven had a half-day of work and took the older 3 kids fishing that afternoon, while Thomas and I had a date.  We went to Freebirds...yes, they have Freebirds here!  They also have Wings N More.  All my Aggie friends will relate when I say that those places make me feel like I'm home again!

After our lunch, we shopped for awhile and made a stop at Toys R Us.  He refused to sit in the carts, and kept running away from me.  It was exhausting and I was trying to remember if Mary Clare was such a bad shopper as a child.  I had hoped that shopping with one child would be easy!  But regardless, he was in heaven in this car section of Toys R Us and screamed when I finally dragged him away...

{real}

Our last morning in Houston, Thomas knocked over a pint of white paint in my parents' pantry.  Took me a long time to clean it up, and almost as long to get all the paint off my hands!

Road trips can get real hard with a toddler.  One of the girls finally gave him this toy computer the last few minutes of our road trip home.  He stopped screaming for a bit.

Only one more week until we hit the road to head "home" again, for some more doctor appointments and to celebrate another birthday!  We'll have some good car travelers soon enough!  But the best update, which I don't think I've posted here, is that we got the best Christmas present ever...our house is RENTED!  We are thrilled to no longer have two house payments.  Thank you, Jesus, and all of you who have prayed for us!

Struggling

Moving is hard.  We knew it would be.  Still, I think I started this process this summer with such a positive outlook on what this move would mean for our family.  I was ready for a change, Steven was ready for a job change, and this position pretty much fell into his lap.  But the move took longer than expected as we opted to go through with Steven Joseph's heart surgery, and then as we waited to find the right rental home here.

We've still had so many loose ends with getting our old house rented, having some doctor and dental appointments, and celebrating birthdays and holidays back home as the kids really wanted to.  Next week will be our last scheduled visit for the time being, and I hope that will allow us to move forward with life here, settling into our home and community, and making the most of this new opportunity God has placed before us.

But right now, I can honestly say that we are really struggling.  We miss our friends.  We miss our family.  We miss our neighbors.  We miss our ballet school.  We miss our church.  We miss our homeschool group, and our homeschool activities.  I miss the mom's nights, and I miss my stores and restaurants.  And I'm in a bit of a pouty stage about it all right now.

I'm trying to be positive for the kids and Steven is working very hard to help us all adjust.  Today I finally convinced Ellie to try out the new ballet studio nearby.  She wasn't impressed, and Mary Clare definitely wasn't...and I'm not sure if it's going to work out.  That makes me sad on many levels because ballet was such a big part of my childhood, and thus far it has been for my girls too.  They have met many close friends and had wonderful teachers who we admire.  And they are very talented.  I would be sad to see them give this up because they aren't willing to give this new studio a shot.  There just aren't many options around as far as dance studios go, so I'm hoping the girls might try it out long enough to give it a fair consideration.

Our homeschool was already struggling before we moved.  It's long days for Mommy, teaching the girls and caring for the very needy boys.  We always have lots of battles, but combined with the lack of outside activities or motivation, it's been hard.  We're pushing through week 13 over here, and I've just ordered a new set of books for Language Arts.  Maybe next week I'll give an update on the curricula we've liked and what I need to change right now.  We still feel this is the best option for our family at this exact time, but that's not to say that we haven't considered other options.  Hopefully the new year and new books will bring about some positive changes that make this a more positive environment!

So now, entering 2012, it's time to move forward...to get into our new routines, make some new friends and find some new activities. They won't be the same as what we're used to, but we can find joy in them nonetheless.  Our house is rented, and after next week we won't have appointments and other events pulling us back there.  I know God has a special little niche just for the B. family here in C.C.  We just need to pray that He will show it to us, to allow us to find our place in this new city, and to make our home here all it needs to be for a healthy and happy family.  Thanks for praying for us and supporting us along the way! 

I have to end this saying that I hate being whiny, but I'm trying to be real about what our family is going through right now.  Still, our struggles pare in comparison to what some other friends are facing.  A family from our old dance school lost their 3yr old daughter Aimee in an accident in front of their house, and our old little buddy Hans is facing some difficult treatments for his cancer in their new home in California.  Others suffer illness, death, house loss, and job loss.  They are all in my thoughts and prayers.

Nine is Fine!

Happy Birthday, Mary Clare! She turned 9 yesterday.  We had a fun long weekend celebrating with family and are now back home trying to get back into our homeschooling routine. Happy New Year, friends!

Botanical Gardens Nature Center

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo (or two) - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.